Goose & Whit's Wild Ride

mile 6855

Since I didn't see anything particularly interesting on my way to Selena, KS today, I figured I'd fill you in on the current state of my motorcycle. The bike has had ongoing issues for the past week with the fuel/air mixture, creating a sort of gurgling, bogging-down sensation that has at best been a minor nuisance and at worst (in hot weather, for some reason) been a collossal pain in the arse, forcing me to rev the bike up a lot just to get it to accelerate with traffic. Fortunately, that issue seems to have subsided somewhat over the past couple of days (possibly an elevation effect), but only to make way for a new problem: my chain is essentially dead.

Either because I haven't been lubricating it frequently enough or just because of old age, it has stretched a great deal, the result being that it bounces and jerks around while I'm moving slowly and creates an embarrassing clattering sound. It can't be fixed right now - I'd have to wait for it to ship to a mechanic, which would take at least four days, and I should be in SF by Monday evening anyway. So the clattering will continue.

And there's an old and growing problem with the exhaust system that limits my bike to about 10000 RPMs at all times. And for the past three mornings I've also had to crank the damned thing for a few minutes before it will start, and I worry about the battery holding up. Oh, and did I mention only one of my two front brakes is functioning? Yeah, somehow one of the rotors got warped (this almost never happens), so I had to get the last mechanic that worked on the bike disconnect one of the calipers. It's not a huge deal because I can still brake fairly quickly (quicker than most cars would be able to), but I certainly don't have the braking power I ought to.

So basically I expect to roll into my driveway with smoke pouring out of the pipes and fluids dripping from the engine, with holes in the pastic and two flat tires. The bike will backfire loudly a couple of times after I dismount, then collapse in a pile of steaming motorcycle carcass.