If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Else, it is sure to break. :-)

I pride myself on being a DIY (Do It Yourself) guy when it comes to things around the home
like electrical, plumbing, minor masonry work, home appliance repair etc or any minor issues with my car or bike. I actually love doing such stuff and it gives me immense satisfaction when
I finish such tasks properly.

I guess I inherited this from my Dad who would not hesitate to take up any such tasks that
popped up at home. As a young boy, I remember my Dad servicing his scooter at home -
cleaning the carburettor, setting the spark plug gap after removing all the accumulated
carbon, etc. And then when he graduated to a car in the early eighties, he would tinker with
it to do some basic preventive maintenance - battery top-up, oil checks, fuel filter cleaning etc.

So, when I noticed the fuel efficiency (FE) of my bike dropping to an abnormally low 51 kmpl (kilometres per litre), I knew that it was time to clean the air-filter which would have become clogged with dirt, resulting in the engine lacking air for combustion and thus burning more
petrol than required. Inspite of it being 13 years old, my bike normally returns somewhere between 60 and 65 kmpl and so an FE of 51 was just not right.

Last weekend I decide to spend sometime with the bike. I removed the side panel, unscrewed the cover of the air filter and take out the filter element, a rectangular spongy thing. It is caked with dirt - no wonder the bike was burning up petrol. I follow the cleaning instructions given in the bike's manual and leave it to dry.

I also check the engine oil level/consistency and it is fine. I had changed the engine oil only a
few hundred kilometres ago, so that was expected. Recently I had noticed that the idle setting
of the engine was not correct and if I took my hands off the accelerator, the engine would switch off. So, I adjust the idle setting of the engine.

Planned work done, I decide to get back home and fit the air filter when it has dried, when
I remember that I did not clean the spark plug. Since there were no issues with sparking,
it was not really required to remove the plug and clean it. But since I was anyway working
on the bike, I decide to do that also.

I use the spanner from the bike's tool kit to unscrew the spark plug. I have done it so many times before in the 13-years that the bike has been with me, that I am not even giving it much thought. Which turns out to be a mistake because the spanner was not properly locked on the plug and slips, resulting in the plug breaking into two - the ceramic part of it.

Now, I have ended up with a broken plug and unless it is replaced with a new one, the bike
won't start. And I need the bike to ride down to the nearest auto-parts shop to get a new
plug, because my car is parked at a friend's place. Finally I borrow my neighbour's bike and
go get a new spark plug, which I fit in the bike - this time very carefully - don't want to break this one.

One good thing that came out of all this is that the spark plug was anyway due for replacement. The old one has been in the bike for years now - don't even remember when it was changed last. Lesson learnt - stick to the wise old saying, "If it ain't broke, why fix it?"