Season opener

[wj_hurd]

So I got the bike out finally, as NY has reached spring... Even though we had more snow this spring, than the whole month of December!

Sooooo.... I had taken the battery out... Had a tender on it all winter... Actually let me re-illiterate... My step son took my battery out. So I brought my nicely charged battery up to Buffalo to be installed and ride my baby back home 65 miles.
First thing I find... a 3/4" paint chip on the tank, that wasn't there before. This is because the fork stop is missing, so the clutch lever can hit the tank... Still WTF!!! He denied it was there! Love the kid... But damn... Own up to it!

So we get the battery up and in... and because I didn't remove the battery or the battery box, I neglected to notice I was missing an upper bolt from the mix. The front 2 bolts were gone from the previous owner, so they were never there, so I didn't realize the importance of said missing bolt.

So fast forward about 50 miles, I'm pulling off the thruway and I hear an odd noise. I can't quite place it, but it sounds like a grinding noise. It changes when I weave. So instead of going right home.. I go to my Bro-in-law and see whats up. He is just a couple miles off the thruway. I pull in, start up his lawn, and I feel the bike DIG IN to the ground and stop. The battery box dropped forward and it was dragging on the fuckin ground!
So we get the bike in the garage with a bungee cord keeping the battery box off the ground.
Damage:
Battery box, the front ears are shot, gound almost through the mounting holes. The rectifier came unplugged, no damage [emoji106]. Battery cables got bent some and the negative terminal on the battery got cracked, but it didn't break off. All in all... it could have been worse! I could have caught the box into a pot hole and gotten thrown off the bike and really had a sad story to tell.

So... Here we are today... I scored for $27.00 W/Shipping off e-bay a new battery box, and I have my Jardine drag pipes yet to install. This weekend, both will be done. I'll sand the battery box down and nice, and paint it with a nice coat of gloss black. Mount the new pipes and cruise baby! [emoji2]


Oh and another thing...
I run the Rotella full Synth oil... My oil from last season has about 2,000 miles on it... Change it? or get another season on it?

[enforcer]

Oil, depends on how you stored it. There are acids that builds up in the oil while it sits, but here's my 2¢.

So long as you ran it up to temp before you stored it, that should have gotten the moisture out and because it's syn, it should be fine. I usually run dino, change at the beginning of the season and don't rude enough th need changing until the beginning of next season.

[wj_hurd]

Oil, depends on how you stored it. There are acids that builds up in the oil while it sits, but here's my 2¢.

So long as you ran it up to temp before you stored it, that should have gotten the moisture out and because it's syn, it should be fine. I usually run dino, change at the beginning of the season and don't ride enough to need changing until the beginning of next season.

Yes it was rode well prior to storage.... He rode it a couple of times when he took it up to buffalo when we had some really good weather.

[wj_hurd]

For $25, change the damn oil ya cheapskate. Or, complain about it after something goes wrong. Owner's choice!

[enforcer]

For $25, change the damn oil ya cheapskate. Or, complain about it after something goes wrong. Owner's choice!

Try $100 on my Harley for all 3 holes. Never had an adverse effect from doing it my way. But I meticulously check the oil for quantity and consistency throughout riding season.