Last Saturday’s struggle with the Atomic Shovel really got me down. I have so much to do to finalize the Chix on 66 ride, and I thought my bike was good to go. All of a sudden, it wasn’t. Like. REALLY wasn’t. Straw meet the camel’s back.

One really good thing that has come out of planning the Chix ride is the women I’ve met. One of our riders, KA Miller spent hours on a zoom call with me helping me test the coil, the battery, and the ignition – turns out the coil and ignition tested out fine as far as we can test them. But the battery tested out weak. When I thought about it, it WAS 4 years old. When I pulled it, turns out it was 5 years old. So then the search for a battery… omg. Athena Ransom, who is one of our ride along mechanics, and Kiersten Miller helped me find a battery that would fit the bike. I figured I’d have to order one, but turns out I could get it locally. Hooray! Thursday my mission was to score a battery and a new charger because my charger was acting silly. Got both and planned to pop the battery in Friday morning and then Athena was going to walk me through more testing. Until I noticed that the negative post was mushed over. I didn’t see it when I bought it, but apparently someone had dropped the battery on that corner. Couldn’t do anything till I exchanged it.

So today…. armed with a new battery, I tackled the install. But first I decided to try and clean up the shit show of wiring affixed to the 30 Amp breaker next to the battery (NOT my work). I couldn’t do what I wanted to do to clean it up because I didn’t have the right supplies, so I just did a better job on the ring terminals than had been done, and moved the breaker to give more room for the Medusa of wiring.

Then I was ready to install the spanky new, freshly charged battery. What a colossal pain in the ass. It took me an hour of struggling before I finally got that bastard in the bike with the cables tightened down. At Kiersten’s suggestion, I slipped some shrink tube over my screwdriver because I have never put a battery in that bike without arcing on the frame, which makes me jump out of my skin! With her little trick, I got that battery in with no fireworks. Major win.

I also decided to change my auxiliary starter button out because the one I had really sucked. If you didn’t press it straight down, just perfectly, it wouldn’t work. Agh! So I found a different switch and got that swapped as well.

Tomorrow I have to put the frame cover back on, and I can see if the bike will start and run. If that goes well, I’ll put the battery cover on and take it out for a test ride.

So this weekend we finally got some good riding weather, and I wanted to get miles on both shovels. Joann Annunziato-Mikulec hopped on the 73 and I attempted to hop on my 74. I thought I had that bike sorted out. I fully expected to have a great ride and enjoy watching Joann have her first experience on old iron. But the Atomic Shovel had other plans. Still more ignition problems. But even worse than before. The bike started really hard, didn’t want to stay running, and stalled about 1/2 mile from my house. Too far to push home.

However, Joann still got her ride in on the 73 – I grabbed the Road King to accompany her (first time I have ridden that bike in a year…) We did about 50 miles and no issues.

But I had left my 74 on the side of the road – I thought maybe a nice long time out would change her mind. Nope. I had to get my friend Ivy Vanessa Yapelli to send her hubby Tom Delavan to help me get the bike home.

Now I’m thinking the coil might be going bad, orrrr the ignition is fried out from all the electrical spasms the bike had last season. So long story long, my 74 still isn’t ready for Route 66. Yet. But she will be.

Today I grabbed the 73 to get a few more miles on it. It was a glorious day, so Kathy Strobele, Julie Kathleen Wakefield and Carolyn Zimmerman did a really nice 70-mile (or so) loop, which included lunch. Don’t you know the ONLY photo I have from the last 2 days is my lunch, courtesy of Kathy!

I am so mad I didn’t get a pic of Joann on the 73. Grrr. I was sidetracked by doing battle with the 74.

I have a few tweaks on the 73, and a LOT of work to do on the 74. Good thing I am back to being unemployed! At least I have time on my hands.

Oh. I could only eat half of that meatball!

Route 66 bike prep… since New Mexico broke my pack last summer, I ordered a new one for the trip I took last fall, but I didn’t really like it.

I kept looking and found a hard shell tourpack that Viking makes, and I thought hmmmm… there’s an interesting idea… so I ordered it to see if I thought it would work.

When I got it, I thought hmmmmmmm…. it needs a luggage rack on top, so I found an aftermarket Honda rack (shhhhhh) that fit perfectly on top of the tourpack.

Today I finally got out to the garage and mounted everything. Pretty sure this is the best set up I’ve ever had on this bike. The only thing that would make it better is if the tourpack was quick release… one thing at a time tho. No need to rush things!

My friends Chris Bowen and Linda Kish Bowen gave me a set of super-cool, perfectly Atomic mud flaps for the 74. Seeing as I’ve had quite a lot on my plate, I hadn’t had time to install them, but I wanted to make sure they got put put on the bike before I embark on Chix on 66 in June.

Today was THE day! After running our IFRD route with Ivy Vanessa Yapelli, Kathy Strobele, Jessica Vitale and Maizie the Motorcycle Dog, I hit the garage….

The rear fender took forever… I wanted to keep the fender tip, so I integrated that into the whole situation, which complicated things a bit, but I am happy how it turned out. The front fender took no time at all, which was a relief! Pretty happy with the additional decorations!

Riding, Wrenching, & Empowerment

Another interview where I get to talk motorcycles.

I had a lot of fun talking about all things motorcycle on Sportbikegrrls. This is a great podcast that covers so many aspects of women in motorcycling. Linda’s guests are interesting and inspiring. Subscribe to this now!

Just for something to do, I entered the Atomic Shovel in a car and bike show. It was the first show in this location, and it sounded like fun, so I figured what the hell – hang out with car and bike people for a day. I just got all the lights working on the beast, I was between projects, and it was a beautiful October day – clear skies, warm sun, cool air. Perfect carburetor weather.

There were some great cars there, but only one bike – mine – and a trikey thing that I think had a VW engine in it. Some gal pals stopped by to visit and a few other people I knew were there. Met some really nice car people, too.

They said that even though there were only two bikes there (well one and a trikey thing with a VW motor), mine was prize worthy, regardless. Lol! Atomic wins her first trophy. I was hoping she wouldn’t be so angry, but she rode like crap on the way home. Snotty brat.

The Atomic Shovel is no different, although many would argue that she is not beautiful; rather, she is an over-accessorized, aged tart trying for all the world to look like a young and sexy teen queen. Regardless, she is not easy. Ever.

Case in point: the tailgunner lights mounted on the front fender. One of the bulbs blew not long after I installed the lights, which is just bogus, but I just ran them anyway. The light is next to impossible to get apart and even MORE impossible to press back together. This is how it went:

Step 1: Remove beauty ring/lens from light housing. Results: I am going in the house. In between discovering the stuff on the Pretty Thing, I was trying to get the beauty ring and lens off a new tailgunner light to replace the missing one on the Atomic Shovel.

It was all fun and games till this… I fucking BROKE the lens. Sumbitch. Also stabbed my finger. Double sumbitch. I have one more chance with the other light, but not today.

These lights are a total pain in my ass. I love the look but I HATE dealing with them. I should never have let myself be talked into putting them on this bike.

Step 2: A few days later….. pressing the lens and beauty ring back into the tailgunner housing… And finally… the ongoing saga of the tailgunner lights. When last we visited the tailgunners, I had very successfully broken one of the two replacement lenses I had, trying to pry the beauty ring and lens off the spare light. Sumbitch.

Today, I got the other spare light out and very carefully pried the beauty ring off. It was pretty effed up by the time it came off – out of round, friggin’ bent – basically looks like shit, BUT it was off and I did not break the other glass lens… yet.

I tried to straighten the ring out best I could, which wasn’t great, and attempted multiple times to install said ring and lens on the bike. Fail. Fail. Fail. Thanks for playing, try another day. So I am halfway there. I tried multiple improvisations to press that stupid ring on. Nothing worked. I still have tomorrow to get it on the bike. I shall prevail! Maybe.

Step 2 again. The next day: I got that sumbitch tailgunner light back on. Used a little carpentry trick. Drilled a hole in a 2×4 so it would slip over the glass lens and rest on the beauty ring. Drilled another hole in another 2×4 so it would slip over the pointy decorative part in the back of the housing. Used a bar clamp to draw the two boards together, putting even pressure on the beauty ring. DONE.

That sumbitch better never act up again.

Took it around the block. Rode great for a mile, then POW! HUGE backfire. The bike stumbled a couple times, caught up to itself, kind of. I downshifted and popped the clutch. It recovered and was fine all the way home. So that’s different…. it was starting that backfiring bullshit on the last day coming back from Milwaukee. I don’t know.

But the tailgunner lights look fabulous….

Next up on the Atomic Shovel was tightening the left rear turn signal housing. Sumbitch came loose. Two screws hold it to the cross bar. The lower screw is pretty easy to get to with a small ratchet handle and a Phillips bit. The upper screw is an absolute pain in the ass to get to with ANYTHING. When people ask me why I carry so many tools I just wonder what lucky star they were born under because I have never traveled on these bikes and NOT needed tools.

Case in point, I took a pic of where that screw is, and another picture of all three tools I used trying to get one of them to work.

The winner was the slender, non-ratcheting socket handle in the middle. Who carries that on a bike? I do now.

About halfway through my Utah trip, Cris Simmons messaged me and asked if I would be a guest on her YouTube show Coast2Coast. Humbled and honored, I agreed, praying that I would have something intelligent to say.

Being interviewed by two industry veterans – Cris and her co-host Michael Lichter – was intimidating to say the least. I was thankful they made it easy. And I think I did OK.

Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/yu0BWRmAAKEhttps://youtu.be/yu0BWRmAAKE

Day 7:

The road home: Ann Arbor, MI to Lancaster, NY

The morning was bright and sunny in Ann Arbor. Hot and quite muggy. We thought there might be rain in our future, so we were planning to gear up first thing, just ‘cuz. But it was like a sauna when we went outside, and the first thing I did was peel off all of my not-so-waterproof shit so I could breathe. Marjorie hadn’t geared up yet, so she re-thought that whole strategy too. We had already gassed up the night before, so we were ready to hit the road.

Today we were only going to be riding about 100 or so miles together because I peeled off on I-90 toward Buffalo, while she remained on I-80 to head toward Jersey.

Right off the bat, my GPS took us past the highway we knew we were supposed to take, and after a quick conference, we decided to turn around and go back to it, since her GPS was saying to do so. It wasn’t until we hit the on ramp that we realized that my GPS was taking us around a bumper-to-bumper ‘destruction’ zone. After a few minutes of clutch, clutch, clutch, we headed for the shoulder and rolled past most of it in nothing flat. YES!

So finally past that, we were cruising. Until….. the universe was clearly not ready to let Marjorie and I off the hook so easily. About 20 miles south of Ann Arbor, my phone, which was mounted on my bars, and was running GPS for me, did this crazy jiggle dance, leapt in the air and swan dived across my bike from right to left, crashing, bouncing, and rolling in the middle of the highway. It happened so fast, I hadn’t a prayer of catching it. The entire cell phone pirouette was pretty spectacular; however, in that split second, I was tee-totally screwed.

I pulled to the shoulder, with Marjorie pulling in behind me – she had also witnessed the spectacular dance across the highway. I hopped off the bike – leaving it running because it actually was, for the moment, running perfectly, and I didn’t want to jinx it by turning it off – and walked back to where the phone, or the pieces of it were lying, smashed and sad in the middle of the highway. I collected the biggest pieces, and walked back to Marjorie.

I kind of felt like I wanted to cry, but I just hugged Marj, and she said, “so I guess I’ll lead.” We laughed and that was that! Now THAT’S a road buddy!

Off we went again – me staring at the broken mount where my phone has lived for almost 10,000 miles on that bike, and Marj doggedly leading us on. Our next gas stop was our last stop together. We took a break, she posted for me, so that at least some people would know I am out of commission for a couple days except for via my PC.

Back on 80/90 east, we rode together until I peeled off on 90 east. It was hot as blazes – even the air was hot – it felt like I was riding in a blast furnace. I made good time, and was hauling through Cleveland in no time at all. Still beautiful blue skies, fluffy white clouds and HOT sun… unnnnnnnntilllllll… about 30 miles east of Cleveland, I hit rain.

However, THIS rain I was grateful for. The air cooled, clouds came out of nowhere, there were a few bolts of lightning, and this lovely, gentle rain. I kept riding. No way was I going to try to fend off the water. It felt soothing after I had been sweatin’ like Nixon again today.

I did run through a heavier patch of rain, but by some miracle, the anti-fog wipe Marj had given me actually worked, and I could SEE! So I just kept rolling. Feeling the rain water soaking through my clothes, and knowing that it would keep me cool long after I rode out of the storm, which it did, indeed.

All this time, my bike was running pretty well. It pitched a small fit after the first gas stop, but smoothed out. It did that pretty much the rest of the ride. Long periods of happy bike punctuated with small fits. Far better than yesterday’s miserable bratty behavior.

I closed in on home, and decided that I had better go to Verizon to see about my phone before I even went to the house. Apparently I was intelligent enough to let them talk me into insuring that phone when I got it – I have NEVER insured a phone before, but you can bet your ass I will from now on! So I hope to have a replacement by tomorrow.

As per usual with the Atomic Shovel, she gets me home and then hangs her tongue out and dies. I struggled to get her started at the Verizon store, and she stalled about 5 times on the way home. I had to keep throttle going at stops, which was kind of interesting, trying to come to some sort of stop whilst keeping the revs high. But she got me home.

I had to move my car to pull her into the stable, and yet again she did not want to start. However, I whispered in her ear that I did not want to push her in, so she finally relented and started long enough for me to get her parked. I will deal with her and her attitude later.

I went to pick up Maizie, and now I am home, in the AC, doing as little as possible for the rest of the evening. Marjorie arrived safely at her home in New Jersey a few hours later. She had a much longer ride. She did 14 hours in the saddle, 582 miles. She hit road destruction, and I believe rain as well, but she, and her ’82 FXRS she calls Foxy Lady, got home together.

Just like the Utah trip, this one was full of crazy obstacles, and challenges, but being able to share all of it with Marjorie and Tara Lynch, meeting Vicki Roberts-Sanfelipo, Tony Pan, and Milwaukee Mike, seeing Chris Tribbey, Danielle Werner, Joann and Ron Enk and so many other people, just made my heart happy. I would never know any of these fabulous people if I had never thrown a leg over a bike and imagined I could ride it.