Last month I got a motorcycle, my first in over a decade. Admittedly there’s some anxiety over me getting on a bike again, after what happened last time. (Long story short, I did a stupid and crashed and it hurt real bad for a few months, and also it was expensive.)
Anyway, I’m not spending a lot of money on it yet because I have other priorities, but I will pick at it here and there and post updates as they come. It needs a little work and I need a full set of riding gear before I get it up and going.
As for the name, “Wūgòu zhū” is Google’s literal translation of “Dirt Hog.” I had a friend check it but she wasn’t 100% sure. I hope it’s right and that it doesn’t actually mean something like “swine genitalia” or whatever.
The most obvious problem when I got the bike was the broken front wheel fender, which is held to the underside of the front fork assembly by three bolts with 10MM heads, nothing crazy. I Googled around in search of parts, but since it’s a Chinese bike, it’s hard to find anything official over here in the states.
However, I did come across ChinaRiders.net, a forum of enthusiasts for Chinese bikes in the Americas, and they’ve been really helpful so far. One of them even sent me a spare fender he had lying around and didn’t charge me for it. Super helpful of him. I got it installed once it arrived.
Next up I need to replace the clutch perch because the mirror mount is broken off, so I only have a mirror on my right handlebar. Between that and getting the matching mirrors, it should cost about $30, so I’ll get around to it later. It sounds like most of the stuff on this bike can be replaced with generics.
But I do plan to design some vinyl decals and place an order in the near future, so maybe some decorative stuff will be my next move.
DreadPennies: The Mind of Graham Bradley 