Thursday, May 24, 2007

Our used motorcycle

That's Cliff's Gold Wing, without the seat on it. There's been a slight problem with our bike. Cliff would go out to start it up and the battery would be dead. Something, he said, was sucking juice when the motorcycle was off.

He traced it down to the tape player, which we have never used. It seemed to be in a permanent "eject" mode. Yes, it was trying to eject a nonexistent tape. All the time. Whether the Honda was running or not.

Cliff took the wiring out and looked at it, figuring he'd just disconnect the tape player. Not possible, he decided. He called a Honda dealer and found out they would have to diagnose the problem ($70 per hour labor cost) and then they'd send it off to be fixed ($70). He pointed out that he'd already diagnosed the problem, but that wasn't acceptable to them. They have to do it.

He dragged his heels at this, even with me pointing out to him that we spend $80 every six weeks in summer keeping shoes on my horse; so what's the big deal about $140 or so spent on the motorcycle?

Yes, we did recently take it in for a different repair. That's what happens when you opt for a ten-year-old bike rather than a $18,000 brand new one. Some things need to be fixed from time to time.

If it weren't for the fact we use the microphones in the helmets a lot, carrying on long conversations as we ride, Cliff said he'd leave the whole panel out. The clock doesn't work anyhow, and we don't use the radio or tape player. But we really enjoy our conversations!

He seems now to have resigned himself to paying to have the thing fixed.


Figuring the battery has been run down so much lately, and it's the one that was on the bike when we bought it, he bought a new one today. Tomorrow we'll see the electric panel off to the doctor.

And Cliff has four days off, so who knows where we'll end up?

4 comments:

  1. Guess ya know what Cliff is going to be up to for the next four days! He'll figure that all out! We are so totally dumb when it comes to anything mechanical it's pathetic. Have to send things to the shop for every little problem. Grrrrrrr....

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  2. how long will it take for the part to get fixed?

    I hate waiting on stuff like that!

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  3. Barngoddess, I don't know how long. The good thing is, we can ride anyhow; we just have to yell to one another if we want to talk, because the mics in our helmets won't work.

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  4. These old bikes of ours always need something. We have a leak somewhere. Gonna have to take the whole thing apart to find it!

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