Not-so-zen motorcycle maintenance and a book review (sort of)

My Suzuki SV650S is a V-Twin that needs a special tool for removing the spark plugs because they are really small plugs, set really deep inside the cylinder heads. This tool is supplied in the toolkit that you get when you buy the bike, but I am the bike's third owner and the toolkit was no longer around by the time I bought it. It's virtually impossible to get a replacement toolkit so after trying a few standard plug spanners a few years ago, I finally managed to find a lawnmower plug spanner that fits the the tiny spark plug but is still too short to use easily. Some lateral thinking saw me devise a ratchet spanner of sorts with a filed down bolt and a vice-grip. I did this a while ago and last time that the plugs were changed, my mechanic did it, as I'd sent the bike in to have valve-clearances adjusted, redoing shims is not something I'll try at home.

On Wednesday evening, all set to go out, I get to the bottom of the road and the bike starts running on one cylinder. So I cancel my plans and nurse it back home. Off to the spares shop in the morning and then home to replace the plugs - I find that I can't remember how I did it before and can't get the plugs out. Eventually, rummaging through the toolbox stirs a dim memory of how it is done and after some cursing and fiddling, I managed to get the plugs replaced.

"I don't know what it is but it fits on here like this"

While I was at it, I decided to do the oil change as that is something that should have been done 600kms ago. I had the oil and filter, just hadn't gotten around to it. I also need to replace the front brake pads but I needed to go and buy those first. Bought those this morning but then something else came up and the pads will have to get done on Sunday.

I've been riding bikes for 28+ years and people are always saying: "Oh, you should read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig". To which I reply "I did and I thought it was crap"

I read it for the first time when I was 21, two years after having done a Philosophy 101 university correspondence course and I thought that the central argument was flawed and the writing tedious. I work in a second-hand bookshop and whenever I get get asked about that title by prospective readers, I tend to tell them "Nah, don't bother".

A couple of years ago, by now in my early 40s and having listened to many people raving about the book over the years, I decided that perhaps, as had been not-so-subtly suggested by some of the book's fans, I was just full of it at 21 and perhaps I should try the book again. By the time I was half-way through, I decided that the time it would take to finish the book was an hour or two of my life that I would never get back again and I had better things to do. This time around, I couldn't stand the 1970's moralizing tone. I was a kid in the 70s so I know it when I hear it. Never mind all the deeply flawed arguments laid out in such a dodgy fashion.

My 21-year-old-self wasn't so dumb after all and so a word of advice: if you liked the book, have a motorcyclist buddy like me and think it's a must-read, prepare to have cold water poured on that suggestion.