New TU250X Motorcycle

The bike is brand new. When I got it home Saturday it had 0.7 miles on it. On Monday I rode it back and forth up and down my street, passing my house about 10 times and racking it up to 3 miles. When I parked it, the bike smelled a little like burnt plastic. Part of the break in process, I hope.

But, today is my first real ride. I’m going to make the short trip to my parents house. They live about 3 miles from me. I plan a route that make one left turn out of my neighborhood then all the other intersections are either right turns or strait through with stop lights. I get the bike on the road, make an easy traffic free left turn, and I’m on my way.

About half way there I pull up to the first stop light on my route. My visor is fogging up. Without much thought, I pulled the visor open to let in some air. A car pulls up behind me; my first bit of traffic. The light turns green and I turn the throttle. Nothing. I can’t move.

I press the starter button just as the light turns yellow. “Sorry dude”, I think about the guy behind me, “we just missed that one”. I’m not sure how I killed it. When it turns green again, I proceed as if nothing happened.

At the next intersection, a stop sign, the bike dies again. Maybe I’m down shifting too early. I’m not letting the clutch out as I down shift, so I’m not sure it should matter, but maybe it does. This bike has pretty low gearing and you’re in third gear by about 30 miles per hour. I’ll pay a little more attention to that.

I arrive at my parents house and knock on the door, no answer. I give it another knock and head back to my bike. Time to head home.

At the same light as before, but heading the opposite direction, I go to take off and I can’t get moving. This time the engine isn’t dead, but somehow I’m still in 3rd gear. I down shift while traffic waits patently for me and I’m off. Thanks guys!

A few minutes later I drive the bike up and down my street a couple times just to watch the odometer click over to double digits. With 10 miles on the bike, I walk her backwards into my garage.

First ride down. Even though this isn’t my first motorcycle, I obviously have lots to learn.