3K+ Maintenance

Royal Enfield line up at Kiss Honda

This morning I had a maintenance appointment at 10:30 in Pottstown at Kiss Honda.  I left the house shortly after 09:15 with 3800.1 miles on the odo and headed out to Pottstown.  The plan was to take Church out to Waterloo and follow that out to Valley Forge.  However, after I short run on Church, I realized that it probably would be best to stay on Church to Sugartown and take 252 all the way out to the park because road conditions on Waterloo above 30 were not very good last time I was there.

That plan worked fairly well because by this time of the morning the morning rush hour had died down and volume on the road was not bad.  Once on 23 I quickly turned off at Valley Park Rd because of the closure of 23 at the Pickering Creek.  I followed Valley Park to White Horse and took the right there.  Traffic here was seriously backed up so instead of staying on Whiter Horse, I made the left at Pothouse Rd.  I got a little turned around after making that left so that when I came out on 29 I took another left instead of the right and started heading the wrong way.  I realized my mistake soon enough and just did a quick turn around at a wide spot on the road and headed back towards Phoenixville.  Once there, I got back on 23 and headed out to Pottstown.

3827.8 at refuel

At the Sunoco on the corner of 724 and Bridge Street I pulled over to refuel.  The tank took 1.505 gallons of Ultra at $3.249 per gallon for a total of $4.89.  Since last refuel we've ranged 98.9 miles for a mileage of 65.71 mpg.  I had to be very careful filling up because the pump had no medium speed, it was all or nothing, and I was afraid to overfill or spill over.

The gas station is only about seven miles from Pottstown so I was able to make my scheduled appointment time without any problems.  I had the 3K miles check and inspection done and I asked to have the kickstand switch removed.  The mechanic told me that they couldn't do that because of liability issues but that I should be able to do it fairly easily.  It took them less than an hour to have the Bullet ready.  In the mean time I played with the pug and took a couple of pics of the yellow Continental they have in the show room.  Not sure if I like the yellow better than the red but it's still a very nice looking bike.  The price on the sticker is $5999.  Let's see if it's still around at the end of the summer.

The ride back involved a different route to avoid the congestion problems on White Horse.  I got to 29 and took that to 30.  It didn't help to change the route, there was an Oregonian bound and determined to ride her brakes all the way from 23 to 30 and a huge Home Depot truck maneuvering in the middle of 29 to make a delivery.  At 30 I took my new preferred route to Old Lincoln and Warren but at the Paoli Pike I took that to Darby, Devon and 252 for the shorter route home.

When I got home, at 12:15, I looked a the kickstand switch, followed the wire to were I found a connector behind the battery box and unplugged it.  The switch is no longer an issue.  At home, the odo read 3865.7 for 65.6 miles on this ride.

It was overcast and chilly all the way there and all the way back.  I layered up but I should have worn leather instead of the mesh jacket.  It wasn't miserable but it was not enjoyable.  I guess the temps were in the mid 60s but the wet in the air and the overcast did not help.

Didn't see any exotics or classics on this ride but yesterday on the commute home from work there was a blue Bentley making a turn on Ithan from Conestoga by the Agnes Irwin School.

The exotic tally stands at 15 Ferraris, 14 Teslas, 11 Maseratis, 5 Bentleys, 3 Cobras, 3 McLarens,  2 Austin-Healeys, 2 Lambos, 2 Unknowns,1 Rolls Royce, and 1 DeLorean.

Continental

3800.1 at departure

3865.7 on return

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1600 Mile Maintenance

At Kiss Honda with a C5 in the background

A little bit over the recommended mileage but the break-in period is finally over.  This morning, with 1577 miles on the odo, the Bullet made the trek to Pottstown for the second scheduled maintenance.  The weather was beautiful, clear and blue with temperatures in the low 80s and no humidity to speak of.  The trip out through Valley Forge Park and up 23 to Phoenixville was amazing.  Just a little after 09:00 and there was almost no traffic on the roads at all.  The portion of the ride on 23, from the turn in the park to Phoenixville was amazing in that I had the road all to myself.

On arrival at Kiss Honda, the Bullet had 1603.9 miles and we had made the trip in 55 minutes.  The guys at Kiss did the required maintenance and found a couple more missing bolts from the heat shield that they replaced.  They also replaced the longer bolt that I had replaced earlier.  These replacements definitely did away from the rattling that I had noticed coming from the muffler area.  The guys at Kiss had a Continental GT sitting in front of the shop.  That will have to be my next bike.

Continental GT

Continental GT

Kiss Motorcycles

On the return trip the Bullet purred like Lucifer and ran really smoothly.  While the guys were working on the Bullet I walked around downtown and snapped some shots.  The Bullet handled increased speed on the straights really well but it does not seem to able to go any higher than 70 mph, even downhill with a tail wind!

Although there was no need to refuel, I made a pit-stop at the Wawa on 724 and Bridge St. and filled up.  The odo at that time was reading 1612 so the next refuel should be around 1812.  Easy enough to remember that number.  The tank took 1.882 gallons and we had covered 119.2 miles since the last refuel for a mileage of 63.3 mpg.

Traffic on the way back was a little heavier but despite the fact the it was lunch time it was not bad at all.  The weather continued to be fantastic and could not have asked for a better riding day.  At return the odo clocked 1634 miles for a 58.6 mile round trip.

Route:

Outbound:  Church to Waterloo, across Valley Forge to 23 and up 724 to Hanover St into Pottstown.
Inbound:  Reverse of outbound route with a detour down Berkley to Sugartown to my wife's work and from there back to Sugartown and Church for home.

Downtown Pottstown

Downtown Pottstown

Downtown Pottstown

Downtown Pottstown

On departure at home

Arrival in Pottstown

At Kiss Honda

At Wawa gassing up

At my wife's work

On return at home

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Mystery Solved

This morning there was a message from the towing service (Flatt's Roadside Assistance, if that's not an unfortunate name for a roadside assistance service I don't know what is) that they would be here by 10:05 to pick up the Bullet.  That was an hour after I requested but a little flexibility goes a long way.  Having been left on the side of the road by AAA once for over three hours, I called the number they left in the message by 10:20.  The voice mailbox for that number had to been set up and Flatt's wasn't answering.  Not wanting a recurrence of my AAA experience I immediately called Progressive to figure out the deal.  They were able to raise Flatt's who said they could not be here for another two hours.  Accident this morning, blah, blah, blah, excuses.   I asked Progressive to get another service and by 11:00 I got a call from them saying that Infiniti of West Chester was on its way and that they would be here in 60 minutes.  This would put them at about the same time frame that Flatt's would have been but after my bad experience I feel better with someone who says 60 minutes rather than two hours.

In the meantime, I continued fooling around with the bike to see if I could get it to run.  At one point I noticed the amp meter light flicker and that gave me a little hope.  Right after I hung up with Progressive at 11:00 I gave the Bullet on more try.  This time, magically, the light came on and the bike kicked over.  Mirabile visu!  Not wishing to risk anything, I ran upstairs, put on my riding gear, and asked my wife to cancel the tow.

Despite a forecast of heavy rain the sky was clear and blue so I headed down the road with high hopes of getting to Pottstown dry.  I took Church to Waterloo and headed to 252 to cut across Valley Forge National Park to link up with 23 to Pottstown.  When I left the house I had 539 miles on the odo.  I knew that it would be a tight squeeze to get to Kiss Honda before I ran out of gas.  I figured a little over twenty miles to get there and I had calculated that the odo would read 561 when I ran into the reserves.  I didn't want to stop at the Liberty station on 30 and Waterloo for fear of not being able to start the bike again.

When I got to Phoenixville, I decided to stop at the Citgo on 23 and White Horse because I was afraid that I wouldn't make it to High Street and if I had then how would I get back, the nearest gas station I knew at the time was just out of town.  I realize now that there is a gas station about a block away from Kiss Honda on High Street.  I pulled into the Citgo with 549.3 miles on the odo.  The tank took 2.772 gallons to fill up so I was running fairly close.  The average mileage the Bullet is running now is 67 miles per gallon.

I got to Kiss Honda a little after noon and the service technician was outside waiting for me.  We talked about the problem the Bullet had and he asked me if the kickstand was down.  I realized then that when my grandson was crawling over the bike he must have pushed on the kickstand enough to engage the safety but to make it appear as if it was still up.  I figured that as I messed with the bike this morning I must have re-seated the kickstand and that is what caused the miraculous recovery.

I also asked Randy Kiss to install a maintenance free battery to replace the one that came with the Bullet.  I don't like having to mess with wet cells and Randy sold me a battery for $85.95 which is quite a bit cheaper than I have seen on line or from nfieldgear.  He also threw in and installed a set of battery tender leads so I don't have to unhook the battery again and I can keep it hooked up to the tender when not in use.

They did the work in less than an hour an a half and I was on the road again by a little after 14:00 (that's 2:00 pm. to you civilian types).    The trip back was the outbound route in reverse, didn't have to go down 29 to 30 since the work on 23 appears to be over.  All the way from Pottstown to the outskirts of Phoenixville the Devil was beating his wife.*  He wasn't beating her hard but hard enough to be worrisome.  The sky was heavy and dark behind me and clear and blue in front so I hoped to be running away from the rain.  The beatings stopped in Phoenixville and it was clear sailing until I got to Devon.  As I crossed 30, I figured I would take Sugartown and stop by my wife's work to let her know I was back since she doesn't answer her cell at work.  No sooner had I made that decision that the Devil heard me and began to beat his wife again.  I passed on Sugartown to head home but by the time I got to Church the beatings had stopped again so I headed up Church to my wife's work in Eastown.  I got there and started back home.  No beatings but the sky kept getting darker.  As I pulled into the garage the heavens opened up and it came down in buckets.  The mileage on the odo read 595.5 when I stopped.  All's well that ends well.

*"The Devil is beating his wife" is a southernism for a sunshower, a meteorological phenomenon that occurs when rain falls while the sun is shinning.

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500 Miles

The Bullet hit 500 miles on Sproul below Conestoga this morning on the way to work.  Considering the first ride on the bike was on the 8th of last month, and that there was about a week there (between the 22nd and the 27th) when I was too sick to ride, 500 miles in 27 days is not too bad of an average.  Time to call Kiss Honda and schedule the first maintenance iteration.

The first 500 have gone without a hitch, there was only one time in which the bike refused to start and I am not sure that wasn't operator error.  Everything seems to be breaking-in the way it's supposed to and I couldn't be happier with it.

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Two Ride Sunday

Did not get out until later in the day but was able to squeeze two rides in anyway.  The first ride was out Goshen/Strasburg to 352 and there all the way across to my gun club in Brookhaven.  The 352 part of that ride was really nice.  A little busier than Goshen/Strasburg but still plenty of twists and turns.  Once 352 crosses Rt. 1 it opens up to four lanes and it's pretty flat and straight.  I looped around Dutton Mill Rd, Chester Creek Rd, and Knowlton Road by Linvilla Orchards to get back to 352.  The return ride was 352 to Rt. 1 to 252.  Much shorter but not as much fun of a ride.  The Rt. 1 portion gave me the chance to open the throttle a little to keep up with traffic.  The Bullet handled it just fine.  At the end of that ride the odo clocked 459.7 miles.

As soon as I returned home I took my wife for a pillion ride around the neighborhood.  We did the 252, Newtown Street Rd to Sugartown Rd loop.  From Sugartown we took Church to Harrison down St. David's to the roundabout back to Waterloo and Church.  It was a nice early evening ride.  We did run through Signal Hill a couple of times to enjoy that neighborhood loop.   That ride clocked us to 475.6 miles.

Soon I will have to schedule the first maintenance run with Kiss Honda.  I figure that between now and the following weekend I should clock close to 600 miles.  I know next weekend I won't be able to ride much but with commuting a couple of after work rides I should be able to get close enough to schedule the maintenance for the following weekend.

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