Lots going on today! Yesterday I got the call from Mike, my mechanic. "The bike is ready." he said. Turns out, to make a long story short, the starter I had rebuilt at Hunt Electric had been wired wrong and was trying to spin the bendix gear the wrong direction. Mike spent a LONG time on the bike before figuring that one out and I'm very grateful to him for both sticking with it without smashing the bike with a sledgehammer and for not charging me and arm and a leg for wasting his whole day on it. Bottom line, the new bendix gear is installed (and really was needed) but the starter was total toast, broken armature and loose brushes.

I picked up the bike yesterday afternoon. The trailer modifications worked perfectly. It was nice to have the thing home finally. Last night I removed the front fender (hated it) and the passenger pegs (why does a bike with a solo seat need passenger pegs??) just to say I'd done SOMETHING with it that day

Today, I took the broken starter back to Hunt Electric to see what they could do for me. Thankfully, they rebuilt it again at no charge and completed the job in under 3 hours! This is why they are THE go-to shop for generators, alternators and starter motors in KC! If they make a mistake they fix it . . FAST!

By afternoon I had the starter in and was madly cranking the motor trying to get it to FINALLY run, but no luck. After thinking I'd flooded it, I checked the point gap and timing and found there was NO spark. So far it looks like a bad coil, but my Dad (an electrician and Lucas Electric owner) is coming over tomorrow morning to verify it. Maybe tomorrow it will run?? Wouldn't that be nice.

In news on the new parts front, I bought a set of VERY used 2-inch drag exhaust pipes from Waynes Cycles last week for a mere $40! The chrome is pretty much gone, but I don't care. They're solid and will be LOUD, and I'm planning to wrap them in black fiberglass anyway. They're perfect!

Fingers crossed for tomorrow . .