Not my idea actually, but it's kind of an interesting part of the story of this bike. Long post off the subject, but it might be interesting.
The bubble wrap bit came from the PO who was self-declared "anal" about stuff. He wrapped the original 'shield up when he put the Rifle set up on. He also had the antler covers wrapped in the same stuff with the factory original labels (still on there in my storage tub). The air filter element installation was dated on a piece of tape attached to the spacer bar thing when it was installed in April 2004 when there were ~4,000 miles on the bike (I bought it last fall with 5,300- now has 9,874). I recently put a K&N in there.
I didn't quite believe the miles but the bike was spotless and I took a chance.. A number of guys who've looked at it agree that the miles were real. No paint overspray, no drop indications (please no..close calls twice now), etc. It was basically a museum piece that was ridden a little bit each month as he said. I DID have to run SeaFoam for a couple of tanks and pull the petcock when I drained the tank. He stored it full of gas - always with Stabil. No rust when I drained it. Maintenance has been valve adjust, carb sync, tires. Soon moving on to fluid flushes and brakes. So far, so good.
Interestingly, he had the cleanest shop I've ever seen. All the storage boxes were the same size and type, all the labels turned the same direction. The boxes made a perfect square of about 10 wide and 10 high on a wall. He also had a "Wing", a Burgman, and a Sportster. All spotless. The Sportster had 115,000 on it and he said he just rebuilt its engine. At the time, I could not figure out why he didn't ride the Connie more (he lived in FL) until summer came. Then I realized why the bikes without windshields and fairings were his favorites. He moved from Virginia after visiting in the winter and didn't realize how hot N.Fla can be. He was the second owner, I'm the third. The first one was in the Navy in Va Bch (Connie still has the base sticker up inside the faring on the fork cover - another story). I can only suspect he was deployed or at sea a lot. He kept the bike two years. The second bought it and retired and moved to FL and brought this bike with him with a small fleet of others.
There was a aluminized sticker on the inside of the bottom fairing with his name and address on it, on so on for theft identification I guess?. One of the tires was the OEM tire (yes, the new ones are Avons). The other was a "new" Dunlop but both were cracked, hard, etc. and had to GO. That sort of attention is why my 2000 looks like it came out of a museum. Not one scratch or mark anywhere on it anywhere that I can find. <shrug> Like Fox news, I report, you decide. :-)
Ron
