The forks have been drained of fluid and refilled with new in the hopes of improving the handling. Everything is now BLACK, too. Had to take the front wheel off to paint the forks. which necessitated lifting the bike up. I tried building a quickie bike lift out of a 2x8 and some old gas pipe, but it broke on the second lift. To it's credit, if I'd made it with better wood I might still be using it. As it turned out, Harbor Freight had bike jacks on sale so I bought a new one. Much safer than the 2x8 method and more versatile.

The bike is essentially finished, cosmetically at least. I took it out for a much longer ride today even though it still isn't inspected or licensed. It accelerates really well, strong and smooth. But at steady throttle it still backfires and bucks. I've adjusted the points and timing several times but nothing seems to help. I'm going to run a compression test tomorrow and see if I've got a valve sticking or something. I tried using a timing light to time it and the blast of air coming out of the crank timing hole tells me something isn't right.

If I can tune it up so it runs better I'll get it inspected and licensed.