Motorbike Maintenance. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Well, it is and it isn’t. Maintaining a bike sure is more frequent than maintaining a car. There’s oil changes and stuff which are about the same, but then there’s stuff like chain maintenance that’s ideally done at least once or twice a month. I’m planning on doing some maintenance on the bike tonight in preparation for starting to ride it next week.

Why next week? Well, first of all I still haven’t gotten the bike street-legal. It needs a Missouri inspection and then I get tags on it. No problem. That’s pretty easy all things considered and I’ll do that Monday on my day off. Second thing is that I’m going out next week to take a formal MSF course (Motorcycle Safety Foundation). What is that? Well, you can check their site for a description of what they do, but the upshot is that it’s an intensive two or three day course to get you into good habits when riding a motorcycle, as well as train you the right way to ride in most circumstances. I’ve heard very good things about the course and decided I wanted to take it so that (a) I can be a good and safe rider and (b) so that I don’t get into any bad habits. I’ve been deliberately avoiding riding my bike on the roads for the last couple of weeks I’ve owned it so that I don’t get into any bad habits. It’s parking lots only for me right now!

Speaking of maintenance though, I am trying to track down a really irritating oil leak on the bike. It’s not more than a few drips every couple of days, but it’s annoying. The most annoying aspect? It’s dripping from the centerstand which happens to be nowhere near anything that actually contains any oil. Ack! That means it’s wicking across the underside of the bike from somewhere and making it to the centerstand before it drips off. You know what this means? Yep, it’s a trip to Autozone tonight to pick up some UV dye and see if I can see where the hell it’s coming from.

Also noticed some oil under my SVX on the driveway yesterday… last time that happened I lost three quarts of oil on I-270 near Olive and it ended up costing me $1000. I don’t particularly want to go down that route again… so I guess I’ll get enough of that dye for two vehicles 🙂

Feeling tired again today though… not so good. I haven’t really slept in a couple of days… I guess tonight I’ll need to take sleeping medicine.

On a positive note though, a friend of mine’s girlfriend decided that she didn’t want to go see Star Wars: Episode III tomorrow night with him after he pre-bought tickets… so I’ve got an invitation and a free ticket to go see it. Sweet! I’ll be sure to post on Saturday and let people know what I thought 🙂