My dad has given me his red 1974 850 commando. He put it away around 1980. He rode it consistently before that and a few times after but stopped in 1987. He moved a few times and it has sat under his current house in the crawlspace since 1992. We pulled it out yesterday and I'm hoping to get it running. He no longer wants to ride it but doesn't want it to sit any longer. It has only 3800 miles on it.
I know there is a lot of work ahead of me. This is my first time working on a bike but I'm familiar with engines and don't mind putting the time and labor into fixing this thing up. We had a few worries about a bike sitting for so long (seized engine, varnish in tank, etc). I was able to pull the clutch and kick the kickstart (so the piston isn't frozen in the engine). However, I'm not getting very good (if any) compression.
I was curious if anyone had any tips as to where to start on this project. My manuals are on the way but in the meantime I'd really like to dig into cleaning up the bike and analyzing my compression issue. There's some rusting in spots (some more than others) but the bike is in relatively good condition.
I also wanted to introduce myself and thank you all for the wealth of information I've already gathered from reading past posts. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I'll post pictures as soon as possible.
Kris
I know there is a lot of work ahead of me. This is my first time working on a bike but I'm familiar with engines and don't mind putting the time and labor into fixing this thing up. We had a few worries about a bike sitting for so long (seized engine, varnish in tank, etc). I was able to pull the clutch and kick the kickstart (so the piston isn't frozen in the engine). However, I'm not getting very good (if any) compression.
I was curious if anyone had any tips as to where to start on this project. My manuals are on the way but in the meantime I'd really like to dig into cleaning up the bike and analyzing my compression issue. There's some rusting in spots (some more than others) but the bike is in relatively good condition.
I also wanted to introduce myself and thank you all for the wealth of information I've already gathered from reading past posts. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I'll post pictures as soon as possible.
Kris