First ride of the season

The weather here has finally started warming back up - it's regularly in the 50s and higher during the day, which is fantastic. I prefer the mid 70s, but I'll gladly take the 60s. Most importantly, it means I can get the bikes back out, which is exactly what I did this past Friday. (As an aside, I've already failed at my goal of regular posting, but so it goes.)

Since I had everything I needed to get the DRZ running again, I went ahead and changed its oil and replaced the battery. It's a bit cold-blooded, and it probably doesn't help that the gas was a bit old, but some Seafoam and a fill-up (I spent over $4!!! This is an outrage!!!) helped out tremendously. Changing the oil on the thing is not very fun, I should note. Most bikes are pretty easy: remove the fill hole plug, remove the drain plug, unscrew the oil filter, wait. Plug drain, screw on new filter, refill, plug filler, run for a couple minutes, check the level, add more if needed, done. The DRZ is designed with a dry-sump system so it carries its oil in the frame sometimes. Essentially, it has all of its oil in the engine when it operation, which then drains into the frame over the course of a few days. It also has a cartridge filter rather than a spin-on one. What this all means is that it has two drain plugs that have to be dealt with, and a filter cover on the side of the engine that spills oil as soon as you open it. It's messy to say the least. There's also an internal filter I should clean next time I do this. All said and done, this took a lot longer than I wanted, but I got it done.

The ride itself was uneventful. I didn't go out too long; just enough to make sure everything was running fine, and it seemed to be. I wasn't the only one out, either. It was just too nice for the bikers to be inside. I would have done it again yesterday, but a few too many drinks the night before kind of prevented that. Oh well. I still need to get it inspected, since it's been expired for several months at this point. It's not that big a deal, though, since the gas station inspectors basically don't look at much more than the lights and horn and those work just fine.