The hill leading down to the ferry was pretty steep, and I could see that they were full, so I put the parking brake on and sat on the scoot with the key off, waiting my turn. I decided to leave the scoot off and roll down the hill onto the ferry. Normally this would be the point where something very bad could happen, and it did!I rolled down the hill and just onto the ferry. I decided to start the bike in order to get it the rest of the way onto the boat. It would not start! I pushed it up into place and my first thought was
“dead battery”. Through my wicked deductive reasoning, I could see that I still had power to the GPS, so the easy diagnosis was shot.
Now I was getting worried. I tried the key again, making sure the kickstand was not down, no luck—the dash was not even lighting up. That is, however, when I noticed my speedometer and tachometer. For some reason they were resting far clockwise instead of to the left like normal. Now I was very concerned. I was having flashbacks of Gasoline Rally 2008.
My friend Ralph got on his cell and tried calling a couple Yamaha places, and got the same exact words from several “That’s interesting--I’ve never heard of that before.” These were not the
sales people or the parts people he was talking to. This was the mechanic folks! I was a little beyond concerned. I had crossed to the other side of the street known as “I have a Very Very Bad Feeling about this.” The best idea they could offer was that it was some sort of anti-theft feature and to disconnect the battery for a few minutes.
I just happened to have the one tool I needed on my Swiss Army knife: a Phillips screwdriver. Well, procedure accomplished, I tried the start button and it fired up. To make sure it was not a fluke I tried it one more time before I buttoned it back up. Now the little crack I have on one side of my battery compartment has a twin. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment