The Motorcycle Diaries

Many people who know me wouldn't think that I had a motorcycle, but I do. It is a 1996 Yamaha Virago 535 Special Edition.

It was a somewhat impulsive purchase I made on my 30th birthday. It probably was the single event the brought on my getting married because shortly after purchasing the steel horse, I met my soon-to-be wife.

Well, I needed to take the bike over to the Tag Center to get the VIN inspected so I can get my Oklahoma Title. It was a very frustrating day. The bike started without issue, but as soon as I tried to throttle up, it just conked off.

Well a friend of mine gave me a few things to look for and I decided to try and deal with those things today. I took the seat off the bike so I could get to where the fuel filter and other important hoses are and noticed that the battery was severly bulging.

It turns out that the vent tubing for the liquid battery had somehow gotten kinked and was preventing the gasses from escaping. I probably caught a major explosing before it actually happened. As soon as I unkinked the tube, I heard this loud whoosh of air like you'd heard out of an air compressor and the battery went back to it's original shape.

Well, I needed to get the battery out to check the fluid level because I couldn't get a good angle from within it's housing. I normally would just remove the two fuel lines than ran overtop and pull it out. But, I guess I have neve3r done that before with a full tank of gas, because when I pulled the tubing off this time, gas starts shooting out everywhere.

It was a geyser of gas coming out of the where I pulled the tube out and from the tub itself. I was frantically trying to get the tub back in place. I was successful in replacing the tubing, but I was soaked in gas from the waist down and it was all over the floor of the garage.

I took an entire roll of paper towels to soak up the gas on the floor and I think I started seeing pink elephants from the fumes eminating from my pants.

I guess it's time I break open the wallet and purchase a repair manual