This thing has a battery?

Not long after the high of becoming a biker, things changed. I have been told that when you buy an old bike, things go wrong. You are always tinkering with things. Candi was not behaving again. No power, she would not start captain. No lights, no signals, the engine would not turn over. Back comes the wicked tech skills. So I thought, hhhmmmm. What could be wrong? The battery!!! Yeah, now I got it. Went to the manual, looked up battery. And it gave me a couple of things to try. Fill it up with water, but not any water. Distilled water. As having many years experience watering forklift batteries, this was one I could do! Added the water, put the battery back in....nothing. Oh, maybe the battery needs to be charged. How does one do that? You get a battery charger. Simple, went to the local Canadian Tire, bought the charger, plugged it in. The night took forever, like Christmas eve, and your birthday, and the day before Summer vacation all rolled into one. The next morning, out I went, and....Candi LIVES!!!

Breaking the bike cherry...

LMAO....I bought these parts, with the intent to replace them. But guess what? I didn't have any tools to do the work. I later learned that under the seat is a pretty good tool seat to do most of the work on the bike, but no one told me. I went to the Depot, bought some tools and went to work. Not a half hour later, the clutch lever was replaced, the turn signal was changed, and I was very proud of myself. My wicked tech skills were now evident to anyone who cared to notice. I sat on Candi, turned the bike on...held the clutch lever....pushed the start button, and the bitch started!!!! I, Ronald Cecil Sheehan, for the first time in my life took HIS bike for a ride around the block.

We have the technology...

Shop manuals are a good thing, they help you with a whole bunch of problems. Hard part is that if you have zero technical skills, you might as well be reading Old Latin. As Candi was on life support, I opened up the book with a yearning for knowledge. Not to mention the shop rate for a bike mechanic is $80/hour. Jon was nice enough to include the book with the purchase of the bike. Armed with my wicked tech skills, I soon discovered that I needed a new clutch lever, as well as a new turn signal. Actually the turn signal was pretty easy to diagnose, as it was broken into pieces. I called into T.O. Cycle (motorbiketoronto.com), and they had the pieces...Candi will live again!!

The Ride Home

Well, sometimes in life when you think you have a good idea, you actually don't. Most decisions if life are easy....hotdogs or hamburgers, mustard or ketchup. And the consequences of those decisions are realatively minor.

I asked a friend from the valley to help me pick up Candi. Oh, I named the bike Candi. There is a story there, but in case Helen reads this, I will skip that part. Let's skip all the bad stuff that happened. But, I did get to cross a bunch of stuff off my bucket list. I filled a gas tank with diesel fuel, I drove a truck pulling a trailer. Oh and I bought a motorcycle. The really bad part is that during all the fun and games, Candi was injured. OMG!!! I felt like a little boy who discovered Santa was not real, when coming downstairs on Christmas morning, the tree was gone. I could not even move the bike into the warm confines of my garage. I planned to stay out all night, and protect her from roaming Valley teenagers....

I will end this by saying, I ended up putting Candi in the garage with my wicked tech skills.

The Bike

April 20, 2010. The day I bought my first bike. I had emailed a bunch of people on Auto Trader, Craigs list, amongst others. I received a response from Jon, who lives in Brampton. He had for sale a 1979 Honda CB650, for a reasonable amount of money. The bike had been on the road right up until Jon purchased a very nice new bike. Helen (btw who is amazing, and truly the only reason this purchase was possible, as she told me to go for it, and gave me the down payment....), and myself made the drive down to Brampton. I was in love!!! The bike called my name. Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron.

Jon asked if I wanted to start the bike to make sure its running. Now for the embarrasing part, I had never actually started a bike before. And being the kind of man that I am, well I just told him like it was. I was a bike wanna be loser....lol. It fired up like a jet engine.....and the dreams of the open road were fast becoming a reality. I then actually SAT in the driver's position. Scared as hell, and Helen laughed, pretty loud. She laughs at me alot.

We bought the damn bike. OH YEAH!!! I would complete the transaction the following week, and figure a way to get it from Brampton to Grand Valley.

Hardcore Canadian

Let's take a step forward into April of this year. Early April. Cold, dark, and wet. Usually. Anyways, the bug hit. I purchased online a full face helmet, and a pair of bike gloves. The Helmet is a thing of beauty, Joe Rocket...HardCore Canadian. I don't know if I am hardcore, but I am Canadian, so I am at least 50% there. I now owned a helmet, and some awesome gloves, but no bike, or license. Hmmm, I was probably being a bit backwards.

The beginning.

I got the bug. Don't know how, don't know why, but I got it. I needed to ride a motorcyle, better yet, I needed to OWN a motorcycle. Up until this point in my life, I had been on a bike a total of maybe 5 times. Always as a passenger, up at Uncle Rick's cottage just outside of Renfrew, ON. Little Rick, somehow convinced to me get on the back of his dirtbike and drive all over the place. I admit, I was scared. And I remembered saying never ever again. Hell, I only drove a standard car maybe 5 times.

Last summer on the "Road Trip" with my brother and sister, Mike and myself talked about getting bikes and taking another "Road Trip". I being the brother who gets things done, did it. But we will get to that later. Mike, if you read this, you need to get a bike.