Date: Sunday, September 2, 2018
Our planned 7:30 am departure didn’t happen. Hopefully, we can get the bike buttoned up this morning and be on our way.
The first order of business was to secure the rest of the trailers wire harness.
TRAILER WIRING DONE
Then it was the turn signals that took far longer than anticipated, what else is new. It was early afternoon when the bike was “done.”
WORKING ON THE TURN SIGNALS
Packing took about an hour, but we were finally ready. I turned the key, tuned on the gas and hit the starter button. Nothing happened. Then I realized that a puddle a gas was forming under the bike!
We pushed the bike back up to the shop. Connecting the fuel hoses was the easy part. The fairing was removed, as was the headlight. It didn’t take long to find the wire that I neglected to plug in. The bike turned over. Great!
Why I didn’t actually start the bike, I’m not sure. Reassembled, I hit the starter button. The bike spun over fine, but wouldn’t start. I pulled a spark plug, no spark.
Fairing and headlight off again. The seat and tank were also removed. Within about 10 minutes I found the disconnected coil wire. Bingo! Now we were ready to go.
THE HANDING OFF OF THE KEYS
Location: Don’s shop, American Canyon, CA!
Departure Time: 4:37 pm
Bubba’s speedometer reads 25,995 and we are finally departing. We drove across the street and fueled up the bike. Don followed us over to the gas station and confirmed the lights were working.
He led us up through Napa then we said our goodbyes.
The day was beautiful and Bubba was running ok. Some spark knock on take off was a little disconcerting. Equally disconcerting was the three times the bike just cut out. The first two times it was only for a second or two. The third time it was off for about 4 seconds before the engine came back to life.
Route 128 was a snake like road that took us past Lake Berryessa. We climbed then descended, climbed some more then dropped back down again. There were lots of tight corners. Several times I pulled into turn outs to let cars get past us.
I was getting into the groove and Bubba seamed to be running better as we progressed. Suddenly on a long straight the bike became hard to handle. The back tire had flatted. I got the bike off the road and onto a flat area adjacent to an avocado grove. Looking things over I saw that, four spoke nipples had broken.
BROKEN SPOKE NIPPLES
TRYING TO REMOVE DAMAGED SPOKES
Removing the wheel and the tire went well, but the spokes were a real problem. One option was to pull spokes out of the spare front wheel. That would mean dismounting that tire. On top of that two of the spokes were seized into the hub and I couldn’t get them out.
We made the decision to book a room and call AAA.
I installed the spare front wheel in place of the rear wheel so the bike could be moved.
Numerous vehicles went by including motorcycles, none stopped except one guy in a car. Barry said we were welcome to come to his place for dinner and to spend the night. Lee was convinced he was a serial killer so we thanked him, but declined.
We have spoken to at least four AAA people over the last 2 1/2 hours and still no truck! One agent told us the bike was covered, but not the trailer so we’d have to pay for a second truck for to retrieve the trailer. It was ridiculous. We had to argue and explain to each agent. I think the total came to six. I was able to have a three way with one agent and a carrier that does motorcycles, but his truck was too small.
The good news is that Don returned my distress call. I explained our plight. He said he’d called a fellow Guzzi rider, Howard Robinson. Within minutes Don called back with the news that Howard has a rear wheel. I called Howard and made plans to meet in the morning. Great news!
I’m laying on top of the trailer typing this. Lee’s sitting on Bubba doing battle with AAA.
We’re next to an avocado grove and have discussed camping in it, but the sprinkler system is a deterrent.
Oh, and we covered a whopping 47 miles today.
Prologue: I didn’t get this loaded last night because of an issue with the hotel WiFi.
We finally called a commercial carrier at AAA’s suggestion because their carriers were all out on calls. Lee called Norcal, John showed up just past 11 pm.
A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT
He pulled in front of us and we got Bubba loaded. Last night I quipped to Don that I should have called this blog, “Smooth Sailing With Bubba!.”
NOT THE WAY WE WANTED TO END THE DAY!
We got to the hotel around midnight. I secured the bike and was in bed by 12:30 am.
Adventures With Bubba 