National Rally - Eureka Springs Arkansas June 19th-20th 2012

[spd2918]

Very good, sir.    It's all good to share.  They have been working on their national for a long time and your routes may have been added to what they already had.

[jay547]

T-Shirts ok for dinner Tuesday night?

we're traveling two-up on a standard bike. we can't bring alot of extra stuff. it'll be tee shirts for us...

[MacGyver]

I draw the limit here:

[bikerider]

Hopefully we will get there ok. Hit a monster pothole in Oklahoma today. Didn't think much of it until we hit a couple real corners a hundred miles later and the bike felt funny. Big dent in the rear wheel and 20 psi in the tire. It was melting off like hot butter.  Wouldn't hold air until I beat the dent in with a big rock.  If it holds air overnight we will head to Russelville and get a new tire on monday. If not we will nurse it back home with many stops for air.



Dinner in Mena was yummie.




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[zer0netgain]

T-minus 10:44 until departure.  

[MacGyver]

Hopefully we will get there ok. Hit a monster pothole in Oklahoma today. Didn't think much of it until we hit a couple real corners a hundred miles later and the bike felt funny. Big dent in the rear wheel and 20 psi in the tire. It was melting off like hot butter.  Wouldn't hold air until I beat the dent in with a big rock.  If it holds air overnight we will head to Russelville and get a new tire on monday. If not we will nurse it back home with many stops for air.



Dinner in Mena was yummie.




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I'll be bringing some basic tools n stuff.  Maybe I should pack my air compressor lol...

[MacGyver]

T-minus 10:44 until departure.  

The F800ST and XX are loaded onto the trailer.  Trailer parked in garage.  I hear a Tasmanian devil upstairs packing clothes...

Reminder to self.. stay downstairs and enjoy more beer.

I hope to arrive in Eureka Sunday evening...  I'll have a full day Monday to get stuff squared away and maybe ride some

[jay547]

If it holds air overnight we will head to Russelville and get a new tire on monday.

hope the shop is open on mondays...

[zer0netgain]

IF ANYONE IS IN MEMPHIS TONIGHT (SUNDAY) I MAY NEED YOUR HELP.

I hope this isn't what I think it is, but my voltmeter was showing low voltage this afternoon.  At first, I figured the battery was at max charge and the R/R was clamping down on the voltage to avoid an overcharge, but I'm lucky to see it go above 13.0.

I replaced the R/R this winter.  I tested my stator coil (not that it couldn't have just begun to fail).  Everything ran fine until this afternoon.  While last time this happened, it was a loose wire to the voltmeter that produced the wonky readings, I long since did the wiring to supposedly fix that.

I have no multimeter readily available to confirm if the voltmeter is reading true....it's wired via Fuzeblock to the battery directly.

I'm in Tunica, MS at the Fitz Casino/Hotel.  My cell number is 423-217-2617.  I'm paying for Wi-Fi (grr), but the cell phone will be more reliable to reach me at any time.

I don't want to head home tomorrow.  My plan is to go to the rally and if need be just camp out in town for 2 days and go straight home...salvage what I can from this trip.

Still, I'd like to have someone with me JUST IN CASE.

My planned route was to leave Memphis via I-55 to US-63 to US-412 to Eureka Springs.  I'll gladly change those plans, but I'm looking for anyone leaving the Memphis area tomorrow morning.  Call my cell and we can set up a time/place for a meet.

If it looks like the stator is dying, I may be looking for anyone going home via I-40/I-81 into Virginia (or as far as possible).  This way if I break down, I won't be completely stranded.

***

Hotel maintenance guy let me use his multimeter.  Voltmeter reads true.

11.7v and not budging when I rev the motor up to and over 5K.

HID lamps make it hard to tell if the system is charging or not.


Noteworthy Point:  Even at  11.7v, HID headlight came on w/no problem, cranked and started w/no problem or the HID blinking (often result of voltage drop the capacitor hasn't yet built up enough reserve to compensate for)>

[bikerider]

hope the shop is open on mondays...

We are in Russellville today at a mom and pop place 3 miles from the shop. Took a swim and went to see Rock of Ages at the movies.

They open at 8:30 on Mondays and have a PR2 with my name on it. Seems to be holding air at the bead pretty good still. The tire was so overheated that I am not comfortable riding 2 up on it for another 7 days.  If I was by myself I would I keep using the tire that is on it as I have a set of PR3's at the house for the next tire change.

Also noticed antifreeze drooling from the water pump again. The water pump was rebuilt under my extended warranty 4,000 miles ago.

Funny this stuff only happens when Linda goes with me. Easter weekend the right coil decided to stop working for about 100 miles on our way back home from from an overnight trip. After riding a 100 miles on the left bank it came back to life and then failed again 2 miles from home which made for easy trouble shooting. A used coil I already had on the shelf fixed it right up.

These episodes really take the fun out of  itfor Linda, especially since I seem to get more stressed out when things go wrong when she is with me. When I am by myself I take things in stride, when Linda is with me not so much. For some reason me worrying about stranding her really stresses me out.

I normally keep my bikes until they become unreliable and then sell them. It may be time start researching my next Sport Touring  bike.

Off to the pool...

[zer0netgain]

The good news is that I've been contacted and will be hooking up with a couple other ST.N members so I'm not on my own tomorrow.  I gotta catch up to where they stopped, but if I can do that, it'll go smoother afterward....I hope.

I'll pick up a battery charger at Wal-Mart tomorrow....if I have to limp to ES on that, I can.  Once there, I'll have 2 days to figure out what is wrong or arrange a way to get the bike (and myself) home on Thursday.

[Oddball]

Oddball is inn the house. Room 117. Still looking for a roommate.

[spd2918]

IF ANYONE IS IN MEMPHIS TONIGHT (SUNDAY) I MAY NEED YOUR HELP.

County lives there.  Just saying.

[zer0netgain]

County lives there.  Just saying.

I know.  I probably could have posted in the general forum area, but it's moot now.

[bikerider]

Russellville Honda got me in and out in an hour. We ran into the three guys from  Canada and 50 Goldwings at the Cliff House in Jasper. Going to a show in Branson tonight see you guys tomorrow.





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[jay547]

ladyninja and i are leaving in the morning. should be there around noonish, depending on whether we decide to take a scenic route or just head straight there.

[stromgal]

I'm in Enid, OK. Had intended to be much further east when I stopped for the night, but the heat and high winds today made riding a chore--- and I'm lucky to have gotten the last room available in town. Argh. See y'all tomorrow.

[MacGyver]

Bout 12 folks here so far!   I'll get up around 6-7 am tomorrow and hit the road once I'm geared up.


We are meeting up at Rodeway at
5 pm tomorrow evening.  

Ride down to local flavor cafe by 5:15.

We will be seated at 5:30 pm.

Your meal ticket is NOT for Local Flavor Tuesday--- it's for Wednesday!

[Oddball]

14 STN'rs for dinner. Great food and company. Even a ST driver in full leathers.

[MacGyver]

Short 200 mile ride put in for the morning!!  I did part of the Branson loop..   There's some nice stuff in the Mark Twain national forest up in Missouri !