Decided to ride the bike to work yesterday. It was great! I got to work, locked the handlebars, unsnapped the bags and headed into the office. Got inside and opened my bag to get my phone and security pass out and noticed something was missing - my wallet. Great! I rode the bike, so I didn't bring lunch. No money mean no lunch and a HUNGRY Tiny. Luckily my co-worker was nice and loaned me $20 for lunch and just in case i needed gas in the bike on the way home. Awesome. Had a busy, shi77y day. Finally get everything straight and head out a few minutes early.
I put the key in the bike to start it up and notice that the clock says it's 4 something AM. When I turn the key on, the clock dies and I get nothing. NOT cool. Turn the key off and the clock is at 1am. It was then that I realized that when I locked my handlebars in the morning, that I had gone one click too far. I didn't think the Park position would let you take out the key. Apparently it does. So here I am at 5p with a dead battery and no one around. I call one of the guys in the office that rides, but he's already gone. Call the command center that's staffed 24/7 and none of them have jumper cables. They find a manager that says he does, but when he comes out to the garage, he tells me his township had a cleanup day last weekend and he had taken them out of his trunk. Shiz. We try push-starting it a couple times to no avail. I ask a couple people that are pulling into/out of the garage, and no one has cables. My only choice now is to walk across the street to Police Headquarters. Wonderful. So I walk over and the guy gives me a line that they can't jump a car with the cruisers. Finally the shift supervisor shows up and he says he has cables in his car and that he'll help me out. I walk back to the garage and he pulls in with an old cruiser. We jump start it and let it run for a couple minutes with the cables still hooked up. I tell him that was good and disconnect the cables and send him on his way. Put the seat back on, clip in the sidebags and put on my helmet. Hop on the bike, stand it up and pop it into gear.
Shit! I forgot the kickstand, bike shuts off. Won't start again. Try push-starting it again, no dice. Pop it into Neutral and push it across the street to Police Headquarters and ask for the guy that helped me in the garage. He brings a cruiser back around and we jump it again and I let it run for a while before I head out (MAKING DAMN SURE that the kickstand is up this time!). The officers were asking me if I was sure it would make it back to Tunkhannock with these problems and I told them yeah it should be fine, it was my bonehead fault for not remembering the kickstand the first time. I cruise off into the sunset.
I looked at my gas gauge and considered stopping for gas, but then I was thinking to myself "You have to shut the bike off for that. No dice." So I rode straight home and parked it. Was able to start it back up after a few minutes, so I think I'm OK as far as the battery goes.
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I suck. What gear should I be trying for a push-start and how fast do I need to push it to get it going? I tried second gear since that's what I'd always hear, but it didn't work. Tried first, too; no luck there either. D'OH!
