Hey. Sorry for late reply. Just noticed the thread now. Congrats on having the bike home.
How is the progress?
My only thoughts are what I found to be the basics for the first step check list.
1) Give it a good look over and see what works and what doesn't. What's loose and what's missing or broken? Check the rubber on everything. Like the grommets on the turning signals. Mine were bitched. And need to be replaced I think. Is the gas tank rusty? Mine was and I tried the electrolysis thing and it worked well. You may need to write this shit down as I did. Things were adding up and I wasn't going to remember everything.
2) I drained all fluids. These two bikes of mine were sitting in a garage for over twenty years. The shit coming out of them was nasty. Funky colours and smells.
3) I removed the air filters. I swear they were the originals. The one bike that I'm restoring was from a dude who was original owner. I think he was lazy. I removed the oil filters. Removed spark plugs.
4) I then replaced all of the above mentioned with new and replaced the battery,fuses.
Then tried to start them both up. And both did. And the e-starters actually worked as well. As I was stoked!!
It was all short lived as both bikes had carb issues. I was able to take one bike for a spin around the block first. All gears shifted which was sweet. Every cable stretched to its limit and useless. Made it home safe. It was a fantastic tease as I knew the bike was getting ready for a makeover if you will.
Suffice to say, it was at that point when the dissection of motorcycle began.
That I guess would be considered my basic first step check list.
Cheers