I hated that the windshield was painted but I didn't buy it for aesthetics. It was now an employee and it lived roadside for the next 6 months. I didn't have a MC endorsement at the time but I cut teeth riding motorcycles on this seca. I cannot describe to you what it felt like to go from 49cc and 150cc scooters to this 600cc. To me the seca accelerated like when they go light speed in Star-Wars. I was so afraid of it at first I rode it using the clutch for a few days before giving it throttle. One scary moment I had, I was going down the drag in front of th shop at 60 and I proceeded to stop the bike using the rear brake only. On a scooter you can do this. On the seca the rear end started to creep around and scared to death I released the brake. I learned quickly not to mess around on it. Half of the time I would also stall the bike at lights and hold up entire rows of traffic.
I took the carbs appart and did some cleanup work and I was able to get the seca going. That was when I shot this video. At the time I hadn't attempted to synch the carb so when I would get the bike up to speed and pull the clutch the engine would die.
[youtube]wQVlv_ZRsGY[/youtube]
Once I got it going I checked the compression and if I remember correctly the cylinders read between 110 115 120 and 125 in no particular order. So I removed the head to take a look inside and the valves were seated pretty well and the piston and rings appeared to be okay. There wasn't any scoring on the cylinder walls. This was when I learned that repairing motorcycles would be a lot more involved than scooters. synching and shimming would be more involved than carb cleanings and rocker adjustments. But nonetheless nothing was broken so I put it back together. I leveled the pistons and let sea foam sit in the cylinders for a week before re-assembly. On a side note, the inline 4 in a car is very similar to a bike's inline 4. If you can work on one you can work on the other.
This is how it was usually displayed at my shop. You can see I sprayed the timing cover a nice metallic silver. I'd leave it outside 24/7 and forgot the key in it overnight a few times, I guess it was so ugly it didn't look worth messing with.
Here you can see it front the shop on display next to a customer's Hyosung 250. You can see the $30 yellow fender I bought for it from ebay. you can also see the jb weld very well in there two pics. That narrow rear wheel/tire typical of 80s/90s bikes really makes the bike look meek. Today, even this korean 250cc comes with a nice sized rear.
The end for this bike came in May when my wife and I were liquidating assets to buy our home. I had a cycle clientelle built up so I really didn't need it as a display anymore, even though I wanted to keep it, it had to go. I painted the front fender red and for $200 ebayed a good red tank out of Germany. And sold it soon for $1100 as you see it in the following pics.
I wish I took more pictures at the time but I'm glad I at least have what I have of it. I learned a lot with that seca and I don't think I'll outgrow it because I have no desire to own a bike with more than 75HP. Displacement is a bad way to judge a bike since they vary wildly in power to displacement ratios, ie 1700cc v twin cruisers that make 90HP. The seca II has .10 HP per cc and I think that's what a good bike should have to make it fast enough but reliable too.