‘Twas another lovely day for a ride, highs in the 80s on the Buffalo Ridge and clear skies pretty much. But duty called… Special agent XS650’s been held prisoner in an inner city garage for too long. Nice garage, but in an inner city neighborhood where it’s not if but when garages get broken into… If they don’t get torched first. Yamaha XS650s ain’t exactly rare, but I’d hate to have some scum do in my brother’s pride and joy. So I loaded up some low value junk on the el cheapo 4 by 8 trailer and headed to the city.
Now SOP at my little outpost in the ‘hood is to unlock the gate, pull your vehicle inside, lock the gate, and then get your business done. SOP #2 is that any business outside the gate and tall fence be done early in the day while the local criminals are still sleeping off last nights criminal activities. So I mowed the boulevard… The city can’t seem to do anything about the open air drug market, but god forbid you leave the grass uncut! That done, spent a sweaty hour or so moving the neighbor who shovels the sidewalk’s buddy’s really trashy “recycling” trailer aside to gain access to the loading dock and unloaded the junk. Then made the XS650’s tires round again, rolled her up to ramp and onto the trailer, and tied her down with no less than 6 (count ’em) load straps… I don’t wanta have to tell my brother I dropped his pride and joy on the road. Spent another sweaty hour doin’ that and mowing the lawn inside the gate.
Yup, that’s an ’86 tag… So the XS650 will probably be on semi-permanent loan to my collection, I’ll wash ‘er up tomorrow and roll her in next to the airheads. Restoration… Shouldn’t need it, but the brakes are zero effort, the battery’s probably alkaline by now, and 80s tires weren’t that great, even in the 80’s. But that’s my brother’s responsibility, but I might casually add a bit of fuel and spark and verify combustion… And we all know where that leads!
GearheadGrrrl 