My new ZN1300 voyager

Well, it's not all good and not all about the bike, but here goes...

Been working for a few weeks on getting funds for a voyager. When I test drove it several weeks ago, p/o told me he kept it on a maintainer when not in use, so I figured battery was probably about gone, but when I went to pick it up today and ride it home, it hadn't been plugged in and was dead flat!

So we pushed it off and it ran, but not well and away I go home on the highway. 15 miles later I come into a town, and it hasn't charged enough to run at idle. it died on me right in the middle of the street:angry:

Well, I didn't even get out of the road good and a man in his seventies pulls into the parking lot and proceeds to help me push that beast up hill (no REALLY up hill) into the parking lot. Dummy me says thank you I think I'll try to push start it again, and see if I can get home. No dice. (Me, beast and a lot of sweat in the street again.) So he helps me get it into the lot again where I park it this time.

He starts telling about his experience in middle of nowhere panhandle Texas with a Goldwing Aspencade that went flatter than a pancake and ruined the alternator, so we start tearing the bike down in the lot, (his tools... mine were in the pickup with my wife and the cell phone out garage saling as soon as we left the P/O's house)and the battery had no water in any of the cells!:pinch: :pinch:

He the:pinch: volunteers to haul me and the battery to autozone for a replacement. On the way, I ask him about his bike and he says he had to quit riding recently due to back and health problems, and you can tell he really misses it... but we're on to the parts store. By the way, you can't just go buy that battery. It only fits that bike and is a week order from anywhere. He hauls me around for an hour and a half to find that out, and finally buy a lawn tractor battery which was the closest I could get, and help me for another 40 minutes getting it all back together and running. Took two and a half hours out of his day to help me out!!!:blush: :blush:

We get it started and I express the most heartfelt thanks and can I do anything at all to repay you?
"Sure! If you see someone one the side of the road, just stop and help em out. I know what it's like to be broke down on a motorcycle and just watch the car keep going by."

Sorry for such a long post, just wanted to let you guys know there's some real salt of the earth out there who make the world a better place, and inspire us to do the same!

I'll be posting pics, rants and raves, and some questions about intermittant digital and electrical problems later.

AMEN to that!