28 June 2018 – I got up
and went over to the restaurant for breakfast. They served a good
breakfast but were extremely slow getting your food to you. It was a
good hot breakfast which I liked. I just think of those days in South
America when I'd wake up hungry, I'd leave the hotel hungry and be
hungry all day. I had to kill some time until 9:00 a.m. for the
Harley Shop to open up. I get there a little after 9:00 a.m. and the
door is open. The employees walking around inside had the look of “I
really hate being here.” There was a meeting going on in service
waiting area. Five people with one person doing all the talking.
I waited until the meeting
was over and asked if they had some YamaLube 20w-50. They didn’t
but had something similar. I bought it and then asked the parts guy
if I could change my oil because I bought the oil there. I also told
him that I don’t need any tools because I have my own. He said yes
but there is re-cycling fee of $10 for the oil. OMG this is a
rip-off, but I paid it because I need to change my oil. He went and
fetched me a drain pan and I asked where I should put it after I’m
done. He showed me where and then left for the parts department. This
is going to be a good day.
I have a small problem:
it’s a little windy and that’s bad for changing oil. I found a
spot where I could tuck in out of the wind. I backed my motorcycle in
and changed my oil and oil filter, and adjusted my counter balance
chain. I did get hit by a gust of wind which spilled some oil on the
ground, but I can wipe it up. I poured in my 3 qts / 3 ltr of oil
into the engine and started my bike. Everything is good. I put
everything back in my tool bag and back into my saddle bags. I
checked that I didn’t leave anything laying around and then I move
the drain pan to the location the parts guy wanted.
While I was changing my
oil, a Harley-Davidson trike sat idling for over 30 minutes without
moving. Something I would never do but they have a small set of fans
installed on the engine that were blowing on the cylinders to kept
them cool. Once during the 30 minutes somebody checked the bike and
all the gauges indicated the heads and oil temperature were within
safe operating guide lines. Personally, I would never idle an
air-cooled engine like that. But that would be a great thing in some
of the stop and go traffic I’ve been caught up in. I saw traffic
stop for over 20 miles / 32 Kilometers and people idling their bikes.
I saw a guy come into the
Harley Shop. He was riding an Evolution engine Harley-Davidson. He
was having electrical problems with bike. His approach to repairing
it was remove the faulty component and try the bike. That didn’t
fix the problem so he replaced another component. Nope that didn’t
fix the problem either. He was in the H-D Dealership spending
hundreds of dollars while getting no results. I felt bad for him.
Nobody these days want to work on Evos because they date back to
1985. I had a 1989 that had a computer intermittently acting up. I
lived with that for 20,000 miles / 32187 kilometers. Finally, it just
became so obnoxious that I stopped by a dealership. I asked if an
electrical tech could listen to it. He instantly diagnosed it as a
computer problem. I was in South Bend, Indiana. I rode it home being
totally obnoxious. The next weekend I installed a new computer and
new wiring harness. It started up and ran like a new motorcycle. So,
I know that electrical crap can be a big headache.
I went back to the hotel
and parked my motorcycle. I oiled the chain and then put the cover
over it. I went over to McDonald's to eat a hamburger and fries. Then
walked over to the gas station and bought a small container of ice
cream. When I got back to the hotel, I ate it. I need to have
everything organized because I’m going to get an early start in the
morning. My route is still pretty simple. I will ride Interstate 80
to Iowa City, Iowa. It will be about a 600 mile / 966 kilometer day.
No comments:
Post a Comment