On the one hand this is a timely post because I just finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. On the other hand, it's a late post because I bought my Kawasaki Ninja 250R last weekend.

This post is not about the new bike specifically, but I want to give a little bit of background about why I possess it. I realized at some point last month while riding my 599 around Seattle that there were still a lot of situations where I felt like I couldn't handle the throttle with confidence. My bike was too fast for me to handle confidently in tight city streets, even after more than 13500 miles. Once I had officially acquired a garage I decided that there'd be no harm in trying to pick up an inexpensive used Ninja 250 to hone my skills on. Less than 2 weeks later there she is!

I was reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and also reading up on the type of maintenance that the little Ninja would need to keep her running happily. This combination of reading material started to fill me with gumption for motorcycle maintenance in general. Previously I'd always been a little bit intimidated of doing maintenance on my 599. Probably in much the same way as I was intimidated by her throttle.

Now I feel like my garage contents are perfect. I have the Ninja who has a simple older style 2 cylinder engine with screw adjustable valves and like 20 horsepower. I feel very confident that I can learn how to do all of my own work on this simple little bike. I also feel very confident in riding her. Sitting right next to the Ninja I have my 599, a modern 4 cylinder engine with a DOHC, shim under bucket valve train and roughly 90 horsepower. I am cautiously optimistic about my ability to learn enough from working on the Ninja to learn to do my own work on her as well. Same goes for riding, I think that as I learn to push the smaller, lighter, less powerful bike I'll also be able to gain confidence in riding the 599.

I've got all the tools and supplies that I need to adjust the valves and synchronize the carburetors on the Ninja either already in the garage or in the mail. I've got everything I need for complete brake system flush and fill and pad changes for both bikes. I'm really excited to get started on really learning how to do this kind of work with the right tools in a warm safe garage. In the past I've always found myself doing auto maintenance in parking lots with improvised parts and tools; while I enjoyed this, it often ended up being more trying -- more gumption draining -- than it needed to be.

Beyond the change of scenery, I hope to approach these new maintenance tasks with a new attitude. I always used to focus on completing tasks quickly rather than doing them. The end result was all that mattered. The past year and a third of riding have really helped me to gain the beginnings of an appreciation for the journey. The same applies to maintenance; getting done isn't the point. Doing is the point. Noticing the details of each part is important, not just getting to the part you've set out to work on. Focusing on the finale leads to carelessness on the journey which can lead to stripped fasteners and suchlike.

Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance if you haven't. Maybe it won't resonate with everyone the way it did with me, but it's a beautiful book nonetheless. I will say that at least for now I don't philosophically follow it to the end. I suppose that I am still somewhat of a dualist, but I have much more thinking to do. The practical side of what's said in the book, the focus on Quality resonates very strongly with me. The essential problem that we are all running from is a lack of real Quality. No matter how cheap or how 'correct' things are, they don't feel good.

For many months now I've been occasionally referred to as a luddite by my closest friends. I don't think that that's right, but I can see where they'd get the idea. It's not that I don't love technology as much as anyone, it's that I only love technology that I feel good about; that I perceive as having Quality. A Nintendo DS or a Nintendo Wii have much higher Quality to my eye than a Sony PS3 or a Microsoft XBOX 360 or a Sony PSP. There's beauty in a steel fixed gear bike that I don't see in a many gear rolling piece of engineering. Carburetors have beauty that I don't think fuel injectors ever will.

The only way that comes to mind to describe what I'm speaking about is that certain technologies feel forced, lacking in flow and wasteful. Others seem to flow naturally and to make use of the harmonies available.

That's enough writing for today. I'm going to go and try to apply these thoughts to my job and really make something good today.