Not to ruin the ending, but I did return home OK and, over a month later the Le Mans showed up nearly in one piece. I was a little surprised when the delivery guy asked whether my bike had a front brake. “It did when I shipped it!” My reply not good enough to arrest her progress down the ramp from the van, I stood behind and eased her descent. For a moment, back in the garage, I thought that all was well, I squeezed the lever and felt some resistance, short lived, when I released it the whole lever fell off and dropped to the floor.

Continue reading “Spoiler Alert” →

Farewells, to my mind, are best kept short. Things not said are better left that way and the leap from present to gone should be a clean one unsullied by promises to keep in touch. I won’t drag out this final day of our adventure either. We left Rusty and Adam and Roebling and the chipmunks with thanks for the respite and hopes for a smooth journey. The wheel bounced and the bars shook, but less than before, or perhaps my perception was coloured by my efforts. The road was not long. I longed for another universe where we could ride on down to Lancaster and Philly to see Joe and Roland perhaps even returning to see Peter in Brooklyn to show off her resilience. Not our universe today but Lady Luck had one more trick up her sleeve.

Continue reading “Day 50 Farewell” →

The ‘Minisink Valley tri-state region’ is affluent and attractive, far enough from the metropolis to make a daily commute onerous but close enough for a weekend retreat. The house in the woods is peaceful and relaxing and the company good. I dallied another day.

Time to address the oil leaks. The rear crankshaft seal is inaccessible without stripping everything and once more removing the gearbox, I elect to let it lie and settle for making a better job of the ‘nappy’ attached below the drain vent with duct tape. Not an elegant solution but sufficient for the miles that remain. The other escape route is addressable, I have a replacement gasket for the rocker box and a idea for improvement.

Adam has kindly dug out some fine abrasive emery paper and having meticulously cleaned away the remnants of the leaking gasket I set about improving the fit. In engineering straight lines and flat surfaces are the foundations of fit, an easy datum requiring no complex definition. Placing the emery paper on the flattest available surface, in this case a garage window pane, and gently rubbing the ‘flat’ face of the cover against it abrades away any high areas and matches it to the, theoretically flat face on the top of the cylinder head. That’s the theory, in addition the sequence of tightening the retaining bolts is intended to pull the cover into contact evenly.

In the afternoon we headed out for some light shopping, at one mall I glanced up to the hills to see an old black bear out for a stroll. Once again apologies for the portrait video, phones should taser you for this crime.

Our next stop was to pick up a cleaned buck’s skull, a trophy even longer lasting than the larder full of venison treats that we’d been enjoying. The taxidermist’s shop stuffed with evidence to the one sided conflict with wildlife that doesn’t bear arms.

A growler of beer was on the shopping list and we diligently sampled as many craft ales as prudent to ensure the correct selection, a pleasurable chore in enjoyable environs. We repaired to the woods to find wild turkeys blocking this hunter’s drive, so soon after the turkey season has ended, almost as if they knew.

Rusty, Adam’s partner, returned from the city and we enjoyed the stillness of the woods and the exquisite flavours of Adam’s cooking before retiring replete at a nearly respectable hour.

No riding today. A gentle start in a gentle place this is a rest day with a little light fettling thrown in. The first surprise was a fawn all alone in the woods not 20 yards from the house so well camouflaged that Adam had to point it out to me.

Concerned in my ‘city mouse’ way that this poor Bambi had been orphaned by an automotive encounter for its mother it was a relief to find, later on, that it had gone. I’m told that the mothers will leave them somewhere safe while they go off to feed.

Continue reading “Day 48 Out of the woods” →

Breakfast at the Rodeway Inn was not complimentary but they did proffer a voucher for $3 to be used in the affiliated “Leasure’s Restaurant”. In America, I have been told, it’s customary to ‘tip the room’, a practice encouraged to supplement the income of housekeeping staff. $5 a night was my information, along with ‘a buck a beer’ and 20% on restaurant cheques. A practice that I have followed diligently but approximately usually depending on the small bills remaining in my clip following the relentless conversion of twenties to ones. On this occasion I was caught short and left only two bucks and the unused voucher, I suspect that they, and you, now think me mean.

Continue reading “Day 47 Tipping point” →

Cold blows the wind off Lake Eire, Gary from Pittsburg, an elderly fellow guest at the motel told me that it was much warmer inland. He liked people watching, a beneficial quality in later years when participation declines, and was here for 3 weeks, he came back often. I packed and debated my route, my dilemmas interrupted by a message from Adam, a good friend from NYC, saying that he’d be at his place in PA in this week. A place not far from the line of least distance and least mechanical peril between my location and the packing crate that awaits.

Actuarial calculations on mechanical mortality aside, the map kept calling me to Niagara Falls and despite Gary’s advice I headed up the lake road to that tourist Mecca.

Continue reading “Day 46 Falling down” →

Evan’s Lake looked a lot better in the morning, the clouds cleared while I composed and transposed. Alone in the motel coffee was an issue, eventually I made if for myself in the machine by the reception hatch and squelched across the lawn to a bench by the lake. A couple out fishing my only company, I pondered the road, the increasing chance of breakdown and considered staying put, the coffee was good.

Obligate ram ventilators, the majority of sharks, must keep moving or drown.

Continue reading “Day 45 Shore thing” →

Plagued with guilt, I checked the oil and fitted the check valve, she’s a little lower on oil and I’ll need to find a purveyor of SAE 20W-50 soon to drip feed her with. The delay cost me dear. As I packed the bike I saw, and lamely videoed, a phenomenal storm front racing in from the lake. The sheer velocity of it was shocking. I knew my dry day was over and considered retreating back inside the hotel and drinking the hours away but the road called me, dear.

I pulled into the nearest gas station to fill the tank, their internet was down along with all the traffic lights in town as 35-45 mph winds had ripped through taking down communications and scattered leafy branches across the roads. Waterproof gear now on I I lurked under the eaves waiting for the worst to pass and studying the radar for a path less sodden. They invited me inside to wait and, leaving the bike parked by a dumpster, I went in for a coffee. People often ask and compliment me on the bike and when a local came in and said something about it I trotted out a stock reply about her age and condition, “no” he said, “I’ve just backed my truck into your bike and knocked it over!”.

Continue reading “Day 44 Wash day” →

The ferry sailed at two, the lady on the phone said to be there an hour before and bring two tie-down straps. I have two, bought years ago on my first ever visit to IKEA. By the time that I had found them and filled up with gas the clock read 10 and the GPS said 3 hours.

No time to check the oil or fit the check valve. I rode like the wind, a rattling oil dripping wind, through lush green rolling hills spotted with farms and grain silos over sometimes abysmal concrete roads, their stepped joints shaking and tearing at mine and the Guzzi’s.

Continue reading “Day 43 Steaming” →

Rochester MN has a large medical presence, a lot of the businesses that I saw were healthcare related and the Mayo Clinic dominates the town center. As we rode out of town two gentlemen who had the look of doctors gesticulated towards us. “Organ donor” I assumed was their thinking but no, one mimed a V-Twin engine to the other and it was thumbs up all round. She gets a fair bit of attention like that.

Today we were off through glorious green fields to see some of the people that make this odyssey on quirky ‘discontinued’ machinery possible, MG Cycle of Albany WI, and to thank them for their service.

Continue reading “Day 42 Flys and rain” →