July 2007 Trip to California 

The plan was to go to my son's house in Monterey, CA from Elbert, CO via several back roads in CO, UT, MT, etc. Because I returned from TX on Saturday (via bike), I didn't plan on leaving until Monday (time to do a tune-up). Of course, I would be pulling my popup camper trailer.

Monday: Great ride west on Hwy-24 (west) then up across Independence Pass (CO) and call it a night in Grand Junction. I was averaging 50 MPH.  BTW, the pictures on my site for that trip are the ONLY scenic pictures of this trip thanks to what follows.

Tuesday: When I went to shut off the bike alarm, the alarm began going off. It would go on for about six seconds then off, then on, then off. Of course I can't disable the alarm via the battery as it has its own battery. Sure that everyone was going to come out of their motor homes and threaten to kill me, I start to pull the side off to remove the alarm when it goes silent and doesn't start up again. I figured the problem (ha, ha) was my FOB battery which I replaced; however, when I went to start the bike - nothing, nada, zip. Bike was dead. Time to call AAA for a tow to the nearest Harley shop (5 miles).  Harley identified the problem as a "fused closed" 50 amp circuit breaker. I was on the road by 1300. Cost: ~175.00 (they also did some wiring cleanup). During this time, I reassessed my 5-day route and saw that I would have to redo my routes which I did in the service department while waiting on repairs. Afterwards, I headed out on I-70 for Salinas, UT. When I arrived in Salinas, the bike was missing badly so I checked where the nearest Harley dealer was located and stopped for the night in Richfield, UT.  Again, I had to redo my routes.

Wednesday: I tried calling Zion HD in Washington, UT but they don’t have an answering machine (not that anyone ever returned a call when they did...). So I packed up and literally raced the 157 miles to get there for an early (hopefully) repair. I got there around 1000 and was told it would be a two day wait so I called Henderson HD outside of Las Vegas, NV. They said they could take me. The distance was approximately 140 miles so, again, I raced the distance and arrived at 1230. They quickly identified the problem as a faulty temperature sensor and had me on the road by 1500. Cost: ~175.00. The temperature outside was 118 and fluctuated between 118 and 119 for about an hour as I went across the desert for CA.  Fortunately I had on my cooling vest and a 3Q Camelback.  Exhausted, I stopped for the night in Victorville, CA.

Thursday: I tried to fire up the bike but I'm pulling only 12.3 volts which is not enough to start so I, again, called AAA for a jump. I plugged in the address to Victor Valley HD (4 miles away) into my GPS and, after talking to the service manager, headed out. They did but it was almost 1500 hours. When I arrived, I suggested it might be the stator but was told it was ok but the battery was shot. So they replaced the battery and fixed an oil leak in the inner primary - cost: 550.00 Of course, my route had been totally shot and I was basically just taking the shortest route to my son's home. I arrived around 2100.

Friday: Nothing really exciting. My son rides a Yamaha FJR1300 and we rode to Alice's Restaurant. When we returned to his home (~90 minutes away), I noticed that I didn't have my keys. So I called Alice's Restaurant and, yes, they had the keys. My son offered to get up o'dark early and be at the restaurant by 0800 to get my keys and I could be on the road by 1000. Yeah, like my luck was going to allow that... ha, ha.

Saturday: At 0700 my son called me to tell me his bike had a serious coolant leak but he was right next to a Yamaha shop. So I took his Explorer and picked him up and off to the restaurant we went. I was finally on the road by 1400 and, again, found myself going quick step back to Victorville where, in the early morning, I would be poised to tackle the desert before it became truly hot.

Sunday: Cross the desert, pass through Arizona and into Utah. Get on I-70 from I-15 and approximately 25 miles from Richfield, UT, my volts start rapidly dropping. I watch as the volts drop down to 11, 10..., 9.., 8.., 7.., 6... I turned off the motolights to get a boost in volts (worked for all of approximately 20 seconds). The clock goes out. The odometer goes out. The Kisan chargeGuard goes out. I turned off the GPS. Shortly afterwards the bike goes out. I'm 18 miles from Richfield. I pull out my phone to call AAA but, nope, no bars. Fortunately I'm on a hill so I push my bike (temperature is 105) and get it up to 10 MPH. When I bottom out (sort of) I try again. Nope, no bars. So I pushed the bike for approximately 1/4 mile (road starting to go uphill now) and try again. I can't make any calls but I am able to text message my daughter with AAA information. Now, here's the funny part. No one could call me and I could call no one; however, I did receive ONE call. It was HD asking me if I was satisfied with the work they had done. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha... My daughter got hold of AAA and, again, I was towed but this time I was 130 miles out - we went to Orem, UT.  I parked my bike right in front of the dealer and crashed at a nearby hotel. Cost was 120.00 for the extra 30 miles not covered by AAA and 65.00 for the hotel room. I was on that road for two hours and in that time a Honda Gold Wing passed but didn't stop even though I was pushing my bike. Numerous other vehicles passed but no one stopped and no one called 911 to let them know of a stranded sap on the side of the road.  Go figure.

Monday: At HD at 0730, I noticed that they didn't open until 0900. No problem - they had wireless so I started surfing the net with my Nokia N800.  At 0800 the gates were opened and I was the first in line.  At 1000 they actually started working on my bike.  They replaced the stator and other components of the charging system.  The stator was completely fried and still smoking from the day before.  Another 650.00 job and I was out of there by 1500 hours.  By now, I just wanted to get home in one piece.  I stopped for the night in Grand Junction, CO (where my first breakdown occurred).

Tuesday: Well, all seemed fine (no engine problems) but my Kisan no longer worked (I believe water got into it from the storm the night before). I'm ok with that as the bike still runs and I didn't experience any problems UNTIL just before reaching I-25 from C-470.  A motorist pulled up along side me and told me I was dragging my left muffler (you've got to be kidding...).  Nowhere to pull over, I turn onto I-25 and pull onto the large shoulder.  I use the remaining water in my camelback to cool the exhaust, pull everything apart, take off the seat and saddlebag and get out my tools and make the repairs.  That took me about an hour.  I use Windex to clean the grease off of my hands.  Then off I go.  I arrived home around 1655. Later that night I sat down to watch TV and discovered that somewhere, that day, I lost my glasses (I kept my glasses in a case in the left side pocket of my stitch). This vacation just didn't want to end.

Wednesday: I'll took the bike in to HD. I'd spent ~1800.00 in repairs (this includes the actual repairs, meals while waiting, hotel rooms, towing, etc.), only took pictures on the first day (well, that's not entirely true - I did take pictures of the bike on the tow truck).  I-70 in CO and UT is beautiful, the desert sucks, heat sucks, my bike sucked, but the cooling vest was great and I enjoyed seeing my son. Oh, yes, I went to the PX (military Post Exchange) to get more glasses. My wife told me I could get a new 2008 but I think I'll get this ride fixed.  Hopefully my bike won't die when I take her to Texas mid-August or when I go on my next bike vacation in September.  HD is doing a 20K service (my bike has 90K but the 20K covers the most components), re-doing the wiring of 'gizmos' to the battery, replacing the front tire and rear brake pads, etc. 

Maybe I'll hire a tow truck, have Lisa drive it, turn my bike around so I don't face the cab and have it carry me and my bike on vacation in September... I can sit on the bike and go, "vroom, vroom..."

Now, with the exception of the electrical problems that should have been identified/fixed in Victor Valley HD, all the other problems were separate and not the result of poor service by any of the dealerships. The bike has 90,000 miles on her and it just happened that everything wanted to go out during my first vacation of the year.  I'm not even certain it was poor service in Victorville.  As a minimum, it was the result of inexperience, e.g., the tech was not seasoned. 

In general, my bike is very low maintenance. And... my Karma obviously sucked bananas on this trip... I guess I shouldn't have run over that old lady. :-)

Live to Ride,
Ride to Live