Missives from the 6th Floor

It turned out my destination would end up being Hyak, WA. Not 'cause there's anything there - but because thats when the rear end of the bike started feeling really funny, and some good Samaritan pulled up next to me and shouted "your rear tire!"

Technically I didn't quite make it to Hyak, I got off at exit 52, and pulled over to see what there was to see. The tire looked ok - aside from it being flat - and I had happened upon a tow truck driver, who didn't have a compressor, but pointed me a half block up the road to a Chevron.

Once at the station, I fed the air/water machine a dollar, put air in the tire, and rolled the bike 'till I found the leak. A puncture, near dead-center of the tread pattern - and pretty big.

I briefly considered buying a can of fix-a-flat and trying to ride it home, but then remembered that between me and home was a whole lot more not much, and being stuck here waiting for a tow was as good as being stuck anywhere along the route.

So I reached into my wallet for my MoTow card. Since joining AMA 8 years ago, we've signed up for MoTow plus pretty much every year, but I'd never used it 'till today. Turns out my card wasn't in my wallet, but thanks to GPRS data service and google, I found a number for the AMA, and their "we're closed" recording gave me the number for road-side assistance.

About 30 minutes later Jennifer at MoTow called back to say that she'd found a tow company between me and where I wanted to go (the closest motorcycle shop - I-90 Motorsports, whom I've traded with before and generally dislike) and that he'd arrive in about an hour.

Good to her word, he called shortly thereafter to get my specific location, and less than an hour later, we were loading the bike onto the flatbed and heading back toward civilization.

While I was waiting I had called a few places to see about tires. No one I talked to would patch a tubeless street tire (did I mention the tires were basically new, with maybe a couple hundred miles on them?) and I-90's price was about the same as I found online while waiting.

We made it to the shop moments before they closed, and good to their word, they got me back on the road within about a half hour, my wallet a couple hundred dollars lighter than it was this morning.

The good news is that the tow was within the 35 miles that MoTow covers (eat your heart out AAA, this is the number one reason we don't carry your "extended" coverage for the motorcycles), otherwise there would have been a couple hundred in towing on top of the tire.

The other good news is that Dawnise's bike is running pretty well. I think it really needs it's carbs torn down and cleaned more thoroughly, but it's definitely ridable, just a bit rough and "surgey" at low speed/idle.
I pulled into the house almost exactly four and a half hours after leaving, having traveled a whopping 60 miles.

That wasn't the plan at all.