I had made plans to ride with a couple of gals today to the Nekoosa area, but in preparation for it remembered last Saturday my bike really didn’t want to start. My battery is only 2 years old and I keep it plugged into a tender almost all of the time, so this puzzled me. And even though it started just fine the following day, Sunday, I figured I best try starting it the night before to avoid any issues the morning of our ride.
Well, the evening prior (Friday) she didn’t want to turn over without a lot of effort and after she did I could tell she wanted to die. So, I had the choke wide open and was even giving it more throttle to hopefully avoid her shutting down. That did not work which left me to decide to pull the battery early the next morning; the day of our ride.
When I commenced to my garage to pull the battery I was presented with a good sized oil leak under the engine. This really puzzled and scared me, but I still pulled the battery and took it to Batteries Plus. A former co-worker from G&L was working there and we ran it on the meter… fully charged. Even more puzzled I headed straight to my cousin’s shop, Dave’s Engine Service. He too checked the battery and told me to go home, see if she starts and if she does get her there without letting it sit and idle.
When I got home there was still very dense pea-soup fog and I knew at this point my ride wouldn’t happen no matter what. So, I decided to wait to try it again during the week. I still put the battery back in and checked she was getting good juice, and she was.
The following Monday, Sept 26 I decided to try after work and placed my phone on the shelf in my garage to record it for my cousin, Steve. Since last Saturday it had leaked a little more oil, but not nearly as much as that first night. She wouldn’t turn over even though I could tell she was getting a full charge, and this time I did not push it. I headed straight to the shop to show Steve the video and he was concerned I may have blown the engine, but obviously wouldn’t know until he got his hands on it.
The next day, Tuesday, after work he came and picked it up. That Thursday morning he called me and explained one of the floats on my carburetor broke and gas was leaking into my engine mixing with the oil, which is why she wouldn’t turn over… too tight! This at least meant my engine wasn’t ruined, but would need to be flushed a couple of times. Whew!!! This explained why I noticed the smell of gas in my garage a few days leading up to all of this, but every time I checked around the bike, I couldn’t see anything.
Lucky for me, the weather after this day was either rainy or pretty chilly on the weekends, so I wasn’t too upset about having to wait for the parts. However, I did tell Steve I’d gladly pay the extra money to expedite the shipment.
On October 13 he called me with the good news that she was fixed. So Friday after work I picked her up and got my baby home. A wee bit chilly little ride to get her home, only in the 40s and light rain.
I love this bike so much, but I know I need to look for something else next season for the longer hauls and ability to pack clothing, etc. Although she has close to 63k miles on her, she has never given me any major troubles or should I say too expensive ones.
Can’t wait for the warmer temps next weekend so I can get to Holy Hill area and hopefully see some beautiful fall colors. I am remaining hopeful this area will still have some, since we’ve had some pretty hard frosts lately, I am also hoping the leaves don’t drop too quickly. Fingers crossed!
Although this does mean no trip to Door County this season.
