feelin pretty good for a old fart
Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:45 pm
Hi,
I'm the 60 year old going through a mid-life or later crisis. I used
to race scrambles back in the sixties (1965-1967) and also owned a
couple of woods bikes for hunting in the New York State mountains.
After 40 years without a bike, I recently bought a low mileage 2006
and am having a ball. I named it the Praying Mantis" (green of
course). I heard about checking nuts, bolts etc as the single
vibrates a bit, but did not do a thorough job of it as the exhaust
pipe holder cap nuts fell off and the engine upchucked the exhaust
gasket. I picked up 2 replacement nuts from an auto parts store in
town. They weren't cap nuts but I had a scheduled ride coming up that
evening with a new friend so just slammed some 8mm nuts on it without
a gasket for the evening. Called a dealer (unnamed) and picked up the
gaskets...got two while I was there, and the two cap nuts. The metric
nuts I got from the local parts store cost me .30 cents total...the
cap nuts from Kawasaki were $7.68 yipes! I wound up spending over $40
on the two gaskets, two nuts, a spark plug and a can of chain lube.
Their markup must be enormous.
Anyway, all of that to say that I pulled the bike apart today, and
replaced the exhaust gasket, cap nuts, did the T-mod while I had
everything apart, pulled cleaned and reinstalled the battery, same to
the air filter, topped off the oil and oiled the chain. Took me about
2 1/2 hours using my new motorcycle lift from Harbor Freight
(fabulous)...just cranked that baby up into the air so I could sit in
my wheeled work chair, threw on four hold down straps to steady
everything and I was able to wheel the bike all around the garage to
get daylight on all the right angles.
Anyway, I am impressed with the ease with which I could work on the
bike. The Clymmer manual is clear and the bike is very
straightforward...I think I am going to like this new ride.
Bob in CT.