Monday Aug 27, 2007
Our once-in-a-lifetime trip began for us when Buss, Pat and I left our house at 7:15am to gas up and ride to C&A Harley-Davidson to meet John Bennett and Jeff Holloway. It was a little tough just getting to C&A as school is back in session, so the traffic in both Hilliard and Dublin was thick. But we still got underway at 8am as planned, heading up US33 toward northwestern Ohio.
The trip didn't start well. My bike had been acting a little strange lately, especially after I replaced the stock horn with a new Harley air horn. The bike had become prone to stalling at idle, which I assumed was caused by my pinching the gas tank vent hose while installing the horn. Then one day the bike would not start, or even turn over, and I had to have Terry come give me a jump. My next diagnosis was a bad battery, so I put a new one in.
The bike ran great the next several days, so I assumed everything was okay. Then at one of our stops this morning, at the intersection of US33 and OH127 in northwest Ohio, the bike would not restart. Dead battery again. We got it started by pushing, and fortunately we were with about 3 miles of Jim's Harley-Davidson in Mendon OH, a dealer we know well. We all rode over there, and asked the service guys to look at it. They got it right in, and diagnosed the problem as a bad stator (think alternator in your car). Two hours and about $300 later, we were on the road again.
The rest of the ride today was wonderful. US 24 across Indiana and Illinois, ending in Galesburg, IL. Cheap but clean hotel. John and I are going to try sharing a room. We'll see who kicks the other out first. About 450 miles today.
1 comment:
People should read this.
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