New Guy in OKC

[riccorman]

Hello all, my name is Ric and I live in Oklahoma City. I recently acquired a 1978 Darmah. I also have a 2007 GT1000, a 2001 BMW R1200c Phoenix, and a 1980 BMW R100 airhead.

The Darmah had been sitting in this guy's house (yes, INSIDE the house) for about 10 years with an empty gas tank and battery box. He had made some modifications to the bike: lucas rita ignition, funky homemade seat, Japanese front MC, turn signals and brake light... the original gauges were gone and in their place were some taken off a Yamaha.

The tank still has its original paint but he repainted the tail section and the side covers. He did an excellent job on the side covers... he actually airbrushed the tiger and it looks quite like the original. The tail section, however, is poorly done; the stripe color does not match and he used some kind of plain mailbox letters for the DARMAH graphic on the back. I'm going to keep the side covers as they are but I can't leave the tail section as it is. I've seen lots of different decal kits on eBay, anyone have any experience with any of these?

Anyway... I got this old bike home and immediately put a battery and some gas in it. Flipped the choke lever and hit the starter. It took a few tries but it did indeed start up. The carbs were acting up; it wouldn't idle on both cylinders (turned out to be a plugged up idle jet) but I JUST HAD TO RIDE IT. So I took it out around the neighborhood.

At first, I was too busy trying to get a feel for the brakes (or lack thereof) and adjusting mirrors, feeling the clutch, etc., to really pay much attention to the ride. I was processing all of the things I was going to have to do to this bike to get it road-worthy (and all of the MONEY I was going to have to spend) when I came on a curvy section of road.

I hit the first curve and immediately FORGOT EVERYTHING. Oh. My. God. Fell in love instantly.

I knew immediately that I will never part with this bike.

I am going through it all now, and I am so excited about this community and the knowledge represented here. LOADS of priceless information. Thank you all for what you've contributed, and thank you Steve for setting all of this up.

-ric

[BevHevSteve]

Welcome aboard Ric.....