I went down to my local Wal-Mart and bought some cheepo 5W-30 and then to the auto parts store for a new Bosch 3330 oil filter...
Drove back home, opened the garage, and just stood there for a while looking at it, admiring the lines of the bike, and reflecting back on the year...
April: First full day trip of the season. Used the GPS for the first time, and learned that when you create way points for a route, you really need to zoom into the map, or you end up going back and fourth and around and around, cause there's just no way to get to that point 100 ft off the actual roadway.
May: Three day trip riding to and around Spring Green WI, traveling gravel roads for the first time, and discovering the lush green hills, the serpentine roads, and the hidden valleys in the surrounding country side. All within a half days ride from my house. I never knew... Definite bash territory.
May: Had a blast taking the Rockster to the track for the first time. Well, it's no CBR1000, but it definitely holds it's own.
May: Buy my wife a 250 Rebel cause she wants to ride. I begin to teach her.
June: The Second Annual Mississippi Mud Run... going to and riding around Trempealeau, WI. I think the bike spent more time in the tripple digits than at the track (well, not really, but it sure felt like that).
July: The five-day 3000 mile trip from CO to CA. Riding CO roads and mountain passes, Utah's vast expanses and mesas, Arizona landscapes that looked like I had landed on the moon, the Grand Canyon, the Mojave, sandstorms, the temperature extremes, the coast of California... having the time of my life... until I got rear ended and the bike was totaled... I'm without a bike... But wife makes up for that by buying a second bike for herself. My training pays off and she gets her license.
August: Finally get all the insurance stuff behind me and this Rockster, that I'm looking at now, is in the garage. I feel whole again. My wife and I go on rides together. Things are good. Until... inexperience hits and wife wipes out in a corner on some gravel... I see her go down in my rear view mirror... NOT a good feeling. Helmet and gear do their job, but she fractures her knee in two places...
Late August: I throw out my back lifting a cooler... but it's not the usual pain...
Sep through Oct: ... eight weeks of going to a Chiropractor and then things go down hill... sever pain.. I can't sleep... MRI... severely herniated disk... numb knee... weak leg... have to cancel the Arkansas trip.... shot of cortisone in the spine... still riding to work when I can (it's actually more comfortable to ride the bike than sit in the car) I wonder how much the California rear ender had to do with this disk...
Wife's knee is still healing but we get to go out for a couple short rides together. She goes through the MSF course even though she's got her license already... after the course she decides the V-Star needs to go and she needs something with more of a standard riding position (reminds me of OU812... going through bikes like toilet paper
) November: Still recovering... Orthopedic Surgeon is impressed with the improvement I'm making... looks like I may be able to avoid surgery...
Hmmmm... quite a year...
Anyway, enough reminiscing...I sit on the bike... give it a nudge to get it off the center stand... back it up so the rear is outside of the garage... put it back on the center stand... get a fan from the garage, point it at the cylinders, and turn it to full speed... Set the fast idle... poke the starter... the engine turns over a few times... the 15W-50 is slowing it down... she fires up... The exhaust pipe is spewing white mist andsmall bits of snow land on the seat...
I wait... the idle starts to speed up... the last time this year the engine is going to run and it's going to be in front of a fan... no...
I turn off the bike... head inside... go to the bedroom... take my clothes off... put on the long underwear... put on the jeans and sweatshirt... put on the ski bibs... boots... neck balaclava... bandanna... whew... starting to get hot... walk outside into the fresh air... put on my jacket... rain gear top.... helmet... winter gloves... my glasses are almost completely steamed up soon as I put the helmet on... You don't realize how much heat the human body generates until you close it all in...
I strap the Sta-bil to the back of my seat with a bungee chord... get on...poke the starter... and she fires right up... I turn the bike around... flip the heated grips on... point down the driveway... pull in the clutch.. tap it into gear... ease her out... and I'm off... the cold air rushes at my face... my glasses clear up... I flip the shield down... 6 blocks later I'm at the gas station... measure out 2 oz of Sta-bil into the tank... top it off... and ride it around the neighborhood, spinning the engine way too fast for the speed I'm going... hoping to get it warmed up enough for the oil coolers to start flowing despite the 32 degree temp...
20 minutes later I'm back in my driveway... I considered taking a longer ride, but above 40 mph the cold air starts to penetrate the ski pants... that's OK, the distance wasn't important...
I pull into the garage... take all the gear off... get the tools and drain pan... lay down on a flattened old box... and drain out the oil... ouch, its definitely hot... the oil coolers are hot too... good...
Come back 20 minutes later when there's no more dripping. Put the drain plug and new filter in... Fill her up to the top of the glass... poke the starter button... get the clatter of noisy valves that always follows an oil change... oil pressure builds and then it's back to purring... Shut it off... top it off with some more oil...
I pour the old oil into a empty Clorox bleach container and put it in back of the garage to be taken in for recycling next time I make it to the auto parts store...
Wheel the motorcycle to it's resting spot for the winter... put it on the center stand on top of a 3/4" thick board to get the wheels off the ground and allow me to rotate the tires when I need to (don't want the same spot in contract with the ground all winter).
Get the 5-gallon can of gas that I added Sta-bil to earlier, and start trickling in the gas until it's so far up the filler neck that closing the cap causes a little bit of overflow...
Hook it up to the charger... plug the intake and exhaust with some shop rags... cover it with a sheet...
It's good to do this every winter... it gives closure... yeah, we may still get the occasional 50 degree day... but hoping for that would just be torture... and it wont be long before the roads are salted and unwelcoming...
Now the long wait for spring...
If you have a charcoal canister connected, it will fill up with fuel. If the canister is on a shelf, it will leak fuel out the drain vent. Temp swings and barometer changes on the sealed fueltank manage to overwhelm the rollover valve's pintel seat. The Temp/Barometer factor is even more relevant when the airspace is very small. I made that mistake long ago in overfilling my fueltank in the garage preparing for the next day's big AM ride. It ran OK for about a half mile when I guess the solenoid opened the purge line and then it ran super rich (8 stroking). After about 30 seconds thinking, I knew what it was, stopped and disconnected one vacuum hose. Fuel dripped out of it. Leaving it disconnected allows only one cylinder to run on a now much less rich mixture by virtue of the air being inhaled into the open disconnected vacuum pipe from the other cylinder. Much better running as it gradually purged the aspirated liquid, then the heavy fuel vapors. Just a few miles later and I was able to hook up the disconnected vacuum line and soon after that, normalcy returned. I bet it gave the Motronic a poo! I won't do THAT again!! (overfill the tank WITHOUT immediately riding the bike at least 20 miles).