Letting them run and more

Saturday was pretty nice here in Chicago.  Now that the driveway was clear of ice and snow, I rolled out the Concours and Neil’s Ninja 250.  They both fired right up.  I hand pumped the tires up to their right pressure, at least for mine. Neil will have to do that himself for the Ninja.  After letting them run for around 20 minutes I took them up and down the block to run them through their gears.  Felt good.

I gave both bikes a good looking over.  I noticed the 250’s shifter was bent, and then I notice that the frame slider puck was missing a little plastic.  Then I noticed the frame slider was lose itself.  After an inquisition from me, Neil said when he was turning into a gas station, he hit a soapy patch (gas station with a car wash) and the bike went right down.   I warned him that he was going to have to take it in to get the frame slider bolt tightened.  Then I went back to the garage and spent the next hour removing his side panels, tightening the frame slider bolt, then reassembling it all.  Today was his birthday, I opened my hands like it was an imaginary card, Happy Birthday, I fixed the bike.  He is going to order a new gearshift lever (it’s bent and functioning, but the bending took off the powder coating and there is rust showing.  When the part comes in it can be a nice stepdad/stepson repair.