Catasphopy Strikes!

Post date: Jul 25, 2016 6:34:48 PM

The weather this morning was better than yesterday. I woke up and hit the road without breakfast because I was stuffed to the gills from dinner last night.

After getting the bike rolling, I felt a slight vibration but couldn't determine what was causing it. I checked the brake calipers, the wheel bearings, pegs, and nothing seemed to be loose. The fork seal was still gushing fork oil all down the fork tube, but that wouldn't cause a vibration. I headed out without finding the cause.

I tooled along to Teslin, YT where I had stopped for fuel on the way up to Alaska. It's in between Whitehorse and Watson Lake along the Teslin River. Someone had the bright idea to put in a little motel/restaurant/truck stop here, and they probably make a good living because the place is always busy.

Three folks riding BMW's were taking their riding gear off, so I pulled up next to them. They invited me to join them for lunch. One guy was a professor at Oregon University. The other was an IT Consultant, and the gal was from Denmark. The lunch conversation was a welcome encounter that involved much more than motorcycles. The food was a little south of fair, but it kept me alive.

Back on the road, I was running balls out in the middle of nowhere. At kilometer marker 1020, the cause of the vibration made itself known. It quickly turned from a minute vibration to violent shaking to a loud thump, thump, thump. It felt like the rear tire had blown. I immediately pulled to the side of the road and thought, "Great. Something else broke." I peered around and saw forest on both sides of the road. It was quiet with the only sound being the breeze in the trees. Great. Broke down in the middle of nowhere. Just my luck.

Once stopped, the smell of burnt grease wafted up to my nose. I said to myself, "Well, that's not a good smell." I got off the bike and examined in the rear tire. It was fine. Moving around to the passenger side of the bike, a little puff of smoke emerged from the drive shaft boot. I moved the boot aside, which fell off, and there it was. The rear u-joint in the drive shaft had failed. Worn out is more like it. Those inspections during regular service intervals must have been overlooked by the technician. Yep. Well, I'm not going anywhere.

My first thought was that I was glad I paid that $2.00 USD for road-side assistance on my insurance policy, because I was sure going to use it. I dreaded thinking how much the tow bill was going to cost. And then the thought of the cost of repairs set in... Gulp.

I waited for a few minutes and heard a car approaching. I threw my thumb out, and the car pulled over. It was a gentleman that I had seen back at the restaurant in Teslin. I grabbed whatever was hanging loose on the bike and threw it in this dudes car. I needed to get to a location that had a phone or where I could get cell service. Both were elusive, and we had to drive into Watson Lake about 40 miles away.

I popped into two motels there and both refused to let me use thier WiFi to help sort this out. In turn, they immediately were added to my blacklist. Across the street was the Yukon Public Library where I spent the next three hours inside until they closed, and then, on the back deck talking to my insurance company, who was talking to Sykes Canada, the towing dispatcher, who was talking to the actual guy at the towing company. Talk about a cluster.

The insurance rep. came back on the phone and said that I would be towed to Yukon Honda back in Whitehorse, to which I immediately refused. They aren't BMW certified technicians, so they are not qualified to turn a wrench on the bike. They can't accurately identify the damaged parts, and they sure can't source the parts from their storeroom because they sell Hondas, not BMWs.

"Oh," The guy says.

I told him that I wanted to go south, so send me to Vancouver. The nearest BMW dealership is back in Anchorage. I would be required to pay the delta in mileage to the tune of $4,385.00 USD. Uh, nope. So to Anchorage I go, except I had to wait on the tow truck until the next morning. I holed up in A Nice Motel for the night. It was a nice place, and I would stay there again. The owner is Panamanian, and I'm not sure how she ended up in the Yukon Territory.

The next morning, the tow truck driver showed up early. Bonus! Turns out that he owns the business, and it's his side job when his other work is slow. We drove back to the waylaid bike on the side of the road and loaded her in his trailer.

That's the first time she's ever been on a trailer...

He then asked why I was going to Anchorage when Edmonton, AB was closer and south? Sure enough there is a BMW dealer there. Its two miles further than Anchorage. I called them, and after speaking with the service manager, I decided to go to Anchorage. The guy was a prick.

The tow owner suggested to put my bike on a flatbead heading south to Vancouver. He would drop me in Whitehorse where I could catch a flight and pick the bike up in a few days. Howeved, there was nothing going south. I thought that if I could rent a U-Haul, I would drive myself and thebike to Seattle, where I was headed anyways. That's exactly what happened, except that no U-Haul place in Whitehorse had a truck that day. I had to hole up in Teslin for another night.

The next morning we drove 150 miles into Whitehorse and picked up a U-Haul truck. Back at his shop, where the bike and trailer was, we loaded up the bike and I burned rubber towards Seattle.