Its alive! No, wait, its not...

That's the Suzuki of course... Hooverdamm! Tonight I put the carburetors back together, after making a fast trip to the motorcycle store to buy a new main jet- to replace the one that twisted off as I tried to install it. Hmph! No matter, I put the carbs together, then put them back on the bike, then the air box, then the gas tank. After supper I bought 3 gallons of fresh gas and dumped it into the tank.

Cross your fingers to see if it runs...

[Make some engine cranking sounds here] Hmm, not starting. Give it a little shot of ether and hurray, its running! Let it warm up in the shop. Everything seems to be good, it idles, revs and sounds pretty good. The turn signal doesn't flash. I knew that but forgot to order one from the Suzuki store.

Anyway, I screw the temporary tag to the back of the bike. Let's get it out of the shop! I backed it out and prepared to take the bike out through the sidewalk and gate beside the house. There's 3 shallow steps going out and a kink in the sidewalk to negotiate. I do it all the time with the scooter and use a 2X8 as a ramp. But the ramp is too short for the bigger (and much heavier) bike and after 3 tries, I can't get out. So, I backed up, struggling with working backwards past the sidewalk kink.

Did I mention the hillside before the sidewalk? And the raised garden? No? Well, there's a hill right there too. And railroad ties that border the garden. I got it stuck. The exhaust pipe was against the railroad ties, I couldn't move backwards and I was on the downhill side of a heavy motorcycle...

I had to lay it down and I couldn't get it back up by myself. I had to get the neighbor, Roger to come and assist. And with his help we got it back on its wheels and down the hill. Now its flooded, dripping that $3 per gallon stuff I just bought into the yard.

I did get it cranked up, eventually and got it moved out of the backyard through the other gate and into the driveway. It seemed to start up and clear out pretty well and after a few minutes I decided it was time for a real road trip to test it out. I got the helmet and jacket and gloves, fitted up and headed up the street. It did pretty good for the first few neighborhood blocks so I decided to head down the road and really give it a try.

Except it got sick headed down the hill just 1/2 mile from home. I pulled into the Smith's parking lot to fuss with it. It would run, it wouldn't run. It sounded very flooded. Eventually I had to park it next to the building, lock it up and call the BSU to come and get me.

Hooverdamm!

I guess today I'll rope my buddy Loc into helping me go get Jim's trailer and rescuing the bike and getting it home. And then I can start over, figuring out what's wrong with it...