The Chinese Motorcycle

[Mortblanc]

Small update.

I have been putting a ton of miles on the Chinese bike. The weather has been good and our "lockdown" has not been as strict as some others. My "isolation" includes riding alone on the motorbike.

It appears that Americans have the tendency to not give a crap what the government says, especially if it is limiting their freedom of movement. No definition, no enforcement, no compliance.

All those pictures of empty streets and deserted stores, they ain't real! Our roads are full of travelers and many of the stores have deemed themselves as being essential. Yours are too, you are just home and don't see them.

At any rate I have been using the bike extensively since the weather broke and I had to take it out of the rotation yesterday.

It was not the fault of the bike or where it was made. I simply did an adjustment on the rear brake and let the line loop a bit too high to insure the flex needed by the swing arm and when I put my substantial weight on the bike the loop of brake line contacted the exhaust pipe. The result was a melted brake line and loss of cooperation of the rear brake in the stopping process.

I am now waiting for a new brake line to be shipped from Texas to Kentucky, a 1500 mile trip that will take about a week, since I did not see sense in paying twice the price of the part for express shipping.

Oddly enough, if it had been a Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha or Honda I would have had an equal wait or long drive since there is not a dealer within 50 miles of me.

The result was that the China bike went into the shed and the China scooter came out of the shed. I had not started that machine up since November. I had filled the tank with non-ethanol Fuel and added stabilizer to the tank and ran it a mile or two to insure thorough mix and getting a bit of the stabilizer into the carb when I stored it for the winter. I had also pulled the battery out and kept it on a trickle charger all winter.

Yesterday evening I installed the battery, turned the key and the little scooter fired up after a bit of sweet talk and kindness. I rode it out of the shed and down the road a little and it was as smooth as one could wish.

The moped is alive!

Not that I have anywhere to go. But if I do need to go somewhere in the midst of this "pandemic" I can get there on two wheels or four.