Motorcycles are a blessing and a curse for me. A blessing because the allow me to feel free. I can open the throttle and feel the wind all around me. I can see the ground racing past me. Death and life surround me while I’m on my bike. It’s thrilling and I wouldn’t trade the ability to ride a motorcycle for anything.

However, however, I need to maintain the bike. This is something I’ve struggled with as I don’t know anyone else with a bike and I’ve learned all the maintenance as I go. The simple things like oil changes and spark plug checking I can do on my own, but for the bigger things, I need to have someone else take care of it. That’s the case with my Nighthawk now.

For two years, she was pretty much neglected as I wasn’t around to ride her. The gas went bad, the chain rusted, a layer of dust collected on it. DUST! Not on my watch would that have happened.

Granted, the chain had needed replacing for some time now and the tires certainly didn’t wear themselves thin sitting in my dad’s garage. I could have taken better care of the bike had I had the money. It’s expensive; a weeks wages to replace the tires, chain, and sprockets. It’ll be worth it in the end, once I have my bike working again.