My first road trip completed!

[andymetzger]

Well, I did it ladies and gentlemen. With God's grace, I "completed" my first long distance road trip. One of the most interesting weekends I've had in awhile, and I definitely learned a ton. Let me start at the beginning...

I left Columbia, SC at 2:00pm on Friday headed towards Pigeon Forge, TN. I had already decided that I would avoid the interstate and take the 2 laners or relatively smaller highways. I used Mapquest.com and the "avoid highway" option, and it picked a route that was 280 miles and an estimated 6 1/2 hours long. I assumed that I could probably do the trip in 5 1/2, considering my past experience with mapquest and car trips. Well...mapquest got the last laugh there. Considering the majority of the directions consisted of 10, 15, or 20 mile increments, I was constantly pulling over to make sure I was headed the right way and ready for the next direction/road/highway change. I definitely need to figure out a better way to know the directions (maybe a gps right in front of me!) So the frequent stops probably added an additional 40-45 minutes on to the total trip.

Well, I made it to Clayton, GA and was preparing to enter the Smoky Mtn National Forest when the rain came. I had a good rain jacket over my leather jacket, but the adidas running pants over my jeans didn't do a thing (except help the water form a nice, COLD puddle between the legs...which if you've ever had, you know how uncomfortable that can be! So give me your suggestions on legware, too!) So I entered the Forest and things were going relatively well considering the conditions, until I really got into the thick of it. The rain was coming down hard, and I was forced to leave my helmet's windshield/visor open since I couldn't keep the water/fog off of it (any suggestions for that one either?). So the rain was pelting me in the face now, and eventually covering my eye glasses and those began to kinda fog up as well. At that point, I became pretty scared. It was becoming very difficult to see the lines on the road...even the road itself for that matter. There was no where to turn off, and there were no cars in front of me to follow. BUT, this is where God really came to the rescue. I had been praying a good bit the entire trip, but at that point, I told Him, "God, right now I need some help. I can't see, and this is getting too dangerous for me to handle. I'm gonna need you to help me out." Within a minute, a Park Ranger pulls out of nowhere in a SUV right in front of me, and proceeds at about 30mph for the next 25 miles. AMAZING! I honestly believe he was sent from heaven to protect me, because I was able to just follow his lights all the way through the twisties until I caught up with a steady flow of traffic. So, I made it into Pigeon Forge at exactly 10:00pm (yes, that's right...8 hours of riding!) just in time to completely miss the event I was showing up for. I ate dinner with the guys, however, and it made for an entertaining dinner topic. The fun doesn't stop there, though! I still had another hour drive from Pigeon Forge to my house in Morristown. I decided not to take the backroads, and would brave the interstate instead. I'm not sure if that was the best decision. I wouldn't exceed 50mph b/c it was raining pretty hard and very windy, and with every 18-wheeler that passed and pushed me around, I got that much more scared. Not a fun hour. But again, God was faithful and brought me through it.

So, this morning I woke up and knew the weather was going to be clear, sunny, and very little wind. I decided to travel by interstate back to South Carolina, considering it's still a pretty route and I thought my bike could handle it. I made it through the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina without any problems at all, which really surprised me. I was pushing strong at 70-75mph the entire time and she held up without any hesitation. (I know "pushing strong at 70" seems stupid to a lot of you, but on my 24 year old 300cc...it's going strong!) I made it through the mountains, however, and began the straight-way to Columbia when I ran out gas. I was pretty bummed b/c I had been riding with a pack of 3 other riders that we just randomly formed while out on the road. Luckily, I had just passed an exit, so I walked back, bought a small 1 gallon tank, and filled her up. I went about 10 miles down the road until I got to another station and decided to fill her up completely, eat some lunch, and then get back on the road again. Well, I did just that, started riding, and didn't make it but maybe 3 miles when she started sputtering a little bit, quickly losing power, and I ended up coasting off the road as she cut off on me. I wasn't really sure what the problem was, but I checked the battery connections, and they were all fine. I messed with the spark plugs, but that didn't help. I let it sit for about 5 minutes, started it back up and let it run weakily for about 15-20 seconds before it would just die again. I was stuck, and unfortunately, that was the end of my roadtrip. I was about 95 miles away from school, and the only thing I knew to do was call one of my college buds to come pick me. Luckily, I got ahold of one, he drove my truck out to get me, we loaded the bike up, and I just got back.

So, maybe I didn't "complete" the trip all that successfully, but I'm back, and about 12 of the 13 hours were done on the bike. Not too bad I guess for the first trip. I actually thought about y'all a lot on Friday, and on my way back today. I was excited about being able to say I did my first trip and how I had to face the rain, the dark, the mountains, the fog, etc. and still made it through. So I made it through the hard stuff, just couldn't finish through the easy stuff. I'm not sure what the problem is, hope I didn't let y'all down too much. There will be more trips to come, though. This stuff won't stop me. God is faithful, He brought me through, and He'll bring me through.

[blackie1491]

[tnichols]

Whew....Glad to hear you made it home safely! Congrats on your successful trip! (Any trip you take where you make it there and back is successful in my book) Amazing how God will answer prayers when we need him the most.

But did you ever figure out what was wrong with the bike?

[andymetzger]

I haven't figured out what is wrong with the bike yet. I'm planning on just taking it to the shop tomorrow unless y'all have any suggestions. A few people I spoke with suggested bad gasoline or water in the mixture, but those were just guesses. I'm not sure how that would happen. I filled up just like always at the usual place, went about 3 miles and it died. I checked it out a little, couldn't find any obvious problems (but I'm no mechanic), let it sit for about 15 minutes, cranked it back up again, and it idled for about 15 seconds and quit. I waited another 15 minutes, it was idling alright, and I just hopped on and rode down the shoulder in 3rd gear at about 30 mph to the next exit which was about a mile down the road. (Left my eye glasses there on accident, too!) Over the next few hours I tried starting it a few times, and the same thing happend. It would start up, run for about 20 seconds or so, and then die. Sometimes it would sound a little stronger than others. The last few attempts it was sounding weak though. If I pulled the choke out at all when it was running, it would almost automatically quit. Any idea what that may be?

[andymetzger]

Originally Posted by blackie1491

Ha. Sorry Blackie. I should have taken some along the way. That was the one thing I forgot from Gixxerdale's checklist! It's alright, though. The pictures will always be up there in my noggin. Next time...

[Lew]

go to the parts store and get a bottle of gas treatment. You probably have water in the fuel from where you filled up. Remember it had been raining....
Either that or drain the tank and look for water.

[GIXXER-Mike]

Congrats on your trip!

[Trapper]

Good read. All on a old classic. good job. I hope you get it running soon.

[andymetzger]

Well it's running! I feel like a moron, too. I took it to the shop, the mechanic listened to it for 30 seconds, pulled out a spark plug, cleaned it up, put it back in, and it's fine. Gosh...what I would have given to known that then...but that's ok! You live and you learn. I'm young and still figuring it all out.

Now I have to plan the trip from Tennessee down to Texas. I'm thinking I probably should get her in peak condition before I do that, though. You think I can cover everything myself, or should I take her to the shop to get a tune-up?

[blackie1491]

A good service dept., knowing about your long trip can save you a lot of grief on the road. Give you good tips on what to whatch for, what to take with you.
Get to know them, lots of knowledge and exp. that they will share.
My service manager lets me go into the service bay and talk things over with my mechanics.

[Kaikias]

Sparkplug? I would have guessed cloged/blockages fuel line. Have you rode it much since? Usually if the spark foul it dosent run out all.

[Shea]

Great read! not sure I will ever be able to do something like that. Wife is a bit frearful of me being on the bike to begin with, she probably wouldn't like me being so far from home if something were to happen. Not like I would make a trip like that on my Buell Anyway. If I were into long distance trips, I would have bought something with a shield or fairing.

In my experience, the three top things that cause sputtering...

1. Spark plugs
2. Dirt in the carb/fuell line
3. Low voltage from the battery

[AZkatana]

great story! sounds like you experienced many riders worst case scenario in a single trip and came out brilliantly, even a bit wiser. now all your future trips will be fun and easy.
i would have suspected low voltage as well, but motorcycles, especially the classics, are notorious for little gremlins that will disappear if you take something apart, look at it, and put it back together
my first day trip is planned for this weekend - a quick 3 hours each direction with nothing in between towns and a good portion of that strech full of twisties. now, if i run into problems, i can just consider: what would andy do?

[andymetzger]

Originally Posted by AZkatana

now, if i run into problems, i can just consider: what would andy do?

Ha! I don't know about that! I never have a clue...

I have ridden the bike a fair amount since the trip, and both times I've had a little trouble getting started. The same kind of feeling when it's about 30 degrees outside and you're trying to start your bike...takes a little while for her to warm up. Thing is, it's about 87 degrees outside! I'm going to check the other spark plug today and see if it's clean. From what y'all are saying though, sounds like I need to check the fuel line also. I'm not exactly sure how to do that, yet, but I can look it up. How would dirt (or anything else, for that matter) get in the fuel line? Y'all have a good one!