The Long Way Around

Basically, I might be at the end point of this run, but it's not clear.

The short of it is that my plug had a significant failure today. That's right, a stupid spark plug. But the thing is, now my plug might be galled in the head.

It started because the head of my plug in the bike actually had it's threads melted. So the cap basically popped off the plug. Couldn't actually fit the cap back on the plug because the head got stuck in the cap and wouldn't come out. So basically I was hosed.

This is obviously hard to describe but it really comes down to my plug cap would not stay on my bike.

At one point in the afternoon, I took the plug out and I tried to see if I could thread it into the cap, but the answer was a resounding no. And apparently the process of putting it back in may have either cross threaded it or the threads got galled somehow. This means I ant pull the plug out because I could hork up the threads on the head worse than they already may be. If that's the case, then I'm done with the ride. So I obviously can't do that.

I got another head for the plug that's in there an tightened it on the plug that's still in the engine. Took some needle nose pliers and tightened it and hopefully it's on for good and I'll have no other similar problems. Otherwise I have a few other plugs with caps that I can cannibalize.

That is my only hope.

Oh, and the last reason why this day sucked, which if I let out think about it a minute I'm sure you'd figure out on your own: since the plug cap was loose, it would come off regularly.

I had over 200 miles left for the day when the cap first came off. I had apparently got smog the top times (if not the top) for the first leg, an this happened literally at the start of the third.

For the last 50 miles, the cap popped off the plug once every 1.5 miles on average. Guess how many times I pulled over, took my gloves off, opened up my seat, took my under seat storage out, burned my hand on the head refitting the plug cap on, put the storage back in and put my gloves on then rode off again only to do the whole thing again in a few short minutes.

I'll give you a hint - so many times I got to the point where I could do it in under 20 seconds.

Suck.

Now you know why I say today was horrible.

By the way, I'm utterly amused that my post about eating actually caused discussion. Hah. Today I started the day with beef jerky and a cliff bar, then didn't eat till twelve hours later and of a steak.

It's early.

We're doing last second prep to run off.

Today is the famed '40 mile' dirt road. Third leg has 160 miles without gas, and is 70 miles of dirt or something. Good condition hard pack road.

Apparently the most scenic of this trip. Doing it. Shit yeah.

That's rider #2 here. Ugh.

Basically just missed a turn, and we caught up to him 30 seconds after he pulled himself out I a ditch.

He's fine but his GT has seen better days.

He looks chipper considering.

Now on to the dirt road.

Before I go I must mention I have never seen this many dead deer on the side of the road. Almost ran over one. That would have ended badly. Yick.

Holy crap. Jim T went down on the Burr Trail. Cripes.

He blacked out with the bike on him for some 30 minutes, I've heard. Then he rode another 15-20 miles by my calculations and got himself to the next waypoint. Be ended up going to the clinic in the park here. Damn.

On the trail... I got stuck for a minute at this creek.

This was a rough day. Mark and Jim going down... Ugh.

Anyone who made this day on the dirt road with a fuel cell over your back wheel without dropping has my unending respect.

It was beautiful. Seriously.

The GT is worse for the wear. My plug situation sucks. Totally wonky. But I might have a solution in place.

This will be interesting.

Should I have turned around when I saw this sign? Maybe. But then I would have missed the most amazing scenery ever.

Seriously. Ever.

Only, the wash boarded dirt road probably munched my steering bearings. Oh well.

Yes. Beautiful. I wish I could have captured it with a better camera. Instead, I'll just have to remember it well.

This was basically right before the dirt started, day 3.

What you can't really make out in this picture is the fact that the sign in the background says that the very road I had just taken was closed. It said this, of course, from the wrong side, as the other side said it was open.

Thanks for the warning, Utah. Geez.

So day 3 has been the hardest so far. It was a short day with the exception of the ridiculous 40 miles of dirt.

Maroy so kindly referred to the day as 'Cannonfall' as more people hit the ground than didn't. The dirt claimed a lot of victims.

Both the Ruckus riders (e.g, Jim T, who I believe will be trucking it to the next most convenient spot then flying home). Both Jess and Rich went down. Rocket went down. Basically, if you went on the dirt road, you crashed.

I didn't crash. But I did lay the bike down. I had a scare where I lost my rear on some washboards, and almost bit it in a ditch.

When I came to a complete stop, I put my foot down and basically didn't have good footing on the Dirt and I tipped over towards the ditch. Thankfully, he says with a hint of sarcasm, I caught the bike with my knee, an kept it from going down hard. Instead I just let it down gently. So no crash, just bad and stupid footing.

Sigh.

Anyway, more plug drama. It popped off again, same problem with stripping the threads on the aluminum head on the plug. Cap popped right off in front of the marina at the Bullfrog ferry.

Thankfully a kind security guard came by and asked me why the problem was. I mentioned the problem and be off-handedly mentioned that he restores VW's. He mentions that, on a VW, the plug cap doesn't fit over the aluminum head on the plug, but actually clips on to the threads on the plug itself. He had one in his on-site motor home, so he drove me to his place and hooked me up with the newcap, gratis. We fixed it on, and it bit and the bike started right up. Rode the rest of the ride with the new cap, no incident.

Hopefully this will keep working and I can continue to ride this route as expected.

We've rolled past the thousand mile mark at this point. Only 2.3k more to go.

My carpal tunnel is killing me, and my eating has not gotten better.