Spring Break has passed and now all I have to look forward to academically, is graduation. I have four papers to write between now and then, one midterm and three finals. It shouldn’t be too difficult.

I picked up the Kawasaki KZ650SR over break and I rode her around a lot. I would have some pictures to post, but when I was going to take them I ended up having to do some other more important things.

Can any of you say that you have been cruising along the highway at 75mph, passing a semi when all of a sudden you feel the engine in your vehicle stop running? I can. That’s what happened to me this past weekend. I was on my way to grandma’s house for Easter dinner and my bike died. I managed to get her to the side of the road before she lost all speed.

It’s frustrating sitting on the side of the road with a broken vehicle and no means of fixing it. I check the gas and I had enough to ride on, but the bike didn’t want to start. I was perplexed because she had been running fine only moments before. Fortunately, after five minutes, she started again and I rode the shoulder for a bit before getting her to speed and back into traffic.

She made it a couple of miles before she died again.

She didn’t want to start yet again so I decided to push her off the interstate. It was surprisingly easy considering that the bike weighs over 600lbs. Anyway, my plan was to get her to a gas station and then have my parents come find me. As I was getting onto the on-ramp, an SUV pulls in front of me and asks if I need a lift. The guy was pulling an empty motorcycle trailer because he was on his way to pick up a bike he had just purchased. He hauled the bike all the way to grandma’s for me and he said he didn’t mind doing it because he’s “been there”.

After dinner at my grandma’s I tried troubleshooting the bike so I could ride her home. We thought we narrowed it down to a vacuum seal in the carbs preventing the bike from getting gas, so we replaced the hose and sure enough she fired up.

On the way home, she died again. I had to call a friend of mine to haul her home for me. He’s going to school for engine repair I believe and he knows his stuff.

The bike was diagnosed with a clogged fuel filter. I fortunately had a brand new one sitting at home. I was going to put that on the other KZ650 when I got her running last year.

I swapped out the fuel filter, changed the oil and the oil filter and tightened the chain. She runs better than ever. I made the trip from home to school (four times as far as the bike had previously been running) without any problems.

Let’s just hope she keeps running. I haven’t had a chance to ride her since due to the rain we’ve been getting.

I’ll get some photos up soon.

More bike related stuff.

Last week Thursday I was out fiddling with the bike, trying to find where my oil was leaking from when the parking lot monitor came over and told me that I needed to get a parking permit for my bike.

I told him that I knew I needed the permit but I hadn’t had time to get one yet. He told me about ten times more that I needed to get a permit. Each time I told him that I knew. Finally I stopped him and said, “Look, I understand that my bike does not have a permit. I understand that it needs one. I will be going in to get one, I just hadn’t had time to do so yet.” He walked away, but I knew that wouldn’t be the end of that guy.

So Friday, I went and got a permit and put it on the taillight bracket of my bike. It was the only place I could put it because the rental company gave me a window cling to put on a motorcycle and I had to Gorilla Glue it down. I didn’t want to glue to the paint job.

Yesterday (Tuesday) around lunch, I went out to check to see if my seat was waterlogged due to the rain and I noticed a parking ticket on my bike.

I contested the ticket with the rental company and they took care of it for me. They called the guy who checks permits in that lot and he told them that he didn’t see the permit on the bike. The dumbass didn’t look for it, he just wanted to give me a ticket for me giving him lip.