TOPIC: Redondo BBlue 1972 TS185 Sierra

What can I say, it is on the other side of town, $450 and looks very complete if rough. Partly bought it for the rear rack to go on the red one . This is the first bike purchased with the sole intention of doing some work on and flipping it.

Brings back fond memories of my blue TS185, it gave me street legal transportation at 14 years old riding with a full face helmet so cops couldn’t tell my age...

JGersh if you need a project she could be yours, I picked it up on a whim and am garage-less so it's not really an ideal time to have a project.

That said, I picked her up in the dark last night and got to take a good look today. Very complete for the age of the bike. As always I tend to look at images of bikes for sale with rose tinted lenses as they say. It was last registered in 1985 and while the owner said it was started 15 years ago, yet I wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been run since '85, looks like it was parked outdoors since then too. A lot of rust for a California bike, but it's all relative, nothing too bad, but the sun fade has the tank white on top.

The rear rack wasn't standard and is pretty hard to come by, so that's a nice addition. Not sure if I'll leave it on or transfer to the red TS185 that I plan to keep as a stablemate with the CT2.







The rubber tank strap looks like it was still in place when the bike was parked, and rotted some time in the last 34 years.


Tank smells horrible due to the old gas, has some light spot rust inside, petcock is useless, carb will come off for a rebuild. It has compression. New tires, tubes, brakes, battery, seat cover, and fork seals needed. It won't be a full restore, just looking to get her up and running, looking decent and then out the door to a new owner who will hopefully appreciate it.

Waiting on parts so it’s been cleaning time. I’ve never worked on such a dirty bike. Weeds were still wrapped around the wheel spokes. It had/has an oil leak somewhere (banjo for oil to cylinder was a little loose) and the transmission was covered in oil and dirt. Maybe five hours of elbow grease and repainted the exhaust, she is already looking better.