Friday I took off around 12:30 for the motorcycle ride down to Key West. Of course I was a bit nervous about such a ride but to be hones I just needed to get out of here for a while and I haven’t seen my old surf buddy Dan in quite some time. The first leg was obviously the fastest; Florida Turnpike down to Miami then on to the 45 mile per hour section of the trip.

85 on a motorcycle for an hour or so can be a fun ride though and the only real pain in the ass was the tolls. Every few miles it was stop, take off a glove, dig for a dollar then hit it again. By the time I got to the keys my right hand was numb and so was my ass but it was all good. I bought a little piece of plastic which allows me to just rest my hand on the throttle instead of gripping it the entire time which helped immensely. Like an $11 cruise control.

Once in the keys it took about three hours to get to Key West. I had to stop for a beer about halfway down to give my butt a rest but other than that it was a beautiful ride and I’d recommend it to anyone with a bike. Gorgeous.

Dan and Mary were kind enough to house me for a couple days which was really cool of them. I finally got to hang out with ole’ Danny boy and catch up. So good to see him. Since he’s got a little one in the house it was tough to really go out and enjoy the scenery but how much is there really to see that I haven’t already on my last trip. We went out on Friday night for a few drinks which was pretty cool.

The ride back was just as beautiful. I wore full gear all the way back since I felt like I was covered in bugs on the way down. Luckily the weather was perfect, not too hot and not chilly at all. I thought about taking 95 back but then finally decided to just hammer out the last leg of the trip on the Turnpike.

I did finally find the little tiki bar I stopped at last time on the way back. So peaceful, live acoustic guitar and an ocean view while having a cheeseburger. So relaxing, just what I needed. It’s located right next to Hog Heaven on the south end of Islamorada.

Once back it really felt good to be home. Sometimes vacations really make you thankful for what you have.

Thanks again to Dan and Mary for their enormous hospitality. It was a nice trip guys.

After I finish up this home page comp and grab some lunch I’m off to Key West for the weekend to hang out with my buddy, Dan and his wife and kid. The ride should take me between 4 and 5 hours which is probably the longest I’ve ever been on a motorcycle but it should be a good ride. 240 miles from here to Key West and half of it will be in the keys.

I just really need a good weekend out of West Palm Beach; somewhere more relaxing.

As far as other things in my life, there’s no longer a cute little Brazilian girl (I know I never talk about girls on my site anymore but…) to hang out with. It feels like I’ve lost so much this year… first I made a stupid mistake and now Vinny and family are pretty much absent, Jamie moved back to England, Zack moved to L.A., Ramil is super busy so it’s been kind of lonely around here. Not that there aren’t any others to hang out with but it’s been a stretch. When best friends aren’t around it makes it kind of tough.

Anyway, stoked about the Key West trip. Now back to work…. I’ll be posting images from the trip up on my facebook page. Have a great Easter weekend everyone!

After running for at least a half an hour the idle becomes erratic and bounces between 1000 and 2000 rpms. If it reaches the 1k rpm area it acts like (and sometimes does) it’s going to die. I have to keep the throttle open to make sure it doesn’t just shut off.

If it does shut off there’s a strong fuel smell coming from the exhaust. This may just mean the mixture is too rich but it runs just fine cold. I’ve adjusted the idle to around 1400 instead of the 1200 that the shop adjusted it to. This at least keeps it from dipping below the 1k mark and causing a complete failure of the bike.

At this point I just want it fixed. If I don’t get a call from the shop by 3pm today I’m just going to go pick up the damn thing and ride it till it dies. If it’s the stator there’s nothing I can do about it. The steps involved in replacing that are far beyond my capabilities and require a complete engine teardown. No way I have the tools or know-how to get that done.

The hard part is it only acts up once the engine is good and warm which means simply putting it on the dyno won’t show much unless it’s been run for awhile.

Crossing my fingers I get some good news today.

Today was no exception. After a pretty decent weekend I woke up this morning and rode out to my CPA on PGA Blvd to pick up my taxes. The bike’s been running odd lately so I was just taking it easy.

As I pull off the exit for PGA I downshifted to first, then neutral (my bike doesn’t show what gear it’s in). Neutral felt kind of loose to get in the shifter under my left foot was acting weird. So I took off in first and tried to go to second when nothing… it wouldn’t shift. The entire pedal assembly had lost a bolt so pulling the shifter up did nothing.

Ensue cussing… After pulling over I walked back about a half mile or more to the exit and looked for the bolt. I found two along the walk and somehow one actually fit. It wasn’t the one I lost but it fit so I picked my taxes up and headed home….gently. Picked up a bolt from the bike shop on the way home and finally got it all put back together.

What a nightmare. The damn Gremlins are pulling my bike apart!

So I head down to the garage and fire it up, completely expecting it to not run well but oddly it ran just fine. I decided to head over to the shop anyway and see if it would act up on the ride over….nothing. After a quick conversation with the mechanic I decided to just put some fuel treatment in the tank in hopes it would help.

Autozone is only a few blocks away so I headed over there and dropped some fuel treatment in the tank and immediately it began acting up once again. Back to the shop to drop it off but just as I get there it runs just fine once again….son of a bitch!

I decided to leave it there and just have them run it on the dynamometer and hopefully they’ll find and fix the problem.

The bike shop is about three miles away and I wasn’t about to pay a damn cab driver $15 for a three mile ride. Fuck that. So I bit the bullet and walked back.