Said goodbye to the Omaha Whitakers this afternoon around 2, and headed west on I 80. I was hoping to dodge the wicked thunderstorms in the area, but they found me. Some number of soggy miles later, I decided to pull over and actually put on my rain gear. When I took the exit I noticed the bike wasn’t running quite right, and when I got back on the road this suspicion was confirmed: I was definitely running on one out of two cylinders. I limped about 10 miles to the next exit, and pulled dejectedly into a gas station. I suspected the front spark plug electrical connection was wet, causing the plug to not fire. Unfortunately, to test this theory requires disconnecting the radiator to get to the plug wire, which I really didn’t want to do at a gas station. At that moment, a highly nebraskan individual in an enormous diesel pickup pulled up, got out, and commented to me on the wetness of the day. I indicated I was experiencing some technical difficulties and asked if he knew of a shop close by that was open on sundays (fat chance). In fact, he informed me, the biggest and best shop in Lincoln was just around the corner AND open on sundays! I called them, rode over, and got the bike on the lift. Within 20 minutes, it was determined that the front plug hole had in fact been repurposed as a lake, due to a clogged drainage channel. Dude gave ‘er the old italian tune up with the compressed air, threw the plug wire back in, and she ran like a champ. Best part was he didn’t even charge me!
So, several miles later I find myself in scenic North Platte, NE. It’s supposed to be like 35 degrees when I wake up tomorrow, according to my trusty logistical trip manager Heather. That temperature equals freezing my b*lls off. I may need to augment my wardrobe.
God bless those Italians for teaching us how to tune things PROPER!
Rubber-side down! Looking forward to the updates!