Day 15
St. Louis, MO to Dayton, OH
Today was a day… It was a LOT of day. Out of the gate, my clutch plates wanted to stick. Sumbitch. This again? And I thought we were past this… But before I sat down on the nasty concrete of the parking deck to unstick the little bastards, I tried a trick Bill Daneke showed me. I started the bike up again, and before I dropped it into gear, I raised the revs. BINGO! All fixed. And off I went.
Another day of rain gear since I was going to be riding in and out of it all day.
Today I had a mid-point stop in Spencer, IN, where I met Missi DeBord Shoemaker and her pal for lunch. And I got to meet THE Magnus! Love that boy! We had a great lunch and chatted about everything, and parted ways. That was definitely the highlight of my day, because it went sideways quickly after that!
Now, the first part of the day, the bike ran great, aside from the cranky-ass clutch this morning. After lunch, the bike ran like shit. So apparently the theory that Atomic had altitude attitude is now blown to bits. The theory that the gas caps aren’t venting, also debunked. That bike bucked and stalled worse than it has any other day.
The last probably 70 miles it got increasingly worse, to the point where if I had to stop, I had to get stopped quick and get on the throttle just a bit to keep it from stalling. It stalled many times under power – popping the clutch didn’t work but once, and when it wasn’t stalling, it was bucking like a bronc.
All in all, by the time I got to my hotel, in was not speaking to little miss Atomic Shitfit at all.
Rarely do I get pissed off at the bike, because, why… but today she really got me. I thought for sure those problems were due to altitude, but it is clear there is something else going on. And it is SO random. One day, fine. Next day, not fine. Air temp, irrelevant. Altitude, irrelevant. General weather conditions, irrelevant.
On top of it, the bike is shifting like crap, then it will be fine, then it shifts like crap. She is one moody, angry soul. I think I need to sage her.
However, tomorrow is another day, and I will be home and snuggled down with miss Maizie. If she is not also angry…
Funny thing about leaving… You never know what you might come home to. I did get some grave news tonight when I got off the road. I always call my dad and check in, and tonight when I called he had had some tests run today. He has either stage 3 or 4 lung cancer. He has to go in next week for a couple more tests so they can determine what stage it is in, and where it has metastasized.
All of a sudden, I was no longer pissed off about the bike.
Perspective.
That’s why we travel and experience new things, right? Sometimes news from home has the same effect.
The Atomic Shovel 