In the beginning, there was... Rust. And Spiders.

So, as mentioned in my introductory post, I'm a new rider AND a 'new' '86 GL1200A owner. The bike was a 2-owner, fairly unmolested bike with 80k that I bought from a retired Firefighter and Pastor, and the plan is to rehab the old girl, then get my riding skills up to snuff with the plan to do an epic cross-country ride in spring 2021 for a 'big round number' birthday.

And here's where we begin: a 1986 GL1200 Aspencade. Owner was a regular rider with his wife, until one day in spring 2018. They were ending a ride back at his house, pulled in and... Clutch wouldn't disengage. He dropped the bike with wifey on the back. Neither was injured, but in time it became apparent he was too damn old to be riding it anymore, and the wife didn't trust it. I bought it in August 2019. He replaced the battery and got it running, but noted a 'fuel leak'... He shut it off, and couldn't get it started a few days later... But I had proof it was running. Fuel smell in the oil told the story, it was hydrolocked.... He'd left the petcock open while he was working on it, and the stuck carb floats did the rest.

Anyway, I was satisfied with what I saw, we did the deal, and he was nice enough to trailer the bike the almost 2-hour-drive to my house. I paid for a nice dinner for he and his wife, and we all had a nice talk. I was traveling for work, so it was a few weeks before I could do anything with her... Started by pulling the lower fairings, top box, and plugs. One cylinder produced a couple of tablespoons' worth of gas, but afterwards the bike spun over like a top with plugs out. I then pulled the front of the engine apart to replace the timing belts, Gates T070's. Rusted bolts and screws I remove are getting replaced with stainless if they aren't rated hardware, and anything dirty or corroded is getting cleaned up to the best of my ability before reassembly. Already replaced the air filter with a HiFlo #HFA1906. Plugs that went in were NGK Iridiums, #2202, DPR8EIX-9's. At the time, the hope was to reassemble the engine parts and fire the thing on Sunday, September 15th.

The timing covers were so corroded, I ended up sanding them and painting them wrinkle-kote black. It took  quite a while to close up, definitely longer than I'd thought... But that's another story.