
I've had my M1 since September 2006, but after dumping Devin's 2005 Suzuki GS500F, we decided his GS was too tall and too heavy for me to practice on.

It's just the bike I've always wanted: an old black cruiser.


Taking out the battery to charge was the first of many months of work that Devin and I will put into this bike.

The battery was fully charged today, so we put it in and tried bump-starting it: Devin ran the bike down a slope while I pushed from behind. At top speed, Devin tried starting the motor, but it never caught, even after multiple tries. We checked the tank and it was dry, so Devin siphoned gas from his bike into mine.
With gas in the tank, we found our second problem: the petcock leaks. We tightened the petcock and tried bump-starting a couple more times, even with gasoline leaking. Maybe it was only optimism that helped the motor sound even closer to catching now that gas was in the tank, but I think our next plan of action is to install a new petcock to stop the leak.