Update... while waiting for parts arrive from Rick Jones I enlisted the assistance of a new friend who is a master of the multi meter. With Wobbly’s many comments about corrosion we started tracing wires and connections. We found numerous green connections despite appearing fine from the exterior. The main ground appeared tight and clean until removed and that too was corroded. All were cleaned and treated With dielectric grease pending arrival of no-ox-Id.

One plug wire returned 0 resistance and that was replaced with a spare I Had from previous bikes. Touched the starter button and immediately started and settled into a happy idle.

(Wobbly the wire / connector you referenced appeared fine but will be replaced as soon as parts arrived).

Thank you again for all the helpful advice.

Craig

Craig -
That's a happy ending to a great story. I know your riding season is short up there, so go put some miles on that thing. You've got all this winter to do the fine tuning, get the plug wires matching, etc, etc.

Special thanks for reporting back. I love to hear success stories.

PS. I worked for Nortel Networks for 15 years and explored Canada on a regular basis. What a glorious place to ride. I'm somewhat jealous. 😛

The years, weeks, hours, minutes and seconds of your life are the most precious things you have. They are limited, they will run out and you don't know when. So when you spend the most prescious thing you have replacing some component that is just fine well....why? if you think it could be failure prone you might keep a spre on hand and on a longer trip carry the spar along after getting a lot of opinions that it is failure prone, but this is just to save time with repairs. Every part on the bike will fail at some point and at one time I had a complete running bike just to part out to myself for spares. It paid off. Now I just stock the expensive stuff or anything hard/slow to get.

If you have a new plug coming I say skip the anxiety, put it in a drawer until needed (if ever, @188kmiles my plug was fine tho' the PO lost the clip and wrapped it in a ball of ty wraps) and go for a ride instead. Don't worry about being stranded in some motel because being a true airhead you don't stay in motels.

I enjoy doing regular maintenance work. Not so much to get the wrenches out, but I've noticed it's always during those times draining the gearbox that I spot a frayed wire or a leaking oil pressure sender. Or I have the tank off to replace the ignition module thermal paste and notice the front tank mount has given out, or that the voltage regulator plug is only connected by the narrowest margin.

Over my career I've noticed it's most always the stupid small stuff that puts riders on the side of the road. Riders may spend several hundred dollars on an updated alternator, but what puts them on the side of the road is the burned out 50 cent generator indicator bulb. It's not the $800 valve job that will leave you stranded, but rather the lack of regular valve adjustment. But without the regular maintenance, you never find these off-beat issues.

As Wobbly mentioned, living in Canada imposes a short season. I am in Prince Edward Island which has a real short season. Yesterday as a shake down ride I rode 100 miles along the North Shore in 70° temp and bright sun. For me, paradise! The pending parts are preventative and will wait for a rainy day or the dark days of Winter. I enjoy routine maintenance and of course that will continue.

I think when you reach a certain age and realize you don’t have another 20 years of riding ahead of you, you begin to realize that every day you can ride is to be treasured.

Cloudy and showers today. I won’t melt.

Thanks again to all.
Craig