2010 02 15 Yesterday Ride to work adventure

[Semper Gumby]

Riding to work is not supposed to be an adventure but yesterday it was.

I normally ride to the airport from near Northlake Mall around I-285 down across I-75 to the company parking lot on the south side of the airport. My habit is to leave early enough so I can make a speed limit ride and hang out in the RH lane or the second RH lane (to pass a really slow car or sidestep a merger). All the super speeders fight it out for the left hand lanes and generally leave me alone. These habits served me well yesterday...

Approaching I-75 on just before exit 54 (where the memorial to the biker that got killed a few months back rests off in the grass) the bike went on reserve. When this happens it is usually just one carb that goes away (unless I'm on the Thunderbolt) so I have time to reach down and flip the gas to RESERVE and look in the mirror before the second carb goes away.

Yesterday the the bike didn't come back and the second carb went flat and I was left in traffic with no power. So being in the right hand lane is a good thing. I stepped over the white line and parked the bike next to the the guardrail. The bike showed 201 miles on the fuel gage - a bit early but some of this tank had been ridden at 75 mph when the fuel flow was lot higher than when I plunk along to work at 55-60 mph. Sure enough there was gas in the tank but on reserve the clear fuel filter was not filling with fuel. I shook the tank and tapped on the tap and switched a couple times from off to on to reserve in different directions - nothing worked. I now had an extra half gallon of unusable fuel. I was out of gas.

A quick scan of my surroundings revealed lots o trash and detritus that human beings leave behind for somebody else to cleanup - including a one gallon plastic container (empty) of Coastal ATF that somebody had thoughtfully put the red cap back on just before they threw it over the guard rail.

I grabbed the ATF and my helmet and put on my ball cap and started double timing it

[Semper Gumby]

down the breakdown lane hoping that some body wouldn't take the overnight bag off the back of my bike. About a half mile later just as I got to the exit ramp a pickup truck pulled over in front of me. I ran up and opened the passenger side door and and said "Gracias" to an out of work Mexican construction worker who was upside down in his house and about to walk away!

I was heading to the BP at exit 54. My rescuer (in a badly running white pickup with a ladder hanging out the back) made the u-turn at the crossover and got back on I-285 eastbound. He wouldn't go to the BP because that was where drug dealers hung out and somebody had been shot there some time previously. (I have bought gas there once so it wasn't me that got shot). The next exit back (on my way back to the bike) had a Citgo. HOHO a Citgo. No love lost there for hugo chavez but today the situation meets my criteria for getting gas the Venezuelan dictator's company - I'm going to have to PUSH the bike.

I told my Mexican savior to pull up to the pump with his fuel cap on the pump side. And we got out. So I filled the ATF jug and a clear quart container of apple juice from the flat bed of the truck and I put twenty dollars of 87 in the badly running truck (maybe 4 out of 6 cylinders?). The pump said see the cashier for a receipt at which we popped back in the truck and took off. It probably looked like a drive off but I didn't have time to get the paper receipt from the inside cashier.

The bike cranked after the gas went in and I just made the bus (by one second) and my check-in time (by two minutes) so I could go fly in the ice and snow.

Do I have good karma or what?

(prayers for out of work Mexican construction workers)

So now I'm in Wichita where it is cold but not snowing. My bike is in the company parking lot where I cannot work on it and Friday I drive to Melbourne FL. (holds small white sign that says "yikes" while Shadow grows over head). The red paint that protects the insi

[Semper Gumby]

inside of my fuel tank has chosen this time to start coming off the walls to block the strainer of the fuel petcock (maybe its the Sea Foam?) I get home Thursday evening after 10 pm.

There is a good chance that I cannot get this sorted in time for the Friday morning trip Boxer. But hey I'm having a good karma moment so who knows. Will I make it? It just might take another miracle...


 8-)

[Bob_Roller]

Well Bill, I just got done getting the LS tank cleaned of the rust that was in there, and got the POR15 in the tank about 9 days ago .

It's not a difficult job, if you want to try it .

[Semper Gumby]

I'm thinking either that or Caswell...but not Thurday night!

[Bob_Roller]

No, you're going to need about a week to get this done correctly .

[JDS]

I knew I was out of gas this afternoon but the gas station is only 3 miles down the road. I made it half way and the motor died.   I rolled up on the 6 inch curb and leaned the bike over til the cyclinder hit the ground. started it, sputtered all the way to the station.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

And Bill - and all you others - remember it is quite easy to pull your tank and walk with it.  Someone may take pity on you and pick you up and take you back!  (just don't fill it full!)

[Semper Gumby]

Oh yeah!!! (duh)

Another trick for the book...

[not-so-fast-ed]

You're right, Bill.  That's not an area of town to break down in.  The "Gumby" spirit was watching over you!

Ride safe.

Ed