The last two weekends have been adventurous. On my bike I started the preseason service. Changed the oil, plugs, rear drive oil and checked the coolant. All went well with one minor moment. Jeff was working on one side of the bike replacing the plugs while I worked on the other side. It is my practice when servicing the bike to check along the way that all is working so I always have a reference point. Well I had replaced the plugs and asked Jeff "you changed the plugs yet?" "no". "OK, let me fire this up and make sure my side is installed right".

The bike started up and 10 seconds later, went dead. 

The bike started up and 10 seconds later, went dead.

What did I do? Jeff walked around the bike and in a hushed voice said "whoops, my plugs are not plugged in". The bike was firing, but when it needed the other cylinders to fire they would not so the engine shut down.

Interesting fact about the rear drive oil...you have to pump it upwards into the drive. This is accomplished by a $5 oil pump, some hose and 4 hands.

Not sure if it is me, or the service did a lot of good because the bike runs like new. I am sure the new rear tire does not hurt.

This Saturday was a checkout ride. I arrived at Jeff's house. We were going to run around town - the long way to everything - just to make sure all was working and bolted down tight.  I departed first and waited at the stop sign for Jeff to catch up. I could see his driveway in my mirror. After about 5 minutes I saw him get off the bike and take off his helmet.  I doubled back only to hear "I have no clutch".

For some reason the clutch had gone completely. With the limited tools we had we got to the reserve tank and refilled the clutch fluid.  After pumping and pumping we got some resistance in the clutch. Jeff jumped on and road the 5 miles to my house changing gear as little as possible. So much for the check out ride.

Well, we took the clutch apart and found clumps of old oil.  A good clean and new fluids and it was starting to work much better. I have a bleeder which made the job painless. Before long Jeff was test riding his new clutch around the neighborhood.  The fun part was Bruce rode over to offer support and Mike walked over to see what all the fuss was about.  Bikes always draw a crowd even when they are not working.

Sunday afternoon we rode 50 miles to nowhere . All is well and it is time to head to the mountains and get some serious helmet time.

The old with approximately 14,000 miles

 and the new, with approximately 5 miles. Note the difference in shape.