I can’t believe this. The last post about my motorcycle is over three years ago. Three Years. And you know what it’s been doing in that time? Sitting there. Sitting outside. I am a bad, bad owner. And I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Today, I thought I would clean up the bike and maybe take it out for a ride tomorrow. I had taken the bike’s battery out long ago (apparently very long ago) to prevent it from draining and dying (been there, done that). But the battery still has a 95% charge, so I should be good to go. I grabbed some rags and headed out to do some cleaning. The bike is in understandably bad shape, having been left out in the elements for years. I cleaned leaves out of various areas and then I found a hard-stop to my riding plans. The fuel line has rotted and leaked gas out all over the place. Sigh.
As I’m inspecting this issue, my neighbor comes over and asks what’s up. I explain that I was going to try and clean up the bike for a ride and he tells me he’s noticed I haven’t been riding or taking care of my bike in a long time. He wonders if I’m interested in selling it. Apparently, he’s had multiple people ask him what’s up with the motorcycle in the driveway that never moves. We chat a bit more and get talking about the fuel line. My neighbor inspects it closely and says, yeah, it’s pretty much gone, you’ll have to replace that. Should be pretty easy. Then he pulls on the fuel line and finishes the job, breaking it off. Well, I guess I have to fix it now. Thanks.
As this is going on, a kid of one of my other neighbors comes over to see what’s happening. Thankfully, the kid helps me get everything disassembled and disconnected (his dad has a motorcycle, too, so the whole family is handy). I bought a new fuel line and it’s prepped for reinstall. I’m leaving the bike all disassembled for now so I can get into every corner and clean it up. There’s wasp nests all through it – wonderful.
On the topic of selling the bike, I threw out a random number to my neighbor. The number is less than half the price I bought the bike for, which, given its current condition, is probably fair. I don’t exactly want to sell the bike. I love its styling. It’s all paid off, registered and insured for the year, so it’s nice to have available should I want to use it. But I haven’t used it for years. Riding is generally a hassle because of the whole ceremony of getting ready and finishing up. It’s not jumping in a car and leaving.
So, I’ll still attempt my cleaning and reassembly tomorrow. We’ll see how I feel after a short ride as to keeping the bike or not.
As I finish this post, I just realized that the fuel line was only damaged at the one end. I could have trimmed the hose and continued to use it instead doing of all this disassembly and replacement. Maybe it’s for the best the whole fuel line was replaced. Maybe I’m just an idiot.
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