The motorcycle drama continues.

On the Good side: One new and inexpensive 15Amp fuse brought the Suzuki back to life. That and having it's battery recharged meant it started without a hitch and ran... well, it ran like a very old bike, which means lots of oily smoke and rough noise. But it runs strong.

Suzuki - They just won't die.

On the Very Good side: Loving members of my tribe banded together and bought me a new battery for my Yamaha since the old battery doesn't appear to exist, at least as far as the batter charger is concerned. We all crossed fingers and hoped the new battery would be the solution to the bike's dead-ness.

On the Negative side: Hooking up the new battery to the Yamaha did nothing. Zilch. Nada. It's dead-ness remained just as dead as... some very dead thing. A doornail, I think.

On the Very Good side: Undaunted and with a deep reserve of Refusing-To-Give-Up R managed to take the ignition panel off and traced the ignition wires to the REAL fuse for ignition. Apparently the other eight or so fuses I found in the rat nest of wires all deal with a bunch of other things. What they deal with I had no idea, but I'm suspecting I might have some clues to a couple of them.

The fuse she found was on a black wire and encased in a black in-line fuse case and tucked deep between the frame and the gas tank, so it's no surprise I never noticed it. Once pulled, though, it was the obvious point of failure. The fuse wasn't just blown, the fuse casing was partially melted and the wire burned through part of it's insulation. Evidently the surge was huge, but just as evidently the fuse did it's job. The point right before the fuse was the center of the melted bits, everything after the fuse was intact and unscathed. Let us all bow our heads in a moment of respect for the poor selfless fuse who gave up it's life so that the bike itself would live.

Bless you little fuse. *snif*

We attempted to find a similar fuse assembly at Canadian tire, but no luck. We thought we'd found a usable casing but it was actually too small for the replacement fuse. Still undaunted R took a pointy tool to the old casing, scraping all the burnt pieces away, trimmed and re-attached the wire, and managed to seat the new fuse in what remained of the old casing. A judicious cocoon of electrical tape served to seal the deal and we installed the home made fuse assembly into the bike's hidden innards. It might sound risky to you, but trust me the rest of the wiring is just as ... "special".

Putting the whole deal together we turned the key, made sure body parts were clear of all electrical and potential moving parts, and hit the button. First off, the good news was that all the lights came back on when we turned the key. The second bit of good news was that the starter turned over quite energetically when the start button was pressed. We did bite our nails a bit, though, as it took a good pair of minutes to get the bike to actually start. The gas in the tank, it be a bit old.

So, it runs.

I tucked all the rasta-dreads wiring back into the frame as best I could and replaced the side panels to hold it all in. Imagine picking up a wad of cooked spaghetti with salad tongs and you'll have a pretty good impression of what the whole setup looks like.

And thus we took off for our first ride of the season, a quick jaunt to the belt-line to join some friends and family for dinner at Chianti's. And lo it worked. Well... mostly.

There are still a few hitches.

The original battery had some additional wire attached to it that connected to some lead from the display panel. The new battery has no such wire. While the bike still runs without it there's a status indicator on the bike's dash that I think is trying to tell me I have no battery.

Ah well, I can ignore that.

The second hitch relates to the gas tank. I think I may have jostled some other wire that connected to a gas tank sensor because the instrument panel also tells me I have no fuel, even right after I've filled up.

Ah well, I can live without a gas gauge.

The Suzuki doesn't even have one. With that bike you simply reset the travel odometer when you fill up and keep in mind that you generally have 180 to 200 km worth of fuel, depending on how you drive. When the travel odometer gets to 150 km you start thinking about fueling up. Not quite as convenient as a fuel gauge but you get used to it.

Sadly, the travel odometer on the Yamaha doesn't work.

Ah well, I thought, I'll just mentally note what the real odometer is set at when I fill up and keep a target number in mind. That will let me know when I need to start looking for a gas station.

So, we filled up the bikes and took off down the road. I took note of the odometer reading, added 150 to it and set that as the number in my mind.

After far too short of a ride we arrived at the restaurant and found parking nearby. I thought to check the odometer to see how far we'd ridden and thus estimate how much gas I had left.

The odometer reading was exactly the same as it was at the gas station. Apparently it isn't just the trip odometer that's busted, the real odometer is busted too.

*sigh*

Okay, now I just have to be paranoid about filling up frequently.

After dinner R and I chose to take a very roundabout route home to get more riding time in. We ventured up into the NW before coming down Sarcee to Glenmore and eventually home. Along the way we tested out our bike radios and found them a bit... touchy. We're definitely going to have to play around with the VOX settings so that speaking will set them off but road noise won't. I expect it'll be a while before we get it just right.

In the meantime R pointed out that my brake light doesn't work when I hit the brakes. Okay, that will need to be addressed right away. The last thing I need is some sleepy driver flattening me to the pavement because he can't tell I'm stopping.

Hopefully it's just a bulb and not another fuse in that horrendous rats nest.

The adventure continues.