Well this example is pretty poor – however it’s exactly the way I like them. It’s ugly. It has high miles. But it supposedly runs. I’ve been looking at these and they typically sell for $3500 – 4500. This one showed up on Craigslist for $699 and said it would only jump start. When I got there, the guy said it wouldn’t even jump start anymore, but he swore it ran fine earlier in the day when they jumped it. He thought an earlier potential buyer had damaged something jumping it. Well I looked at it a bit and determined that either a fuse was blown or a wire was disconnected, because it couldn’t get any power from the battery to the ignition system.
It came with many of the body parts on the garage floor that were in various stages of cracked, scratched and general ugliness. It also had a service manual and three cheap helmets to go with it – one with a giant burn mark on it. It had obviously been laid down, but It didn’t look really bent up. Floorboard supports might need straightening a bit.
I looked at it for 10 minutes – checked the fuses and couldn’t find anything wrong – put my jump box on it, and it didn’t do anything. It has to be a fuse, or a burnt or broken wire. So I asked the guy if he would take $600 and he did. $600 has to be the cheapest Silverwing in the country – if it runs. He gave me the title. we loaded the helmets and parts in the back seat of my truck and we pushed it up my motorcycle ramp into the back of the truck. First problem – the Silverwing is pretty heavy. It weighs 500 lbs! That’s a lot for a scooter. After a couple tries, we got it in there, and tied down.
So I got it home, took it out of the truck and started taking stock of what I had. I put a battery charger on it and started trying to track down the starting issue. First thing I figured out is the engine would turn over if you jumped the starter solenoid. That’s a good sign- it means the engine is not seized, and the starter works.
The service manual had a wiring diagram of the ignition circuits. It showed two 30 amp fuses for the starting circuit. There’s no power going to the ignition system to light the dash and run the engine computer. It seemed like 30 amp fuse B was fine, but 30 amp fuse A seemed to be bad – except I couldn’t find 30 amp fuse A anywhere!
Finally, after about 30 minutes – I noticed a fuse shaped block on the side of the ignition solenoid. Sure enough, when you pulled the solenoid connector – 30 amp fuse A was hiding inside there. And sure enough it was blown. I replaced it with a spare 30 amp fuse and the dash lit up! It still wouldn’t start however. The starter switch did not kick the starter solenoid. However when I bypassed the solenoid, like I had earlier with power to the ignition, it spun over and started instantly! And it purred like a kitten. This engine runs perfect!
I suspect what happened was they damaged the starter solenoid and blew the 30 amp fuse earlier in the day. Well lucky me, because the earlier buyer would have taken it, and I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to buy it if that hadn’t happened. I’ve ordered a new solenoid – it should be here in a couple days.
With the engine running I couldn’t resist trying to ride it. I put a couple of the side panels back in place and took it out on the road for a test run.
It has a few things wrong beside the starter solenoid. Both brake handles are bad – one is bent in the traditional C shape indicative of a drop and the other is broken cleanly off so only two fingers can pull it. Furthermore the hand grips themselves are terrible soft rubber things that are squishy and loose. You can hardly turn the throttle. That said, the Silverwing ran pretty darn good. The engine pulled fine. The variable transmission was working good. Brakes worked fine. The gauges all work. I rode it around for 15 minutes and it was a lot of fun. It didn’t even feel a lot heavier than my little Piaggo but it certainly had much better power. Coincidentally this is the first motorcycle I’ve had with fuel injection. It seemed to start, run and accelerate perfectly.
There were a couple other problems. The front suspension seemed to not have any damping at all and was squeaking – I suspect all the oil has leaked out of the forks, and the headlight didn’t seem to work. The mileage is just over 40,000 – which would be crazy on any other scooter, but this one is a water cooled, fuel injected Honda. That’s high miles, but I hear they can go much higher than that. The original Honda windshield is foggy and may or may not be salvageable. I’ll have to replace it or at least polish it.
So, a few new parts, probably about $75, a $100 windscreen, an oil change and fork service and this machine should be back on the road. It’s painted black, so I should be able to repair most of the plastic and get it looking halfway decent. You might see me scootering on the Silverwing soon.