May the Fourth Be with You - Battle of Puebla

Llama Farm

Other than the commute to work I didn't ride on May the Fourth because I am in the mist of grading exams and there was just no time.  However on the way to work, after crossing 30 on Spring Mill Rd, I saw an orange convertible Ghia waiting for the light.  I had to record that for the tally.

On the Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla I did make a little time in the afternoon for a quick loop.  My original flight plan was just to ride out to the end of Strasburg and turn around but after crossing 252 I fell in behind two Pennsylvanians that wanted to crawl on their way home.  I flowed with it until Providence but at that decision point they continued on Goshen so I took the ride on Providence for the free road.  I followed that to Warren and made the right.  I've never gone on Warren in this direction and although it makes no sense the hills are a better ride this way.  At Davis I made the right and followed the road to Grubbs Mill Rd.  Again, going in the opposite direction here made for a better ride.  There was a left twist somewhere with a drive way shooting out from it and for a second I wasn't sure which one was the road so I had to do some quick adjustment there but it was fine.

When I got to Llama Farm the pack was in the front pasture.  I have never seen them this close to the road so I had to pull over and take some pictures.  There was one little black cria running around like the devil was behind her and I tried to get some shots but with low light and movement they all came out blurry.

From there I headed back up Goshen to Sugartown and took the Paoli Pike, Devon Rd, Darby Rd, Sugartown, Church loop back home.

Two issues: on the run up Goshen to Sugartown the bike cut out on acceleration in fifth.  I'm getting used to this quirk so I just heeled the kick stand the light came back on the bike fired right back up.  All of that in motion without pulling over.  I felt a great sense of accomplishment at that but I am going to have that switch disconnected at the 3K check at Kiss Honda.  The other issue happened when pulling out of Llama farm.  I tried to kick start the beast but the kick start lever acted as if it was completely disconnected.  This happened once before at work.  I will need to put that on the list to check.

The classic car tally is now three Nash Metropolitans, three 1950s Jag, one MGA, one Hot Rod, one 1950s Chrysler, one 1950's Plymouth, one Karmann Ghia, and one Ford Model A.

Little blurry black cria

More llamas

On departure 3253.9 at 18:35

On return 3278.9 at 19:15

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Short Ride

3171.1 at 18:55

Beyond commuting, this week I haven't ridden the Bullet much.  I did take it on Wednesday at lunch to my appointment with the dentist in Newtown Square and then to pick up my new glasses at the shopping center on 30 accross from the Radnor Hotel.  On my way to pick up the glasses from the dentist's on 352 as I accelerated to make the light at Goshen the Bullet cut out on me.  I pulled to the side, kicked the kick stand with my heel, and it fired up again.  When I make my appointment with Kiss Honda in a couple of weeks for the 3,000 mile check I will ask them to disconnect that stupid switch.  I don't want to say the words, much less write them down, so the gods will see and hear but I can't risk that switch cutting out on me when I might need it.  Lived with it long enough, don't want to tempt the Fates anymore.  Maybe this is way I haven't ridden much.

On Thursday night, I took a short run up Goshen.  At first I intended to go all the way out to where Strasburg runs into the West Chester Pike but I left the house a little late, 18:55, and I only took my sunglasses with me.  That was a tactical mistake, although sunset would not have been until after 20:00, Goshen/Strasburg is pretty wooded in a lot of places and the sun was down below the tree line pretty quickly.  I got as far as Christine Lane and used that as a turn around.

It was a nice ride and I wish I had not run out without my regular glasses.  I would have probably made it all the way to the Pike and back home before true sunset and darkness but risking running blind is not an option.

On the way out the odo read 3171.1 and on return  .  A short ride but enjoyable nonetheless.

3189.6 at 19:28

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Chadds Ford on Easter Monday

Having the option to take Easter Monday off I stayed home and used the time for a nice long ride.  By 13:00 it was clear and the temps were in to low 60s so it was the perfect time to roll out.  I revisited the Bishop Hollow Road ride for the beginning of this jaunt.  This time I got ahead of the pull out by the llama farm and took it to take a picture of the llamas but they must have been taking their post lunch siestas because I could only see three way of at the top of a hill.  I got a shot but it was not too good.  Better luck next time.

The ride down Bishop Hollow is really becoming one of my favorites.  If the roads get fixed before winter, it will figure prominently in my rotation.  I thought about doing a turn around at Granite Run Mall but two things interfered with that.  The first was that it was too nice to have only a short ride and the second was that close to the end of Rose Tree, by 352, there was a huge road crew trimming trees and it was creating a huge back-up both ways.

Once on 352 I made the decision to run out all the way to Chadds Ford and turn around on the other side of Route 1.  I thought I would pull into the Chadds Ford Histerical Society and use their building as a back drop for some shots of the Bullet but when I got there the parking lot was full so I abandoned that plan.  I kept on 352 to 926 and took that to Creek Road for the turn around at the other side of 1.  The portion of 926 between 352 and Creek Rd. was just brimming with slow moving traffic.  It was a little disappointing but it's not like I could have moved very much faster with all the potholes on the road.  Shortly after crossing Westtown Road I noticed a huge Red Tailed Hawk flying in circles over a field on my right.  A great omen from the shades, I thanked them, and was happy to see her in the sky.

After turning on Creek Rd I fell in behind a guy in a red Jeep, with the top down, who was bound and determine to drive 10 miles under the limit.  Nothing to it, just kept going until after crossing 1 and returning to Creek Rd by the Sunoco Station across from Hank's.  The bit between 1 and 926 on the way back was awesome.  I had no one in front of me and was able to run the twists like the gods intend.  However, 926 back was no better than on the way so on reaching 352 I took the left towards West Chester Pike to come back on Strasburg-Goshen.

This is where things went bad.  Not too bad, but bad enough.  Good thing I had that good omen or who knows what could have happened.  As soon as I turned on Strasburg I began to give it the throttle to see how fast I could get it.  I got to 70 mph and then something happened.  The Bullet did not loose power but the drive became disengaged from the engine and, while the engine was still running and responding to throttle, their was no motioned transfer to the drive.  I pulled over and at the first place I could safely find.  After turning of the engine, she refused to kick over and went completely dead.  I know it wasn't the kick stand switch because that is a complete loss of power and this is not what happened.  I got out and fiddle with what ever wire I saw.  I'm sure that did not accomplished anything.  This took no more than 2 minutes then I went back to the ignition switch and this time the engine kicked over and caught.  I got back on and rode her out.  The rest of the ride down Goshen home was uneventful.  This should teach me not to push this thing when I don't have to.  In the future I will keep it to 60/65 mph and stop trying to be Speed Racer.

When I left the house the odo read 2790.8 and on the return 2838.  The route is good, just traffic conditions today were not optimal.  The issue with losing drive could have been a disaster but I am not going to fret over it.  I will not push it again and wait to see if it returns under different circumstances.

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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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Dead in the Water

So I got home from work and started getting the Bullet ready to take to Kiss Honda in the morning.  You might remember from last Sunday's (08 June) post that last week I thought the battery had drained from my grandson leaving the kill switch open so I had the battery recharging on the bench since then.  I hooked up the battery, not an easy feat until you figure out that if you hold the nut in place with a screwdriver while rotating the screw it will eventually fall in place by itself, and got ready to crank it over.  The headlights came on, the neutral light came on, but the amp meter light did not and there was no whirling noise like there usually is.  I tried kick-starting, something I've never been successful at, but I got nothing.  No surprise there.  Well, I'm dead in the water.

Luckily, I have roadside assistance through Progressive Insurance.  So I called and set up an appointment to come have the bike picked up tomorrow morning to deliver to Kiss Honda.  I will bet that it's nothing major, but if you read this tonight (12 June 2014) and have an idea of how I might get this thing rolling again, I would appreciate a note in the comments.  I would like to be able to get there under my own power.

Thanks in advance!

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