Day 1:
Lancaster, NY to Maumee, OH
Part 1:
Starter button worked like a charm, bike ran perfectly for the first 20 miles. For the next 30 miles, it bucked and stalled so much, I seriously thought I was breaking a bronc. Then it smoothed out and became my perfect bike again. Later in the day, it stalled again, and died as I was turning a corner in 2nd gear. But my handy dandy starter button worked. That is a huge win.
The bike smoothed out again like nothing was ever wrong. The ride was beautiful. Cool morning, but sunny, and I really love riding two lanes in Ohio. This state has the prettiest small towns, and beautiful countryside in between, but you only see this aspect of the state if you get off the interstate.
Part 2:
I rolled in to the hotel and Marjorie Kleiman had already landed. Apparently her arrival was quite dramatic – smoke AND fire! So who’s the smoke show now?! At first she thought the regulator wires had arced and burned up the rubber boot that goes into the primary, so, upon advice she had been given, we went about repairing it at least well enough to keep her rolling.
I had to pick up some brakleen, sandpaper, to clean the pins, and was lucky enough to find pins if we needed to replace the originals… Which we did. I was carefully cleaning one of the pins with the sandpaper, and the wire was so fragile from being burnt, that it broke off in my hand. Sumbitch.
So with Marjorie’s permission, I snipped the wires back to where they were pliable and soldered on new pins. Except…. When we went to test the regulator, there was a nasty red glow coming from the stator. Sooooo at this point, it is safe to say the stator is toast.
Ugh. We have been trying all evening to locate a stator, with no luck as of yet.
Stay tuned for more exciting shovel adventures….
The Atomic Shovel 