At last the 1968 Suzuki T500 Cobra is complete and after all the last-minute fiddling that seemed to go on forever, I am well pleased with how it has turned out.
I won’t be able to do too much more to it till the snow melts and the carburettors still need to be dialled in, but I was able to at least have roughly a 30 minute run around the neighbourhood on it before the snow flew. It ‘blubbers’ a bit indicating it is getting too much fuel. Here in Calgary it is normal to have to lean out the jetting due to the effect of the altitude above sea level, so that was not unexpected.
Of course there are still a few things which will likely need to be played with – I expect I will be doing more work on the front forks as they are not what I’d call ‘confidence inspiring’ and seem more like a pair of pogo sticks than anything else. I’ll try a heavier oil and see what difference that makes. And the horn is not as loud as I’d like so I may take it apart again to check the contacts one more time, but that is minor really. As I get a few tanks of fuel through it, I’m sure other things will reveal themselves and need attention as well. On the plus side, the engine pulls well, the transmission shifts properly and the brakes are actually better than I had expected and will get better still as they bed in, so that is all good news !
This past weekend I had it in the CVMG exhibit that we put together for the annual Calgary Motorcycle Show, together with its 1968 Honda CL77 stable-mate, and the pair of them looked quite smart.
Spring cannot come soon enough !
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