Crossroads

I attended Waltham's memorial run on Saturday and it was a good test for my back - which has been feeling much better lately.  As I was milling about the house, doing some chores before heading over to the Post to meet up with the other guys, I kept thinking; I need to swap that solo seat out and put the stock seat back on.  I need to be smart about my back and not push things.  Yep...I really should do that.  And then I'd start on some other chore, and when that was done, I'd think "Oh yeah, I need to swap that seat out..." and then I'd take care of some other task, and so on.  Finally I realized that I was pushing off swapping the seats because my ego just wouldn't allow it.  I like the way the bike looks with the solo seat on it.  And hell, my back was feeling great, so F it, the solo seat stays on.

Well, that wasn't such a smart idea, as my back really didn't take a liking to the solo seat (it was the first time I've ridden since I injured it).  Oh well, live and learn, right?  My back is still feeling "ok" but I think I did take a bit of a step backwards.  Not a good thing when I'm looking at a road trip of +2,000 miles in a couple of weeks (Rolling Thunder, then on to NC for the Tail of the Dragon).

The run itself was a decent one.  The only drawback was that pothole season is in full session and it was tough trying to weave around them all.  Maybe that had something to do with my back's lack of happiness.  (shrug).

I didn't think to snap any pics of Saturday's run, but Michele took one and sent it for me to use.  Thanks Michele!

Anyway, none of this has anything to do with the title of this post.  "Crossroads" refers to my bike and what to do with it.  For you see, when I was riding back from the memorial run on Saturday, out of the blue, my bike's skipping problem reared its ugly head, and in a big way.  No more of this very faint "maybe that was a skip?" kind of thing going on.  There were three very distinct times when the bike absolutely missed the firing stroke and bucked hard.  Needless to say; I am not happy at all.

I've been contemplating replacing the electronic control module since the most improvement I've seen so far was when the Cape Cod dealership flashed the one I have.  But the more I think about it, the more I'm worried that I'm just throwing more good money after bad.  So I'm at a crossroads.  Do I make one more attempt to correct this problem, or do I get rid of this f'ing pain in my ass and just get a new one?  (I think I've made more than a valiant effort at fixing this thing!)

I am going to see how it behaves in the next few days, and then make the decision as to whether I can trust it to bring it down to DC.  If yes, then off I go (with fingers crossed).  If no, then I will see what I can get for a trade on it and see about buying a new one.  I'll keep you posted.

I've got a lot of thinking to do.

Ride Hard, Take Chances