With the purchase of young Zaphod at 20K miles I retired Heart of Gold, cannibalized most of the spiffy after-market parts, and left her to adorn the back of my garage in 2010. She had Nevada clay splooged on her from a SPANK bonus, fork oil from a leaky seal for 3000 miles of those rally miles, and a rather shameful looking bungie holding her ass up where the subframe used to reside.
A little over a month ago the girlfriend passed her motorcycle endorsement test and while I tried to pawn off the V-Strom. After a stop to let her clutch hand recover I made the fatal mistake of letting her try my newer FJR in the parking lot. Three or four Figure-8's later she escaped the confines of the parking lot with a grin on her face and motioned me to follow her home. While she looked good doing it....I quickly became worried what this meant. And it didn't help when she said, "This thing is butter!".
She wasn't going to want to settle on the V-Strom..... :huh:
So, I hastily had to put the bike back together in more-or-less stock trim, slid in a new battery, changed the oil, added some fresh fuel, and kicked over the starter. And what I may have thought was amazing, but actually think it's just because it's such a great bike....she fired up on the first try after 2 seconds of firing time. There was maybe half a cough, but then she quickly settled into a smooth idle like she had just gotten up from an afternoon nap. The only way I could tell it was two years was a slight smell of burning dust from the headers.
A quick ride to the car wash to spray off the nastiest bits, top off the tank, and she's ready for the girlfriend to ride!
And, I know the Old Man wants to go for a ride and isn't quite ready for a sidecar.
Also, pay no attention to that bit of yellow. It's a piece of benign cancer I never got around to transferring to Zaphod. The bike won't get any more yellow than that....I promise.
A little over a month ago the girlfriend passed her motorcycle endorsement test and while I tried to pawn off the V-Strom. After a stop to let her clutch hand recover I made the fatal mistake of letting her try my newer FJR in the parking lot. Three or four Figure-8's later she escaped the confines of the parking lot with a grin on her face and motioned me to follow her home. While she looked good doing it....I quickly became worried what this meant. And it didn't help when she said, "This thing is butter!".
She wasn't going to want to settle on the V-Strom..... :huh:
So, I hastily had to put the bike back together in more-or-less stock trim, slid in a new battery, changed the oil, added some fresh fuel, and kicked over the starter. And what I may have thought was amazing, but actually think it's just because it's such a great bike....she fired up on the first try after 2 seconds of firing time. There was maybe half a cough, but then she quickly settled into a smooth idle like she had just gotten up from an afternoon nap. The only way I could tell it was two years was a slight smell of burning dust from the headers.
A quick ride to the car wash to spray off the nastiest bits, top off the tank, and she's ready for the girlfriend to ride!
And, I know the Old Man wants to go for a ride and isn't quite ready for a sidecar.
Also, pay no attention to that bit of yellow. It's a piece of benign cancer I never got around to transferring to Zaphod. The bike won't get any more yellow than that....I promise.
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