BMW is much easier to deal with for parts

What are the chances that I win an item on Ebay, ships from Ohio, and make an order from a store in SoCal, and both orders arrive at my house the same day? Now what are the chances that both orders received were completely wrong? I had to bid for a 67 gas tank just for access to the petcock which has some weird 18x1.0mm threads (from what I can find the only bike that had this, and only in 67-68), what I got in the mail was a brake pedal and master cylinder from some Jap bike. Ordered a Dell'orto UB gasket set and strainer, and that just wasn't in the box of parts at all...

I've never had this problem when I've ordered German parts

Aside from those hiccups, the postman's been busying delivering other stuff to the house

via Italia

This is what I've been waiting for the most, but it's kinda a let down. I own VW and BMW factory service manuals that are insane with specs and various tolerances. Harley only feels it's important when noting stock carb settings, to indicate the size of the main jet, omitting needle jet/carb stock, idle jet, needle type, and needle clip settings. I at least know from the main jet info that my bike has been rejetted at some point to run leaner, the rest I'm going to have to figure out/tune the old fashioned way. I wanted to at least get a base setting to start because I also got one of these

and then some Granturismo Brevettata grips

The manual also gives the most retarded instructions for adjusting valves that I've ever seen. When I did them earlier, I set the piston to TDC, spun the pushrods to make sure they were moving freely, i.e no pressure against them from the valves since they should be closed on the compression stroke, and them set them to spec .002." H-D says to rotate the engine until one valve is fully open and then adjust the opposite valve. For shits and giggles I went back and tested this method which: 1) was a pain in the ass because it was difficult to keep the valves in a full open position and avoid overlap - the valve springs seemed to win against the piston in closing the valves 2) Yielded the same specs that I achieved in a single step... I'm slowly beginning to understand why the stereotypical H-D riders are the way they are

since I got the stack and I'm gonna be burning up the roads like no other 20hp 250 single, I figured I'd need to reattach the stock tank decal omitted from my tank. Super Sport Baby! or Schutzstaffel depending on the rider

So all the tuning I planned on doing on my one day off this weekend will now have to wait until I receive the gaskets in the mail that the store forgot to pack. While I'm waiting for that I'm going to have to send back this Jap brake assembly to the ebay seller, pray the guy who received my gas tank is as punctual in shipping his wrong part back, and then wait all over again

In the meantime I might begin prepping the tank that came with the bike and fenders for paint. I was thinking about just taking everything apart, but with my house on the market and me wanting to tune the bike, it'd probably be better to have everything mostly on the frame instead of in pieces assorted in cardboard boxes