Today was another day of mountain riding. We left Durango around 7:00 headed for Black Canyon National Park near Gunnison, Colorado. This entailed riding through Silverton to Ouray over the “Million Dollar Highway”. The first eighty miles or so were all mountains and it was raining off and on. No matter, I put on my Gore Tex rain suit before I left Ted’s and I was prepared. Tigger was snuggled dry and warm in his super size zip lock. The temperatures dropped below 50 degrees at the higher altitudes. We stopped in Ouray for a cup of coffee and a muffin and to warm up. By the time we were twenty miles north of Ouray the temperatures had risen to above 70.
After visiting Black Canyon, we were headed for Moab, Utah. I chose the scenic route of course, but that did, again, involve sporadic rain showers. While in the last rain shower of the day the temperature was 54 degrees. Twenty minutes later we were in the valley south of Moab and the temperature was 96 degrees. When we pulled into a rest stop to take off all the rain gear, a couple of teenagers looked at me like I was nuts until I pointed to the mountains and the dark clouds hovering over them.
We stopped at a motel and check in and then headed for Canyonlands National Park, a 40 mile ride one way. When we got there I noticed the bike was handling a little funny, and as we rode further, it got worse. I finally stopped to do a check and noticed my front tire was going flat. What a bummer. I realized that we were not going to be able to continue without fixing it. I took all of the gear off of the bike in a scenic turnoff parking area, got out my tools, pump and patch kit and went to work. I was able to fix it sufficiently to get back to Moab where I properly inflated the tire. Tigger tried to help, but he had never fixed a flat before. The problem with my fix was that it was only temporary. It is not considered safe to ride a motorcycle far with a plugged or patched tire so we had a dilemma. It was too late to do anything about it this evening so we would hope for the best tomorrow. The good news was we could sleep in because nothing opened until 8:30 and the bed was very comfortable.
5 comments:
We want to try again and see if we can get this to work.
Wow, that one finally worked! We have been trying to write you many times. Glad to hear you have been doing well and you finally got the gps you wanted. I'm sure it really died or did you help it die somehow? Glad Tigger is still hanging on.
Good job fixing the flat!
-MacGyver
I am betting the Doug and Anonymous are one and the same, and live in Connersville, Indiana. Glad it is raining on you in scenic mountains, here it just rains on us in flat old Indiana. Good luck with the tire. I have an extra from the farm tractor I will loan you - just ride back here and pick it up.
Your scenery pictures are making me jealous - how much do I have to pay Tigger to take his place?
Denny
That anonymous guy is all over the place. Wow, it must be great having a cartoon character fix your wagon ... er, flat tire. Around here, we call them "specialists."
John U
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