Houston, I have a problem!

Ever have a motorcycle shut down on you, in midflight, at 70 mph? All systems just kaput, instantly and all at once! I just did, on a mental health run to Cle Elum, Washington,  and back on my clattertrap KLR 650.....

 As I coasted to a stop on Washington State's Hwy 97, my biker's mind was already grappling with explanations and solutions... No explosion, din or clatter -- so probably not a grenaded engine; no sputter, cough, or wheeze -- so unlikely to be fuel-related; so, the only alternative, something electrical....

 But what electrical? What could collapse a sweet-running KLR all at once and without warning? Spark plug lead, of course, but it's buried under the fuel tank, and if it somehow got vibrated off, I wasn't going to be able to fix the thing alongside the road anyways, and I had disabled the sidestand safety switch and the clutch override safety switch, which, if I still had them, would cause such an instant shutdown if they malfunctioned...... Hey.... Wait a minute!

I then remembered that the internet article I read years ago showing how to cut the wires to those two switches, and then solder them together bypassing the stupid things.... and how the author strongly suggested soldering rather than the much easier twist and tape method..... I have to admit I don't know how to solder, but I do know how to twist and tape, and so I did..... do you suppose?

 Yup, within seconds, I had found that one of my old school redneck twists and tapes had untwisted and almost untaped..... I pulled the remains of the rotten old tape off and re-

twisted the bare wires, and the bloody good bike fired up again most satisfactorily! On the road again......

I love solving mechanical mysteries, especially those of my own making....

My drug of choice....

Good motorcycles are powerfully addictive...and I think the reason is because, like drugs, they seem to make you more than you are. Faster, more powerful, "able to leap buildings in a single bound!" Good motorcycles provide the illusion, at least, of total freedom and power... You can change horizons as fast as you can twist the throttle; you can cross continents, rolling across borders like an unstoppable storm; you can literally extend "yourself" for hundreds and hundreds of miles.... Thousands, really, to be honest.... Those of us born to the wheel know how addictive they are, and we are good with it.

The photo below, taken on the Seward Highway in Alaska, 2005, our second trip up, is kinda how I feel about all motorcycles on nearly all days! I love the damn things; I will ride them until I die, or until I can no longer hold one up....and then I'll bolt on a sidecar and ride until I die! If Heaven hasn't got good motorcycles, than why is it called Heaven? I pity people who don't ride...how do they live, and why?  Rubber down, my Buckoes!  And keep that white line running!

Becoming a motorcyclist...

Becoming a motorcyclist

was the best decision of my life, and I was fortunate enough to make it early.  Notice I said "motorcyclist," and not "biker."  I don't collect, build, sit on, trailer or show "bikes."   I ride motorcycles... long and hard and often.

 A modern motorcycle, ridden correctly, is one of the most freedom enhancing machines ever devised by human beings.... continents, mountain ranges, deserts and plains.... they all go  much better with a motorcycle! I am so thankful that I was given the freedom and opportunity to spend much of my life on a series of powerful and affordable bikes....

I was born free, lived free, and -- God willing -- I shall die free, and no one could ask more from life.  Freedom is my most important, over-riding value, and nothing lends itself to freedom as much as a  motorcycle.

The greatest impediments to human freedom? At least in this society? Are the restrictions and fears generated in your own mind.... Don't let your dying words be, "I wish I would have....."  Regrets on the deathbed are to be avoided at all costs.
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