Back in the saddle; and a question at the end

- Happy New Year all! -
I have been distracted for a while, like two years or so and would like to get back to the forums.
Today, after work , I rode the old bike north to the great divide between Suches and Dahlonega.
It was a balmy 13°F when I left for work this morning (in the car); thank goodness I’m in the south. For the bike ride I started to wear just a T shirt but was glad ultimately that I grabbed a jacket because there towards the end of the ride I thought I was going to have to zip it up. With new hat and jacket, boots (which came today) and gloves, all from Santa I was properly attired.
On the way home I ‘bout snit a brick when the front tire lost the road for an instant. It felt like a slick/frozen spot of tar as opposed to a patch of sand or gravel, but it was hard to tell as it was all over before I had time to think about it. I guess when you combine semi-darkness with frozen asphalt, rubber and air then traction is not quite so predictable.

I may be looking at/for a new bike because the old girl is getting a _LOT_ of miles and years on her. She was 34 years old when the 2012 year models debuted and has racked up an amazing 18K miles! In fact, I missed the odo turning over today by a quarter mile because at the time it rolled over I was riding over black and other ice on a winding road and I did not want any distractions. I wished I had taken my camera with me to document this momentous occasion. Maybe I’ll go snap one off before I click send; or maybe I’ll wait till daylight.

More rambling follows. Thanks to someone in a post (engine section?) from a few days ago who suggested that the throttle not be touched when choking/cold starting. I have always put my bike in neutral and kicked it with the clutch pulled to free the clutch ‘sticksion’ as I call it, caused from sitting over night or longer. This, in my mind makes it less abrupt when I put it into gear for the first time while idling but sitting still. Then I would kick the engine over a few times at half-throttle before turning on the ignition. It worked great today without any throttle cranks. One more item; does anyone know if an after-market, vacuum actuated fuel pump (¬_NOT_ a petcock) exists which will thread into a ’78 KZ 1000 fuel tank? Or if a suitable, read small pump does exist that will mount under the tank somewhere? Even though the fuel delivery was designed to be gravity fed, I want to try a little mod.

See you guys later.
Jim@MilkyWay