... yesterday after work, after installing new transparent blue fuel line and inline filter, without any particular plans for the evening I decided to leave my beer alone and to go for a ride. At a traffic light while watching bubbles in the filter I managed to stall the bike, no biggie.. started right up... Eventually I found myself on Palisades - new pavement! Nice! Soon I was facing Washington Bridge. It was always on my mind that one day after work I will ride to lower Manhattan, meet some friends and hang out in one of the bars with live music. I figured what the hell, there is no traffic - let me have a look into that!
Next I remembered that my ez-pass is home... no problem, I am out for a ride, so extra loop to cash booth and in no time I am on the Henry Hudson, flying south... at about 30th street it started... stop and go, mostly stop, all taxi cabs paying no attention to anyone. I was going to take exit at 14th, so it was not too bad. Having already stalled once I was holding revs high, and it felt like bike is getting too hot... so I reached down with my left hand and slapped few times on the engine to get a feel how hot it is... the bike died! While traffic moved few feet I was sweating and kick-starting it… and nothing... I looked at my shiny filter - no bubbles... Switched to reserve, to prime - nothing. I am looking at what I was slapping at - fuel line? pick-up cables? coil connectors?
Cars became inpatient and started to squeeze by me, one bike passed and the girl on the back looked at me with understanding… Embarrassed, I pushed the bike to the next pedestrian crossing, rolled it of the highway and parked it behind big dumpster so no one can see me(yeah right, in Manhattan…). Could not tell if fuel line is empty or full, tried with choke, WOT,… nothing. Decided to check for spark. Unscrewed plug caps from cable – no spark. Tired, without any tools on me, I put bike on the stand, locked helmet to it, finally relaxed and was able to put my thoughts in right order: girl was cute; bars are still open; really cute!; buses are running; I have a friend with truck; I have a story to write into “tell-on-yourself” thread... and that is when it hit me! How do the stories in that thread usually end? …. I slowly looked at the handlebar and there was the kill switch pointing left. With a big smile I started the bike, found an exit from what turned out to be some restricted area (guard was nice to let me out), found free parking next to a triumph, and treated myself to a snack with live music... and I got my hands on that beer after ride home.