Glad to be back. Sue and I toured S. KY, N. VA and some of S. WVA, the general area known as the Cumberlands. (1300 miles total) Very pretty country, especially in that little tip of far western VA between KY and NC.
We left Ohio on Thur., the 24th, and by Sat. of Memorial Day weekend found ourselves at a McD's in Pennington Gap, VA for lunch. Always picking a seat where we can watch the bikes I noticed that the rear tire on the Bonnie looked decidedly low. It wasn't. It was dead flat.
There were NO bike shops in town and we started calling around to neighboring towns, talking to people, and, after dozens of calls the best we could do was a Triumph dealer (also Kaw, Honda & Suzi) in Kingsport TN, 45 miles away who said they would pick up the bike the following Tuesday. There was one motel in town, behind the McD's and they had one room left.
Since Sue's bike was fine we were able to do some local exploring for those two and 1/2 days, but it was largely a boring and LOOONGGGG time. I did manage to reread all of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I needed all the Zen I could get. I am not a patient person by nature!
By Tuesday at 1:30 they were working on the bike and by 3:30 it was done. They weren't wrapped and were constantly being interrupted. We paid and moved on to Abingdon, Va where I noticed that the new tube had lost 10#s overnight. Filled up Wed am and pressed on to Charleston, WVA, having to fill it a couple of time along the way.
By the time we got to Charleston it was down to only a few pounds pressure. The leak was getting worse. I filled it up to 47#s and started clocking it. It lose 25 lbs in an hour. And was dead flat the next morning. I found a Suzi dealer who had a tube about 10 miles away, got directions, borrowed a compressed air tank from a Polaris dealer across the street from the motel and Sue and I headed for the Suzi dealer like bats out of h*ll and made it. They put in another new tube and showed me how the Triumph dealer had failed to inflate the tube before re-rimming the tire on the wheel, and had therefore inflated it folded!. It had rubbed two holes in the tube with several others ready to break through!
It was after 1:30 pm when we got the bikes back to the motel, got everything packed on and we decided we'd had enough "fun" - plus I was really fried about the incompetence of the Triumph dealer - and we headed home by interstate, arriving home about 6PM - about 200 miles, including stops to put on rain gear and take it off, riding through a heavy downpour, etc.
One thing about this trip is that we are not likely to confuse it with any other.
An ironic note: when the tire went flat it was 100 feet from the only motel within 40 miles. Guess what the name of the motel was: The Convenient Inn. It really was.
Monte and Sue
PS: Am getting a new rear tire next week. The old one still has some tread, but you can see the wear marks coming close, it has 9100 miles on it and I do not know how many miles I rode it at very low inflation. The dealer in Charleston said it looked fine on the inside, but it had major stress and I don't want to push my luck.
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