As I sit here outside the Cumby’s waiting for the truck to come pick my motorcycle and me up, I’ve had (have) plenty of time to think about my first spill on the motorcycle.

I had just stopped for gas at the Cumby’s and wad going to take a right out of the parking lot to then take an immediate left out at the traffic light. At the exit to the gas station a large suv was making a left partially blocking my line of sight. I inched forward and saw a line of traffic. So I waited until I saw an opening. A suv was coming. But I had room so I went. I was going to immediately take the left as the light was turning yellow.

But.

But there was a truck coming thru the yellow light going straight. Straight at me. So I tried to swerve out of the way but was already in my turn and the bike and I couldn’t handle it. Over onto our left hand side we went. My left leg was pinned under the bike as we slid closer and closer to the on coming truck.

Luckily we managed to avoid the oncoming truck but it was close. The truck’s tires were about a foot from me. The truck slowed down and stopped, but I had slid two more feet over we’d be in a lot worse shape.

I try not to think about if I had kept going. The truck was coming and not stopping. Ouch.

After I came to a stop, I managed to get my left lower leg and foot out from under the bike. People were getting out if their cars. Some lady help me right the bike. Someone else handed me the left mirror which had come off. They both pushed it to the side of the road.

***

The above was written on Thursday, July 22 while I was waiting for the truck to come pick up the bike.

The bike now runs, and myself and it both have some minor dents and dings. My bruises and road rash will heal, the bike’s will be fixed and lessons were learned.

Those lessons? Don’t take unnecessary risks. Carry some tools on your bike (I’m getting a pouch to put on the front of the fork / handlebars).  And while it was scary, it wasn’t life ending. Just keep your shit together, and do what you need to do to carry on. I was just glad not to be hit by the truck, and that my first spill happened so close to home – and not on my trip to Vermont the previous weekend.

So this weekend was my first long trip, about 200 miles there, 250 miles back (yes, we took the long way back) on the motorcycle. My dad rode his 198something (1986?) Honda Shadow 1100cc up to my place, then we took the bikes and went to lunch. After a tasty meal, we were on our way – up along the coast for the ride there, I figured Boston at 2pm on a Friday afternoon wouldn’t be that busy. So we took I93 though Boston instead of the longer I95/Rte 128 around.

As soon as we were within sight of the Boston skyline, the traffic slowed down. I had to keep my hand over the clutch and front brake levers the entire time.  While we never did stop going through Boston, we were going so slow that I wish we had stopped – it would’ve given my hands a break. The weather was sunny and warm. High 80s / low 90s and crawling along with traffic through Boston in full gear I started to envy the four wheelers with their windows closed and air conditioning blasting cold air at them.

But as soon as we passed though the tunnel and emerged by the Garden, the pace started to pick back up, and we zipped along again. Until we were a few miles from the Massachusetts / New Hampshire border. Signs stated there was an accident in New Hampshire between exits 1 & 2. Traffic was crawling along, and then stopped. It didn’t stop for long, as we’d start to go for a couple car lengths and then stop again. My dad pulled up beside me, his leather coat was fully unzipped and we started chatting. We’d split the lanes if it stopped for longer, but as it was, the four wheelers continued to weave between lanes – thinking they were picking up distance when in reality all they were doing was giving up one slow lane for another slow lane. No one was moving anywhere quick.

Eventually we got to exit 1, and just like that, traffic started to move again. No accident spotted, nothing. But we were glad just to be moving again – let the natural air conditioning do its thing to keep us cool. Surprisingly my hands and tookus did not hurt yet and I still was comfortable on the bike. We passed through the I93 toll both with no problems. We had our ezpasses attached to the front of the bike in these handy mesh holders: a lot cheaper then all the other fancy holders for the ezpass, and a lot easier to attach to the bike. And you could basically put it wherever you could fit it on the bike, unlike the other holders I saw which only would affix to the handlebars. If you look at the picture below, you’ll be able to see the holder in the center of the handlebars.

We stopped for gas where I93 meets I89, after a drink and a bathroom break we were back on our way. Once we got off I89 in Vermont we hit some off again on again rain. And then the rain stayed on. We pulled over after what my Dad thought was too long – but we were almost there! – and put on our rain gear. When I packed my rucksack, I had wrapped everything up in plastic bags of some sort (store bags, garbage bags and ziplock bags) just in case we hit rain. In my jacket I kept my phone and wallet, each in a zip lock bag. Plus I had my riding boots on, which are waterproof. So other then my pants and shirt getting a bit wet, I was doing fine in the rain.

The ride up the dirt road that the house is on was fun. . .The dirt and loose gravel wasn’t that bad, but the wash-boarding that went on around this one 90° corner almost took me and the bike out – I had to give it throttle get up around the corner, but at the same time not give it too much as the bike was bouncing up and down like a kid on a trampoline.  At the house there was no pavement, so I took out a piece of metal I keep for such occasions and put it under my kickstand, we had made it!

The ride home was a lot better – less traffic, no accidents / construction work / traffic jams, and sunny the entire way. It was cool for the first hour or so, then it started to get hot. As long as we kept going though, it wasn’t that bad. We went the long way home, heading down I89 to I91 and then jumping off onto Massachusetts route 2 to I495. When we got onto Route 2, I started looking for gas stations as I was at 120 miles and I needed fuel – and to fill the gas tank on the bike. We found a gas station and filled the bikes up and then  pulled to the side. We grabbed what my Dad claims is essential pit stop food: snickers. We got some soda and a snickers and took a break in the shade. This place appeared to be the place for bikers to stop on their traveling of route 2: in the shade with us were a group of 5 sport bike riders, and off to the other side were 3 Harleys and more bikes kept pulling in and gassing up as we sat there.

Soon enough we were back on our way, and at the I495 / I95 interchange my Dad pulled in to the right hand lane and we waved good-bye as he headed south while I continued east. It was a fun trip, and the new seat I had gotten for my bike definitely made it possible.  I got a Mustang seat on word of mouth from other motorcyclists, and they were right. Sure I needed to get up and stretch every so often – but I also needed to get gas every 120 miles. The stretching was needed prolly due more to the configuration of the bike more then anything. I have no forward highway pegs so my legs are in the same position for a while. Unlike in a car where you can shift around if you need. I can move and change my position slightly, but the stretching is needed.

Though the one thing I knew beforehand: without curves and hills, highways are boring as shit. The straight and flat quickly become monotonous, and I would begin to daydream.  But I had to keep focused on the road and what I was doing. Taking the “back roads”, like a little two lane road with minimal stop lights (none would be perfect), with a speed limit of 50 – 60, with curves and some inclines, would make the ride even more enjoyable. Luckily in Vermont and New Hampshire there were some good hills and curves, but not as many as I’d like.

But would I go for another long ride on the motorcycle? Sure!

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything about my motorcycle in this blog – last July 25th to be exact when I talked about having the fuel system flushed out. Not that nothing has been happening with the motorcycle - I kept the motorcycle out all winter – taking it for a ride whenever the temperature was above freezing and the roads were dry.  It wasn’t many times, but I still managed to get a few rides in even during the December - February months and then progressively more as spring came along.

Recently I had the chain tighten twice in three weeks, and even then it was thumping around making tons of noise, a nice clunk clunk clunk when I accelerated. So I had the chain replaced. Then a week or so later, the low beam of the headlight went out. Then the high beam went out so I went to the dealership to get a new headlight. I replaced it yesterday after 100 miles of riding.

What a pain in the ass replacing the headlight. The engineer or engineering team should have to individually replace the headlight on the 2003 Honda Shadow Spirit over and over and over again for at least 50 times. See how much they enjoy that irritating chore.  The last time I replaced it was September 3rd, 2008. Hopefully I won’t have to replace it for another two years.

Two years. About 10K miles. I passed the 30K mile mark a month back or so. I didn’t even notice it until I pressed the button to check the mileage when taking the bike to the dealership for the chain and found it at about 30,200 some miles.  So since I got the bike in July 2007 – less then 3 years – I’ve put 20K+ miles on it.  Good times. Yes, good times.

So a couple weeks ago my motorcycle started running like crap. It had almost zero accelation from a stop, it would backfire when I would deaccelerate and it just basically had no pep. I thought it was a fuel system problem. I ran it until the gas tank was near empty (it still had the reserve section though), and then put some fuel system cleaner in it, then filled the rest of the way up with gasoline.

I rode the motorcycle for another 50+ miles, but it didn’t make a lick of difference. So I brought it into the dealer for service – I figure let them be the ones to clean out the carbs and the fuel system, I’ve done it before on my Kawasaki and it wasn’t particularly that fun. When I take it in I tell the guy what has been going on with it, and he says they’ll take a look at it. When I talk to him the next day: yuppers, fuel system needs cleaning: 4 hours of labor.

Now I’m starting to wonder why the fuel system needs cleaning. The bike started right up after the winter and didn’t give me any major issues until it started acting up. So when I went in to the shop today to pick it up, the guy at the service desk stated it had to do with the ethanol fuel system. He asked me how often I ride.

Hahahahaha!

Every chance I get and even some times when I shouldn’t. He didn’t explain the chemical reactions, but just stated that the ethanol will turn into a white powder similar to the corrosion on aluminum. He stated that when it gets into the carbs it is more difficult to remove then just “bad gas” fouling. The best thing to do is to keep the fuel level up in the bike, ride it consistently, use low octane gas and put some fuel stabilizer in it if the bike will be sitting for more then a week.

Searching about the internets for more information, there wasn’t anything that technical about what the ethanol actual does to the fuel and to any water in the fuel. I saw one report that stated the ethanol will react with the water, making the gasoline slightly acidic. I’ve seen reports that state older bikes might have compatibility issues with fuel system components and the new ethanol blend – but my bike is an 2003, so that shouldn’t be an issue.  Other reports claim that since ethanol is slightly basic that it will attract water, which could cause other corrosion problems in the fuel system. No definitive studies, and it would appear that there isn’t one root cause to why ethanol is a problem for my motorcycle engine, but a combination of factors that caused the problem.

But the bike is running great now, with the pep and vigor it had before.

See this NY Times article for a bit more info on 10% ethanol / 90% gasoline blend.

For motorcycle riding! I’ve been getting the itch – well, the entire winter, but it was easier when there weren’t that many bikes on the road. In March there a few more bikes on the road. . .I’d see them and feel the itch to be riding my own. So I asked my brother if it’d be okay to come over this weekend and get the bike from his garage.

Getting the battery back in was the biggest pain in the ass. Again. Whoever the engineer is who designed that battery compartment should be made to take the battery in and out and hook it up a couple times. The engineer who designed the tire stem for the rear tire must have tried to fill up a rear tire on a bike before – because the one on the Shadow is bent at a 90 degree to make it easier to put air in it. I guess these two engineers never spoke to each other.

There is almost no room to put this battery, and no easy way to take it out. So before I put it back in this time, I wrapped a ribbon around it so I could pull it out later. Lucky I did that because we had to take it out a couple times. I put it in once, but when I tried to put the positive connector on, the screw wouldn’t go in because the nut had fallen out of place and was lying on its side. We couldn’t get the nut to roll back over unless we took it out – we could barely fit in a small flathead screw driver or even the dentist pick like tool my brother had, but we couldn’t maneuver them to straighten the nut out. Even when we took it out, rolled the nut back over, there was no way to keep the nut from falling back over. So we put the screw in it to keep the nut in the right position, and then my brother reached the dentist’s pick tool to hold the nut upright while I put the screw in. What a pain in the tookus.

It took us longer to get the battery in and hooked up then it did  to actually start the bike.

My brother had charged the battery, so the light came on when I turned the ignition on. When I went to crank her on though she wouldn’t turn over. So we brought her out of the garage, took off the air filter cover, and while I tried to start her, my brother sprayed starter fluid in the air filter.

Presto! She started right up.  The drive home was just over 35 miles of mostly highway.  Going 75 down the highway is always a fun time, but I like some back twisty roads too. . .so after I got home, I had something to drink and took a nap. I was awoken 20 minutes into my nap by the sound of a bike starting. It was the Harley I saw parked right out front. I got up to look who it was and decided that looked like fun.

Ten minutes later I was on my bike headed down the road. And what was supposed to be a 10 minute trip to get something to eat turned into a 40 mile trip through some back roads, some curves and a thrill a minute.

Now there is some storm coming in from the west, so my chances of riding tomorrow are slim. . .but now, and for the rest of riding season, I’ll start praying to the rain gods – to allow me dry passage during my rides.

I drive about 15 miles to work in the morning (the evening commute could be longer if I’m on the motorcycle). Luckily for me, I only have about 2 minutes of highway driving, the rest of it is back roads through scenic Massachusetts. Some days there is fog, and it hangs in the low areas:

While it is pretty if I’m in the car, on the motorcycle it can be a little wet. Though on the motorcycle, it even furthers the illusion of flying as I’m completely surround by this white damp cloud with the occassional brush or car headlight poking through it.  So even though my goggles get a big misty, and if I’m not wearing gloves my hands get wet, on the motorcycle a ride through the fog is fun. (Though a bit dangerous, as it makes it even harder for four wheelers to see me. . .)

What is even better on the motorcycle commutes is the fall colors. An explosion of color. Seeing it in the car is one thing:

but being surrounded by it on the motorcycle is another experience all together.

So I woke up this morning and it was still dark and I could hear the rain coming down even over the white noise of the AC.  I rolled over and went back to sleep. Normally I’d love sleeping to the sound of the rain, but I just hoped it finished by the time I had to go to work this morning.

It didn’t. When I woke up this morning, it was still raining. And pretty hard out. I got ready for work and waited for this mass of yellow to pass over head:

I could tell when it had passed over, as the rain went from torrential down pour to a drizzle. I put on my rain gear: top and bottom, packed an extra pair of socks and shoes into my back back and headed off.

And thank goodness I had gotten that plastic face shield at the Honda dealership this week! That thing made all the difference. The rain picked up a bit and got heaver, but I didn’t even notice it as my face shield protected me. Previously, riding in the rain, my biggest problem was seeing. I couldn’t see too well as the rain would not only hitting my goggles,  but getting under and over the sides of my goggles (which are more like wrap around sunglasses actually). Getting rain in your eyes at 40 mph isn’t recommended while you’re trying to ride a motorcycle.

With the face shield? I could see perfectly. I hadn’t even had the time to get that rain dance stuff that makes the rain just bead up and run off. But didn’t really need it. I even got splashed in the face by some truck hitting a puddle. Didn’t even faze me.

After work the rain had stopped, the sun was poking out and the roads were drying off. I just had to navigate my way home thru the extra crap on the road, i.e. the sand in the corner by the cranberry bog, the downed tree branch, etc.  Now I just have to wait for the hurricane. . .uhh, tropical storm to pass over head before I can go for another ride.

So I was out on the bike a couple weeks ago and noticed the low beam of my head light wasn’t working. So I switched on the high beam, which was still working, and went on my merry way. I made a mental note to get a new headlight, just the bulb that is as the rest was fine.

I went about my business and was thinking about ordering one online so I could get a couple other motorcycle related things I was thinking of: i.e. new goggles as my current ones are  a bit scratched, a clear visor for rainy day riding, etc. As I was thinking of that on the way home today I looked into the shiny bumper of the SUV ahead of me at the stop light and realized my head light was out.

I thought to myself: why did I switch the high beam off. Looking at my headlight switch I saw it was on high beam. Shit! I tried switching it back and forth to no avail – my light was totally out. That forced my hand. I had to go get a new light bulb. Off to the Honda dealership with me.

When I got there, the place was busy, but not so busy that I had to wait in line. I got my light bulb and a visor and paid for my items. I didn’t want to look for the goggles there, as there were many different kinds and I could get caught up in buying some cool looking but yet over priced ones. I took off the short sun visor on my helmet and put on the larger face shield. The sun shield, goggles and bulb all went in the back pack and I was off.

The face shield felt a bit. . .different. I could feel the breeze coming up and under the shield and touching my eyes. It wasn’t enough to make them water, but just tickled them.

At home I brought my gear upstairs and grabbed my owner’s manual to look up what tools and how to replace the light bulb. No luck. There was nothing of use in the owner’s manual. So I found directions online, which seemed small enough to take up only one page in the manual, but I guess Honda didn’t think it warranted inclusion in it. The directions only stated for a 8 mm wench, but I grabbed my 10 and 12 mm ones and a flat head screwdriver as well. Better prepared then walk up and down the stairs again.

Getting the bolts out wasn’t too bad, and then I just popped out the head light from the housing. The rubber gasket came off easily. Looking at the bulb in the unit, there was some wire thing holding it in, which was easy enough to pop out, and then the bulb came out. Unlike the Mustang bulb, this bulb was one directional and pretty self explanatory for which way it was supposed to go into the housing. I tested the bulb to make sure, and yup, it worked on both high and low beams. I put things back the way I found them and tried to screw in the bolts.

What a pain in the ass that was. Inconveniently placed with not only very little room to get my fingers in there, but hard to twist around and get to, and to top it off the bolts are pretty small to make handling even more of a pain. After 10 minutes I finally got the bolts back in.

So seems like the Ford engineers and the Honda engineers should get together and put together the best of each other’s designs and toss the shit that is just bothersome.

I actually lost track so I don’t know.

I woke up at the spit of dawn again today. Drank my morning coffee, checked email and was off on the motorcycle to get the Sunday newspaper. That was a short 1/2 mile ride to the local gas station to pick it up. As I was putting my helmet back on, I saw this guy on a small bike that had to have been a mini bike it was so tiny. But who is out at 8am on a Sunday on a mini bike? I didn’t think much else of it as I was thinking of taking the long way home.

As soon as I turned to take said long way home, there was the little bike parked in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot, the owner just having taken off his gear was headed inside.  I pulled in and said that I saw him go by and I was wondering what type of bike it was. The owner was quite nice and hung around for a few minutes answering my questions. Turns out the bike is a 1965 Honda 150, the first bike Honda imported to the States and precursor to my Shadow. The 150 did indeed stand for 150 cc and it was a twin. I thought it was just a kick start, but the owner pointed out the electric starter and actually started for me. And the bike purred like a kitten and yet when he twisted the throttle back it had a lot of growl for such a small bike. He said she was all original, and she looked great for her 43 years:

The owner stated that he had just taken it last week up to a classic Japanese bike meet and the little 150 did just fine cruising along at 50 mph, and when he had a long stretch of down hill open with no other cars he got it up to 60 mph. I can only imagine how that felt – I managed to get the ole Kawa 400 up to 70 going downhill with the throttle full open and that bike was screaming along. . .I can only imagine how that 150 felt like. Yoinks!

I continued on my journey, as it was a beautiful sunny morning and the four wheeling traffic was at a minimum. I made it down around Kingston and looked down – 19,998 miles! I pulled over in the mall and drove around the parking lot until I hit that 19,999 mark:

I continued my way around the mall parking lot and by the time I got around to the front, the bike hit 20K miles.

I headed back home, as my belly was starting to growl ~ I was going on one cup of coffee. When I got home, my ride was about 50 miles and over an hour long. Good times. I had toasted a bagel, made another cup of coffee and sat down to upload the pictures above when I heard a motorcycle outside my window. It totally freaked out the cat, who jumped on the top of sofa, looking at the open window with the mistrust of an animal who thinks something is about to come thru it: eyes narrowed and ears back.

Looking out the window, I saw my Dad on his bike. He wanted to know if I’d want to take a bike ride (ha!) to a town on the coast to go to a car show. Sure I said. He came in while I finished my bagel and I told him about hitting 20K on the bike. He smiled and said he just hit 9K on his. And I said, again! As his bike’s odometer has rolled over so many times you’d think he was a pimp.

When we got to where we were going, we parked the bikes in the shade and made our way in:

There were a lot of cool looking cars, and we walked around for quite a bit, only stopping to get a quick bite for lunch. The ride there and back was just as much fun as looking at the cars ~ the roads were little 2 lane roads, plenty of curves and some beautiful scenery, for a couple miles we drove by this ocean wall with the small of the ocean’s salt water tickling my nostrils and the view almost distracting me from riding the bike. And it was fun to be in the lead, with my Dad on his bike right in my small round mirror, and have a bunch of bikers pass us in the other direction, and we both give them “the wave.”

All in all, I prolly put over 100 miles on the bike today – and I wondered how the bike hit 20K when just last year (June 30th) the bike hit 10K.  And tomorrow I’ll be going out again, early in the morning, for some early morning riding.

Of a huge thunder storm!

Yes, that is the radar image from weather.com of my ride home.

I looked at the map before I left work and decided to take the southern way home, about 5 miles south of my usual route, as to avoid any stray rain showers from that mass of red, yellow and green. Driving along the road I’d look north and see a very dark cloud, almost black, and I’d look south and see sunshine and blue sky.

I had to get off that road and turn north eventually. About 5 minutes after heading north, I noticed the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. At least it felt like it dropped by 10 degrees as it got very chilly very quickly.

When I turned and headed back in my intial direction, the dark clouds were still north of me, the roads were still dry and not a drop of rain to be seen. Though when I got to my town, the roads were wet, it looked like I just missed a shower – which I had seen on the map before I left work, I actually saw some showers on the northern route home which is why I avoided it.

So when weather.com at first predicted 80% chance of rain yesterday for today, and then later 60% chance, I got nothing. Thank you weather gods!