In Good Company

Motorcycle Update!

Our good friends Scott and Ginella (and Brave Sir Liam) were by last weekend. Scott and I took the opportunity to go out for a quick ride. My first official ride outside the confines of my neighborhood, actually. That was a really good time. Got to take in some great scenery and get a real sense for what it means to see the world from the back of a motorcycle. As a beginner it was pretty awesome to have someone to tool around with and get some experience with "real world" riding, especially stuff like getting a bug in the face at 50 mph.

It was also interesting (read: hilarious) putting the Savage side-by-side with a very customized '94 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy:

It can be hard to tell them apart at first but if you look very closely I'm sure you'll appreciate the subtle differences.

One final note: I observed that the Supertrapp muffler which the previous owner put on my bike has the interesting effect of staying in your head for a good hour after the bike is parked. Now I understand why there were empty earplug boxes in the saddlebags when I first got the thing.

Scott, if you're reading this, thanks for about the twentieth time. All kidding aside, it was a blast.

IT'S ALIVE!

The motorcycle is running!

The smile, it stretches from ear to ear.

It turns out that the battery was the problem all along. The old one just wasn't holding a charge. After getting a new one with the wrong terminals I finally got some good advice and ended up with the right battery. One of the sealed ones. It was a little tough getting it into the compartment but a little coaxing solved that. Then there was the n00b mistake of not charging the new battery before trying to start the bike (oops).

Long story short, I charged it and installed it and not 20 minutes ago the Big Single was thumping in the driveway.

(Pssst! I even put it in gear and rode it a total of 12 feet for the first time! Don't tell anyone)

I'm extremely happy right now. Plus, my friend Scott is coming over to help look into my digital recording troubles this evening. Here's hoping we can ride the wave and solve that one, too.

Woohoo!