I got the call on Thursday that my registration paperwork had been completed. I didn’t fool around at all… I made a mad dash to pick it up, get plates made, and get a parking pass for work. I almost had to kill my ride, Tom, as he took his sweet time at the gym after work. After considerable waiting around (as usual) at El Motorista in Jerez, they finally brought my bike around to the front.And then the drama began…The bike wouldn’t start.And then… it barely started. Fermin, the salesman, had told me that they’d service it and gas it up so that it would be ready to go for me when the time came for me to pick it up. I figured the slow ignition was an issue of new bike irregularities, and I wasn’t worried: the ride home to El Puerto was about 30 minutes, giving me a little time to charge the battery if that were the issue. I should have known better. I have recurring nightmares, and they always follow one of two themes: either a general feeling of paranoia or being away from home and having a dead

bike. Seriously. Those are my recurring nightmares. They say the first step to turning your dreams lucid is recognizing a common theme. Anyways, I ride it home (on a major freeway… at 55mph… in the pouring rain) with no issue. The next morning, it starts right away, and I ride in to work. Yay! The start of some sort of rhythm! Following work, I look at the bike, hop on, and try to start it. No joy. I fuss with it for a couple minutes with no luck. I examine it some more and see the fuel switch is on reserve. “Hmmmm… that’s silly. They gassed it up for me. Did they want me to run it to empty without ever knowning how far it can get?” I flip it to “on.” Then, I see that there’s a choke on the carbeaurator. Thanks for the thorough sale, Fermin. I depress the choke, hit the starter and it fires right up. I run it for 45 seconds, release the choke slowly, and ride it about a mile to the grocery store. It dies as I’m pulling into the parking lot. Great. With no battery left, I’m struggling to kick start the thing, but it’s not turning over. I hit the ignition, but there’s barely any juice left in the battery.Anyways… I’m going to cut to the chase here. My bike’s running now… but I had to leave it at the grocery store last night… then I had to run all over creation getting a new battery for it… then I had to gas it up… long story short: great customer service. I got a crap battery and no gas.