Pre-transport Checks

I didn't do a good job with keeping the blog updated over the last 13 days.  It was all I could do to cross off the tasks on the never ending pre-departure list that my wife and I had come up with for the home and also selling as much clutter as possible on Craigslist.  I have to admit that had an effect on the motivation I had with performing some of the pre-transport maintenance that I had thought I would get done.  I would have just taken it to a shop but by the time I had realized that I was not going to be able to do it myself the all of the shops in Madison, WI had too long of a lead time before they could get to it.
I was never concerned about the bike leaving me stranded when it was my “toy” and I probably would have not even thought of doing all that stuff had I had more than the 1500 miles in the seat that I put on since I had bought it.  The guy that I had bought the bike from had an automotive shop that was very clean and had two other very well maintained bikes in it when I bought the FZ and I remember him listing all the stuff that he had done to the bike maintenance wise and hadn't written it down.  I did keep his contact info so I figured I’d give him a call and see if he remembered what he had done to the bike while he had it.

Here is the list he gave me:
- New Pilot Power 2CTs front and rear (31,000)
- Valve inspection and adjustment (31,000)
- Fresh oil change (Amsoil) (31,000)
- New Cutch (30,000)
- Flush cooling system and fresh antifreeze (30,000)
- Fresh fork seals and fork oil (30,000)
- New steering stem bearings
- Fresh brake fluid (29,000)
- New breaks all around (29,000)
- New chain and sprockets (29,000)
- New Yoshimura slip-on (29,000)

The conversation we had made me quite confident in the bike and in the previous owners skill he really knew the bike inside and out and put me at ease.

 After talking to him washed the whole bike, checked all the fluids and cleaned inspected and lubed the chain and sprockets.

I also had to go to the store and buy an new bolt for the rear mounting point for the chain guard as the original had worked it’s way loose somewhere along the road. I made sure to use some blue Loctite on the bolts when I reinstalled them.  After that I checked the break discs and pads for wear and they all far above the minimum spec.

Then I pulled the tank off the bike and checked the air filter and it was not the cleanest but still had a little life in it.  I do plan on ordering one as I get settled in California as no shops in Madison had the darn thing in stock.  Everybody was like “I can order it for you.”  And I was like, “No thanks I can order it for myself.” I know in this day and age of the internet it’s hard for shops to compete with the internet but you would think that they would at least be able to stock air filters!

At the end of the day I felt pretty confident that I had a good base to start commuting with.  I only hope that my trust in the previous owner was not misplaced.  I appreciate everyone who has been checking out the blog I am going to rip-off a few more today to get this up to date and I promise to be better about taking more pics and videos this post is pretty sparse!