From the I Finally Have Transportation Of My Own Dept.:

The day has come. After 21 years, I finally have a method of transportation of my own.

Here she is:


Why a bike? She was relatively cheap(I paid cash for her), the insurance is cheap ($75/year; the cheapest car insurance is 4 times that for 6 months), and she'll get me where I need to go.

She's a 1975 Honda CB550, with only 18,000 original miles on her. I spent all day yesterday driving her around, and it only cost me a few dollars in gas. I found her in the Decatur Daily Classifieds; a guy in Priceville was selling her. Turns out that the guy I bought her from is married to an oral hygienist at my orthodontist--small world! Props to Stephanie and her husband Eric for driving down there and driving her back--without them, I would have had to get a truck or something to get her back! She starts right up from either the electric starter or the kickstarter(which is fun!) and runs great!

I had never ridden a motorcycle before a few days ago, but it's just like driving a stickshift car--save for the clutch being in my hand and the shifter being controlled by my foot. It's just like riding a bike, as they say. Hell, I'm pretty sure it is riding a bike.

After filling up again today, I noticed that I only got about 35mpg, so I started thinking of ways to improve that. My first thought was to check the spark plugs, so I did. They looked like they were from 1975--they were covered in soot and disgusting looking. So I went to Advance Auto Parts and got some new ones for like 2 dollars apiece. It took me about an hour to get them installed (due to the two inner spark plugs being at a funny angle; I had to ninja the wrench around them). Once they were in, the engine seemed to run smoother, but perhaps that's just in my head. We'll see how they actually affect the mileage after my next fill-up.

The bike will enable me to get around without depending on people (too much, anyway; I can't really haul stuff around on the bike). I can finally get to the hospital to do my clinical rounds. Medical school may happen!

She runs great for now, and I hope she continues to for at least a year(when I should have the cash for a car). If something hasn't gone wrong in the past 33 years, nothing should happen now, right? Right?

More pictures down here: