Riding to West Chester

The DK Diner in West Chester

 Yesterday afternoon we picked up the car from Gene's after they took care of the horn issue.  Harold, the mechanic at Gene's, said it was a simple issue of some wires having come disconnected when they installed the new horn button and he didn't charge me for the work.  I can imagine that if I had tried to fix it myself, it would have taken me three days and who knows how much aggravation.  So Gene's was the best answer.

After we picked up the car we took a ride up Goshen/Strasburg to the DK Diner on 3.  By the time we got there, around 15:00, the place was completely empty and we had it all to ourselves.  Lunch was good but I like their breakfast better.  We sat in a window booth and we could see the MG from there.  I was interesting to see several people pull over and walk around her trying to figure out what kind of car it was.

At the DK Diner in West Chester

After lunch, we stopped at the Wawa on Gay Street in West Chester to gas up.  I put 7.334 gallons in the tank, not filling it up because when close to completely full gas sloshes out of the top through the gas cap.  This is something that I will have to see about fixing soon.  Either by replacing the tank or seeing if it can be fixed.  At the gas stop, the odo read 2503 miles and the trip odometer was at 259.7.  I did not reset the trip odometer last time but I calculate that we ran the car for 189.2 since the last fill up.  From there we simply returned home using the same Goshen/Strasburg loop.  The weather was great, cool and breezy with temps in the low seventies.  At one point, shortly after leaving the Wawa, I lost my baseball cap because of the wind but I was able to make the block and come back to pick it up.  My EGA pin was destroyed, I suspect someone ran over the cap, but the cap it self did appear any worse for the wear.

This morning, on my way to work on the Bullet, I noticed that the odometer there was at 2222.2.  I need to gas up today because I am very close to the 200 mile range.

2222.2

Read More »

Another Pillion Ride to the DK Diner

Today was my wife's birthday so we took a ride out to the DK Diner in West Chester for breakfast.  We had not done a pillion ride in a while, since last month's ride to the Goose Creek Grill, so it was nice to get ride together for a change.  Yet another great day for a ride with temps in the low 80s and no noticeable humidity.  Because we left fairly early, around 09:00, there was virtually no traffic on Goshen and we were able to make a nice run without putting feet down between 252 and the Pike.

On the Ridley Creek Bridge

After breakfast we headed back on the same track but stopped at a couple of places to take some pictures.  First at the bridge over Ridley Creek and then over at Bartram's Covered Bridge.  We saw several groups of riders on Goshen, all going in the opposite direction.  This was a short run, just to get breakfast, but I always enjoy riding that route because of the scenery and the nice layout of the road.  The Bullet performed great but, as can be expected, does not move very fast with two people on board.  At full throttle, with good road conditions, it was only able to hit 65 mph on the speedo.  Allowing for the ambitiousness of the speedo, it was probably not moving faster than 60 mph.

Ridley Creek

Interior of Bartram's Covered Bridge

Clowning around

High Speed Low Drag - XD

Crum's Creek by Bartram's Covered Bridge

Last time we rode together we had trouble with the UClear HBC 100 plus communicators I bought in Idaho.  I tried contacting UClear but they never replied so I fooled around with the dammed things and they are working fine now.  Don't ask me what I did, I just pushed buttons until the things worked.  We used them today on this ride and they were just fine and felt better with the new buckets than they did in the old set.

On departure the odo read 1708.5 miles at 09:10 and on return 1731.1 at 10:55.

Route: Out Goshen/Strasburg to West Chester Pike into West Chester to the diner and back on the same route.

Departure

Return

Read More »

DK Diner in West Chester

At the DK Diner

This morning my wife and I headed out on the Bullet for a late breakfast at the DK Diner in West Chester.  I had a little trouble getting the bike started because it seemed to be struggling to catch.  Once the throttle was engaged and the engine started to rev things seemed to settle down.

 We took our usual route up Goshen/Strasburg to the West Chester Pike and into West Chester.  The ride up Goshen/Strasburg was perfect, the llamas were out in the pasture and I thought for a second to pull over and get some pictures but I saw a pelotón of bicyclists assembling off Goshen under a tent and I did not want to get caught up in their madness.  The Parcae smiled on us and we hit every stop and light without opposition and were able to reach the Pike from 252 without putting our feet down once.

Charlene at the DK Diner

The DK Diner is on Gay Street before getting to downtown to it was an easy off right into the parking lot for a prime parking spot.  After breakfast we headed up Gay into downtown West Chester and then turned around on New Street to take Market Street out of town.  We took the Paoli Pike to the Chester County Book and Music Company and hung around there for a little while.  When we returned to the Bullet there was a gentleman in his pickup truck waiting to talk to us about the Bullet.  He was a flat track racer and had Triumphs and BSAs when he was still riding.  He had been born in West Chester and had grown up in the area but had eventually moved to San Francisco a lived there most of his adult life only returning to West Chester after retirement.  Besides motorcycles we talked about things California and because I grew up in Southern California (Anaheim, to be precise) we ended up talking about In-N-Out Burger.  You can't talk about California without talking about In-N-Out.  It was great to meet him and to talk about motorcycles and burgers, it really is hard to go out on a Bullet and not meet someone.

Enjoying breakfast

Enjoying breakfast

We headed back up the Pike towards West Chester to turn around towards West Chester Pike.  I didn't want to stay on the Paoli Pike because my rides on that road have not been enjoyable and I did not want my wife to have an unenjoyable ride.

From the West Chester Pike we got back on Strasburg and followed that down all the way to 252.  The light caught us there and when it turned back to green the Bullet gasped and died on the spot.  I tried to restart it and despite the engine priming and the electrical giving it the best it had it refused to ignite.  After the next light cycle, I trundled it off the thoroughfare and began again.  After several unsuccessful tries we both decided to trundle it across 252 to the parking lot of the Newtown Square Presbyterian Church.  This, of course, had to happen just as people were arriving for services and filling the parking lot.  We found a spot in the far end of the lot and I began trying to restart the Bullet again.  I tried with the kick start but despite several tries nothing improved.  Eventually, I could feel the engine trying to start at the bottom of the kick so I switched to the electronic ignition and it finally caught.  We went straight home from there and after dropping my wife off I did several starts and stops, a couple of loops around the neighborhood, and even as far as the hardware store on West Chester Pike and 252 without any other problems.  I have no idea what the issue could have been.  I will keep using the bike with the intention on taking it in to have it checked by next Saturday regardless of a repeat of the episode.

At the end of the day, the odo clocked 822.7 miles.

Read More »