5/23/02 - Eureka! Now I just have to wait.... Erik and I figured it out, finally, just when I'd gotten to the point of being almost completely despairing. We checked the ignition coils, and they appeared to be more or less okay.... and then, that lead us to..

THE SPARK UNITS! And discovered - don't know why we didn't notice this earlier, though I recall now we may have noted it - that the bike was only firing on one cylinder. Spark units, sez Erik, and we check them, and sure enough, it ran on the one cylinder with only one (the good) spark unit plugged in, and if we added the other in, no real difference. Running just on the bad one, nothing. Piff. Only problem is that these buggers are really expensive, seeing as you can't really *ride* without them. $230+ from Honda, and half that at salvage places.

But I'm sneaky, see. I've gotten wise to the ways of eBay. I find a guy online who's apparently parting out a bike similar to mine, but not the part I need. So I email him & ask if he happens to have this part available for sale. Sure enough (he hasn't researched it to see what price he could fetch for it) - $18. Woohah!

Of course, now I have to wait while it ships from Ontario. I hope the Canada Post is better than the USPS. And I swear, I never thought I'd be so excited at the prospect of receiving motorcycle parts in the mail....

Oh, another cool thing: I got kudos from Erik, unexpectedly. While I was chattering away about all the bike maintenance stuff and being surprised I was willing to take on these projects, he commented that he was, too - and that I'd "far exceeded anything [in the way of wrenching] that he'd ever expected of me," and that he was actually *impressed*. Whee. :)

Back to the Main Riding Page