Into every ride comes tests...

[Sparky]

Some things that make a "milk run" ride from Montreal, through Vermont's Champlain Islands, and back up Route 7 a trifle curdled.

*Reoccurence of the stall-out when on high speed runs. Honestly, it happened three seperate times today. I really try hard not to flood the emissions control canister. But frack it, soon as I can that damn thing is getting yanked. California can blow me for all I care.

*On the other hand, one of those stall outs was fortunate. I noticed the fender and exhaust bracket were wet. Not, it turned out, from dripping gas. From engine oil. It seems that somehow I crossthreaded the dipstick plug so there was a small gap; silly thing wasn't seated right at all. Visions of engine rebuilds danced in my head as I hurriedly checked the oil level. Luckily, the loss was only down to the three marker. I'd actually packed a funnel along with the left-over 15W40 bottle kept under the seat. It took only 120ML of oil to refill to the top.

*Put everything back in the trunk, slam it shut, get back on the--oh...keys now under the locked seat. About twenty minutes of pushing, borrowing a gas station's Phillips screwdriver, and undoing the front panel enough to trace and pull the trunk catch cable (NOT the ignition wire!) left me dripping with sweat and cursing. As an aside--if anyone can get the front screw in the middle of the facade out, let me know. I just managed to strip the damn thing without budging it. Good thing the inside screws near the top of the legshield were more obliging.

Compared to that, getting caught in a rainstorm and nearly running out of gas on an unexpectedly gas-stationless stretch of Route 133 back to Montreal were minor irritants!

[Perkussion]

Yeah, when I repainted the lower panels probably the most time consuming thing
was getting that giant single screw off the big front panel.
It took several attempts with different screwdrivers and I was sure that
they used Loctite on it. I bet it took half an hour just to get that screw out!

I was really trying to not chew it up because it would look like hell
if it got rusty.

I just dabbed some excess grease that was on under that cover on the
screw thread before I put the cover back on so I don't have that problem next time.
Maybe.

Bummer about your post, Sparky. That's a bad day in Buddyville.

[jfrost2]

Yea, my front screw is half stripped, I needed a high torque drill just to get it off and on.

[Dooglas]

Yea, my front screw is half stripped, I needed a high torque drill just to get it off and on.

An impact wrench is the motorcycle (or scooter) repair guy's best friend.