I don't have a photo for this one, but I'm gonna get one. In the meantime, here's a link to what has become my favorite group of motorcycle mechanix in the world, Puget Sound Motorcycles in beautiful Tacoma, Wash.

Why? 'Cause they fixed my damn bike!

This is the case. My beloved 1980 Suzuki had, as I may have mentioned in my previous posting, become quite ill. He would start up and ride me around town. First to one errand. And then, to a second. And then...that was it. Then he'd die on me. The battery just wasn't holding a charge.

I checked out my favorite motorcycle website, the GS Resources and asked the pertinent questions and it seemed that everyone was on the same page that the problem was likely my stator. Now, last year when I was unemployed, footloose, etcetera etcetera, I might have considered trying to fix this myself. I might have. But now that I am fully employed in a job I absolutely love, I just don't have the time and I wanted to ride my bike dammit!

So I charged it up and rode it down to Puget Sound Motorcycles, not far from my home. I had been there lots of times before, sometimes looking for parts, usually just gear. I bought a pair of helmets there and a few other odds and ends. I knew they had a shop and even the woman behind the counter had given me mechanical advice before, and I knew they worked on old bikes.

My bike is old, 30 years old, actually. And I had never received a friendly reception at the Suzuki dealer here in Tacoma. They were kind of snotty to me, like I wasn't worth much to them since I didn't have a new bike. You know, isn't that just short-sighted of them? I mean, I will be buying a new bike soon but I can tell you that I won't be going to the dealership in Tacoma. Why should I give them my business when I want to buy a motorcycle, when they treated me so poorly any time I went in there? And I did go in more than once, at least a dozen times over the past few years. Sometimes it was just window shopping, but sometimes I was there to lay down some cash. It never failed. They were always rude to me.

Anyway, Puget Sound Motorcycles wasn't and never were. So I took my bike there. One of their mechanix, a mechanical genius name of Jackie, unscrambled the rats nest that was the wiring in my headlamp housing. Some of it was my fault, some of I will blame on the PO, who once upon a time began tinkering with what is now my bike in an ill-fated bid to turn it into a bobber, I think. He only got as far as yanking off the stock headlamp and tossing on a teeny tiny useless little headlamp about as big as your average flashlight.

Anyway, when I replaced it with a nice 7" bucket, I wasn't able to get the wiring straight. My turn signals wouldn't work, my horn wouldn't blow, and my starter wouldn't start. I had to turn the right turn signal on to activate the starter. I actually didn't mind that much and I've spent the last year using nothing but hand signals, in city driving, on the freeway and even on a highway road trip.

But Jackie fixed all that. She also replaced the stator. The whole deal wasn't cheap, but I knew that fixing all that wiring was gonna be labor intensive and hard on my wallet. It was, but I'm not complaining. I got what I paid for and what I paid for was some solid, meat and potatoes mechanical work.

So, my bike is in the garage now. Soon as I got it home I gave it a bath, polished the tank, and gave it the once over. I plan to ride it into work tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow will be a good day.