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Sept 12, 2000: With the wonderful help of Eric (and some from Rob) we were able to move the bike from its resting place in Glendale to Eric's house here in LA. It wasn't easy.

Here's the story....: We got to Glendale. The tires were pretty much flat. Interestingly, on a motorcycle the tires don't really look flat like on a car even though they had ZERO psi in 'em. I bought a $20 electric air pump at the store and it did it's thing on both tires.

Next, we had to get it out of the garage. It has a steep driveway (you can see it behind me in the picture at the top of this page.) Anyway the van we were using wouldn't fit in there. We brought rope thinking we would tow the bike out....

Well, once the tires were back to normal air pressure, it wasn't so hard to push it around anymore so we decided to try something crazy. Eric would push the bike up the driveway while I rode it!

Well, it worked!! It got a little dicey as momentum went away, and I put my feet down and pushed too. But we did it! Woohoo.

Left side after it emerged.
Right side after it emerged.
Me on the bike.

Next, we had to load it in the van. The street wasn't wide enough to use the driveway to help us, so we had to get creative. We had brought a bunch of stuff with us to help us including jack stands, car ramps and some ladder-ish looking thing. (Unknown origin.)

Well, mixing that stuff together -- Eric, myself and Robert (who had just arrived to help) got the darned thing in. "1-2-3 PUSH!" That kind of thing... Of course, on the last push, I did a "1-2-3 push" and said it in about 2 milliseconds.... Hahaha. As we pushed, I operated the front brake, keeping the bike from rolling back. I have to give props to the "Jack Mamos Plumbing" van. I can't tell you how many times the van has come to the rescue. Moving engines, moving furniture, and now .... moving motorcycles!

After it was over, we took a braek. Here's a picture:

After load in...

Note this picture was taken in almost pitch black. That's why the quality is low. You can see Rob holding the ladder thingy. Some of the rungs bent under the bike's 500lbs weight, it's a good thing none broke! We had some jack stands and a car ramp under it to help with the load.

Next, after getting the bike on the center stand, we tied it up to the sides of the van.

Tied up 1
Tied up 2

The drive home was a bit precarious. After the first stop, the bike went off the center stand.... I was sitting next to it to stabilize it luckily. Also, I had put it in 1st gear to keep it from moving. I was sitting on the left side of it and couldn't reach the brakes either!! As Eric drove (slowly) I had to hold the thing up in turns. Left turns were easy as I could lean the bike but rights were hard since it was pretty much up against the side of the van and couldn't lean. So I was sitting against the side of the van with my hands and feet up on the bike.

When we got back to Eric's house, unloading was EASY. We just backed the van into the driveway and all we had to use to get the bike out was a single car ramp. It was so easy (using the front brake to modulate the speed.)

Exiting the van
Van in the driveway

The rest was cake.... here's a picture of the bike in the driveway...:

Bike in driveway

And another picture of the bike in its final resting place until I get it running... behind Eric's garage. I ended up covering it with Eric's car cover and then a plastic tarp to keep it clean and out of the sun and rain. It's already old and weathered, I don't want to add to it... especially not until I wax the paints and clean it up.

And OH YEAH. Getting the bike onto the center stand on my own was a FEAT. At first, we were trying by standing next to the bike. This is IMPOSSIBLE unless you have two people. After looking at the thing, I figured it out.

I would have to be on the bike and use me weight on the center stand to leverage the bike onto it. Standing with one foot on the center stand and the other on the right peg, began my attempts. Eric was standing by in case things got out of hand, but I did it on my own. After about 10 tries and a LOT of SWEAT, I got it over. I think I did it in two parts. The first got it almost over, and I used the brakes to hold the bike in that position. Then another heave and it went all the way over. Man, that was HARD. I'm only 150lbs and it wasn't easy. I'm sure I'll get better at it, but I was proud for having no one show or tell me how to do it........

Final Destination

That's it. Now I just have to fix it!