The Beast Awakens – The “Christine Effect”
I finally knuckled down and studied the online motorcycle manual that the Tennessee endorsement test is taken from. After going in cold and flunking it, I figured out that it really doesn’t have much to do with the reality of riding a motorcycle and everything to do with just memorizing what’s in the book and regurgitating it…kinda like most things. I did notice a few questions that were highly subjective and weren’t included anywhere in the materials. I suppose I guessed wrong on a couple of them, because I still missed 2 of the questions, but did pass.
The riding test consisted of a pre-ride systems check and a quick ride down a frontage road and back to the parking lot. Basically just to show that I could start it and park it…which was just fine by me.
New paperwork in hand, I took the long way back to the house. I texted Sis to let her know I’d be gone a while and headed out to put some miles on the bike to burn through the old fuel that had been setting in it for months.
The old girl seemed to be doing pretty well – it had been so long since I had been on a bike that I didn’t realize how horribly she was running. Taking off from a stop, she was chugging to get up to speed – once I was going 10 mph or so, she would smooth out somewhat and pull enough to accelerate sluggishly into traffic.
I ran through the rest of the tank of gas and the fuel light came on at about 90 miles. I’d filled up several weeks before, so that was kind of puzzling. I expected to be able to get at least 150 miles before needing to fill up the 4.4 gallon tank. I topped off with Premium and rode a bit more before heading home.
The next day I started putting on miles and really enjoying the ride. I found some nice backroads and started to get the feel of the bike on the gentle curves. I suppose I was getting used to the weird power band, but remember thinking there was no way that it was going to blast along a Nebraska interstate at 80 mph on the way to the Left Coast.
I was on a nice smooth two-lane back road northeast of Hendersonville a bit when I came up onto a pretty steep hill. I downshifted to keep up my speed, and bogged up to the crest. The downhill stretch was unusually steep and long, and I coasted down, picking up speed with the throttle closed. About 3/4 of the way down, the bike backfired and acted like it was going to die. I rapped the throttle a time or two and the engine acted weird…running really rough. I pulled up to the stop sign and the bottom of the hill, checked traffic, and turned left. The road was clear both ways, and I started throttling the bike just like I had been doing – and it about came out from under me! Something in the downhill or “just because” had caused it to begin running like it was supposed to….maybe a fuel injector was clogged? No idea, but it was like a completely different bike from that moment on…it was like I had 10 times the power immediately. She was running like she was supposed to be running all at once.
I’ve had quite a few vehicles that I’ve bought or began using after an extended time in storage, and am always amused at how they seem to “remember” what they’re built for after they finally get back on the road. It’s so noticeable to me that I long ago dubbed it “The Christine Effect” after the Stephen King novel. The Buell has been no exception – it’s only now turning over 3,000 miles and it was built in 2008 – 14 years/3,000 miles. She’s set a LOT more than most vehicles and it shows.
