As evidenced by the blog I wrote earlier, I went on a ride this afternoon through one of my favorite routes.  Seriously, I love this run.  It's about a 2 hour stretch south of Lexington, through some old mining country, with some beautiful mountain scenery.

Well, we ran a little longer than we planned, thanks to a stop in tiny little Burgin, KY, at the Kickstand, a little Mom & Pop motorcycle accessory store (got a new fork bag and a nice new pair of goggles, check this place out, it's awesome), so we took a shortcut home.

Well, about 30 minutes from home, the bike starts to sputter and shake, and I think we're running out of juice.  I pull us over to switch to the reserve (my KZ doesn't really like switching on the spot, cranky old bitch), and when I hit the ignition and got nothing.  Press it again, nothing.  The battery is dead.  I pop the gas tank and lo and behold, still got more than half a tank.  I try kick starting it, I try roll starting it, I try punching the gas tank and swearing really loud (that last one may not have helped, but it made me feel better), and I get nothing.

At this point, I know something's up.  The battery should definitely not have drained while I was riding, so it's got to be a problem with the dynamo, the stator, the R/R, or the battery.  My battery is brand new, so I wrote that off, and went back to yelling.  I have to get to work, my old lady is demanding to stay with the bike, and I'm on the verge of punching everything forever.

Long story short, we get the bike back, I get to work a little late, and I start doing my homework.  I find a bible to figure out what tests I need to run (electrical is not my strong suit) and get home to get to work on making my baby run.

I test the dynamo (a bitch in and of itself, took me almost to midnight), test the battery, test the stator, and finally I get down to test the R/R.

But I've got to plug the bastard in first.  I'm an idiot.

I hate when I do dumb stuff. But its good when we can laugh at ourselves!

I can take a normal 30 minute maintenance task and turn it into a least a 2 hour journey.

Not motorcycle related but can see that one & raise you one.

Oh the mower story had me laffing... Ex wife called me and said the rig wouldn't shift outta park. Stuck at a busy intersection and in 'first place'. So I said call a wrecker w/insurance #. Next day a guy from the garage calls and says "Ya can't shift outta Park unless ya depress the brake pedal." Major Duh! Funny thing? I knew that but didn't ask her if that is what she did...
Just finished replacing a 4-speed tranny in my Chevy truck (clutch pack etc). Was sitting in the cab warming her up... what did I see sitting on the dash board? Throw out bearing... Doh!
edge "KnuckleHead" walker

a rider friend of mine's son just got his first bike a few weeks ago . While I was visiting he came in with a frustrated look I asked him what was wrong? He replied his bike wouldn't start , so i went to take a look. got on the bike and started right up. He ask what did you do? My reply "lifted the kickstand"

I once pulled a motor back out of my Dodge truck because it wouldn't start. Problem was that although I had the negative battery cable bolted to the new battery, I had the other end dangling in the air not hooked to anything, That was about the dumbest thing I had done in a long time.

went to ride the bike to work one day and wouldn't start.. run the battery down trying, to put it on the charger, checked the plugs, checked the run/stop switch, checked the coil... everything good but the bike still wont start... end up taking the cage to work... get home that evening and check the gas.............

I have 4 bikes and that "feature" gets me EVERY TIME I try and start one of them. 

Some times switching between bikes will through me in to a well say gray moment. Got on my old lowrider (80) and even after all these years of riding her I somtimes forget that an old carb some times needs chocked and the gas turned on before it roars to life.