A run of bad luck

Where's the crime in a streak of bad luck? - Jay Farrar


I woke up this morning and glanced at Kimmie.   Shining like a star in her rear sidewall was a roofing nail.  It was simple chance that I picked it up.  It was the third or fourth thing in a row.  A streak of bad luck.

I recently sank $80 on a new battery and I'm concerned about why I'm only getting a year or two out of a battery.  The other day I got stuck on the side of the road due to my running out of gas.  My gas gauge has been down and I don't see any reason to replace it...since I know I can go about 150 miles on a full tank.

Except my tank wasn't full.  So I got stuck on the side of the road waiting for my lovely, and very angry wife, to bring me gas.

Now I picked up a nail and I know that a rear tire needs to be replaced.

Unlucky.

I've been using Michelin City Grip's on my bike. I've been happy with them and see no reason to change.  I know however that I'm looking at about $80 for just one however.  The tire I've on Kimmie now is relatively new.  I could go with a cheaper Shinko but would prefer the performance of the Michelin.

It's just another expense.  One that is not needed at this time....and one that I have to pay.

Unlucky.

Of course, it could have been worse.  I would rather find the nail in my driveway than find it going 80 miles an hour down the freeway.  In that case I am lucky.  In that case I'm blessed.

**UPDATE**

Even though the tire was not losing air and I don't believe the sidewall was damaged, I decided to replace the tire.  I would rather be safe than sorry.

New Battery - 1.5 years

To be completely honest I don't remember the last time I put a new battery in the bike.  A quick search of my blog stated it was over a year ago.  One would think that I would get more than a year out of a motorcycle battery, and as I placed my $80 dollars for a new battery on the table of my local dealer he told me that this one should last about a year and half. 

I bought me a Bike Master AGM Battery.  I probably could have payed less for it on the internet, but I have an event that I wanted to attended on Sunday and frankly I think Sue didn't want to hear me bitch about being off the bike anymore.  

There's your problem!  Somebody stole your battery

It's an easy enough job to replace the battery and after I did so Kimmie fired right up.  I took her around the block of my neighborhood,  being thankful that it was not something more serious like the stator.  I also decided to buy a trickle charger just in case my bike would end up sitting for longer than I would like (it more or less sat for two weeks as I fought off a mild case of the flu). 

I still have the old battery and want my mechanic to run a load test on it.  More for my piece of mind than anything else. 


On this coming Sunday, I hope to take part in the Orlando Scooters "Ride through the city" event.  It is literally a ride from the northern tip of the city of Orlando southward to the southern tip of the city on a lazy Sunday afternoon.   I'm wanting to attend simply because I've been wanting to take Kimmie out further than I have in the past.  Orlando is about 77 miles away, then I ride through the city...then back home.  So I'm looking at at least a 150 miles day (to and from) plus the ride through the city.  

That's not a bad ride and I've been wanting to build up my tolerance for riding anyhow.  So it's all good.  I just hope that life doesn't rear it's ugly head and something comes up, like work.

Plus, getting out of my comfort zone is not a bad thing.  Come December and January I will be putting more effort into working independently, which frankly is not an easy thing for a introvert like me to do.    That's my goal for the year of 2017.  Taking the bike out to Orlando, Jacksonville, Sarasota and other places.  I really have no excuse not to anymore.

Not again! More electrical issues

I have not been riding Kimmie hard or for very far in the last two weeks or so.  I've had a persistent head cold and/or allergy and/or sinus issue that has made me lightheaded at best, miserable at worst.  

The weather has been glorious however so I've tried to take it out when I can.  I know she doesn't like the cold and a few mornings here have been a bit brisk.  It's been dry and by the middle of the day the temperatures are perfect for riding, being neither to hot or to cold.  By the time I would ride home from work the "brisk-ness" had returned but it's nothing a light sweatshirt or my Freeze-out jacket could handle.

Still though, I sided on the caution to protect my health.  

I'm wondering now if I should not of invested in a battery tender or  rode the bike more.  Now I'm searching around trying to figure out how old my battery is (1 year?  2?...3?).  

Sue asked me to run to the store and get a few last minute items, nothing major.  I jumped on Kimmie, she fired right up and I was off, a few moments later arriving at my destination.  We were having seven people over the house for dinner, and I was not going to be late. 

It was not even ten minutes after my arrival.  I jump on the bike.   No power, no turn over, nothing.  I lift the seat and see a little light burning...so she has something in the battery.  I check the connections and they are nice and tight.  

I get an electrical jump off a car and tell Sue the problem, going about 1 hour and forty miles out of my way in an attempt, misguided as it may be, to charge the battery.  

I get home, our guests have arrived.  I eat, I chat, I drink a wonderful wine that highlights the turkey and ham beautify.  I laugh.

That is till I try to start Kimmy.   Nothing, nada, nope.    

Sadly I have to work all day tomorrow being that I drawled the proverbial short stick, but I'm hoping that Saturday I'll be able to get down into the nitty gritty of the problem.    

"Hey Idiot!!!" Or "Those lights on the dash mean something after all"

The trouble started, as trouble is prone to do, days before it actually became a issue.

The battery light on my bike came on one day, shocking me into concern.  I had not gone down the road that far before it shut off...and I put it down to just a loose wire.  Or perhaps caused by the high humidity and rain that is part of daily life in Florida.

The idiot light stayed off for a day or two, making me think that I was correct in my assumption.   It stayed off till I had to go to work on Friday.  It came on...blinked, blinked....went off, stayed off, came on....blinked.   "Great, I'll have to get that looked at."

It stayed off on my ride home on Friday, again convincing me it was nothing.

I have to go to work Saturday morning and I jump on Kimmie expecting her to purr to life as she always has.  Nothing.  Nada.  Not even a clicking noise.  Sadly I was at work all day and didn't have a chance to do any work on her.   Even when I got home after 4, my day commanded other things.

There are reasons those lights are referred to as "Idiot lights."  So here I am on Sunday, testing the fuses.  I check the cables and ensure that they are nice and tight.  Nothing.  I had replaced the battery earlier in the year, so I doubted it was that.  I would still need a load test be be sure. 

That left a gremlin in the wires.   Somewhere there was either a short, or something in the wiring harness.  I don't have the tools, or the knowledge, to go searching for something like that.

I was also leaning towards a gremlin in the wires for another reason.  I did have power from the battery to the lights for a bit.  The bike just wasn't turning over, and then those lights faded.   Which to me indicated a issue with the ground wire.

Problem was...how to fix it.

So here I am, first thing in the morning, trying to explain to my roadside service company that sending a regular pick up truck will not work.  It needs to be a flatbed.  Also that you can not jump a motorcycle battery off of a car battery - while actually you can do this the car needs to be in the "off" position.  Why risk more damage to the bike if it's not needed?

As I sit here and write this two thoughts go through my mind.   First, I really need to look into switching insurance companies because the one I have is not serving my needs.  Two, it may be time to finally say goodby to Kimmie.  Well, three thoughts really.  I need to learn more about the mechanical workings of my bike.

I love her, I really do.  However ever since my accident back in 2014, it seems that Kimmie and I have not been on the same page.  She seems to have never really recovered.  It's been a slow litany of small annoying issues ever since then.     Tires and belts and batteries wear out, I understand that.  Things get loose, I understand that...but I try to keep up with the regular maintenance on her.  I try to keep her healthy.  It's a slow process of nickles and dimes that are starting to add up.

At this time I'm not sure what I want to do.   I am considering selling her if the repair costs to much.  Trading her in on a younger model...something in the 750 range I'm thinking, although I hate to take on another payment.   I'm three to five years away from being financially secure and I really don't wish to take on another debt.

Which leaves me two options.   Trade in for another used bike and all the possible issues that brings.  Or hold on to her for another two or three years and hope that her slide is minimal or that this electrical issue will be the end of it for a bit.  The AMA roadside assistance program would probably not be a bad thing to have in this case, and I am considering joining for that reason - and that I like the idea of putting a scooter on their Longrider program.  I've done 10,000 + miles in a year.  I can do it again but only if Kimmie wants to cooperate with me.

End of the year milage post - Looking back on 2015

Later on today I'll fire Kimmy up, her "change oil" light will come on (it came on earlier this week), and I'll take her for a bit of a ride.  The last of 2015.

A friend of mine shared an animated GIF to his Facebook page (which for some reason I can not make work on Blogger - I tried) that shows his how his year went.  It started well, and as he progressed down the slide it got rockier, till at the very end (now shown as December) he rockets off the slide and face plants into the dirt.

Funny...but very accurate.

It's been another year of health concerns (not so much mine but Susan's), incidents, accidents and me complaining about the heat.  A gasket that literally had to come on a slow boat from Asia didn't help matter either. Nor did various battery/electrical issues.  All these things it seemed conspired to keep me off the bike.  Or at least made me feel like I didn't ride the way I have in the past.

Even though it's the last day of December the weather outside is gorgeous.  We're predicted to have a high of 84 degrees today (29 C) with only a 20% of rain, weather I know many of my fellow bloggers would die for.  I really don't feel like riding  We have had weather like that since the start of December, yet my Kimmie has sat, lonesome in her spot in my driveway.  This has had more to do with me not wanting to ride or being willing to ride than anything.

Earlier in the year I considered trading her in, thinking that starting a new relationship with a new bike would break me out of my malaise.  Or selling her altogether.  In the end though, I've formed a special little relationship with my Kimmie and letting her go would be like losing a part of who I am.

As I look back over the last year I know that I did a bit more than I thought I did.   I drove up to Brooksville and wanted to explore there a little more (another trip soon I think, this time on Kimmie).  I went exploring in Ybor, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Tampa.  I got to ride through the very heart of central Florida.  I even got to see a tiny house.  I even visited a legendary store in the Daytona area too.

Sadly however, not all these adventures were in the saddle.  Still though, they were adventures.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of Bobscoot and plan on showing him the sites, places that I've not made it to on my bike yet have visited in the past.  Places that I want to go but haven't yet.  So yes, I guess I'm looking forward to 2016.

Kimmie and I are not done yet, we still have roads to ride and sights to see, but I need to stop being the "whiny little bitch" that I've become over the last year.  There is great potential in the coming year...and I have to take advantage of that potential.

In a bit I'll ride for an hour, maybe two.   Another fifty miles or so will be added to her speedometer.  I don't see me putting any milage on that to her.  I'll come back in and duly edit to post, so I can have a record for the coming year.

Last year I started with 21736 miles (or 34,981 KM).  For the end of the year milage...it ended up being 26900.  Or only 5,164 miles for 2015.  About 1000 less than the year before.   Not good, not good at all.

Happy New Year then to all my friends and family.   Be safe, be well and be happy.

Roadside crosses

The Monday morning news spoke of an accident at Water's and Handy blvd.

"I know that area." I thought.   "I hope it doesn't affect me on the way to work."

Then they mentioned the motorcycle...and how they were not cleaning up the wreck immediately.  Which meant a investigation.  Which meant that, most likely the motorcyclist was killed.

I did not personally know Alex Cross.  I had a couple meals at his restaurant, Alex's BBQ, but I was more familiar with his charity work.   Every Christmas he held a bike drive, and had been doing it for the last 15 years.  Starting in September or October it was not uncommon to see a couple bikes in the store, not used...but brand new ones.

The number grew as it got closer and closer to Christmas.  From what I understand due to his generosity and that of his regular patrons at least 180 bikes were given out that first year.  Last year it was over 9,000.  Not only did they give bikes away, but the helmets to go with them.

The local business in the area hope to keep up that tradition.

When I ride I know I take my life into my own hands.  I have on all my gear yet physics always wins.  Alex, according to reports, had his gear on as well.

I've passed enough road side crosses, some are for motorcyclists...others for teens going to fast or drunk drivers or just someone unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It happens.

Susan always gets a call when I reach my destination safely, either going to work or elsewhere.  Another call before I head home.

Another friend, lost to me due to time and how our lives drifted apart posted something on the internet that frankly sounded like a call for help.  Somehow, someone got to her before it was to late.  I had not talked to her in a long time but I reached out to her tonight.

We are never alone, we all have our moments when we feel alone.  We all touch each others lives in so many ways.  I've been thinking about those connections lately....every time I pass a road side cross or deal with some idiot driver or when I work with one of my clients, and we talk about their plans for the future...and what they want to leave behind.

The National Ride to Work day is coming up at the end of the week.  I will be participating once again, now that the cable has be replaced on Kimmie and the battery has been fully recharged.

While it was a easy fix and did not require much, the front of the battery was not the issue but the back of the cable was acting intermittently.  I hope...perhaps against hope itself...that this problem is now resolved and we can get back to the day to day grind of the commute.

Still though, I will be concerned with the idiots, the smart drivers, other bikers....those roadside crosses can pop up anywhere, any time.

And I'll be a little more concerned about the connections I make, to be a positive force.  To be a little more like a big heart'd guy I never met...and maybe, just maybe I'll drop a twenty dollar bill in the donation bin the next time I have a good BBQ.

Gremlins - Part of the learning curve.

I was hoping for a simple solution.

In the Kymco Xciting 500 the fuse box is located next to the battery.  The battery is enclosed in the tail end of the bike, almost directly below my top box, so two screws is all I need to remove the battery and check the fuses.

Kimme has a "trunk" under her seat for a better word, there is a light in that trunk.  I take off the battery cover and the light comes on....bright and powerful.  Okay....weird.  Maybe it's not a fuse.  I tighten the battery cable connection.  I replace the cover.

Nada.  No power, no turning over.

Well there is no metal for it to short against unless it's touching the screw.  It's not.  Which means either a bad connector or a bad cable.  I have had issues in the past but they have been intermittent, and often in cold weather.  Could it be that simple?

It's not the best photo but you can see some wear and tear on the end of the cable...could the battery, which was recently replaced, be the wrong size and be causing the cable to rub against something?  Therefore causing an intermittent connection?

Could I be overthinking this?

I replaced the protective plastic piece and started her up again.  Nothing.   Take it off or adjust it somewhat and she fire up with out issue.

I considered riding without the cover, but frankly didn't like the idea of the battery bouncing around in the back.  Since it sits above the rear tire the cover also serves a protective function, preventing water from possibly being sprayed up onto it.  

Now it's decision time.  I became aware of this problem last Saturday.  I had every intention of getting it fixed myself.  Certainly I could order the part, or replace it myself.

I made sure I tossed a Phillips screwdriver into my trunk just to be sure I had one if I got stuck at work or on the side of the road.

Then I didn't ride it for a week, or do anything to it at all.  Now I'm temped to ride up to my mechanic and go over the issue with them, to see if they agree, or make sure I'm not insane.
I don't like that idea, feeling that this is something simple, something that I should be capable of.  something that I should be able to do on my own.  Maintenance that I should know how to do.

If I want to ride to Jacksonville, or to Charleston, hell: if I want to ride anywhere I should know how to fix simple issues like this.  I need to find a place that does "Wrench nights" locally.

Best laid plans meet Gremlin.

**EDIT**  I played with it somewhat this afternoon thinking it's the fuses.  In playing around with it I noticed one of the battery cables was rubbing against the plastic case the battery sits in.  It started right up with full power when that plastic piece was off....put it on, nothing.  So, I think I just may need a new battery cable...or a better way to hold the battery in place.

I had plans this weekend.

Kimmie was running fine all this week, and we zipped back and forth on my daily commute without issue, she never gave me an indication of what was to come.  Well, that is not true.  Friday night on the way home I could of swore I heard a "popping" noise but with the traffic and speed I could not be 100% sure if it was my bike.

Technically I had to work my second job this weekend, delivering papers to various stores in and around the Plant City area, however I was able to work it out where the lovely Susan would do that for me.  She knows I enjoy riding and I don't get the chance to do a group ride often.

Photo by the Tampa Tribune

Off I would go to explore the work of Frank Lloyd Wright at Florida Southern College.  After that, perhaps I would follow the route originally suggested by Go for a Ride magazine.  After checking out the walking tour at the college, it was on to the futuristic Florida Polytechnic University building.  Which raises like a metallic Portuguese Man o' War out of the flatland's

Next stop Legoland!  While not really geared towards the rough, tough scooterist it's still part of tour.  How many of us remember playing with Lego's and building fanatic things with them.  I've often wanted to go just to see some of the things that are possible with Lego's.  I would not be stopping at the park, but riding past it.

Finally Bok Towers.  I've been here before but never by bike.

Generally speaking this was all within 150 miles of me and could be done in a day.  I would be riding with a group of people I rode with before and although nothing was confirmed, I had a good feeling.

Then the rain chance built...and built....and built.  It got as high as 70%, and the ride was cancelled.  I worked the route that I normally work....dry.  The 70% chance of rain never did amount to much, more like 7%.

So my plans are put off....I can still ride, except.......

Kimmie won't turn over.  No power, nothing.   The battery is new, the rectifier was replaced.  Short?  Loose wire?  Alternator?  Spark plug?  Starter (although I should be getting at least a "clicking" noise if it was the starter)?

My mechanic would not be in till Tuesday.   I was not in a good mood.  Not in a good mood at all.  I'm hoping it's a simple fix.

And it continues....maybe?

At long last Kimmie is back up and running properly. The head gasket was replaced, the oil pressure switch is repaired and a new rectifier has been installed. I pick her up on Friday but due to a full weekend of requirements, commitments and duties was not able to ride her till Monday.

Weekends are normally busy for me, so I made a promise to myself that I would get out more, go to the places that interest me. I have been wanting to travel up to Brookstown for over a month, Ybor (ee-bor) City for about the same amount of time. Weeki Wachee - the city of mermaids is also on that list. Before I did all that though, I needed to go to work. So we fire up Kimmie.

It's a lovely day and I'm riding 301 into Tampa, it's more or less a straightaway through some scrub and swampland.  Nothing really to look at or do other than pay attention to the traffic and be careful when passing or being passed.   I'm about halfway though this route, the one place in all of Florida where I know for sure I don't have cell phone coverage.  I look at the instrument panel.

Yep, that happened.  

Now I have a choice...that could be 1001 things and the light was not on when I started Kimmie.  I know they replaced the rectifier and I thought to myself that the mechanics would have double checked everything before releasing the bike to me right?  RIGHT?

So do we trust Kimmie to get me to work?  Do we turn around and go home?  Do we pull off and call the tow company to take me back?  Do I tap the idiot light and hope it goes off?

I head into work, knowing I can't do anything on the side of the road.  Sure I have a small tool kit in the bike but other than some very basic fixes I've no idea what I can do other than ignore the angry red light for now.  

Kimmie runs fine and takes me to work with no issues.  Somewhere between point A and B the red light goes off.  It does not come on at all on the way home and I take the highway home...thinking that if there is an issue I would rather be somewhere I can get help quickly rather than a empty country road in the middle of the night.  

My mechanic is not open on Monday's.  I leave a message and await a call back.  "It's probably nothing." I tell myself.  

Still though it's a nagging issue in the back of my head, I start Kimmie up in the morning and have no issues.  No lights turn on...I ride to work on Tuesday.

In search of the missing spark plug.

It was a brilliant day.  The weather was a very comfortable 75 degrees (23 C) and the sun was shining.  Susan's friend Craig, who rides a 10 year old Harley Road King, was going to help me with the battery change out and while we are at it, probably a oil change as well.

Afterwards we had plans for lunch and then ride the southern part of the Green Swamp trail.  Had it really been two years since I last rode the southern part of it?

I had purchased a battery from Amazon and although it was recommend that I get a gel type battery from the Kymco Forums, I went with the maintenance free chemical battery from YUASA (model # YTX14-BS) although it occurred to me after reading the instructions that I may need to buy a tender later.  Such is life.

Step one...Getting the old battery out.  Surprisingly simple.

Step two...Set up the new battery by adding sulfuric acid.  Done easily enough and included some "Breaking Bad" jokes as well.

Step three...Put the new battery in.  Again no issues.

Step four...Turn on the bike and start her up.  Nothing happens.

a)  repeat step four.  Same result.

b)  repeat step four.  Same result.

c)  repeat step four.  Same result.

Step five...Stroke beard with thoughtful "WTF" expression on face.

The bike would turn over but not start.  It wasn't the battery of that I was positive.  Which brought us to a couple of options.  The spark plug was bad or it was either a bad fuel line, fuel filter or fuel pump or all of the above.

Craig and I turned to the internet.  We figured the spark plug would be the easiest thing to fix...only we could not find the plug.  Frankly ripping off the various plastics that make up the Kymco appealed to neither of us.  We knew the info we needed was somewhere.

Craig being helpful.

I love this quote we came across in one form or another on various sites, forums and discussion boards.  Even my local mechanic who I called for help said it.  "The Kymco is a well put together bike but a bitch to work on."

Well that's encouraging.

One hour goes by, now two, plastic pieces are slowly growing in my driveway and we still can't find the spark plug.    Instead of being frustrated I was actually enjoying myself.  It's not often that I get my hands dirty with a technical problem and my mind was engaged.  Craig is also an engineer and we were thinking along the same lines.  We still could not find that damn spark plug.

Making an educated guess, we decided to spray some starter fluid into the carb and see if that would get the bike to turn over.  We rocked it onto the center stand and opened up the carborator but before even spraying the starter fluid in Craig said:  "Try starting it now...just for shit and giggles."

VROOM!!!!   Over and over again she started right up.

"Vapor lock?" I said.  "Vapor lock." He said.

It seems like the local explanation.  It would explain why the bike would not start at all during the cooler temperatures of December.  Why I had the intermittent stalling while sitting in traffic.  Why the bike would suddenly start up after being moved about or rocked onto the center stand.  Why we were having such a hard time starting it.

The good news is that it's a relative easy issue to fix.  I am still going to take the bike in to the local mechanics had have them due a full tune-up.  Let them find the damn spark plug (which I found out is accessible by removing the plastic from the center hump and the use of a 10 mm ratchet on two or three extensions).

It started after that several times without issue.  I did get a chance to ride it as I had a change in plans and had to pick up a friend from the airport which was totally unexpected.  It sat all day, then at 8 PM tonight...started right up.

I know I needed a new back tire, so I ordered that and will wait till it's in before taking the bike to be serviced.  Might was well get it all done at once, including the oil change.  I had been putting off a tire due to no good reason.  Now I had no excuse.  I decided to go with the Michelin City Grips because I've heard good things about them on the forums.  Now lets see if they are worth it.

I'm going to ride tomorrow and the next day, the bike should be going into the shop on Thursday.  This is getting to be an expensive experience.

Happy Holidays and an update....

First Off....Happy Holiday's from the Wilson household.  We wish you and yours a safe and happy New Year

Now on with this weeks exciting adventure:

I thought Kimmie was dead.  She had been sitting for two weeks or so, absolutely not turning over until I had to move some boxes into the nearby shed, so I had to move the bike.  Guess who turned over.

I took her out Saturday afternoon, it was a beautiful day in the low 70's (20's C), and she run fine.  The only issue I had is a persistent hacking cough which I was afraid I would aggravate if I rode to long, to far.  So I put a little under 50 miles on her and called it a day.  Sunday it rained all day, so I didn't do any riding at all.

The new battery arrived late Saturday afternoon but due to other commitments it seemed unlikely that I would be able to install it till after the Christmas holiday. Not that I expected to get that much riding in between now and the end of the year.  Partially due to weather, for example we were expecting a 90% chance of rain as I sit and type this.  Partially due to whatever illness I had still lingered in my system.

Still though I was looking forward to getting the battery installed and moving down the road.  2014 generally speaking was a long and hard year for me.  The new battery, a new heart for Kimmie represented new opportunity...and a new mechanical skill to put under my proverbial tool belt.  The next job will most likely be the CVT belt.

I did decide however to try and ride her as much as I could between now and the new year.  I'm not sure how many miles I put on her in 2014, all I do know is that they were not enough.  I will never understand how someone can let a bike sit, and this year it seemed that Kimmie did a lot of sitting.

So yes, I'm looking forward to next year.  I'm looking forward to putting a few more thousands of miles on Kimmie.  I'm looking for adventure...in what ever comes our way.  :P

and just like that....the riding year ends.

Wrapped up and put away.

It was nothing serious.  No crash. No accident.  No fires, earthquakes or plagues of locusts.

It was something I had sensed for some time.  It started when I put my battery on a tender back on Saturday, August 9, 2014.   My battery died.  There is still enough power to turn it over, to make the lights glow...but not enough to have Kimmie roar to life in a way I've become familiar.

A few nights earlier I rode to work on the highway, something I don't like to do, because I was running late...I was late anyway.  A wreck blocked two lanes of the three lane highway and some idiot prevented me from skittering down the shoulder.  Normally I would not do such a thing or even consider it, but I was running late.

So here I am, sitting in traffic...and I stall.  I start, stall, start, stall.  Eventually I get the bike into an open enough area to maintain a speed about 2000 on the tachometer and it holds steady.  I get to work an hour late.  That night, she starts up and away I go.

A few nights where the temperatures fall into the freezing range is all it takes.  She tries, really tries but the heart, the battery, is just not up to the task anymore.  

Then comes a very bad week or two.  Two hospital visits (one involving the lovely Sue which turned out to be a minor issue).  A bout of the flu.  A temporary change for two weeks of my work location to an area of town that frankly I did not feel safe driving my car in, especially after nearly being hit twice in said car.  

No riding probably till close to the end of the year.  Maybe not till the new year.

Sure it be easy to run out and buy a battery or even have the local mechanics pop it in. I considered it, but frankly it was what I needed to push Sue's Christmas gifts into the realm of free shipping on Amazon.  By the time I receive that battery it will be the Holidays.  Another week...another delay...another few days without having my bike under me.

Not the best way to close out 2014, although generally speaking the year SUCKED.  I will not be sad to see it go.

First there was the crash in early January.  Which, while relatively harmless in it's own right, did bring about a lingering injury that kept me off the bike for months.  It also exposed an underlying non-crash medical issue that required treatment.  It was not life threatening but suddenly I find that I am very, very mortal.

It would not be till May when I finally started riding again on a regular basis.  While glad to be back on my beloved Kimmie I was tentative.  The love I used to have for riding just wasn't there.  Although I would regain that love only a few months later...it took longer than I would have liked.

My job did not help as they had me running back and forth between Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida at least three different times for weeks at a time.  I wasn't happy however as I found others with less experience being promoted above me and other issues.  But I stayed and pushed for a better job and more responsibility.

Little did I know that I would be changing jobs in October anyway when a job offer paying 15% more annually (with bonuses) and the title of Assistant Manager fell into my lap.  I have to admit though.  I have questioned my choice to take that job ever since, as the position is stressful and I'm not sure if the job has a good support structure.  Somehow I never pictured being a cubicle farmer was in my future.

In the last month or so it's just been small things, like having to report to another site for two weeks in an area best reached by car.  After this training my shift changes again, back to a more familiar 1 PM to 10 PM, back to empty streets.

I took this job because I understood I would work days only.  Not nights, but I can not complain, I'm still the low man on the totem pole.

So here's to 2014!  May it be better than the last!

I turn the key and...

Nothing.

No click, no roaring to life.  I pop the seat and the inner light glows weakly and that indicates only one thing to me.  The battery is dead or dying.

I can't help but wonder if maybe I didn't close the seat enough and accidentally drained the battery.  Do to a lot of different reasons I'm not going to go into I've not ridden my bike since last Saturday. It was a error that I wanted to rectify this weekend.  Luckily for me it appears pretty easy to replace.

To be honest, I was not unhappy about the battery.  After all to the best of my knowledge it was the original battery and it lasted for four or five years if not longer.  If I got that long out of any battery that I bought new;  I would be happy even though I knew that the general life of a motorcycle battery was only two or three years tops.  Besides, another opportunity to grow as a mechanic!  Although my owners manual warned me that only a qualified mechanic should replace the battery.  I'm definitely not that.

First then, to the geeks favorite friend, the internet.  I was wondering about the price, would my mechanic have the battery in stock or would he over charge me for it?  How long would it take for me to receive the battery if I ordered it online?  Was there some video somewhere which would explain the correct procedure?  I have replaced various car batteries over time, this should not be to difficult...right?  There was a little corrosion on the negative terminal.

The tender in use

The Kymco forums didn't really have much for me.  I also considered getting a battery tender.  After all, if I got a rechargeable battery would this not extend the life?  Although it seemed it be a waste of money for me.  My bike generally does not sit.

In the end someone in my park had a tender that they let me borrow.  It slowly but surely charged.  Then VROOM!  Okay it's a scooter so maybe not VROOM! but she did start - so I'm happy.  I rode it briefly around the town to ensure it was working.  I decided to ride it to work later tonight.

But the question still remains.  Do I get a tender or assume that the battery is shot?  In either case for a small investment (about $35 US) I would have a tender.  I might even try to find something that I can place under the seat since I often work at night, and being stuck out in the middle of nowhere at 2 AM does not really appeal to me.  Ah...another farkle.

As always I'll update ya!