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Koguma’s summer vacation was reaching its halfway point.
As a result of her part-time job, her Cub’s mileage had increased, and in the two weeks since she had the oil changed at the used bike shop where she bought the Cub, she had ridden 1000 kilometers.
The ideal oil change cycle for a Cub was once every 1000 kilometers. So Koguma decided to change the oil herself in the daytime when she had nothing in particular to do.
She had already bought everything she needed. She borrowed the computer in the school library after work yesterday and studied the procedure by going on several sites.
It seemed that the accumulation of maintenance know-how for Cubs far surpassed that of other motorcycles, and a search using the keywords “Cub oil change” brought up so many sites that it was hard to decide which one to look at.
She found a website that seemed to be easy to understand for beginners, printed out the necessary parts, and the next day at noon, she took on the challenge of changing a Cub’s oil for the first time in her life.
Wearing her school tracksuit instead of work clothes, Koguma started the engine of the Cub in the bike parking lot and rolled it to a wide open space on the apartment grounds. Then she spread out a cardboard box from her apartment and parked the Cub on it.
After making sure that she had the tools, oil, and other necessary things, Koguma ran the engine for a while to let the oil warm and then crawled next to the Cub, just as she had read on the internet.
There was a drain bolt under the engine to drain the oil. Next to it was the cam tensioner bolt, which apparently would become a nuisance if removed by mistake.
After comparing it with the printout photo excessively carefully and making sure it was the drain bolt, Koguma turned off the engine and took out the box wrench from the tool set.
Koguma applied several wrenches to the bolt, found the right sized wrench and pushed it with her hand to turn the bolt, hurting her hand against the hot muffler along the way.
The bolt wouldn’t move even if she applied force to it. This was partly because Koguma only had the arm strength of an average high school girl, but it was difficult to work under the engine.
She had to lower her head so far that her cheek was against the ground in order to see the bolts, and the engine and muffler were still hot enough to burn if she touched them.
More than anything, Koguma herself was nervous about doing her first maintenance. It was a different kind of work than the usual car wash and inspection, but it was work that might damage the Cub or cause an accident if done incorrectly.
A bolt that couldn’t be loosened by turning a wrench by hand. The oil change she had prepared for well in advance failed because one of the screws wouldn’t come off.
Koguma pondered as she was half-sprawled out next to the Cub. Should she talk to someone? She had the number of Reiko, a fellow motorbike commuter. Or should she give up on changing the oil herself and pay another five hundred yen to the used bike shop?
Koguma felt tendrils of faintheartedness well up within her. She wondered if she would be able to continue riding the Cub, if she would be able to continue living on this unstable and unreliable scholarship, if she would be able to survive in this world, in this sorry state.
She glared at the bolt that was the source of her negative thoughts. If only she could do something about it.
A bolt that wouldn’t come off with her own ability. If that was the case…
Lying down next to the Cub, Koguma reinserted the wrench firmly around the bolt and put her foot on the hand-held wrench.
She kicked down the wrench with the sole of her foot. She felt it moving down slowly. It was the feeling of an enemy that threatened the life where Koguma had to win and survive everyday, had given in.
The wrench flew off with a clang. She got up, picked up the wrench, and applied it once more against the bolt. The bolt loosened easily.
After loosening the bolt to a certain extent, Koguma placed the oil disposal box down, opened the oil cap next to the engine, then turned the bolt with her fingers and pulled it out.
She got hot oil on her hand, and she picked up the bolt she almost dropped and put it on the rag so she wouldn’t lose it.
The rest of the work went without a hitch, thanks to the printout from the oil change website. She thought she would tighten the difficult bolt more loosely so it would come out easily at the next oil change, but she decided that she could just kick it loose again next time and tightened it with some force.
She had read on the site that breaking the oil hole by over-tightening the drain bolt often led to serious trouble requiring engine replacement, rather than oil leakage resulting from loosely tightening the bolt, so she was conscious of the force needed to keep the bolt from coming loose while riding.
After successfully completing the oil change, Koguma returned the Cub to the bike parking lot, put away her tools, and washed her oil-blackened hands with soap.
Even though she washed her hands carefully, there were still black oil stains between her nails. You couldn’t see them unless you brought your face close, but she wasn’t sure if it was a good thing for a girl’s hands.
It was like a badge of honor to have maintained a Cub by herself. Koguma, thinking that, suddenly remembered that she had to go to the nearby supermarket to do some shopping, so she picked up the denim top and bottom that she wore when she rode the Cub outside of work or school.
The Cub changed to new oil. She had read that it was advisable to check the oil level not only after running the engine in the parking lot, but also checking it again after actually riding the cub.
If she were to inspect it on her way to her job and found something wrong, it would interfere with her work. And there was one more reason.
Koguma couldn’t wait that long.
Thank you this is really appreciated
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