Why is me?: Ben and the art of motorcycle maintenance

This is the one title I was hoping I'd never have to use... But, thanks to the denizens of Tamworth (and more likely the pissed patrons of the Imperial Hotel), some getting hands dirty action was required.

First thing I noticed was the spark plugs leads had been removed from the plugs (not a big deal, just plug them back in, has happened before...). With that done I turned the engine on to warm up before heading off, to find petrol trickling by my feet. What the $^*#??? It seems someone thought it would be a genius idea to rip the fuel line hose. Judging by the scratch marks on the ground too they probably tried to wheel the bike off somewhere but thanks to the good old steering lock that scuppered their plans.

With it being Sunday and in small town Australia, finding an open auto parts shop involved a good 5km trek but in the end I got everything patched up and motored onto the next town. Conveniently enough the next town (Armidale) is where I'd scheduled a regular service for the bike anyway. If anything was amiss then hopefully the mechanics will pick it up (I did ask them to double check when dropping it off earlier).