Motorcycle :: Weeble
June 05, 2006 / Monday
Bye Bye Weeble
I sold Weeble last week, the night I brought the Monster home.
Selling Weeble was surprisingly easy. Getting Weeble to leave was surprisingly hard.
I picked up the Monster around lunchtime on Wednesday. When I got back to the office, I wrote up an ad for Weeble, added pictures, and posted it on Craiglist. Within 2 hours, I had 15 replies.
I had school until 8 that night, and since it starts to get dark around then, I figured people would probably come the next day to look at it. Surprisingly, a couple guys from SF wanted to see it that night. They seemed to think it'd be sold if they waited. I guess that's probably true.
8:30 rolled around, and two guys who looked to be in their late teens or early twenties (but then, they were Asian, so maybe they weren't as young as they looked) showed up. I offered to fire up the halogen worklamp, but they declined, and instead strapped camping LEDs on their heads. This was their first bike so they didn't really know what to look for, but thanks to the wonders of teh intarwebz, they had a checklist.
It made for quite a sight. Picture Weeble, sitting in front of my garage in the dark, and two guys with LED lights strapped to their heads crouching around examining it. This went on for a while.
They asked me to start it up, so I did, with great ease. It sat there for a while with the engine running, and at some point it stopped. Engine flooded? I dunno. In any case, they were happy it started fine cold.
They examined some more, then spent a lot of time debating a test ride. They'd both taken the MSF course 6 months ago, but hadn't ridden since.
After more debating, one of them decided he'd ride it up the block.
Except that Weeble decided not to start.
We cranked and cranked to no avail. And then the battery ran low. Sorry folks, show's over. You can go home now.
But they didn't go home. They bought the bike anyway. They'd brought a truck with them, plus ramps, and they got everything set up to load the bike.
And then they couldn't figure out how to load the bike. The truck was pretty high off the ground, they had no experience pushing a bike even on flat surfaces, and I sure as hell wasn't going to run the bike up a narrow ramp while trying to jump onto a three foot high truckbed.
So they left the bike in my garage for the night. I offered to ride it up to SF for them the next day, but the battery really was drained, so I borrowed a charger from Carolyn the next night (Thanks Carolyn!) and charged it back up. It started up the next morning and I left it out front for pick up.
They put a cover and lock on Weeble during the day and came back that night to pick it up. They called to let me know and that was it. Weeble is gone. Bye bye, Weeble. Have a good life.
12:24 PM | Weeble| Comments (0)
May 01, 2006 / Monday
Stealth Weeble
I bought a stock exhaust for Weeble last week. The gaskets for it came today, so I installed it after work and went for a ride. It sounds so much better! Yes, better. The Vance & Hines exhaust on it before didn't do much for the bike, except to make it sound like an angry lawnmower. It screamed, "Hey, look at me! I'm annoyingly loud and SLOW!"
Annoyingly loud no more. It sounds normal now. What does this mean for me?
1. I can start and warm up my bike outside my garage, instead of having to push it from the very back of my building out to the street first. The apartment manager lives above my garage, you see, and I don't want to piss her off.
2. I won't scare the crap out of unsuspecting drivers anymore when I creep up on them at stoplights and take off as the light turns green.
A couple notes about the post-install ride ...
1. My mountain bike lowside in the parking lot got to me more than I thought. I don't trust my motorcycle tires as much as I should, or used to. I'll learn to trust them again in time, but as of right now, turning right at speed is not at all fun.
2. If you head west on Stevens Creek Blvd and continue onto the street it feeds into you end up at a concrete plant.
I guess the only other thing to note is that the slightly heavier stock exhaust was enough of a weight difference that I noticed it when I first sat on my bike and lifted it off its sidestand. I stopped noticing it after 10-15 seconds. I'm amazed at how the brain is able to notice the change in weighting, adjust, and quickly reprogram so I stop noticing it.
08:03 PM | Weeble| Comments (4)
March 18, 2006 / Saturday
Weeble Weeble
It's beautiful out. Today may well be our first day of really nice weather all year. I decided to take Weeble out for some exercise. Hooray for twisty roads 10 minutes from my house. Bay Area, I love you.
Had a good ride, came home, and decided to make my usual (unsuccessful) post-ride attempts at getting Weeble on its center stand. This time, however, I was armed with some advice from Gerald regarding handlebar positioning. Point 'em straight, he said. Everyone's advice to turn 'em left sure hadn't worked, so I was happy to try it G's way. I pointed 'em straight, balanced the bike, rocked it back, stood on the lever, and up went Weeble!
Yeah! That RULES! Thank you, Gerald! :-D
I lubed the chain, let Weeble back down, and did it again. No fluke! WahoO!
05:08 PM | Weeble| Comments (6)
January 07, 2006 / Saturday
Why, Sky, Why?
Well, the ride definitely did not go as planned. First, Weeble wouldn't start. Carolyn checked the fuses, then the battery. I'm still not sure what exactly was wrong (loose connection, maybe?), but everything magically worked again after reassembly. We headed up 280, and it started raining on us. We stopped for lunch, and the sun came out. We got back on the road, and the sun disappeared. Now I'm back in Sunnyvale, and it's fluffy clouds and blue skies.
Despite the uncooperative sky, it was good to get out. Plus, Carolyn discovered Weeble's toolkit (I suppose I should have checked for it when I got the bike), which, I must say, is ten times more useful than the rusty wrench that came with Flopsie.
03:29 PM | Motorcycle:Weeble| Comments (0)
November 20, 2005 / Sunday
Weeble Is Here!
Weeble, in Sunnyvale! Hooray!
05:41 PM | Weeble| Comments (4)
October 09, 2005 / Sunday
Dammit, Weeble!
Not to be outdone by Flopsie, Weeble took a chunk out of my car today.
Weeble scratch center, Flopsie scratch left.
Happy one year anniversary, Flopsie scratch.
03:15 PM | GTI:Weeble| Comments (0)
September 03, 2005 / Saturday
Tradeoffs
Took Weeble out for some exercise just now.
Love the handling, miss the power.
I wonder how long before I get something different.
02:21 PM | Weeble| Comments (3)
May 02, 2005 / Monday
Hey Clean Lookin'
De-decal-ed Weeble just now. No more ugly purple "GS500E" on the tail. Aside from the turn signals, which will remain orange, Weeble is now greyscale!
I find it funny that the only place I use my blow dryer now is in the garage.
07:55 PM | Weeble| Comments (1)
User Error
My idiot-proof bike has proven that I'm an idiot. My clutch problem wasn't a problem at all. It was due to my not knowing that the sidestand needed to be up. I can understand why they idiot-proofed the bike, but I kind of liked the "go ahead and naturally select yourself out of our gene pool" capabilities of the Zx-6e.
Still runs like crap cold. I'll need to take it in for a tuneup when I get back from Denver. Don't really feel like doing all that work myself.
10:11 AM | Weeble| Comments (6)
April 29, 2005 / Friday
Weeble Woes
Adjusted the clutch lever on Weeble last night. Now, when I try to put the bike into 1st gear (still pulling on the clutch lever), the bike stalls. I adjusted the lever back to its original position. No luck. Lever loose, stalls. Lever tight, stalls. I overshot the original position both ways to be sure. Still stalls. What the hell is going on?
The only other variable I can think of is the motor oil I added Wednesday evening. The engine runs fine, though. It's still doing that unhappy cold thing, but a tuneup and possibly a rejetting should take care of that. The problem is, I need to be able to ride it to get it to the mechanic for a tuneup.
Bah.
Anyone have any idea what's going on, or suggestions as to how I can fix this enough to ride it to the other side of the city?
• • •
Hrmm, I wonder if it's this.
If it is, I will laugh. Or cry. Or throw something. At the moment, I really can't say.
02:38 PM | Weeble| Comments (6)
April 27, 2005 / Wednesday
Weeble's Been Neglected
I suspected from the very brown (but now clear!) brake fluid that my new used bike was likely in need of other maintenance. I read today that GS500E's (I don't like the apostrophe there, but I don't want it to look like the 's' is part of the model number, bah!) burn oil, so I figured I'd pick up a quart of 10W-40 on my way home and top off what was missing until I got around to either doing an oil change or having one done. The dipstick was dry. Dryyy. So I poured some oil in. And then some more ...
I eventually poured the whole quart in. The dipstick was still dry.
I ended up topping the last little bit off with some 0W-40, which I keep around for my car. It was just a little bit, so I figure it can't hurt too much.
Poor Weeble. I think I'm going to drop Weeble off for some professional TLC. I'd been putting it off for my old bike, but now that I've found one that I really do want to ride, I think it's time.
In other news, I got some black paint and covered up a bit o' exposed metal on the tank. No biggie, just documenting.
09:21 PM | Weeble| Comments (0)
April 26, 2005 / Tuesday
Maintenance I Can Handle
Got home at a decent hour, ran a few loads of laundry up the street, and in the time it took to wash and dry my clothes, managed to bleed my brakes, remove the previous owner's cool-but-not-quite-my-style stickers, and add a sticker of my own.
The phrase to marvel at above is "managed to bleed my brakes". It was amazingly easy, and took much less time than I'd expected. I guess the nice thing about brake bleeding on a motorcycle (as opposed to a car) is you don't have to jack the thing up and take off the wheel ... 4 times!
Later this week I'll adjust the clutch lever and perhaps figure out some better choke usage habits. I think Flopsie the needs-30-seconds-of-choke-and-no-more-ever Wundermotorrad spoiled me. What's up, Weeble, why does it take you so long to wake up?
10:22 PM | Weeble| Comments (4)
Weeble Goes To Work
Rode Weeble into work this morning. A much different experience from Flopsie. For one, the friction point on the clutch is much farther out, and it took me until the end of my ride to get used to it. No biggie, just different.
I was somewhat annoyed that Weeble is not as happy cold as Flopsie was. Perhaps Weeble needs a tuneup? Probably a good idea anyhow.
As for the freeway, well, I can kiss any speeding hooligan tendencies I may be harboring goodbye. More wind + less power + no expectations from other drivers for me to ride fast = I can cruise along in lane 3, la la la.
More along the lines of la la la: I find myself much less worried about accidentally flopping this bike over. GS500E = light light light (turnable turnable turnable), with an even lower seat height, to boot!
:)
09:36 AM | Weeble| Comments (6)
April 24, 2005 / Sunday
Hellooo Weeble!
Yup, Flopsie's gone (long live Flopsie!). Welcome Weeble.
As the Douglet said when suggesting the name, "Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down."
Weeble. That cracks me up.
12:09 PM | Weeble| Comments (6)
April 23, 2005 / Saturday
Goodbye Flopsie?
Took Flopsie (who has, to its credit, stopped flopping ;) out for what might have been our last ride together just now.
Tomorrow morning, someone's coming over with a GS500E (plus a bit o' moolah), and I might trade Flopsie away.
Of course, on today's little ride, I thought, hey, this bike's pretty easy to ride. It is, but it's all relative, and I'd love to have something even easier to ride.
So if I do get another bike, what should I name it?
Gyroscope.
