Better than fixed

So thanks to a very generous mechanically skilled guy in VA, my bike is fixed. This guy is somewhat legendary in motorcycling circles. He knows bikes inside out, has a full shop in his garage and generally loves to work on bikes. Pretty much every night he has a couple or few people out at his place working on something. Last night I show up and he's finishing up installing shocks on a nice little R1100R. His brother is in there customizing his Honda. His riding partner is there dropping off stuff for their 20 day trip across Canada. You get the idea.

Tune-ups, repairs, general maintenance, tire changing...he does it all. And for free. He's a huge believer in Karma, and is certainly building up as much as he can. People bring him thank you gifts, but he's not in it for that. I kept thinking, "There has to be a catch."

So anyway, I got there because he heard about my problem, wasn't even sure what the cause was, but had an idea. He invited me out to see what he could do. I bought the parts he suggested, had them overnighted and went out there. Turns out he was dead on in his diagnosis.

2 hours later, we had it all repaired, and better than ever. He offered a burger from the grill, and we sat in his place and talked for an hour. He gave me a maintenance DVD he produces and sells thousands of at $20 a pop. Just a really nice and extremely generous guy.

So why is it better than fixed?

Well just correcting the unintended-accelerating and surging problems would have been fixing it. But changing the cables and the Bowden box have transformed the bike.

The throttle was always very stiff and hard to use. (Imagine if your car's gas pedal pushed back with 20lbs of resistance when you pushed on it. ) It meant that you couldn't accelerate as fast (since you can't twist a stiff throttle so fast), it was slow to decelerate (since it wanted to stay put) and it acted like an on-off switch (because the force needed to twist it eliminated and fine muscle control. I was told by mechanics R1150GS throttles are always stiff, so i never questioned it.

With the cables replaced, it's a whole new world. The throttle rolls on effortlessly, and snaps back in to place. Acceleration is so good I pulled an accidental wheelie on the first ride. My arm doesn't get sore from fighting against it. Fine speed adjustments are effortless.

In short, I never thought it could be this good, and it's already made me a better rider on this bike. I just wish i would have done it 2 years ago.