LEMON BECOMES CHERRY

by Swifty

Part Three -- Help is at Hand

You can say many things about North Korean dictators. One thing you cannot deny is their sheer tenacity. Sure a few hundred thousand people may die in the process but that is a small price to pay to achieve your goals.

The R6 and I where summonsed to the exotic palace of our bloodthirsty dictator for beers, Joey Dunlop DVDs and some work with the tools.

Mrs. Uncle was heavily pregnant with twins and had Miss Uncle running around the house to contend with. I am sure she rolled her eyes when she heard some dude from the website was coming over to swear, drink, laugh and make banging sounds until late into the night.

We cleaned the carbies and plugs were cleaned, drank a beer and thumbed the starter.

The R6 fired and ran briefly. For the first time in a month I heard the beast bark.

"Gimme more", the inner Swifty pleaded, but nothing more was forthcoming.

We repeated the process and it started and ran for longer. The problem now was that we could not get it to idle. We adjusted the throttle cables.

Now we could get it to run but only if we held the throttle at 2,000 rpm.

Time was running out. We had spent a good three hours tinkering and achieved little. At 10.30pm I decided that I would put it back on the trailer and get it home. The final words from Uncle were, "Don't worry champ, we will get it running." I wasn't as confident.

The next day my mate Bob phoned to check on progress. He gave me the number of a mechanic who knows his stuff.

I grabbed the mobile immediately and booked the bike in. When I dropped it off, I told my sob story to this unassuming chap, and he was confident he would have it sorted. I looked around at the race bikes in his workshop. I told him of my plan to debut the bike on a track day at Broadford in two weeks. He smiled and said he would call when he had found the problem.

A week later I received a call. It was one I was dreading since handing over the keys to the mechanic. Would I have to spend heaps of cash? Was the engine a dud? Had I bought a lemon?

The news was good. The timing was out by one tooth, she runs. Sure the body work is still rough but she is a runner and idles as well.

Broadford here we come...