Made it back to the Bay Area from the Hell On Wheels Rally. Despite running into pretty serious trouble in Death Valley, I had a great time and got some seriously excellent riding in. I made it over Ebbetts Pass on the stock tune (so, that carb works alright from sea level to at least 8730′), and then got to ride a bunch of long straight roads in Nevada on the second day. Fortunately, that day was also punctuated with a bunch of off-roading. I shot a bunch of video with my GoPro on days 1 & 2, and I’ll be going through those for anything interesting in the next couple days.
Day 3 was Death Valley. I got a late start due to unexpected chain maintenance (need to tighten the chain for the first time), and the bike had consumed a bunch of oil the previous day. Ruh-roh. So, after adjusting the chain and getting on the road, I struck out for Death Valley National Park, which was both beautiful and much more difficult of a ride than I had expected. I got overheated by the time I hit Badwater and had a difficult ride back to Furnace Creek where I was able to recover in the bar at the Inn there. After cooling off, I made it 3 miles past Stovepipe Wells and a sign that said “Turn off AC to prevent overheating next 20 miles”. I chuckled at the sign and then a couple minutes later, Little Bike’s thumper stopped pulling. I pulled off to the side, and hit the engine kill switch. It dieseled for a couple seconds. Fuck. I ended up spending nearly an hour there letting the bike cool and working on it (the chain was out of adjustment, again. Loose, again). I also had to rest a lot thanks to the sun and general exhaustion from having put in hours on the bike already that day. By the time I was putting my gear back on the bike, a car finally stopped (two Harleys had already passed me without even pausing). It was a rental piloted by a French biker who asked if I needed help. Right at that moment, all I could think of was to get more water from him. He obliged and we both set off.
Which is when I realized I’d completely messed up setting the tension. It was too tight. I nursed the bike down the road a couple of miles to a better working spot. It was paved and there was an outhouse creating some shade. I was starting to get muscle cramps after the day’s exertions already, I started by taking a short nap in the shade, and then did a little work, drank a little water, rested a bit until I got done with the job. I had to get creative with the tools on hand to get the job done, thanks to failing grip strength, but I pulled it off.
When I set off again, this time the chain was definitely right, but the bike still had no guts in 5th gear. (This was likely true of the others, the bike’s just geared low enough that any torque in those gears will make it go. It was most obvious in 5th.) In that moment, I realized I only had one real option: nurse it. Ok, I’m terrible at nursing it. I had to play with it a bunch to find out what its operating parameters were. I revved it out in 4th a few times and then, after a few minutes of riding, Little Bike started to perk back up. I dropped speed, opened it up again, revved it out and it pulled. It. Pulled. I upshifted and cranked it. Instead of farting out at 40mph, I jumped forward and quickly got to 50 and started creeping up on 55. It was back. The little thumper had healed. I hit Townes Pass at 50 and cried down that hill. I love that bike and I thought I’d hurt it. Instead, it got me out of Death Valley.
Things did not get too much better from there. Night was falling, which was good, because I wasn’t overheating. However, I was exhausted and dropped the bike near the bottom of the valley (it was as I was coming to a stop, the pull out was softer than I was expecting and I was tired). I had to get a passing motorist to help me get the bike up. It was totally fine. Just some scratches. But. It was low on oil and I didn’t find that out until later, because I broke my phone in that fall, and now had no flashlight. Oops. After an hour or so of taking a short stint and then resting off the shoulder for a bit, another rally car caught me, stopped and their captain also rides and rescued me. We put more oil in the bike, and their captain rode Little Bike into Bakersfield. We got in around 2am.
For Day 4 and the Concourse d’LeMons, Little Bike hitched a ride in a diesel pickup piloted by yet another rally entrant. He was caravanning with another car, and I had a much more relaxed day. I didn’t finish on the bike, but I made it out of DVNP on my own, and with a little help, made it to the end of the event. I put nearly 1200 miles on the bike and got in a lot of good riding. Death Valley was beautiful. I fully intend to go back. In February. Despite the harrowing last day, I had a great time and feel pretty good right now.