Discouraged but not dismayed

Well, in case you were wondering, Jerry did come back from that vacation he was on...not that it did me any good. I went back to the DC Cycles the morning after they were supposed to reopen. Jerry was there but he was on break (they'd been open for half an hour already.) They weren't very busy, there were two employees (counting Jerry) and another "customer" in the office. No one reacted to me coming in so after browsing the custom bikes and chrome and leather motorcycle accessories for a few minutes I felt compelled to interrupt their little coffee break. Shirley came out to see what was so important that I couldn't have waited.

Let me set the stage a little here: Shirley and Jerry and the "customer" were all about my age, but that was about where the similarities ended. I, in my 'duck head' khaki shorts, Virginia Tech T-shirt, and sandals, obviously didn't fit with they, in denim, chains, bandanas, boots, leather, and Harley T-shirts. Who's not the real biker in this picture? Did I mention that the "customer" was about 5'10", and weighed about 325 with a beard to his nipples and hair to his lower shoulder blades? I didn't think so.

Anyway, Shirley was nice, asked how she could help, took a few notes and my phone number and said that when ever Bobby, who is the evidently the parts guy, came in he'd give me a call if he thought he could help. Bobby hasn't called. He's probably networking with bike shops around the world looking for parts for me. Or maybe he never came in, I don't know, but I've gotta grow my hair out some and get a chain for my wallet before I go back so I can get some respect.

But I haven't given up, I found this gem on e-Bay. It was billed as a 1973 CB500. I communicated with the seller who said that he thought that many parts may be interchangeable between the '73 and the '76. There were however some contradictions in his listing. On the one hand the listing indicated he was in Columbia, South Carolina, somewhere else it said he was from Columbus, Ohio. (That makes a big difference because it costs $18.00 to ship a bowling ball from Detroit and I can drive to Columbia.) On the other hand there was the issue of price. In the listing heading he cited a price of $175.00, very reasonable if any of the parts which I actually need are interchangeable between the two models and if he actually still has the parts I need, but in the item description he said he wanted $2750.00, which seemed a little (a lot) steep. We got the price and location worked out but he never specifically said that his bonanza of parts even contained the parts I was looking for...forget about whether or not they would work on my bike, Then there was the fact that this wasn't actually an auction but a "classified ad", the intricacies of which on e-Bay I am not familiar with. Alas, by the time we ironed out all the inconsistencies the item listing had timed out. I received a subsequent e-mail from Stephen, that's the guy's name, stating that the bike, well the pieces of bike, hadn't sold and was I still interested in working something out... I haven't gotten back with him because I really wasn't sure I wanted to drive 70 miles to pick up 400 or 500 pounds of motorcycle parts that may or may not do me any good, especially in the Jeep, which has over-heated the last two times I tried to leave town (which problem I have never addressed.)

Meanwhile I was still searching parts on the Internet and found a solenoid, which I ordered, so that's good. While perusing the site I found the solenoid I needed. I decided to look up the parts for the '73 (and other models) to see if they were the same. I found many parts that were available for other models of similar vintage that looked very much the same (though they had different part numbers) which were still available at this site. So I e-mail this guy and ask him what he knows about parts from other models being interchangeable and he says he doesn't know about compatibility and that I'd be taking a chance. I figured if he reckoned I'd be taking chance trying to cross-match new parts I'd for sure be taking a chance trying to cross-match old used parts that may not be any good to start with.

So, here's where I stand: The alternator I have isn't really any good to me as it is because it won't stay together, and getting it fixed in a machine shop seems like it's not going to happen because of cost, so how much worse can I make it if I fill all the holes with JB Weld and try to re-drill and tap them. I've got a solenoid to put in the starting circuit now so that has to help something, right? I mean, maybe that's why it wouldn't start before. I mean if it's supposed to have one and it doesn't , it must make some difference, right?

So that's what I try next...just as soon as I finish the bathroom which I finally started working on in earnest while scouring the "World Wide Web" for 33 year old Honda parts. By the way, I was wondering...and if anyone can explain this please do, how can it be, that if you remove the old vinyl floor from a room, and use it as a template to layout and cut the new vinyl floor, and if you do all that very carefully, then how can it be that the new floor doesn't exactly fit the very same space the old floor came out of? It's not going to be a huge problem, it is, however, going to require a little creativity, but I really don't understand how it could happen, really.