Since I had the groovy saddlebags on the bike (not really a fan of the look, but they’re awfully useful), I would use the bike to run down to Kroger for small trips. It wasn’t far from the house and was usually a pleasant ride. It was acting a little weird when I rode down, and when I got out of the store I couldn’t get it to start, and actually ran the battery down trying. A dude in a Kroger service van happened to be parked next to me watching the failed start attempt, and offered up his jumper cables. We got the thing fired up finally and I headed home. About halfway there, though, it died again halfway across a bridge, and absolutely would NOT start. I walked it about a 1/4 mile to a parking lot and called my wife. She came to get me while I arranged to rent a U-Haul trailer and pickup to go bring it home.
When I got it home, I popped the back strap off, dropped the sidestand just to be safe, and popped the front strap.
If you have any experience with motorbikes and ratchet straps, you’ve probably already guessed what happened next by looking at the photo.
The strap was tighter around the right-hand fork than the left, and when the tension released on the left side, the right did not, and it pulled the bike over faster than I could react. The tank hit the side rail hard and put a massive dent in the tank.
I was pissed. Mostly at myself. BUT – it kind of set the wheels in motion to do some actual customizing, assuming I could pull that great friggin’ dent out of the tank. First order of business was pull all the paintable bits off – tank, fenders, side covers, which I didn’t think would be a huge deal – until I discovered there was literally -no- way to get the back fender off without removing the back wheel. Oh joy. A quick trip to Harbor Freight to pick up their cheapest motorcycle jack and I was engaged.
Stripping it down to engine and frame was a little freakish. I was still super new to this process, but it wasn’t completely horrible.
It’s good to have ‘next steps’ – strip the paint and try to pull the dent.