Mouse Surprise

By: CT Blogger

What you're seeing in the photo here is a mouse nest. I keep my motorcycle in an unheated garage. With the Harley restoration complete, the Honda ST was parked in the back. The last time I rode it was May. But with our first snow of the season here in Connecticut, the Harley is now benched until spring. Once they started spraying those white lines of magnesium-chloride on the road, I vowed the Harley would never again be exposed.

When I rolled the ST out into the driveway to swap its space in the garage with the Harley, a little grey field mouse dropped out of the Honda and ran away.

When I rolled the ST out it was dragging. Turns out the rear brake caliper was hung up. I took the bike out for a test ride and the back rotor got hot. After consulting with my mechanic Dave at Sound Motor Sports, he advised me to whack the caliper. "Sometimes when I pick up a bike that's been stored, people think I have issues because they see me kicking the wheels. Actually I'm just kicking the calipers to loosen them," Dave said.

To get the bike to Dave, I whacked the caliper with a block of wood and hammer. It worked.

Next I checked the tire pressures. The ST has a label with recommended tire pressures under the seat. So I pulled the seat and tucked neatly in the storage space above the rear fender I found the mouse nest. Unfortunately mice urinate in their own nests. It stunk! I think mouse pee dripped down the drain hole in the fender and onto the caliper.

I Windexed the heck out of everything and rode the bike down to Fairfield. Dave changed the oil, air filter, brake fluid and greased the caliper sliders. All is well and I'm looking forward to a few Polar Bear rides on my now road-ready Honda ST 1100.

Meanwhile, I'll pull the leather saddlebags off of the Harley this weekend and store them in the basement over the winter. I set a few mouse traps and will also use Pogy's suggestion of hanging a bag of mothballs off the bike when it's parked.