Update: Winter has gone on long enough, so despite 2 inches of snow overnight, I lost patience and took it for first ride of 2019 on Friday afternoon. The sun had melted the snow from the road, leaving a nice thick layer of gravel around every corner. Needless to say, I took it pretty easy (after spending so long on the body, the last thing i want to do is dump it) but still it was good to bond with it again. For most of the winter I've just been seeing her as a pile of parts that need work - forgetting that underneath it all is a darn good bike. Not the fastest or the prettiest, but people sure seem to love it

The panels are small enough that machine polishing is almost more trouble than it's worth. I've been doing most of it by hand, which sucks. Will post photos once I get things looking okay. Mostly there

I bought a Zero Gravity windscreen, but I'm not sure if I'm happy with it. Might just stick with the old beat up OEM one I've got

 

Can't wait to see it too matey, at my age winters seem to be getting longer, Got a CBX750 resto going just to keep me busy

 

Had to look it up. We didn't get the CBX750 here in NA. Sounds like a fun project

Once I'm done with the Hurricane I've got most of a V65 Magna and an old Fizzer streetfighter/learner bike I want to fix up for a friend. I don't plan on buying anything else for a year or two at least

The nice thing about nakeds is there's less paint, but plenty of aluminum polishing to make up for it. Not enough hours in the day...

 

So funny story I'm an idiot

I'd run out of fasteners to affix the humpty-dumpty-esque fairings to the Hurricane. I've been riding the bike downtown and she's had a very good record - almost 200kms problem-free. New oil fresh gas. Ugly but awesome. Gentle rides around town til they sweep the gravel off our streets. She's been good, not a whiff of difficulty

On the way home I stop at Honda for fasteners. No joy. Hit the beer store on the way home. Load the beer and unconsciously put the bike on choke. Crank no joy. Turn off choke. Crank a bit more. I'm on a hill, so I try putting the tank on reserve and pushing it down to level ground. No joy. Turn choke back on. No joy. Smell of gas now. Oh **** probably flooded. Nothing to do but park and wait. Call the wife for emergency evac, Evac arrives, 3yr old daughter asks why I'm not riding the motorcycle home. We share a laugh on the short drive

Go back after supper. Gave it a crank for good measure. No joy.

I'd wired up a charging port, so and it shares a similar connector with a short set of jumper cables that came with my charger. Hook it up to the running car, so I can crank without harming the battery

A few cranks. It starts slowing. Odd. Adjust cables. Smell smoke. Almost **** pants. Immediately disconnect the apparatus and inspect wires. Small plume of smoke. Almost **** pants again. Thoughts race. I'm at a gas station so I know they have a fire extinguisher. That's currently plan B.

Plan A: Attempt to locate source of smoke. "Booster wires" have melted through insulation and are at risk of short circuiting. Surmise that this has already likely happened. Fumble in my pockets and jam a thick plastic cigarette lighter between the (now bare) copper wires in attempt to isolate positive from negative. I need to remove the seat in order to properly isolate source of smoke.

Seat latch doesn't release. Try the key upside-down (because 1987). The seat won't budge. I panic and start applying force, pushing down on the seat while wiggling the key in the seat lock

The key breaks off in the lock. I can only stare in disbelief.

If there's a fire, I need to find it. The smoke is trailing up from a next to the battery box, exactly where I'd suspect. I puff a bit of air into the area and watch. Smoke dies. Damage to battery and likely other electrical components...

but the good news is that the bike DID NOT catch fire. I'll take the win

Next step is to get the bike home. I'm not keen on leaving it at the gas station overnight. I've got about two hours to sunset and a thousand meters to cover. Call wife to confirm plan to push bike home and walk back for the car later

So I do the last logical thing and start pushing. It's the suburbs so a lot of people are out walking their dogs but I am long past preservation of dignity at this point. Get a little more than halfway before things really became a slog. The road runs on a gentle incline which gets a bit steeper nearer to the house. Run home for a water and a break from the grind. Gradually I progress. Penance is hopefully paid. Then I pass the mailbox. I resist the urge to park it outside and instead keep on pushing it into the garage. Share a laugh with the wife as she gives me a boost into the garage

So here's my assessment:
-Flooded the engine. I grew up with EFI and I didn't realize how quick it would happen
-Hooked up a running battery backwards. Burned some things
-Battery has been completely destroyed. I'm glad it's a lead-acid, instead of a lithium cell. Will get a surface temp in a couple hours before bed just to be sure
-Damage is hopefully isolated to the battery and main fuse, but now I've got a whole bunch of extra work as I take it all apart to check for burned wires
-I can't do anything until I get this seat off. That'll be job one once I can muster the gumption

It was 100% user-error, and that sucks though

Two steps back, but this is supposed to be a hobby after all

All I can do is try and keep a sense of humor. The thing with bikes is every time you think it couldn't have been worse, you'd be wrong. At least it was some good exercise

 

Sorry to hear that matey, but if I was to write down all my self inflicted horror's it would be larger than a Tolstoy novel, but glad to see you see the funny side of it, look on the bright side , you get to start again

 

Some of the irony of this is just a couple days ago I think you told someone that push starting their bike was a way to get in some cardio...

It does suck. But at least it wasn't permanent. FWIW, I've never been a fan of the way the seat is connected. Your adventure is just further justification of my thoughts.

 

Spoilt by fuel injection, note to brain...no choke for warm bikes! Glad it wasn't any worse for you, I have fried some gear over the years but never set a bike alight, well done.

 

Haha yup. I could write a novel. I always came into this project knowing that it was a sentimental bike, and I've definitely come too far to give up now, and yes, this is the first time I've ever had legitimate concerns that I would burn a bike down. I'm guessing that it's the type of mistake that you only make once though. I just hope I didn't fry much else. The main fuse was intact (not welded) so I really have no idea what to expect. Not the good kind of suspense either

I've had other carbureted bikes, but been lucky that I haven't had to deal with too many carburetor issues. I know them well enough to take one apart and clean it, and I think I even start to understand the concept, but they still feel like a black box. Elder magic

I hate the way the seat is connected. I recovered the broken key using a jigsaw blade and some needlenose pliers, and I've ordered a new key from Honda. Luckily I've got a spare to cut it from. Once it's apart I've got half a mind to just rip the lock cylinder out and replace it with something I can turn by hand, but obviously that's gonna be pretty low priority compared to the pressing concerns

Back at it this weekend for a bit hopefully

 

Finally got the seat off my bike. Turns out the latch was fine, but the seat lock itself has an internal failure so won't turn the little rod that pushes the latch release. It's all a bit mickey mouse

Anyway it was a rough time getting it off. Had to crawl under the bike and cut part of the inner fender down until I could access the latch from the underside. Many fruitless hours trying to open the latch with a pick, but no joy. Couldn't even get a wrench on the last of the bolts holding the latch assembly on (was blocked by the rod)

Went to drastic measures and decided to carve off the rivets holding the seat on. The only tool that'd fit was my silly little dremel. Two rivets that should have taken five minutes with a standard die grinder took almost an hour to whittle down using the hobby tool. At least it's done, and the only part I damaged was the inner fender, which I'll fix later

Main fuse intact. Engine turned over easily but I didn't fire it yet. It hasn't run since I flooded it, and I'm concerned that there may be something more at play here. Will confirm spark and fuel before dropping money on a new battery, and still concerned that I might have fried something

Forward progress...

 

Be careful when you re-assemble the mechanism. That 'rod' will fit the lock slot 180 out. If you assemble it 180 out, you won't be able to get the seat unlatched again.
Make sure (dry run) it works before you install the seat. These are words of experience.