Got all the gauges working again! Mechanically she appears to be very solid. Starts at the touch of the button, idles steadily, pulls smoothly. The guy who had it before me wasn't well enough to ride, but he was a wiz with the mechanicals. Other than a speedo gear housing it was a matter of cleaning it up and tightening a couple of loose electrical connections.
Now that everything it working well and cleaned up I'm putting it all back together again and seeing how the safety goes...