July 10, 2008: 1898 miles, from Missoula, Montana, USA to Home – South Lyon, Michigan, USA
Jaryd and I woke up earlyish, and after a quick shower, packed our bikes and headed out east on the I-90. Our biggest concern of the day was whether the bikes were going to act up again with the very bad surging and power reduction shown the previous two days. The bikes seemed fine for the first hundred miles or so, when we pulled into a gas station to fill up. The heat was rising however, and so I thought we would soon know if we were going to see the same problems again. It must have been around 100 degrees F by the time we left the gas station, and the wind was again on our backs, which clearly was not helping the flow of air through the cooling radiator.
It was within maybe 30 miles of filling up, that we started to see the same bad surging symptoms again!
Damn! This was clearly going to haunt us for the long trip home. We decided there was nothing further we could except ride as best we could, and see how far we got. The road was very quiet, with little in the way of large towns or cities ahead of us until we reached Billings, so on we stumbled.
Except, the issue started to get worse and worse. Man, this was going to be a problem. Not only were our butts and spirits a little low for the issues with both bikes, and us feeling physically quite drained after 18 days of hard riding with hardly any real rest, but these bikes felt like they were not going to make it home, and I could sense that Jaryd was really worried about the surging, which almost felt like it would throw him over the front of the handlebars at times.
I decided that we should look for a bike shop in the next town, and try to fix the problem, as we were not going to be able to continue like this for much longer – and certainly not for the 1600+ miles still needed to cover to get home!
None of the little towns ahead had any place we could strip the bikes down at, until we came into the little town of “Big Timber” – and I spied a “U-Haul” sign at a local windshield repair shop! Both Jaryd and I felt that at this stage, we just wanted to get home, while resting our sore butts, with the bikes safely ensconced in the back of a U-haul van….as it did not make sense for us to be left stranded on the side of the road, without any ability to use either bike to carry both of us, and no ability to easily get one or more broken down bikes back home.
We pulled into the U-Haul agent, and spoke with the very friendly manager, who said that while he had no small vans for us, he did have a 27 foot truck! We agreed to rent the truck to get us to Billings, where we arranged to swap the large truck for a small enclosed van at the large U-haul agent in Billings, for the long one-way trip home.
So….after spending $80 on gas and $200 for the large truck to take us the 80 miles from Big Timber to Billings, we switched the bikes into the back of the smaller van and left Billings at around 5:30PM, for the long, but MUCH more comfortable, trek home in the air-conditioned and music-enabled van!
Our butts were happy again, on the (relatively) luxurious seats of the U-haul van, and with us grabbing some sodas and sandwhiches, we drove the 1600+ miles home to Michigan, stopping only for a few hours sleep in the cab over the next two nights of driving, and refreshing ourselves at the truck rest stops along the road.
We were happy to be home, half-day ahead of schedule….and promptly jumped into our respective beds and slept for hours and hours!
We never did find a definite cause of the problem we had encountered, but did find after some research on the Internet that this surging has been reported before, but without any definite cure. I feel that the issue was a result of the boiling gas in the tanks, itslef probably exacerbated by the high heat, lack of cooling air through the radiator by the strong tail-winds, and also the blockage of air escaping the radiator by Jaryd and my tank pannier luggage bags.
I checked the valve clearances on Jaryd’s bike (in spec, so that was not the problem, although I did loosen up the clearances a little to ensure no valves were hung open with a hot motor). I replaced the thin rubber vacuum tube that runs from the carburetor to the fuel tap, which cuts off the fuel supply when there is no engine vacuum (i.e. when the engine is not running), as I had heard that these thin OE rubber hoses could soften in the high heat and squish closed under vacuum, thus killing the supply of fuel to the engine. I also lined the bottom of the fuel tank with a 10MM thick aluminum foil insulation mat cut from a roll of good quality aluminum heat insulation purchased at Lowes hardware. I removed the carburetor to check for water in the float bowl (nothing, it was clean) and stripped and cleaned the carburetor but found no dirt or anything unusual to report.
I checked the spark plug lead for any insulation breaks that might have caused an intermittent spark to the motor, but nothing was found.
So, I am still not sure if the problem is 100% fixed, but now feel that the high heat conditions resulting in the boiling gas in the tank as the prime cause of the problem, and that I have done enough to help avoid that problem in the future. I will not be using the tank p[panniers again (or at least…if we have another problem, I will move them to the rear pack behind me and away from the gas tank and radiator shroud, to see if that helps the cooling).
But none of these late trip problems took away from a truly wonderful adventure with my son and my friend. We saw parts of America that most Americans will never see, and were awestruck at the natural beauty of that part of the continent, and the abundance of wild-life. While we did not end up making our goal of reaching Inuvik at the end of the Dempster Highway, or of crossing the Arctic Circle, we did get within 186 miles of the Arctic Circle, and we will be back to complete this trip!
It was an awesome, AWESOME trip….that both Jaryd and myself will never forget. I am so proud of my son. He did not complain ONCE during this tough trip, and while clearly nervous about riding nearly 9000 miles on a bike after getting his learner’s permit literally 2 days before we left, he rode like a veteran. I am privileged to be the father of such a young man.
A wonderful (!) self-portrait by Jaryd of he and I in the van on the 2-day drive home…
