zen and motorcycle maintenace

Yesterday was a great day for getting cuts and scratches all over my hands. It was also a day to throw out the tech manual and go with my simplfied technique of motorcycle maintenance.

I own two motorcycles currently, one in the US and one here in Holland. My Dutch bike is actually British by make - a 1993 Triumph Trident 900. While in the jolly land of fish 'n chips, I picked up the Haynes manual on it with the expectation that someday I would need to break out the spanners (aka wrenches) and do some tinkering. A few weeks ago the purchase of that manual became wise as the starter on my bike went to the big part bin in the sky.

So I busted out the Haynes and got to work on getting to the heart of the matter - pulling out the starter. Now the manual tells you how difficult it is but fails to tell you the time required to do so. FYI - the starter on my bike is located behind the triple pistons of the bike, underneath a protective shield, underneath the carbeurettors, underneath the gas tank. So the wonderful people at Haynes tell you how to get it out for replacement. Here's the abbreviated version.
1. Take off the seat
2. Disconnect the battery
3. Remove back fairing (bodywork)
4. Remove aux air inlets
5. Disconnect all fuel lines
6. Remove gas tank
7. Disconnect main air box
8. Disconnect choke cable from carbs
9. Disconnect throttle cable from carbs
10. Remove carbs
11. Drain coolant system
12. Remove main coolant tubing
13. Disconnect and remove starter

So I started the above list and go to the part where you need to remove the carbs before I just gave up. Something was messing with my zen and I really wanted to start whacking the bike. So I came up with my adjusted list of how to change the starter.

1. Remove main coolant tubing. Have coolant drain into a pan when you take off the bolts.
2. Disconnect and remove starter.

Much easier, eh? Too bad I didn't think of this before I ripped everthing apart. Now I get to spend today putting the monster back together; the monster that I probably shouldn't have ripped apart in the first place. If I had just gone after what I needed and avoided all that extra crap, the job would have taken me an hour. But no, I was defying the typical male stereotype and doing what the manual said to do.

And women wonder why men fail to read directions...