First Ride

Over the weekend, I put in my first motorcycle ride of spring.

I've been doing repairs and maintenance on the machine. Replacement components for battery cables, a new oil filter, some silicon for the oil-drain-plug...each of these required purchase and installation. At least one spent several days coming in the mail.

(One of the downsides of owning a mid-1980s motorcycle. Parts like oil filters can be hard to find.)

When all was said and done, and I had an weekend morning free, I rolled the machine out of the garage.

Then I grabbed a can of starter-spray.

This stuff, basically diethyl ether with a little oil, ignites more easily than gasoline. This property makes it useful for helping to start an engine that is reluctant to start. Especially if the engine is reluctant to start due to cold weather, but will run fine once ignition is achieved.

It turned out that I needed the starter-spray. After a couple of attempts of starter-spray-plus-cranking, the engine started.

After a test-run around the block, and a first-fuel-fill of the season, I think I am ready to put the motorcycle into normal usage again. Though I may want to check out some sort of heater to use on the engine block. In my experience, I've needed starter fluid whenever the outside air was too cold. I've heard that warming the engine block before attempting to start can fix this...