In the winter I cover up my bikes, remove the insurance and pull the batteries. I try not to think about riding for the winter and retreat into my video games and books. This year however we really didn't have a winter. I decided I'd had enough and put both bikes on the road a week ago.
The KLR was really all set; the only thing it needed was a headlight. $25 for a single bulb! Otherwise the bike is completely sorted out. I made so many modifications to it last season that I can't think of a single thing I would add to it.
The VFR had a dead battery. I replaced it last Friday and took it out for a 20 mile ride and it ran great. It s so nice to ride such a smooth bike again.
I have a group of riding buddies that live in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island. We've been riding together for about 8 years now. We were all lamenting that we didn't do much riding in 2011 so we decided to meet for lunch and plan some rides in 2012.
My intention was to ride the VFR down to the lunch meet in Connecticut last Sunday. I went to start up the bike and the battery wasn't very strong, but the bike did start. I rode to the ATM and shut the bike off to test it. The battery had almost no power and the bike wouldn't start. I was able to get the bike going down a small incline and pop started it and rode it home, swapping it out with the KLR.
My friends and I made some good plans for the season: at least one ride together a month, a 4-5 day trip to Virginia and West Virginia and some weekend trips to Pennsylvania and the Adirnodacks. We threw in some dual sport rides too, like a 3 day weekend in Vermont.
A couple days later I took the VFR apart and diagnosed the problem as a fried rectifier/regulator. This is a notoriously bad part on the VFR. This is my third one, but I haven't replaced one since 2005. I'm waiting for the new one to arrive now.
The VFR has 99,820 miles on it. Last year I started the season with 97,000 and thought for sure I would break 100 K. Now the R/R is holding me back. When I do break it I will post up some kind of maintenance report on how the VFR has fared over those 100,000 miles.
It's felt great to be riding again. I felt deflated after my aborted trip in August so the several month lay-off has really helped. Look for a more active blog with more ride reports this year.
