Status of the Yamaha

I haven't been riding as much as you might think. Hardly at all, really. It's downright depressing in contrast to how often I was in the saddle with the Triumph.

I've never rode the Yamaha on-post, even though I got it registered there. I've never put in more than 40 miles in a single ride (and that day I blew a fuse and had to be rescued on the roadside by a empathetic Boozefighter). The one time I took it off a paved road, I layed it down in the mud. I got it up to 80 on the freeway once, but experienced some scary high-speed wobble. I haven't even fired it up since Eleanor was born.

Maybe it's revealing that the Yamaha is still "it" while the Triumph quickly became "her" or "Bonnie."

Cutaway engine poster from The XS Cafe

Still, it's a good-looking bike and I hope to rectify this lack of riding as we pivot towards the Texan springtime. I might have over-estimated how much I enjoy tinkering with the bike vs riding it. The Yamaha now has its third set of mirrors. This pair come off a crashed WR250R and feel rock-solid; they shouldn't flop around at highway speeds like the cheaper ones I had before. We're finally running the correct-size battery (instead of the Triumph battery kept in place by a small section of cedar 2x4). I've got an undamaged replacement headlight bucket and instrument bracket (with rubber mounts!) off of Ebay to install for a weekend project. It's getting there.

There might be a bunch of Eleanor pictures unrelated to the post content this month. I hope you don't mind.