Call it Thumper Karma.
I was sitting at work, looking out the window onto a beautiful July morning oops, I mean diligently concentrating on my job. I was deliberating between two Yamaha XT 350s I had looked at. One was relatively cheap, but in average shape. The other was mint, with less than a thousand easy miles on it, but way more than I wanted to spend. Okay, I really only want to spend about $75, but you know what I mean.
Our lovely receptionist's voice on my phone roused me from my stupor.
'Jim?'
'Yeah?'
'Alden on 502 for you.'
Whoa! It was low number fizz-nocker Alden O'brien!

A year before, I tried to buy his '78 SR but major truck repairs took a big honkin' bite out of my thumper budget. We tried to work things out in December, but then he decided to hang onto the bike. I had pretty much decided to get the '79 my local dealer had when he finally got it put back together.
Poorly resprayed, incorrect decals, looked like it was run hard and put away wet, but, it was from a dealer I trusted to get it back in shape mechanically and it was a good starting point for a cosmetic restoration. (As of this writing, it's been a back-burner, cobweb-gathering project for almost a year there. Geez, you'd think there was more profit in moving out YZF 1000's and Vulcan Classics than a $900 used bike they had to reassemble or something!) If it does ever come up for sale at an attractive price, hey, one can never have too many thumpers' only too little garage!

I had decided on an SR last year after the British magazine Classic Bike had a feature on a clean special that caught my eye- like a traditional Triton, only sitting proudly in the Norton frame was a Yamaha XT engine! The bike itself was gorgeous' alloy tank, red frame, really nicely executed.
I recalled the strong, torquey engine of a borrowed XT from early in my riding days, when I was wheeling my Hodaka. (I conveniently forgot the sweating and grunting, trying to start the @#!%&*!! thing when it was hot.)

I had originally lusted after a GB 500, I love that classic British look with Japanese build quality. But my pockets weren't quite deep enough.
I looked for an early XT 500, only to find decent early XT's are getting pretty scarce in my neck of the woods. (I still want to get an electric start XT 600 and streetize it hmm, sounds like someone's bike I've seen before but that's another story!) I had just joined FSSNOC, bought a bunch of back issues and figured the SR 500 would fit my needs perfectly.
It was popular enough that, in general, parts were still readily available, and advice and ideas were plentiful here in the club. So, SR it was!

I placed ads in both Motorcycle Shopper magazine and Thumper News, and got several responses, most of which were either too far away to consider, overpriced, trashed or all three. (One call on my answering machine was from a guy from New York City, who said he had an SR he wanted to 'get rid of as soon as possible.' As he was talking, there were police sirens wailing in the background! I'm sure the sirens were just a coincidence, but it sure was funny!) Of all the SR's I considered, Alden's was the most promising. And now here it was again.

Last year, I bought a disposable camera at Wal Mart, and sent it to Alden, along with a prepaid return envelope. I highly recommend this route for any long-distance or out-of-state bike purchases. For one thing, everyone's idea of phrases regarding condition 'like new', 'mint'and 'very good condition' seem to vary. A lot! Now, call me the village idiot, but I don't think most people deliberately misrepresent the condition of their motorcycles.
I do think people take an inherent pride in ownership, and often overlook flaws that might be apparent to someone else. Your mind just sort of glosses them over. A few times, I've encountered resistance to the camera route. Unless the bike is such a screaming deal that you're willing to tie up travel time and expenses to check it out personally, I'd pass on these.
I feel that if the seller won't spend a few minutes to take a few pictures of the bike, when you're willing to pay for the camera, film and postage, then you might be wise to look elsewhere. Either he doesn't really care if he sells the bike, or he's hiding something. Admittedly, the machine could be pristinely-detailed but have shot mechanicals, but for a purchase several hours away at least it's a starting point. You can see, for instance, that the chain guard is missing, as it was on one I looked at; or the center stand that was missing on mine. Now, this was no big thing-I got one in my box of parts, and I really only use it for maintenance anyway so I'm just going to pop a bolt in when I need to lube the chain or whatever.
But it's something that you might overlook that could prove surprisingly hard to find later and a possible bartering point. Pre-purchase photos also give you a photographic record of your starting point 'Yeah, you don't see many hardtail SR choppers with Lord of the Rings murals on the tank and side panels, candy purple frame and button tufted seats like mine.
Lemme show you what I started with! Look, it was bone stock!' (I also believe that if the seller has photos of their machine that they send you, you should be conscientious enough to either return them or pay for them.)
Alden and I talked for a while, and the bike was again for sale. The price was still right-the price had never been the issue, and he was willing to deliver it now, too. I think he was willing to bring that sucker up right then and there! (Alden lives about 3-1/2 hours away from me.) But I still had never seen the bike. On paper, it sounded good, and certainly Alden was a knowledgeable SR guy. But how many of you haven't looked at something that sounded great, only to find out on examination it was nowhere as nice as described? I think we've all been there.

So I said I'd still like to see photos of the bike. (I think he just never got around to taking them. I never got around to calling him and asking about them. You know how it is. I didn't want Alden to have to haul it up here if it wasn't what I expected. He said he was going on vacation the last week of the month, but would try to get me some photos before they left.

When I got the photos about 2 weeks later, it took about 15 seconds to make up my mind. The bike was just as he described it. Very good condition overall, many cool parts. But by then Alden was on vacation. I left a message on his answering machine at home to call me, that I was definitely interested.

In the interests of brevity, let's just say we closed the deal, and two weeks later early one Sunday morning became the proud owner of a black 1978 SR 500. Well, at least proud up to the point where we put some gas in the thing. Fuel started gushing out of the petcock; it flooded the carb and was pouring out of the overflow tubes all over the driveway!

A quick check of the carbs proved them to be fairly clean; the float seemed to be okay so we figured the problem was the fuel petcock, simply flooding the carb with a torrent of gas. Cleaning the plug and several hundred kicks later, that bad boy fired up. It ran great once started. I took it out for a short ride, and, man, it felt good! Probably the strongest stock-engined SR I've ever ridden, not that I have the experience a lot of you guys have with them! We renegotiated the price a little due to the petcock problem, and I felt a little better.

The first time I tried to start it, I jumped up in the air and gave it one heck of a kick. And promptly found out the relationship of my foot to the starter to the foot peg was a lot different than on my Honda. I put a big gash in my shin as my foot slipped off the starter and rammed into the peg with all the force you would put into trying to start a bike legendary for it's ability to bring strong men to their knees! As I write this, my shin is still tender, and my wife has an incredible knack for accidentally-so she claims- kicking it!

So, here's the quick and dirty on the bike:

1978 SR 500.

14k mileage

Stock motor, carb and airbox

K&N filter

K&N chrome Euro bars

Oil Cooler and rerouted top-end oiling

ATK fork brace

Chrome SuperTrapp and

Progressive Suspension Front

Air caps

Progressive Suspension rear

Maier Racing 1/4 cafe fairing

Oil temperature dipstick

New chain and sprockets

Repainted tank, but well-done with correct decals and striping

New cover

Several boxes of parts

My parts box includes goodies like a new CDI box, a halogen headlight, extra side covers, complete stock airbox assembly, switches, brake pads, stainless steel brake lines and more.

Of course, there are some things I'd like to change: The right rear turn signal's a little bunged up, for instance. The right side cover has several repaired cracks on close inspection, but I don't know if they bother me enough to repaint one of my spare red covers and buy new transfers. I'm not sure about the fairing. I do like the look, it's kind of a Darth Vader lean mean don't mess with me thing, but if I'm only going to have one SR, I might prefer the more traditional look of a flyscreen and fork gaiters. (It would be an easier decision, too, if the fairing didn't fit so nicely! It really looks like this was designed for this bike.) I might go with bar end mirrors, but I want to get the bike on the road and inspected before I spend money on cosmetics. The overall 'feel' of the bike is something for me to think about during the upcoming long Pennsylvania winter nights!

To date, I've cleaned up the right side of the bike, using mostly Honda chrome & aluminum cleaner, which is similar to Simichrome. Maybe, in my opinion, a hair better. (Simichrome in a can doesn't seem quite as good as it used to be to me.) I removed two decals from inside the fairing, about 6 from the airbox cover and one from the rear fender.
(I've left the FSSNOC decal on!) I replaced the cheesy phillips head screws holding the air box cover in place with allen heads, from my local True Value, purely for the coolness value.

I picked up a petcock rebuild kit from Ernie Cuff (yikes! It used to be $28, now it's $40. I was seriously considering just buying the whole replacement racing petcock from him for $2 more but I wanted to keep a reserve. It kind of irked me that I found one of these for $25 in a catalog after I got mine-same part number, but the SR wasn't a listed application. But, it's also important to remember in matters like this, we owe it to support FSSNOC-loyal companies like Thumper Stuff who cater to our niche market, advertise in Thumper News and are just generally good guys. Ever seen anyone's bike that works at Dennis Kirk? Me neither. But we've seen one of Ernie's!) I also ordered a 6-pack of oil filters, a shiny new Splitfire plug and an exhaust gasket because I plan to pull the head pipe and try to polish off some of the blueing.

As I write this, I still haven't done the title transfer and gotten plates for it; as I already have a bike on the road and it was 40 degrees this morning I'm not in a tremendous hurry.

I've ordered a catalog from Totally Stainless in Gettysburg PA; these guys have every kind of stainless steel fastener in the world. I plan to replace the factory allen heads on the cases and other noncritical screws with polished stainless steel fasteners. Once again, it's 'chust for pretty' as the Pennsylvania Dutch are reputed to say.

This is a great bike, and it looks like it's going to be a fun project! I'll keep ya posted!

Incidentally, I'm also looking for the following:

Cheap seat, condition not important, for a recovering/recontouring project. In fact, I'd prefer a really ratty cover as I don't want to desecrate a good stock one.

Cheap used stock carb, to disassemble and try a rebuild on to increase my knowledge of just how these darn things work. I'd like to do the Minton mods to the carb, but first I have to get over my fear of tearing them apart! (This goes back to my Hodaka Wombat. Don't even ask; let's just say my father was a patient man and a tremendous mechanic. I wish I'd paid more attention.)

1978 Owner's Manual.

Anyone with these goodies, or with any questions and thoughts on the bike and modifications drop me a line:

Jim Colbert,
FSSNOC #2811
410 Toftrees Ave. Apt. 109
State College PA
email: jcolb@barashgroup.com

P.S. Several of you have expressed interest in a Planet SR t-shirt.
I hadn't planned on this. but if enough people are interested, hey, why not? Maybe the Planet SR on the breast pocket and a collage of SRs on the back? Think about it and I'll look into the financial feasibility of it.

Okay, let's close with a joke for the British Thump fans:
Know why the British drink warm beer?
Lucas makes their refrigerators!

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09/08/97