Ahhh... well, BC and I (after much delay) finally picked up his motorcycle. This was last Monday (Columbus Day). We tinkered with it in his garage for the afternoon that day, trying to get it up and running - not that I was at all much help other than saying occasionally, "is this important? How about this?" Yeah, not much help. The battery was dead, obviously, as the bike hadn't been ridden in a year (and sat idle for 2 years before that, even)and there was a leak at the fuel valve. But other than that, the bike was in relatively good shape - we already knew it needed a new cap for the gas tank, as the one on it wasn't the proper one. The carburetor was actually fine... Once the battery was charged, the bike started up. The battery would not hold the charge, however, so there would be no test drive that day. Sigh.
BC informed me on the following Wednesday, after replacing the battery, he took the bike for a 30 mile ride. Other than a sluggish start - the choke needed to be on until the bike was warmed up - the ride was really smooth. YAY! Happy happy for me... so when is it my turn? Well, that came this past Saturday. I was really excited and slightly nervous, of course, as this would really only be my third time controlling a motorcycle, and I didn't want to make too much of a fool of myself... famous last words.
I was surprisingly able to pull out of the driveway without stalling out. BC was surprised to, since I just pulled away and took off down the block. Well, that's where it pretty much ended, at least for this first round. I had stopped at the STOP sign, but when I tried to get going again, I stalled out. Damn... Start up, try to go, stall out... Crap... Start up, move an inch, stall out... F*ck!... Start up, move a little, try to turn the corner, stall... AHHH!!! The bike is dropping!!! Well, I ended up on the soft grass, embarrassed, bike on the ground, fuel cascading out of the tank. BC got over there as quickly as he could and got the bike up, but there was not enough gas left in the tank to ride it around. We would have to take it back to the house, refill the tank, and try again later...
We got the bike to the house, filled it with the little gas left in the canister, went to the gas station and filled-up the bike, and BC took me out for a ride on the bike to show me how well the bike actually performs - I obviously couldn't tell from my short ride down the block. For a bike that really hasn't been ridden in about 3 years, it performed really well. Great acceleration, good breaks, shifts well, and we figured out that it's a 6 gear bike (the little OD (overdrive) light came on in 6th). Cool. Well, when we got back from our little ride, BC pulled in almost into the garage:
"Is this a hint that I'm done for the day? Or am I getting a time-out?"
"Yeah... go to the corner and think about what you did..."
Lucky for me, BC is very forgiving, and we tried it again later. My problem was that I was not coordinating the clutch release with the throttle very well from a stop. And I still have problems with it. So I stalled out at about every other STOP sign, but I would generally be able to get the bike going on the second attempt. My turns are pretty wide and I think that's just my nervousness at how much bigger this bike is from the one I learned on - 500cc versus 250cc (BC laughs at this since, to him, 500cc is really small), and I'm a little timid, for now, about leaning into the turn. As I get used to the bike, I know this will change - it did while I was learning to ride over the course of the weekend. I off-roaded a little on someone's lawn because of a wide turn... not very graceful, and I tried really hard to get off as quickly as possible. But all in all, it wasn't bad. I wasn't burning it up at all - I only got up to 3rd gear and about 25-30mph max. A little more practice is a necessity.
The gas cap hasn't yet been ordered - yesterday was pretty busy. But it shall be ordered today and will hopefully be installed before my next ride. I have the itch and I have it bad. As silly as I looked on the ground after dropping the bike, I can deal with this short term embarrassment for the potential long term benefits... I want to ride again and I want to ride longer and faster. And I will do what it takes to get there.
Update: The gas cap has been ordered and will be here next week. Oh, happy day.
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