Ok, first off, yes, I've been absent. Been too depressed to visit motorcycle sites, and too darn busy.
Let's see, backtrack a bit. March 2014 I left my job, the job that had plenty of free time with me sitting in front of a computer. Gone were my days of getting paid to post but I was on track for bigger and better things. Bike crapped the bed in June, and sometime after that I realized that I hated the job I'd gone to and started looking again. Loved the company, hated the work I was doing. Found me a gig in October, contract to hire. The hire part is taking longer than I'd expected. Kid started school, I've been coaching soccer, life's been busy. I also was broke but that's gotten better, getting paid more and wife is working again.
So the bike sits. It sits because I have neither the time nor the money to deal with it. I'm fearing I'll take it in to the shop and they'll tell me something like "Yea, AE computer is fried, pay us $1700 and we can fix it." I figured I'd wait till I have the $$$ for worst case scenario and then haul it in hoping it'll be something cheap. I just know if I tried to play that game the other way around I'd be screwed. Then tack on a winter full of ice storms for Dallas and a super wet spring and you could say my motivation to get her fixed has been low.
But...I was doing stuff on the side. I figured if I haul it to the shop, they are going to tell me it needs a new clutch. We've discussed this...I can do this myself. I figure, pony up the cash and change it out, then take it in. Ordered parts as I had money and finally had enough to rebuild the clutch. I figured, I perhaps with my mechanical history that I should bring in some help that's more qualified for the job. Of course, changing a clutch is easy...how easy? So easy a six year old can do it.
Yea, I stuffed the Jesus hole full of paper towels before we started. Since I'd already been through this, and had been inspired by a friend on another forum who's five year old changed the clutch springs on his TLS, we could handle this. Good time spent with the kiddo, he learned some stuff, and we had fun. I helped with proper torquing and was constantly giving directions. His little fingers did come in pretty handy though. So there, at six years old, my kid has rebuilt a motorcycle clutch, while the rest of his class probably was eating paste.
I tried programming the sensor again to no avail. Won't start. Time to suck it up and haul it in. It's a sad sight to see an FJR on a trailer when you aren't hauling it to the mountains.
Dropped the bike off on Saturday. Sweet black 2015 FJR sitting on the showroom. I look at it. Redfish Hunter, it looks damn good without scratches on the side.
I fill in the tech with the history and what I've done and tell him I just want it running again. I figure I won't hear from them for a while. Meh, I've waited this long. Thursday after dropping it off I get a call. Stomach in knots I call them back. Converstation goes like this.
Tech: "Yea, the gas in this thing is nasty, has it been sitting for a while"
Me: "Yea, it has."
Tech: "You probably want to get some fresh gas in it, and maybe an oil change...have you ever had the valves checked?"
Me: "Yep, all on the list. Last time I checked the valves, they were in spec, but I'm about due to check them again."
***C'mon, what's wrong with my bike man?
Tech: "Well, the bike had a tip over sensor error. That's why it wouldn't start."
Me: "That's odd, it's not been on it's side since the last time it was running. And I've checked and cleared the codes and it didn't have a TOS error logged."
Tech: "Well, it's got scratches on the side of the bike showing it's been down."
***Head explodes. Yea, bike's been down once. Set down gently when some idiot ran a stop sign in front of me. No big noticeable scratches, and the ones it does have are on the side bags that weren't on the bike when I dropped it off. WTF? Did they drop my bike?
Me: "So wait, you are saying it's running?"
Tech: "Yea, it was hard to get it started having sat for so long but we got it running and shifting through the gears."
Me: "So you were able to program the sensor?"
Tech: "Oh, it doesn't need programming, it's self programming."
Me: "That's not what the factory service manual says."
Tech: "I dunno, it's working though, shifting fine."
Me: "I'll be by Saturday morning."
Ok, so WTF? Did the shop drop my bike and go through the work to get it going in an effort to make me happy and forget about them dropping it? It is kind of working cuz I'm pretty happy. Or...do they have my bike confused with another one in the shop? I tell my wife about this and she blows a gasket and I have to talk her down from going psycho and running down to the dealership to maim people.
Saturday comes and I load hook up the trailer and head into town. I've been doing a lot of thinking about trading the bike for a new one. It's a perplexing situation. If the bike doesn't run, it's not worth much to trade. If it does run, I'd just rather have it and ride the piss out of it. Still, that unscratched black 2015 was pretty sweet. Maybe I'll just say "Hey, my bike is running, pull it around and trade it in on that black one."
Thank goodness the black one was no longer on the showroom floor.
Tech wheeled out MY bike, fired her up and showed me him shifting through the gears. I looked and there's no new scratches on it. Paid the 1 hour shop fee for diagnostics of $105 and took my baby home. I call that one a win.
I'd left off the plastic parts I'd already removed so they wouldn't have to go removing them. Took me a bit to find all the bolts and pieces I'd removed months ago and get them put back on as there was time during the week. Finished up today, took her for a test ride being careful because my tag was expired. I made me an alibi by riding directly to the inspection facility the next town over and getting her inspected (required before I can renew my tag anyway). Good blast on the back roads and some freeway, all appears good, except I've nearly forgotten how to ride a bike again.
Anyway, hopefully my gremlins and bad luck are behind me and I can get back to riding again. It felt good and the grin is still on my face.
Of course, how the eff did that TOS error get in there? Wonder if anything I've done during the troubleshooting might have electronically tripped it or something. I dunno, it's a mystery.
