We wake up the next morning around 9am local time... Nighthawk talks about hearing some crazy loud snoring... I didn't hear it, musta been Drewpy.
The plan for the morning is to dick around with my bike to see if we can get it working. The night before we had various theories as to what was going on... Drewpy made a bunch of calls, mostly to Gasman and Psychochild (who started a thread)... Bad gas (water) and fuel filter were the top culprits.
Nighthawk and Gramps decide to continue on down the road and allow us to catch up later... Drewpy goes to Wally World to pick up an inline fuel filter and something to drain the gas into (baking pan).
We dick around with it, get the fuel drained and realize we need to remove the swingarm to get the fuel pump/filter assembly out... At this point I think we could hang the rear end from a tree in our site and remove the rear shock, allowing the swingarm to rotate down and hopefully providing enough clearance to pull it out...
As I am screwing around trying to get it apart with the ass end swinging and bouncing against the tree, Drewpy is on the horn with some guy Marko found off BadWeb (
www.badweatherbikers.com - Buell forum) who is in Topeka... like 100 miles away or something... He's got tools and a place to crash if we need it... Very cool.
At this point we decide that the KOA campsite is not the best place in the world to be wrenching on a bike with limited tools and a site manager that keeps asking when we'll be out of there... So limp it to Topeka!
Now Eric seemed to think the problem was spark plugs so he called ahead to a bunch of auto parts places and found some for my bike. Along the way we stopped at an Oreilly's Auto Parts and picked up the plugs. Outside the joint there were some very rural locals... They ask us about our bikes and where we are from/going... after answering the questions, the one kid's like, "so you're riding across country or something." Umm.... yeah. Straight Deliverance... I was sorta scared.
We sat in the gas station we had been told to stop at and called Eric, the Buell guy. He lives closeby and heads over to meet us. It's at this point in time that I notice I have gas leaking from the pump... What do you know, I jacked it up putting it back in... Great.
Eric rolls up, and hobbles out of his truck. Apparently he just had surgery on a bunion... looked like it didn't feel good. We follow him back to his place and we start in on the spark plugs. What a pain in the ass those are when you don't drop the engine out...
We get the plugs swapped and Eric's girlfriend (wife?) hooks us up with stuff to drink and even cleans my face sheild... Very nice those two... She kept insisting we stay the night and eat something... I really hope he joins this site.
A quick couple laps around the block and everything seems ok... We load our shit, take a couple pics, BS for a minute (they learn some of the inner workings of OSP - and were slightly frightened, but utterly amused), and then we hit the road.
We didn't even get two blocks away and the problem starts over again... Fuck it. We WILL make it to Colorado Springs today.
Continuing down the road the problem continues to get worse and worse. Gas mileage is dropping due to leaking AND whatever the hell is going on with my bike. At one gas station looking under my bike I think I see the problem with leaky gas. It appears as though the mesh filter thing in the bottom of the fuel pump got caught up when I put it back together. It seems to be hanging out the bottom of the assembly. Sweet, that should be easy.
We continue on until my gas light comes on. We pull off into a little town called Abilene KS. In the Advanced Auto parking lot, I pull the pump out again... Shit. That wasn't the filter thing, it was one of the o-rings (just as Eric said it probably was). Of course now both o-rings are completely fucked and we are not going anywhere.
Drewpy is again on the phone with Psychochild and the angel that she is, she's again searching online for us for the nearest Harley/Buell dealer. 100miles to Witchita or 100 miles to Hays. At least Hays is on the way... How the fuck do we get there though?
I call my old man who opines that an o-ring is an o-ring and the auto parts place should have something that works. Either way I cannot help but think that this is the end of my trip. Nothing to do but get a hotel and crash out.
After fucking around trying to find a hotel, we did... about 1/4mi down the road...
Budget Lodge Inn - Abilene KS. Should have been called 'The Bates Motel'... It was old, beat up, scary, but had the softest bed in the world. We get situated and decide to get a bite to eat. Turns out Sonic is the only thing open...
The 16 year old girl didn't really know what to make of it when I told her that in my current state of mind I could use lots of drugs and she would be my hero if she could find us some. I told her even if she couldn't get us dope, it would be coolio if she just smoked us out. Apparently she was a good girl cause she looked at me like I was a total maniac (and Drewpy tried to hide his face) and said she didn't know of anywhere to get any. Whatever you lying whore.
We crash out sans recreational substances.