The plan was to meet at 8 am, fly my drone with Jim and his brother for awhile, get some video, slide over for some breakfast and start riding. We had trouble straight off.
Jim's rear tire was flat. He needed a new one, and the nearest repair facility wasn't open yet. When they did open, they were very accommodating and said they would take us right in. We were planning to leave and go south, but we were definitely heading north into Denver.
While Jim checked in his bike, John and I made the rounds around this motorsport place. They have a ton of bikes. Everything you may have wanted to buy was there. After check-in, we went to have breakfast at a local breakfast place, and before too long, Jim's bike was ready to go. Jim was worried that this was seriously cutting into our motorcycle play time, but these things happen and must be taken care of. I was glad to see Jim riding around on new sneakers. In his words, he's a 'spirited' rider. The old tires would not do. They simply needed to go.
We left Denver for some spectacular riding through the plains. Jim was riding a Ducati Multistrada. The bike is a beast. John was riding a 2000 BMW GS. John has a bike that can't perform like Jim's Ducatti or my K1600, but he rides it like a beast. For hours, we were having a good time. The sky was a beautiful blue with some nice white puffy clouds. All that hung above the incredible pine trees, streams, and mountain faces. Breathtaking is one way to describe it. Here's a quick 2 minute part of our ride...
Shortly after this clip, we came to a stop on the road. We had to wait for a pilot car to take us through a construction zone. We waited for about 3 or 4 minutes, and then followed the car slowly through the construction. It wasn't long after that, I saw 10 red bars and a blinking exclamation point. My bike was hot and needed a break.
Fortunately, I had a GS-911 and was able to plug in and get some real-time readings regarding temperature, fan status, etc. We were able to determine that the bike was getting cooled and the fan was coming on. We checked the cooling fluid, and it was normal. We packed up with the plan to keep a close eye on it. I didn't have any more problems for the rest of the day. One thing is for certain; when I get back to California, I will be due for major service, and the coolant will be flushed and filled. Hopefully, I don't have any issues before then.
We rode and about 2:30 in the afternoon broke for lunch. Jane's kitchen was the place and it was a local, something better than fast-food place. It was nothing to write home about. From there, we said our goodbyes to John, who had to turn around and go back. Jim and I left for Durango.
It wasn't but 30-45 minutes later that Jim's engine simply stopped running while we were doing 70mph. We got it to the side of the road, and after a few minutes it started again. We continued, but it stopped again. We coasted to the bottom of the hill and Jim called his mechanic. This had happened before and required Jim to have it towed in. We happened to be in luck. The mechanic sent pictures to Jim about what he needed to do. Basically, he needed to switch out a relay. We also were lucky in that a guy riding a BMW RT stopped and asked if we needed help. We did. We needed Allen keys and didn't have any. Ron had a full set. That got us back on the road.
It was late in the afternoon, and neither of us thought it was a good idea to continue on until we could secure a permanent replacement for the bad relay. The town of Salinas offered accommodations and auto parts stores. We stopped at the Gateway Inn and got rooms.
After checking in, we went and tried to get a replacement relay. Neither auto parts store had it. We found out that the Nissan Parts store is in this town and would probably have it. We will see tomorrow. We also went back to where we were pulled over on the side of the road. Jim left the cover plate behind. That has not been found yet. More on this tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment