Wednesday, June 9, 2010

When It All Comes Due

The sunrise on Monday was quite red. If I were a sailor, I'd probably be concerned about the weather headed my way. As a biker, when the forecast says it's going to be 109, I pray it means rain and not just pollution. And either way, a red sunrise is a noteworthy event. Kind of ominous.


Rain was not to be, but the sunrise foretold a special morning all the same.

I'd decided to take the little Vespa to work that morning. I had the garage locked up and all of my gear on... and the little sucker wouldn't start.

I would have taken the big Vespa, but it really needs tires. So that left the Triumph, which needed the chain oiled and adjusted.

I took the Triumph.

When I got home, of course I immediately focused on the problem with the little Vespa. I got the keys, thumbed the starter and it fired right up like nothing had ever been out of the ordinary. Of course.

I eventually got around to dealing with the chain on the Triumph. It's been doing kind of a weird pulsing while riding, and I suspected it was because the chain was out of adjustment. Well, the chain was badly out of adjustment, but getting it back in adjustment brought the pulsing and a new scraping noise into focus. Great.

Anyway, I rode the little Vespa in to work today, which was pretty trouble-free and enjoyable.
Then on the way home, the motor sputtered and died at a stoplight. And it didn't really want to run again unless I kept it above idle while stopped, until a couple miles later when it started running just fine again. So... something is hinky there.

Which means tomorrow I'll be riding the big Vespa to work, whether it needs tires or not.

I'm a touch frustrated.

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