Very Good on Straight

           Our motorcycles have been in storage for several years now as we were living overseas and then traveling around for quite awhile. As we have temporality landed in Houston again, we are attempting to re-learn to ride - well - and trying to get the motorcycles back in good working order. Both prospects have turned into long and unsatisfying projects.

            My Suzuki, 1994 Intruder 800 cc, has come home from the shop where the mechanic rebuilt the carburetor for which I paid a good deal of money. Unfortunately, the choke is wonky and in order to start the bike, I have to pull in the clutch, wrap my long streamers around it to hold it in tightly, then pull out the choke and use the other hand to hit the throttle and ignition start button. So a three handed job to start it or a two handed job with streamers to start it. Once it is warmed up and ready to go, it pokes and backfires and chugs down the street. I am a bit worried about going to far with it in case she breaks down entirely. So I am trying to run out the tank of gas on 10 and 20 mile trips at a time. Not very satisfying. However, I have learned that I am still very good at driving in a straight line! No worries there. Turning corners has become a bit of a challenge again. I can't do any tight corners. Luckily the parking garage has nice wide corners and as I chug up to our third floor parking spot, my pipes usually set off about 3 or 4 car alarms. I love those loud pipes.

            My husband's motorcycle has given us even more grief. His Yamaha V Star Classic 650 cc takes a good 15-20 minutes to warm up before it will even consider being put into first gear and going anywhere. At each stop light and stop sign, it threatens to die or actually does die. So we are trying to run through the gas on it and get an empty tank so we can fill it with a better quality gas. Both of these motorcycles have been in the shop and been given back to us as if all is fine and well. Not the case. It's been quite frustrating plus since I am not the one working, I have the time to go out and chug down the street on a recalcitrant motorcycle. Not the "wind in the hair- hot mama on a bike" image that one hopes to project.

            We will persevere though. I love the bikes and I think I look pretty cool riding one and as that's about the only time I look pretty cool, can't give up on that.