motorcycle boy lives

i bought a motorcycle. it's something i wanted to do many years ago, but at the time i hadn't neither time, nor money to invest in this dream. a few months ago i was in baltimore driving to my band's practice space when i saw a few motorcycles parked on the sidewalk. a switch went off in my brain...one of the bikes was perfect for me, i thought. a late 70s, or early 80s japanese standard that wasn't too big. so that set the little wheels turning-i have the time and the money these days, so why not?

after leaving the dreaming phase of this quest and entering the reality leg, i began searching craigslist for my bike. a few looked good but by the time i made a move they were sold. one seemed perfect but alas-no title. finally after a few fruitless weeks i found an intriguing ad. i think the headline was like "honda 450-$500" and all that was written in the body was "good starter".. i frantically replied to this ad twice before getting a response saying that it was the owner's wife who put up the ad and she had forgotten it was posted. it was an 82 honda nighthawk 450 with 22000 miles, but it looked like it was in pretty good shape. anyway, long story short, i went out to see it, talked the guy down to $400 (dude was really cool, by the way-always nice to deal with decent folk on craigslist), had my buddy dan tow it back home and there you have it. she doesn't quite "run" yet, but i might cry the first time i hear that motor roar and like not cut out. here are things that i have done/need to do to get the bike running.

done:
-rebuilt/cleaned the carbs. this task seemed surprisingly easy. i hope i did it right.
-de-rusted/coated the fuel tank. it's got a little pinhole in it that after coating seems to still exist. i plan to get some more KREEM and try to puddle it up on the spot that has the leak. if this doesn't work, it might be time to shell out $240 and buy a new tank.

need to do:
-during the whole de-rusting process i seriously fucked up the paint on the tank. i wanted to at least wait till i had some riding time under my belt and felt confident about not dropping the bike before i did any respraying, but i think the bubbling, bare metal paint job isn't really that cool, so the respraying will have to take place before i put the tank back on for the first time. i'm thinking war-bonnet yellow as per a suggestion by my dude brodie. but you know, i'm limited by what auto zone has in shitty spray cans, so we'll see.
-fork seals...the right fork has oil up and down the upper shaft so i'm assuming the seal is fucked
-chain/sprockets-according to the indicator on the swing-arm it's time to replace the chain. sucky, but i have friends with knowledge/power tools

anyway, so me and my pal topher took the msf ridercourse and got our licenses, so it's pretty much going to be sweet. i just need to get her running before the summer is over. here's a video of my exact bike in its original factory paint. i'll post pics of the progress on mine soon...