You wouldn't believe where I sent this from, a Taco Bell in Clare,MI on the way to the Mackinac Bridge. The Goldwing is running great now, read below for details! Life is actually Good right now! Covering many miles now, current odometer reads 72,400 miles. The front tire has just about worn off the tire stubble (hairs/ extra rubber) of a new tire. No noticeably wear on both tires. Gas mileage has dropped as expected when towing that trailer, but doing pretty good considering the load. Last fill up cost us $2.85 per gallon, and it just keeps climbing as we head north. No rain so far this trip as we snuck between two storms yesterday. What follows is sort of a story about our departure I wrote in the campground last night.
June 12, 2009 was the first day of our trip to Alaska by motorcycle which already had 71,675 miles on it. After overstuffing our camper trailer with probably too much nonessential stuff, We got on the road sometime shortly after 1200 EDT. I predict that I packed way too many shirts and will get to a laundry mat prior to wearing them all. Anyhow I filled up in Elizabethton, TN and started the grueling task of riding North through some big cities to leave civilization.
No sooner than leaving Johnson City, TN I started experiencing problems at 65 MPH, it felt like I was running out of gas. The problem would go away when I slowed to 50-55MPH, not by choice, then I could run it up to the speed limit and then it would happen again. I first blamed it on bad gas, and then all sorts of ideas came to mind. It could be the fuel filter blocking the fuel, bad vacuum lines shutting off the fuel supply, high speed jets malfunctioning in the carburetors, my ignition shorting out at high speed, the radiator losing water into the engine or worse yet a loss of 3 cylinders due to a broken timing belt.
Oh my, what was I to do, I just couldn’t turn back. Then I think what if I were flying an airplane, what would I do? A lot of pilots kill themselves in this scenario, I know because I use to try and instill fear in my students about this subject. The statistics are horrible for that “get there syndrome” or “It won’t happen to me” in aviation. If I were in an airplane I would land immediately, but I’m not in an airplane. I have a place to pull over if I need to and I think I can fix it because it runs fine at 55MPH so the worse hasn’t happened. I just need to get off the Interstate. We do and have a non-eventful remaining ride up to Cumberland Gap NP to camp and relax for the first time in 2-3 days since preparing for this trip. I haven’t forgotten I have a problem but want to try a different tank of gas and see what happens tomorrow.
Oh God thank you for giving me a gift on how mechanical things work! The next morning the problem came back even after a fresh tank of gas when I got on I-75. With everything considered I knew it was a clogged fuel filter. I found an auto store that sold what I wanted and repaired it in the parking lot. The old filter had a lot of foreign matter in it which confirmed my diagnosis. She runs great and we are back on the road towards Alaska.
Made it to the border of Ohio and Michigan by 1930 EST on June 13, 2009 where we called it quits for the night at Harrison Lake SP, OH to camp.
Griz
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