Salvage Yard Appreciation Day

This morning I was whining with YoJ/Betty/Berk on gmail about how my bike was broken and I have a planned trip to NY for the Harley Rendezvous (that's the naked biker party for those that weren't reading last June). Well, here's the harrowing tale.

I don't know if I told you guys, but I had troubles with my bike on the way home from Sturgis last summer. My bike kept cutting out as if it was out of gas. I eventually got to the east side of SD, where I switched to reserve (the extra fuel tank area), and had been riding on reserve ever since.

Well, everything was roses until Saturday. I rode up to PA and went on a tour of 6 beautiful covered bridges. I was taking Rt. 40 home, and my bike started cutting out again about 15 miles from my house. Luckily, a nice man in a truck realized I was having trouble going the speed limit, so he drove behind me until he had to turn off. My bike was backfiring and the walkers thought sure gunshots were going off. I'm serious. The people on the side of the road were frightened. It took me about 45 minutes to go 10 miles. Talk about a nightmare.

I went to the salvage yard on Monday, and the guy sold me a new petcock gasket thingy for a dollar. [The petcock is the part of the bike where you have fuel, the fuel filter, and reserve. It's a switch assembly type thing with a hilarious name.] I took it home, replaced the one I had and my bike was running worse. I couldn't even use reserve without it cutting out.

Today I limped my bike back to the salvage yard, and we took apart the entire carburetor. Apparently, the diaphram was swollen a bit, and it wasn't letting the gas run through it properly. It's supposed to move back and forth with ease. He isn't sure if it's the ethanol that caused the problem or not, but for 25 bucks, we replaced the diaphragm, and now I'm back in business. Hopefully the ethanol around here won't ruin this one too, but at least I know where the problem lies.

I think I need a tshirt that says 'Support Your Local Salvage Yard!' I don't know how many of you know, but a lot of times the 1% motorcycle clubs sell tshirts saying 'Support your Local Pagans, or Hells Angels or Outlaws' etc.. If you know, then that tshirt would be funny.

A new carb. diaphragm would've run me 125 dollars + a 7 day wait at the local Suzuki shop. You should've seen the smile on my face when I was riding home. YE-FREAKIN'-HA!

I'm leaving either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, and I'll be back on Tuesday to report on the nakedness that occurs. Hope everyone's well.