So when we last left our hero he had 2 days to turn around a carb from a broken emulsion tube holder in carb #4. Fortunatly I had a set of the correct 064A carbs on the shelf so I set to work.
I post this pic because....

When we talk about old carbs we always mention "varnish" and I don't know if some of the youngins working on old bikes have ever seen real fuel varnish. Well here it is. See that shiny lacquer like tecture on the side of the float? see how it looks like clear coat? that's varnish. It actually looks like wood varnish. normally that float would be a flat black rubber texture. That gray stuff on the bottom of the float (toward the top of the pic), that is old fuel turning into varnish mixed with the remnants of the additives in the fuel left behind. IT had the consistency of oatmeal.
Anyway, I managed to get the carbs turned around in a day and a half, mostly staying up late and working on it. I had 3 &4 done by Thursday night and most of the rack assembled by friday. On Saturday morning I was reassembling carb #1, putting it on the bike and tuning it. I got up at 5am to do that and the bike was singing by 9:30.
One of the reasons I think this set was so much more workable was this unique quirk to the 75-76 F series carbs:

yes, honda put a mini filter on the top of the float needle seat so the float needle can't jam with debris and hang open. neat right?
Anyway for reference this was the old plug under the 120 jetting:
and the same plug after I put in the 105 jets and all the factory specs and went on a 30 minute ride:
With the correct jets, emlusion tubes, needle shape, etc...all the carb problems seemed to clear right up. The bike was strong everywhere, except when dead cold because it's carbed afterall. I rode it for a good while looking for any issues I could find. It still needed some dialing in, the cables had the idle set at 1500 when it should have been closer to 1100-1200, and the clutch cable should be replaced in the future, but otherwise it was a punchy fast bike and behaving just like it should.
My only disappointment is it took me so long to figure out what the problem really was that I didn't get more than maybe 45 minutes of riding the bike as it should perform. It was really delivering toward the end there.
So it should come as no surprise to those reading that TheCheif86 bought the bike. Actually, his brother bought the bike. Both rode it before they had a chance to commit and both commented how much they loved the way it rode. It did have some minor tasks left that need cleaning up but, biggest being the rear brake, but otherwise it was ready to be ridden while the new owner worked on it which is what he wanted. Everybody was happy: I got my asking price, the new owner felt like he got a deal, and Eric (cheif) got to ride my ducati and is now apparently obsessed with them.
here is everybody looking happy (from left to right: Eric (theCheif86), The new owner, and Me with my gay ass scarf).
goodbye old friend, maybe we will meet again:
To be continued with my philosophical ramblings on various topics, and hopefully a discussion of the next project.