Good Friday is a day to remember that much of what we take for granted is actually achieved through sacrifice. But true sacrifice is something almost foreign to our modern culture.

I spent the morning and early afternoon working on my bike, so there was little sacrifice in my day. Nor was there much accomplished to move the project forward. Not that it made the day any less enjoyable.

I removed the front wheel and checked to see if the tire was tubeless or not. The tire is a Bridgestone Spitfire, which is tubeless. But since many use tubes anyway, I wasn’t sure if there was one or not. There wasn’t. So the whole tire needs replacing. That will run about $120 with installation.

Next, I put in the new choke cable. I had the carburetor out and wove the cable through, put the carbs back in and realized I had tangled the cable around a piece of the frame. So, out came the carbs again and I did it all again.

My father-in-law and I spent a long time running down a problem with the ignition. I seem to have intermittent ignition problems with the bike. I get a good spark one day and nothing the next. So we went through wires one by one with the tester. My FIL thinks that the problem lies in the alternator, so off the cover came. We took out the bolt, but couldn’t get the rotor off. After some reading we realized we need a rotor puller, which put an end to that work for the day.

I spent some time cleaning up the bike, taking off rust and crud, as well as polishing the cover that goes over the alternator. It is apparent that the bike has been dumped some time in the past, because of the scratches on the co er. For me, it only adds to the character of the bike.