New member, new owner of an '82 750 Spectre

Hello folks,

Thanks for putting this great site and resource together!

I picked up an '82 Spectre for more everyday riding to complement my big, heavy Yamaha Venture touring bike.  My new Spectre has only 7700 miles on it and previous owner had it sitting for a long time.  Gunked up carb and rusty tank, for sure.

I've got the carbs rebuilt, new boots on both sides, petcock rebuilt and tank coated w/ POR-15 and she runs, she purrs!!!  Still need a little fine-tuning on the carbs to get the pilot screws & sync dialed in, but wow!  What a hoot to ride this little devil.

While I was waiting for various bits and pieces to arrive, decided to paint the engine black as the original gold was faded and not consistently so. 

I still have a variety of things to do to make her truly road ready (mainly giving the brakes some love) and now I'm torn with how far do I take this little project.

On one hand, I appreciate the mostly original nature of it as-is, but I can also envision it with the rear shocks replaced & lowered a bit, along with lowering the front ~2", sportier handlebars and then a new paint job.  Maybe I've already crossed the line with painting the engine black, but it looks so much better than the splotchy, faded gold that was there.

In any case, here she is!  The paint job is a bit more worn and beat up than it looks in the photo.  If it was still a cherry factory paint job, I wouldn't even consider touching it.

Welcome. There seems to be a problem with people attaching pics these days...
By all means, it's your bike. Make it your own... I look forward to to seeing what you do with it. 

I seem to remember something about new members needing some minimal number of posts before any photos they upload will show.  The mods here will typically intervein and allow the photos to come through though.

Trying photo upload again, Could have very likely been user error...

Heyo. Seems nobody cares much about anything shaft drive, so I don't think anyone will criticize you for customizing to your liking. I certainly went my own way with my N1. 

That's interesting, I've always like shaft drives for the convenience of not having to maintain the chain, but I guess a weight penalty for that.

Would love to learn more about what you've done to your Spectre!

Trying the picture again, not sure what I'm doing wrong...

edit, I think I wasn't hitting 'insert'...now I know what I was doing wrong

Sure; I have BS34 carbs from a 1983 model, an 18" rear wheel from a GT750, KZ900 shocks, a 4-1 exhaust, a GSXR750 front master, and a cheap quarter fairing. Some other little things but that's most of it. 

If you ever want to toss your stock exhaust, I might be interested - it looks in much better shape than my stock pipes.

 

It's a nice reliable ride with enough power to make me laugh out loud. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine. 

Cool!  Thanks!  That definitely gives me some ideas.  Why did you do the carb swap?  If you don't mind me asking

The Keihins that were on it were totally siezed (like the engine was) and it came with the BS34s in a box, so it was the cheapest way. I'm not sure how much of a difference they make!