Dave and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I spent Friday night at the side of the road, waiting for a tow truck. Yes, the Harley died during a particularly oppressive commute (Laurel's Vespa made it home just fine). The Hog was backfiring, stalling, and just generally misbehaving when finally, it completely shut down on South 405, 20 miles from home.

Of course, I continued to try to start it, and eventually ran the battery down too (it is still recharging on the trickle charger we have). So I called a tow truck, and after waiting only an hour, I was home another hour later. During the time I spent by the side of the road, a lot of people were nice enough to stop and ask if I needed help (but only one of the five cops that drove by bothered to stop).

Given that the local Harley shops are so busy that there is a 2-week backlist for service appointments (yes, yes, I know, Hogs spend more time in the shop than on the road), I decided to try to figure out what was wrong with the bike. First of all, I believe it is flooded. That's easy enough to fix, if the battery is alive. So I don't yet know if that's the problem.

But even if the engine is flooded, the question is, what caused it? Why the backfiring? Why the stalling? My diagnosis: Fouled spark plugs. Well, it took me a while to figure out where the plugs were, but I eventually did, and sure enough, they showed the textbox signs of fouling. Fortunately, the local auto supply shop in West Seattle had them in stock! I just replaced them, but again, the lack of battery charge means I still can't get it started ... so stay tuned for tomorrow, when the battery should be ready to go.

Of course, even if I do end up fixing the problem all by myself, my next long ride will be straight to the shop to make sure there is nothing else wrong with the bike.