A Yamaha for me

Well I can’t seem to find time to commit to a blog with any regularity anymore; I can’t seem to find time for just about anything these days. In fact I don’t really have time to write this today and if you knew how long it actually took me to write it you would probably laugh, I’m sure that anyone that reads this could read it all the way through in a matter of minutes, this has taken three days of writing a little here and a little there. Anyway on with the post. I often wonder how many people actually read this thing, I have the little thing that tells how many visitors come here and where they are from, but how many people really come to this site and find something that they feel is worth spending a few minutes of their precious time reading, (please don’t think I was being sarcastic about your time being precious, I fully understand that every minute is valuable). It is my hope to put things on my blog that are enjoyable to read, maybe a little informative, maybe thought provoking, but hopefully not something that you come away from feeling as though it was a total waste of time. So with all that being said, I will shift gears here and talk about my latest so called passion. I recently purchased a 2002 Yamaha YZF600R motorcycle, not the fastest of the sport bikes but also not the most uncomfortable. It has a little more upright seating position than most sport bikes, so it’s kind of like a sport touring bike, sort of, but not really. So the last time I rode a motorcycle was back about 20 years ago, back in 1992 or maybe 93, when a friend of mine let me ride his bike (250 cc of some sort), and even then I was in no way a proficient rider. So some people may ask why on earth I would buy a powerful sport bike like this with my current level of riding experience, well there have been a couple times that I have asked myself the same question. I am kind of a big guy, 6’4” and about 250 lbs, and I knew that when I did get a bike that I would ride it a lot, and I knew that getting a bike with a smaller engine to “learn on” would just mean that I would need a bigger bike soon. I have read several places that encourage new or inexperienced riders to start out with a smaller bike and I would also encourage others to start out with a smaller less powerful bike and eventually move up to a larger bike (kind of like a do as I suggest not as I do sort of thing). Obviously this was not something I felt was for me, there were a couple of factors that dictated my decision, the question of cost ended up being one of the main factors. I was able to convince my wife that buying a bike was a good idea but I figured I would have a hard time convincing her that I needed to upgrade soon, so I kind of had to get what I wanted with one shot and I accepted the possibility that I would have to start out on a bike that was more powerful than I really should be riding. Oh but I will be careful and respect the power HA HA HA. So, in February of 2012 I found my bike and was able to bring home the newest edition to the random things that I decide I want to do. When I picked up the bike it would not even start, it had been sitting in a barn for over a year, maybe closer to two years, so I took the chance that I could get it running again without much expense. (this is also something that I would recommend against doing, I tend to believe that I can figure how to repair most things, most of the time I am correct in this thinking but there have been times when it has gotten me in trouble) So after searching through the YZF600R Forums and Youtube for tips to get the bike running again, I started my journey into some of the inner workings of my bike. The first thing that I figured I would need to do would be to clean the carburetors out, the bike still had the same gas in it that it was parked with over a year ago, not a good thing for a carbureted engine, no matter what it is. I won’t go into all that was involved in getting the carbs clean but I will say that I spent about four days taking apart and putting together all the parts in and associated with the fuel and air delivery systems and believe me when I say that gasoline can turn into jello. Then I changed to spark plugs, motor oil and oil filter and put everything back together, also put in a new battery. Then came the moment of truth, I put in the key turned the ignition on pushed the start button and it would not start, quick review of all that I had done reminded me that I had not attached two of the four spark plug wires, made that correction and pushed the start button…. It’s alive!!! I wont bore you with all the other details involved with getting the bike street legal, but I was able to start riding the bike in late February thanks to the mild winter we had this year. I started out just riding around my neighborhood, doing lots of starts and stops, my biggest fear is being like one of the people that you see on youtube that pop the clutch and as the bike pulls they hang on for dear life and by holding on they give the bike more throttle and they zoom off until the bike flips out from under them or they hit something. I will admit there have been a couple times that the bike almost got away from me, but so far so good with keeping it rubber side down. Anyway here are some photos