Beauty Is Only Skin Deep
When I pulled the bike out of its shipping container it looked great. The seller had done a truly impressive job of polishing and detailing it for the sale. It gleamed in the spring sunshine.
Unfortunately, the beauty was only skin deep. Underneath the gleaming alloy and shiny paint lay a multitude of horrors. I was soon to learn that the seller's statements had all been gross misrepresentations. The "few little drips" was an oil slick under the bike. The "occasional puffs of white smoke" was a heavy cloud of blue smoke coming out of the right exhaust. The "little pinhole leak" in the gas tank was a crack an inch long. The bike burned almost as much oil as gas. The brake lights didn't work. The headlight blew out the first time I started the bike. And so on.
For the rest of 2004, I struggled to get the bike running and roadworthy. I was living in an apartment complex at the time so I had to keep the bike in a storage unit. I started spending my weekends at the storage unit, going through the bike. I fixed the leaks, I rebuilt the carbs, I replaced the bent fork tubes, I fitted new plug wires and points. And so much more. Everywhere I looked I found problems. It seemed endless.
I was in over my head and I knew it. So I sought help. The bike came to me via the internet so I went to the internet for help. I didn't find any local owner's groups but I did find an online support forum. So I signed up and started posting questions.
The guys on the Jerry Doe forum (named after the site owner) were helpful, but there was only so much they could do without actually seeing the bike. It was starting to look hopeless again, but then one of the forum members told me about a local owner's club. He'd seen one of their online newsletters and posted an article from it. So I found out about our local club, Norton Colorado, from an internet friend in Australia!
Unfortunately, the beauty was only skin deep. Underneath the gleaming alloy and shiny paint lay a multitude of horrors. I was soon to learn that the seller's statements had all been gross misrepresentations. The "few little drips" was an oil slick under the bike. The "occasional puffs of white smoke" was a heavy cloud of blue smoke coming out of the right exhaust. The "little pinhole leak" in the gas tank was a crack an inch long. The bike burned almost as much oil as gas. The brake lights didn't work. The headlight blew out the first time I started the bike. And so on.
For the rest of 2004, I struggled to get the bike running and roadworthy. I was living in an apartment complex at the time so I had to keep the bike in a storage unit. I started spending my weekends at the storage unit, going through the bike. I fixed the leaks, I rebuilt the carbs, I replaced the bent fork tubes, I fitted new plug wires and points. And so much more. Everywhere I looked I found problems. It seemed endless.
I was in over my head and I knew it. So I sought help. The bike came to me via the internet so I went to the internet for help. I didn't find any local owner's groups but I did find an online support forum. So I signed up and started posting questions.
The guys on the Jerry Doe forum (named after the site owner) were helpful, but there was only so much they could do without actually seeing the bike. It was starting to look hopeless again, but then one of the forum members told me about a local owner's club. He'd seen one of their online newsletters and posted an article from it. So I found out about our local club, Norton Colorado, from an internet friend in Australia!
posted by debby at 5:29 PM
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