Rising early to watch the clouds smother the mountains and ask the only motorbike shop in the village, the only motorbike shop for 50 miles in any direction I suspect, whether they could balance wheels. Memorial Day weekend was upon us and I was not looking to riding a jack-hammer for four days. The answer was “no” but Idaho Falls had a couple of potentials that I could try.
I repaired to the motel room and contacted my motorcycle insurance agents, not because they covered repairs but because my policy expiration, already adjusted by a week to allow for shipping delays, was putting too much heat under my plans. The website only allows for blocks of 30 days so I emailed and phoned and extended by another week, I have until June 15. I contacted the shippers and let them know that I haven’t crashed and burned, yet, packed and set out across the Arco Desert cratered by ordinance testing and overlooked by snow capped mountains.
We descended for miles down dead straight empty roads and I discovered that the vibrations stopped at speeds well in excess of those necessary to attract legislative attention and unwise given the migration of elk and deer across the road, I saw two deer crossing well ahead and one fawn that was not so successful. It was cold, damned cold, and at Idaho Falls I stopped to get my bearings, parking cheekily in a space outside a store, then I saw this sign and moved on.
Action Motorsports was primarily into off road buggies and Motocross bikes but the dealt with my front wheel issue efficiently and effectively, the balance was an ounce out the mechanic told me, he had moved the stuck-on weights about 10 degrees around the rim.
It worked! The vibrations no longer troubled me, there may be something going on with the back wheel but there is no time to address that now. I celebrated with a burger and took the wrong road out of town, which rewarded me with a scenic view and gave the rain clouds time to catch up.
Stopping early to get my waterproof gear on enabled me to race through and overtake the heavy rain that waterboards my face below the visor where only a wet neck tube covers my nose and mouth. At Ashton I checked the motel availability and price in West Yellowstone nearer to the National Park and also the weather radar. Both persuaded me to take an ‘early bath’, literally, at the ‘Eagle Peak Lodge’ exactly where I had stopped. Remarkably they were nearly empty and reasonably priced given that this was the first day of ‘the season’ , they even let me park her out of the rain.
No dive bars in range and the rain having fully caught up, I comforted myself with a six pack of IPA, a large packet of crunch cheese flavoured snacks and a cocktail of TV and YouTube.
Le Mans man 