The other morning I started up the FJ1200 to ride to work. As it sat idling while I suited up, I noticed a spreading puddle of gasoline underneath it.
Damn it. I know what that is. When I rebuilt the carburettors last year, the one wear part I didn’t replace was the inlet needle valves and seats. They looked pretty worn, but I didn’t want to spend the money. And it ran fine all fall.
So I shut it off and drove the hack in to work instead.
I found a guy in New Zealand selling some needles and seats on eBay for a reasonable price, and I bought a set. They arrived a couple of days ago and tonight I decided to put them in.
I’ve taken the carbs off enough times now that it’s not a huge deal and it goes pretty quick. I had the new parts in and the bike back together in about two hours. I also learned a new assembly trick for putting the crabs (sic) back on – if you mount them to the air box first, and then mount them to the cylinder head, it’s a lot easier.
I cranked the bike over a few times to prime the carbs and then let it start. It was idling nicely, then it started to run rough and then I noticed a puddle of gasoline spreading underneath it again.
So, since it was almost 9:00 in the evening, and I know all about gumption traps, I shut off the bike, put away my tools and went inside to write this blog entry.
Robert Pirsig coined the term Gumption Trap in his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
The book isn’t really about Zen, and it’s not really about Motorcycle Maintenance, but it does talk about some interesting things, and it is about a motorcycle trip to Montana – a trip I’ve made a few times. So I enjoy reading it.
A Gumption Trap is when you are working on something and something goes wrong. It takes the wind out of your sails and then you get frustrated and start to make mistakes. This turns into a downward spiral and things just get worse and worse.
It took me a long time to learn when I should just stop working on something instead of forging on and getting more and more frustrated until something major breaks.
But I did learn it.
But I still have to figure out why the bike is leaking gas.
And I noticed the fork seals are leaking pretty badly. Sigh.
