Went to try my first big adventure drive to work the other morning, and my bike wouldn’t start.  Grrrrr….  Pushed it back up the driveway and headed in in my Toyota.

That evening, went to go figure out why…  Symptoms: it did that morning, and then I cut it off so that I could move it down the driveway without the loud engine noise, and just start it back up again to pull out.  When I tried to start it again, it just made a whirring noise.  The oil light came on and my neutral light was on because, of course, I had it in neutral so it wouldn’t jump accidentally.  Since it had started once, I was hopeful that there was some sort of moisture issue in play or that I’d flooded the engine.  Either one should have resolved by the evening.  Unfortunately, same symptoms, though now the lights looked a bit dimmer.

Theory: I needed a jumpstart. Now – where’s the battery?

Turns out it’s under the seat.  Which can be gotten to using the toolkit that’s locked away under the left side panel.  Which requires me to remove the left panel to then figure out how to remove the seat.

Long story short: after removing the seat, jumping the battery, taking out the battery, getting a new battery (thanks, hubby!), and then figuring out how to get new bolts (since in taking out the old battery, I apparently lost the bolts on the screws to hold in the battery), I’ve accomplished my first motorcycle repair!