[culcune]

I should mention, I had taken the rear wheel off my old bike to get the tire, and it was sitting like that in my driveway all last summer, kind of in two. I had taken out the battery (a gel aftermarket battery) and put it in my new bike.

Months in the driveway, a friend who works as an errand guy at a custom motorcycle shop said he wanted the old bike, flaws and all. I hooked up the new bike's battery (which I wasn't using) after letting it charge for a day, and vrooom. The old one started right up!

My friend took it to his work with his boss' permission, and he and friend welded some new motor mounts, and other things, and got the bike back together, and my friend commuted on a route he figured out through agriculture fields and rural county roads to his work. He did tell me he sold it to another guy at work a few weeks ago, but that means the Chinese bike I bought used, and put over 10k miles on it, is still running.

I, not being a mechanic by any means, but able to work on things like changing the CDI or spark plugs, or tightening the chain, brakes, etc. have kept going on two bikes, 16.5 miles each way to work and back (33 miles daily) for over 2 years now. I guess, looking back, I did not need the new bike, only a friend(s) who knew motorcycle basics. But the new one, I can't complain, and I do know everything about it since I am the one who got to start with it brand new!