Thanks for all the encouragement, guys.
I dunno. Maybe I'm hardheaded. I figure I'd rather fix something myself than pay someone else to do it. I figure if something can be done by someone else, hell, I can do it too. When the hot water heater sprung a leak, I bought a new one, crawled under the house and replaced the old one. Maybe I'm just a cheapskate. I can't remember the last time I paid someone to do anything that I could just do myself...
I look at my ped as an extension of my bus. Both are very simple machines, both are old and need constant lovin'. I'm very intimate with the mechanicals on my bus, and I intend to be the same way with my bike. When I'm riding down the road, I'm listening to the motor and gearbox and wheels and visualizing what's going on inside, and I can usually anticipate problems before they become major.
I called the Yamaha shop today to price new tires. I'll have to go down there in the next day or two and see what kind of tires are available for my bike (a wierd size, 14"). I don't know what kind of selection I have, but I think whitewalls would give the bike a vintage kind of look, but a blackwall with an aggressive tread would give the bike a dirty "prepared for anything" kind of look. They don't keep 14s in stock, so I'll have to wait for them... I'll keep y'all posted...
david