Sunday June 30th, 2002
Start: Troy, Illinois
End: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
524 Miles
We had hoped to call Penn in St. Louis when
we arrived last night, but it was too late.
Then I wanted to call this AM, but we really
needed to get out early and make time. Sorry
about that, Penn - you weren't forgotten.
We wolf down the free continental breakfast,
clean up, and pack.
Before we go, I show Sharon the problem with
the steering bearings. With luggage on the
back, it's easy to hold the front end up
while she moves the front wheel gently back
and forth from the straight ahead position.
Sharon doesn't ride a bike of her own, but
she can feel it too. Just a very light detent
at this point, but it will only get worse
and we've got about 5,000 miles to go.
I have a printout of Bryan Moody's alternate
part numbers from the Net with me, that list
has saved me more than once when my dealer
didn't have something in stock and you never
know when you might need something on the
road. So, I have bearing part numbers. My
plan is that if we can find the bearings
in one of the big cities along the way, such
as Albuquerque or Oklahoma City, then I'll
buy them and have them replaced in Metro
Phoenix while we spend a few days there at
the convention. From my time there, I know
that summer is the slow time in Phoenix motorcycle
shops, and that somebody will get us in right
away.
The bearings aren't a big problem at this
point, and we have a plan to correct it,
so we quit worrying and head out. Weather
is perfect - blue sky, nice temperature,
comfortable.
We motor down I-55, past an auto racing
event
with tents outside, past the city dump,
and
into St. Louis. We cross the Missisipi
River,
we gawk at the St. Louis arch as we
motor
on by, we take a very strange exit
onto another
freeway in the middle of town and motor
out
of St. Louis and into rural Missouri.
Rural Missouri on I-44 is very pretty. Lots
of greenery, densely packed rolling hills,
dense woods, and some farms with crops planted
on the gentler hillsides. And some wineries.
Wineries? Yes, wineries in Missouri. Hmmm...
About that time, the right rearview mirror
starts to give problems - it won't hold an
adjustment. This happens sometimes on the
Concours, there's a locknut in the mirror
covered by a corrugated boot. It's not meant
to be accessed or repaired, standard procedure
at the dealer is to order a new mirror. But
there are posts on the Councours Owners Group
List about the new mirrors sometimes being
worse than the old, and the fix is easy,
so I plan it for our lunch stop. I've done
the operation once on the left mirror, so
I'm not too worried. But two mechanical issues
in two days? I'm used to trips where you
don't lay a wrench on the bike during the
entire trip except to maybe check or change
oil, and that is always my goal...
When travelling, Sharon prefers local food,
food that is part of the local culture. Her
logic is that we've somehow sampled the local
cuisine, the local culture, rather than just
passing through. I suggest that since we're
on an Interstate highway, a truckstop is
appropriate "local culture".
Sharon agrees to the truckstop, but
just
in case she asks our waitress if there's
any wineries to the west - and what
the scenery
is like to the west. The waitress replies
that the wineries are all to the east,
but
we would've been too early to dine
at a winery
anyway. She also tells us that to the
west,
the hills flatten out - we've now seen
the
prettiest part of Missouri. If so,
it's a
pretty place. Great place for a motorcycle
rally!
We place our order, and then I head back
out to fix the mirror. There are two ways
of doing it, neither is factory approved
but both work. The first way is for the anal-retentive,
but carries a lot of risk of breaking parts
that you've dis-assembled: partially dis-assemble
the fairing, remove the mirror assembly carefully,
and dis-assemble the mirror itself. Could
take a while, and the risk of breakage is
certainly there.
The second way is the quick and dirty way,
and carries little risk of damaging the mirror
itself: make a slit in the underside of the
pleated boot, reach in with a 10mm socket
or box-end wrench, and adjust the tensioning
nut. Total time: about 5 minutes once you
have the tools ready.
I go for the quick and dirty way. I don't
have time to spend dinking with it, and what
if I want to do it again sometime? Once you've
made the slit the rest is easy... I make
the adjustment, re-adjust tension on the
LH since I've got the tools out, and all's
well. Return to the table, our food's not
there yet, and Sharon asks "Done already?"
Yup....
Amazing the odd things you can see
trundling
through a truckstop while you eat.
Two that
come to mind are a pair of shredded
tires
on a trailer behnd an RV, and the tail
of
some sort of jet fighter under tarps
on a
semi.
I don't get to ask about the jet fighter,
but after eating I do get to talk with the
RV owner. The tires (there are two carcasses)
were almost new, with 2,000 miles on them,
and they came apart. Strange, if accurate.
The RV owner is pretty irate, and doing a
lot of venting to me. Sometimes I guess it's
best not to be nosey...
Back on the Interstate, and making time,
above the legal limit more than a tad and
thankful for the lack of enforcement, and
suddenly the bike loses power, as if I've
lost a cylinder... Drop down to the legal
limit, and nurse it into somewhere with shade.
Very strange, but something similar has happened
before. Now and then, water gets down into
the spark-plug cavity and boils when the
engine gets hot. When it boils, steam pops
the plug wire cap off it's tight fit on the
perimeter of the plug well, and voila! No
more spark on that cylinder.... It's always
the #1 plug, because the cam chain on the
left side of the engine acts as a dam, and
when washing the bike water can puddle over
the #1 spark-plug well. That's where I'll
start my search, when I pull off somewhere
safe and comfy.
The car that I'd passed a short time earlier
passes me as we come over a hill, and there's
3 police cruisers parked there on the right
side of the road. Uh-oh... The officer next
to one cruiser points at the car that just
passed me, and motions for him to pull over.
The car acts as though he didn't see the
officer, and as we go by the officer looks
ticked - he's jumping into his car, not happy
at all. Suddenly, I'm a lot less upset about
my bike running badly. If it's just the spark-plug
cap, then the bike just saved me a speeding
ticket.
We exit just past the speed trap, at a convenience
store / gas station combination.with some
shade around the back and cold drinks inside,
gasoline if we need it. A phone too, just
in case. Good to have lots of backup before
you go pulling things apart.... I get out
my Maglite, and shine it on the left top-end
of the motor. Yup, there it is - #1 plug
cap is blown off. No hurry now, the problem
is found. Let the bike cool a bit, as I have
to pull the tank off to get my hand to the
spark plug.
Repair completed, tools put away (for
the
second time today!), we kill a large
sports
drink quickly and get back on the bike.
Problem
solved.
We continue on to Oklahoma City and
pick
up I-40. We then pass through Oklahoma
City,
and exit on the west side of town.
Grab a
room at the Motel 6 just south of I-40,
clean
up a little bit, and take a walk to
find
a place to eat supper.
But it's 9:00 PM, and the first two
or three
places we try are closing or closed.....
We finally find a nice Mexican restaurant,
"On the Border". No, not
Taco Bell
- "On the Border" is the
name of
the restaurant. Very good Margaritas,
and
very good Tex-Mex food.
We walk back to the motel, feeling slightly
giddy from the Margaritas. Back at the room;
we laugh a bit and talk about the day, and
then fall asleep.
Best,
Doug Grosjean
Pemberville, Ohio |