After I got the bike home I realized there were a few things I needed to do before she would be road ready. While I was extremely excited to have a motorcycle, I didn’t really know what it would take to get this bike running. I ran out the battery trying to start it. I charged the battery over night and ran it out again the following day. Then I got smart and drained the gas. Off to the gas station for some fresh petrol and then on to Batteries Plus for a new battery. One kick, two kick, start. Whoo-Hoo! My $30 investment in a new battery and $2 in gas paid off! Or at least I thought. It didn’t run long before it died and I couldn’t get it started again. No matter, I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere even if it did. I don’t think I mentioned this but the front tire was flat and wouldn’t hold air. I spoke with a guy on Thursday about taking the tire and wheel to his scooter shop and he assured me that he could have it taken care of in a couple days. Well, a couple days turned into ten and I was still not on the road. During the wait, I spoke with him the first time and he told me that they just got in an unexpected shipment of scooters and one of the maintenance guys totaled his truck and broke his arm. Because of this, he couldn’t fix my tire right away. The second time I spoke with him he told me that their other maintenance guy got bit by a dog and was out of commission as well. I gave the guy credit because he is a nice fella and seems like a stand up guy. However, I didn’t want to wait any longer because I just wanted to ride! I made arrangements to pick up the tire (and new tube they ordered for me) and take it to a motorcycle shop for repair. Two days later I had a fresh front tire and tube all thanks to a shop close to where I work. Now, while I was waiting on the scooter guy to get my tire done, I was also waiting on UPS to deliver my new clutch cable that I ordered from Powers Edge. Those UPS knuckleheads had refused to deliver the package to my work because there was no company name on the box. The address was correct and my name was clearly on the box but the driver refused to deliver it because, he said, he needed to know what suite or floor I worked on. Look, long story short: All packages are delivered to security and the driver knew this. All he had to do was walk in and ask, “excuse me, but does this person work here?” And the security guy would have looked my name up in the directory and I would have had my F$%#ing package on Friday. Instead I had to wait until Wednesday! Here’s the kicker, when I called on Monday to see if they would attempt delivery, they said they lost the package. Then on Tuesday I asked if they found it and they were still looking. I got a call Tuesday afternoon from some slacker who told me my package was at the sort center ready for me to come pick it up. The hell with it, at least they found it and I could go get it. When I get there they tell me my package is still lost and the lady who called made a mistake! Bitch!! I get home frustrated as hell that evening vowing never to use UPS ever again in my entire life. When I check my email that evening I see that they delivered the package to my work at the same exact time I was at the sort center looking for it. What had I done to piss these people off? Who cares, at least I would have my clutch cable on Wednesday. Wednesday rolls around and I get to work at 6:30am so I can leave work early and get the clutch cable on the bike. I get home and hook it up, call my friends over so they can watch me start the bike and ride around the parking lot. (Hey, I wanted to start off easy and make sure everything was ok with the bike) Everyone gets there and I try to start it. Nothing. The bike is dead. I know the battery is good, the gas is even better (because I put some SeaFoam in it) and everything else seems right. I’m crushed. All this trouble for nothing. Turns out all I needed were some fresh plugs which I had a helluva time finding. While the Honda manual call for NGK-D7ES, nobody actually had them. It took a couple of days of reading forums before I found out that NGK no longer makes D7ES’s. Instead they make D7EA’s to replace them. Once I found those, I was in business.