With my profession consisting almost entirely of me sitting in front of a computer, I rarely get opportunities to do things with my hands other than type. That’s why I was looking forward to doing some work on my motorcycle this last Saturday; it would give me a chance to get my hands dirty (which I did - they’re still pretty cut up and greasy under the fingernails two days later).

Specifically, I needed to clean the carbs on my bike. When we moved to our new apartment over a year and a half ago, I was suddenly walking distance from work. I parked my bike in the garage, and ended up not touching it for pretty much a full year. I had always intended on getting it out every few weeks and riding it around, but this was when Spy Hunter was going into full crunch mode so between that and me just being lazy I never got around to it. When I finally got the bike out a few months ago it barely ran. I replaced the battery and ran a bunch of gas-additive carb cleaner through it, but it was still very rough.

So on Saturday I took off the gas tank, disconnected everything from the carbs (gee, writing it like that makes that part seem simple - in reality, the throttle cables are a real bitch to disconnect, and getting the little rubber tubes between the carbs and the airbox in and out scraped up my knuckles something fierce), and slid them out from the side of the bike. I took them apart and soaked the parts in a little tub of carb cleaner liquid, sprayed carb cleaner through all of the little passages and jets, and scrubbed everything down with a toothbrush.

Around then I drove Kaston up to work, and stopped at the store again on the way home to get a pair of needle-nose pliers to make reconnecting the throttle cables a little easier. Once everything was cleaned off, I managed to put it all together, and it still looked more or less like a motorcycle.

So then the moment of truth… After having my motorcycle in pieces to a level I’d only done once before (when I was doing the valve clearance checks, and I had Dad and Granddad there then in case things went south), cleaning everything off, and putting it back together, I turned the key to On and hit the starter button…

And it started! The difference is pretty incredible - the engine is so much smoother. I put on my various safety gear and rode the bike up to Buffalo Wild Wings to have some dinner and a well-deserved Shiner Bock.