Aftermath
First,
let me
give my impressions of the new gear:
1. The waterproof Northface bag worked great. During the only rain we
had,
everything stayed dry. Tons of room.
2. The Aerostich gloves. Also great. It was nice to be able to wear
regular leather
gloves underneath and be able to squeeze the brake and clutch lever
without difficulty.
3. The Cruiserworks boots. Utterly top notch. Feet stayed dry and it
felt more like I was wearing sneakers than boots. I can't say enough
good things about them.
Now on to the bike fiasco:
Everyone including myself thought that I might have a fuel system
problem. Maybe there was junk clogging up the lines or fuel
filter. So, I yanked the tank and cleaned it out with Rusteco
rust remover
as well as replace the fuel filter and gasket.
Unfortunately, after putting the bike back together it still did the
same
thing.
Mystery solved!!
(Updated 9/4/2005)
So I finally got the bike to a local independent shop and they started
out thinking it was carb or electrical related. After fiddling with the
air/fuel mixture and throwing a new ignition on there, they decided to
tear off the top end. Well whaddayaknow! The lifters and roller tappets
were shot (apparently not uncommon
for my Evo... most folks I spoke to said I was lucky they lasted more
than 30 - 50K). They put some nice gouges in the cam too. The
mechanic said I was damn lucky that the tappets didn't bust completely
apart. I would have had some nasty little needle bearings all in my
engine if I would have ridden that bike much longer. Too bad I didn't
insist that Fort Worth H-D pop off the top end to check in there. Oh
well. At least the engine isn't toast.
Final thoughts...
Overall the trip was great and I can't say that I'd do things much
differently. We encountered
extreme weather conditions, beautiful landscapes and many interesting
folks. To say we experienced a lot is an understatement. Some dude at
Fort Worth H-D commented that he wasn't surprised at what happened to
the bike. He mumbled something to Jeff and Dave about me being nuts to
ride a 10 year old Evo on such
a long
trip. That may well be, but it isn't like the threat of a breakdown
isn't a factor on any long bike trip... no matter how old the bike. To put things in
perspective, our goal was to make it to the west coast, visit some
friends and do some sightseeing along the way. Mission accomplished. If I had to have a
show-stopper breakdown, it
couldn't have come at a better time during the trip. The only thing
ahead of us at the point of the breakdown was
pure interstate. Nothing great. As a matter of fact, because
we had to
spend a few days in Fort Worth, Jeff and I got to hang out in the
Stockyards and Dave visited family and friends in the Dallas area. I
can only be glad that it didn't happen in the middle of the desert or
something worse like 3 days into the trip.
Jeff made this comment: "One of the
major components to the ride being so great, even in the face of
disaster, is the friendship and brotherhood that the 3 of us have for
each other. It has never mattered where we ride to, it has only
mattered that we ride together."
Very true. I don't think any of us are likely to do a trip like that
again - at
least
any time soon. I'd be more likely to just leisurely cruise around the
country at a relaxing pace after I retire! There is one final good thing that came
out of this trip -- I can now say with
certainty that I no longer have the need to rip across boring
interstates just for the privilege of saying "I rode there".
Home
