Hows my little Biker?

On July first I got my first ever motorcycle, a Triumph Legend.

Laura and I went back and fourth on a few things before we were finally able to make the purchase (like the timing of the helmet purchase), but things ended up working out for the better because I was able to troll around craigslist a bit longer to find this exciting bike. Better yet I was able to drive my friend Diana's bike for a weekend, after riding hers around for awhile I found some things in a bike I liked and didn't like.

Like many things in my life, of course this hasn't been the smoothest ride thus far. After having the bike for just about a week I left the key switched on for a couple of days and completely drained the battery. I got the bright idea of roll starting it implanted in my head and the next morning I gave it a shot. In full gear in 85 degree heat I was running around the block pushing a 500 pound bike while hopping on and off of it...to a complete and sweaty failure. I was so bent on getting it to start this way I even managed to convince Laura to push it around that evening with no better luck, just more heat, humidity, and sweat. So I bought a trickle charger, learned how to take the seat off, and found the battery. The next day it fired up and all was grand, for another week...

I was driving home from work and a few blocks from the house the engine died. I thought that it was just my novice self making some sort of clutch error when shifting because the bike started up just fine right away and I made my way home. The next day it happened again, only at the bottom of a valley between the only two big-ish hills within 50 miles of our house, this time it had a tough time starting and I was getting a bit nervous. It started eventually so I quickly did some research before work and found that when the engine isn't getting gas there is probably something wrong with the fuel pump. Lucky me the the fuel to the engine is gravity fed and I'm just an idiot and ran out of gas.

Newly gassed up my Grandpa asked to see my new bike, so I drove it over to the hospital he was staying at in Indiana. On the way home my Accelerator cable snapped. This made me sad because all signs seemed to be saying I wasn't meant to ride a motorcycle. My Dad came to the rescue with his truck and trailer. When we were pushing the bike onto the trailer we bottomed it out on the ramp hinge. When we had it parked my Dad said, well that went pretty smooth. But he wasn't staring at the oil that was pouring out of the bottom of my new motorcycle like me. That little scrape pulled the oil plug and about three inches of metal around it off of the bottom of the bike. Tragedy.

A golf ball could fit in this hole.

The reconstructed plate with the pieces we found.

When I bought the Triumph I was all sorts of excited to work on it myself and make my own repairs. I always thought they would consist of changing the oil and maybe a headlight or a loose wire here or there. Just in case though I bought my very own repair manual about the bike just in time for all this to happen. So it's been a hefty project.

It turned out I had to take off several big and important looking pieces just to get at my accelerator cable connections, all of which were pretty scary tasks for a novice like me. 

I just purchased all of my new pieces, I just hope there aren't many leftover bolts when I'm all done.