The day started out in the high twenties, with the temperature creeping into the thirties before I left home. The forecast put the temperature at the end of the day in the high fifties or even the sixties, so I thought I'd brave the ride in the morning, to enjoy the ride in the evening.

The motorcycle has been having some charging problems. For some reason the bike can't charge the battery. It's quite likely that the bike isn't charging enough to even run the bike; this means that the entire ride is on whatever charge is in the battery. I lived with this at the end of the riding season last year, charging the battery each night, and limiting my ride to just work and back, one trip per day. The new gig is just a little farther, and I was crossing my fingers that the charge would last.

The charge didn't last.

Due to the low temperature, I decided longer exposure at slower speeds (and thus less impact from the windchill) would be more tolerable than shorter exposure at much higher speed. With this in mind, I took the scenic route along city streets instead of the highway. I did consider that the longer time on the road would cause the battery to be more depleted on the way home, but I hoped I could use the highway on the way home, so the overall time shouldn't be too much for it.

I got about 3/4 of the way to the office and the bike started misbehaving. First there was just a little trouble accelerating from a stop. It sputtered and jerked until about 2500RPM, and did so again when shifting and the RPMs dropped. I happened to end up sitting at a red light, so I contemplated the issues of being stuck at work, the shorter ride, or stuck on the way home, the longer ride. I decided that if I made it home, I'd rather be stuck there.

I made the turn for home, deciding to use the highway until it got too backed up, or if the bike gave me too much trouble. I started mentally cataloging the people I could call for a lift if I got stuck...

On the first leg of my rough ride to get home, it occurred to me that the sputtering and stalling might be fuel related, so I gave it a little choke. It behaved a little better, but still balked any time I hit the throttle. I decided that if it worked with the full choke on, I'd just ride at whatever speed 3K RPM would give me, the RPM it idles when warm at full choke.

The few starts and shifts struggled with a little careful clutching, but when it got between 2500 and 3000RPM it rode fairly well. At a stop it was loud, but, thankfully, I only hit a couple lights between the decision and the house.

I jerked into the alley behind the house, satisfied that I could push it up the hill if I needed to, and thankful that I was able to skip and jerk all the way into the garage.

I settled into the bike's resting spot in the garage, kicked it into neutral and hopped off. Before I could get my helmet off it stalled and died. Even the neutral indicator light went off. Dead. Done.

Thankfully I was home. Frozen fingers and shins, but home.

I plugged the trickle charger in again, and pledge not to ride it anywhere but to the cycle shop, once I find one that can fix it again.