The new route forced me through the center of Manhatten at a snail's pace since an accident took the Brooklyn bridge down to one lane. I did have plenty (PLENTY) of time to people watch, starting at the expensive end with high end shops and gorgeous people. I am really glad I don't have to compete in that gene pool. As I inched along, the shops got less and less nice (expensive/snotty) and the people more normal looking until finally I felt like even I had a chance of mating. I also smelled the most delicious smell I had ever been accosted with. Just about to say frog it and put the hazard lights on, the traffic moved and I passed by without finding where it came from.

#2 I spent more than twice what the bike was worth buying it and putting new parts on it. I was so tired by the time I got to Brooklyn (8 hours for a 4 hour trip) that I didn't look it over closely. It had been used offroad (regularly and seriously) but wasn't given any love, despite the owner claiming regular maintenance. It also had the hesitation and stall problem the early ones had (swapped in R1200c injectors). After months of working on it (thank you Chain Gang) I was finally able to ride it.

After all that horsehockery, what I found was that the fork lock mysteriously engaged. It was ok once you released and then didn't use it but my buddy and I swapped bikes and he engaged it. Unaware, I rode off and found the magic combo of an uphill, left turn and the steering locked. Bam. Down I went. I put the bike up for sale right after.

Not being a complete jerk I worked on it to get the steering lock to work and thought I had it sorted. I delivered the bike to the new owner and the magic combo happened. This time I knew enough to just yank the bars hard so I didn't crash. The new owner was a new rider and I couldn't just hand it over like that. I told him what was what and offered to take it back or knock $200 off the price so he could take it to a dealer and fix it. Thankfully I went home with an empty trailer.

#3 I learned most of my motorcycle mechanic skills on this bike. Many were from frogging things up. The bent valves came from me not finding top dead center right, then adjusting them at the wrong spot. The low point was after I put in the new valves and was tightening down the head - oh so carefully - cross tighten, half torque, full torque. The very last bolt was getting the final torque and snap! Turns out the head bolts are single use. I still have the broken bolt.