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I just picked this bike up yesterday, it sat for about a year and wouldn't start. I changed the plugs (they were oil fouled), ran some fresh gas through the tank, and charged the battery and it still wouldn't start. The starter sounded good but it just wouldn't start, I ended up bump starting it and after running it for about 20 min I killed it to see if it would electric start and it needed to be hooked up to a battery charger to start. The guy said the battery was brand new, it looks new and the fluid level looked good. There's also a huge mess of wires near the speedo gauge, the faring is missing so there's no front headlight but all the gauges work fine. That's the first issue, if anyone has any insight I'd apreciate it.

So after I rode it around the bike started to overheat, the temp gauge was pretty much all the way to the danger zone. Riding it cooled it down a little but if it sat for more than a min it would overheat again. I haven't taken off the radiator yet but there's a nasty noise coming out of it, it sounds like the fan is hitting something or just not working. Other than checking/replacing the fan could there be any other reason for the overheating? The radiator fluid is topped off but looked kinda dirty so I'll also try replacing that. Also, the oil was nasty and dirty and filled to the extreme, I took out the dipstick and the oil started to spill over. Could having too much oil have anything to do with it overheating? I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to maintance so try and keep that in mind, I bought this bike with the intention of learning how to work on bikes (150$, can't beat that.)

One last thing, the bike idles really high, around 5000rpm. I messed with the carb idle knob and it started to go down a little, to around 3000rpm but the more I turned it down the idle started to go up again. I tried going the other way and the idle went down back to 3000 but than started going up that way too. The bike is pretty responsive and the performance is actually really good though. Well sorry for all the info but I just kinda need a push in the right direction on where to start on this thing.

Flush coolant
Replace thermostat
fix fan
new oil and filter
clean carbs
fix the vaccum leak near the intake manifold causing it to rev up on you

Get headlight, probably get new tires, most likely get a new battery (google how to test the battery)

Replace the brake lines.

lets combine our suggestions to say replace anything rubber

The rear brake works pretty good but the front brake lever is tough to press, and it doesn't work great but pretty decent. The fuel line looks pretty new. I've never cleaned out carbs and I wanted to try it out with this bike so that'll probably be one of the next things I do. Is replacing the radiator fan tough? I have no experience with wiring, I think I can get the radiator off no problem but after that I'll be pretty clueless.

find a service manual online. It'll talk you through it all

this site
http://choppercharles.com/cs/forums/
will be your friend. it's dedicated to these bikes. i have a gl650 (that i hope to be selling soon) and have spent the last two years on that site. there are a lot of great knowledgeable people there that spend their lives in these bikes. not to say there isn't great advice here. just that that site is specific to these bikes.

thanks for the link dean, i just spent about 30 min over there and I think it'll be really helpful.