After five long years of on and off tinkering with this bike and JP Williams' garage/help/prodding, I took Imp for it's initial shake down run! YEAAAAHHHH!!!! OK, so a few things still need working out and, well, the bike wasn't REALLY ready for a ride - some things were still unsecured or tied off or taped off or.... DAMN that was a nice feeling.

The ups: she seems to be jetted about right. I only needed to adjust the idle screw, which wasn't even touching the stop at first, to get her to idle nicely. I didn't take her to WFT, but running it up and down the street in first gear didn't produce any hiccups or carb farts or backfires. BTW, no filters, or pods, or velocity stacks on it yet, just straight carb. Yeah, she smells a little rich, but she also smells like burnt oil and paper from the residue on the pipes. Didn't see any leaks and the crankcase ventilation issue we had the first time running the motor seems to be corrected.

The downs: I didn't have the front edge of the rear fender secured and the tire grabbed it and wrapped the rear support around the shocks. I think I can straighten it out some, but it's wonked pretty good. Character. There are a few wires still loose that apparently have 12V to them and I don't know what I intend to use them for. I'll have to go back into the wiring and clean it up some more, but for now electrical tape will have to do. The charging system doesn't seem to be working as the battery was run down from this run. We're charging it right now and we'll see how it behaves in a few days. The center stand will have to come off as it's rubbing the chain - apparently one of the things I cut off the frame was the bump stop. The pipes hit the ground really early, but that could be because the rear tire is low on air pressure. The only remaining key that I have that wasn't broken got broken tonight. El Crappo. Broke flush with the ignition. EL CRAPPO!! Got it out and it's not broken in the teeth area, but not sure how a copy can be made now. Might just as well replace the whole switch with a big toggle - who's going to steal this, anyway?? The two caliper mounting screws were rubbing the rotor - shimmed those out with washers, but now a stud on the caliper is rubbing. I'll have to look into that more next time.

The next step on this is to get it rolling well enough to make it to the tag agency and get the title ball rolling. Oh, and I better call my insurance agent.

Still freakin' pumped.