<--Not my son's bike, but looks just like it...

Just too much to do today.

It was 100 degrees F here in central Utah and I had to be out in it just about all day. I would have been much better off in the mountains (where its typical 20 degrees cooler).

My son's new, at least new to him, motorcycle quit last night and he had to push it home. Its a Honda Shadow ACE 750 which is a Harley look-and-sound-alike, but a normally very reliable bike. He bought it a few weeks ago, and although the bike is 6 years old, it only had 500 miles on it. Unfortunately it was sitting since 2004. The first thing I told him to do when he brought it home was put some Seafoam into the tank (a carburetor cleaner), and after a couple of tankfuls, the bike ran rather well--until yesterday. Its started fine, and he drove off normally, but after 15 minutes it stalled.

After removing the seat and tank, I checked all the plugs for fouling, but they were totally clean. I reasoned that it had to be a fuel problem, so I started at the tank and worked my way forward. When I disconnected the hose underneath the fuel filter, I expected to get a little spillage, but it was dry, so I disconnected the filter entirely, turned it upside down and got a gas-and-rust shower.

Ah!

Apparently, the tank sat empty or near empty for quite some time and quietly rusted. When my son began putting fuel into it again, the rust flushed into the filter which began to get progressively clogged until the engine, starved for fuel, stalled.

I can't count the number of times in my life I've seen something similar--small insignificant actions producing later catastrophes.

There is a lesson in this somewhere.