Well finally I got a chance to hit some single track this past Sunday on my "new to me" 09 FE450. The past two weeks have been hard as I have been staying late almost every night at work and was sick last weekend. So every time I have had a chance to fiddle with my bike I was either buzzing on medicine or slap wore out. Perhaps I can blame what happened on those two reasons. Well finally I got my Rekluse in and the LHRB and my tank, sub frame, ign & clutch cover line-xed. I thought I was all set! I get to the riding area, meet my buddies, and for some reason my bike is barely running. I think maybe a little water got into the fuel line when I took it apart and washed it. So i give it a little gas and go about 50 feet and it just dies. I roll it back to the truck and start going backwards through everything. Turns out I digested a paper towel that I had stuck in the air horn. there it was stuck in the engine just below the throttle body. I took the tank off and took off the throttle body and removed all I could. Buttoned everything back up and the bike still would not start. Then as we turned it over we watched as small pieces of paper exited through the exhaust pipe. Thinking I may have messed something else up I put the seat back on to load it back on the trailer. It didn't seem to fit well so I just pushed harder. The I said to myself maybe it's a fuse blown, so when I tried to pull the seat off to check, I learned why it was so hard to get back on. I had jammed the seat release pull cord under the seat and now it was not accessible. I then just told the other fellas to go ride and leave me here with my mess and if I fix it I will try and catch up. I eventually got the bike seat off and all of the fuses were fine. I then took out the plug and it was dry, so I thought that I would check that 'quick connect fuel line" one again. I took it apart and plugged it back and heard a click that I had not heard the first time. I then touched the button and she came alive! I then quickly got geared up and hit the trail thinking if my buddies have trouble in the wet conditions I might can catch them. About 100 yards into the trail there was a sharp left turn then a immediately there was a log across the trail, most of the time this would not have been a problem. I whacked the throttle to get the front wheel up and it lifted just enough to hit the glazed sweet spot on the log that is the slickest piece of real estate known to man. The bike then smashed head long sideways into a tree with my brand new front fender with my brand new PG fender graphics leading the way. Needless to say the fender did not survive. I was amazed at how brittle the Berg plastic was. My KTM fenders had survived similar incidents many times before. I then took my new fender and hung it in the tree with the TEAM SOS logo prominently displayed for advertisement, and proceeded on. I shortly there after caught up with my buddies at a muddy hill that had given one of them a problem. At first I thought the bike looked pretty cool with no fender, but it did not take long for me to realize how necessary they are. Especially in the slimy conditions we rode. Overall I realize I love the bike, and will need to do a few adjustments to get it where I can ride it harder. First one will be a new fender.
Mark
Mark
