At long last, after a five year pause, there is a motorcycle in my back yard again…

I managed to temporarily get the necessary paperwork to get the Suzuki GZ 250 back from the shop in Granada, though there is still some work to be done before I have a full Spanish motorcycle license.

First impressions? Well, it was great to be riding again, especially in the sunshine of southern Spain. However, the Suzuki has been sitting for several months and it has a couple of problems. When I rode it home, the choke was stuck on, which meant a high idle, poor acceleration and very little engine braking.

I got that fixed easily enough by oiling the choke cable and freeing the mechanism but now I seem to have another problem – when it’s idling, the idle speed surges. Even though I am not touching the throttle, the idle speed varies between a normal slow idle and a more rapid tickover – you can see (or at least hear!) the problem in this video.

Time to get the tools out I think. I’d guess at a load of crud in the carburettor or possibly an issue with the petrol tap. Whatever, it feels good to be tinkering with a motorcycle again…