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[ST] I'm never going to Toledo again



I am writing to you all not from STAR HQ in State College, PA, but from my
work desk in St Louis.  After having a good time at my high school reunion
Friday night I left Iowa City, IA at about 8am Sat, bike still runs rough
but it cleared after going down the road a while.  I arrived at the Super 8
in Maumee, OH(the Toledo area) in the afternoon and had a restful nights
sleep.  Sunday morning I load up the bike, suit up and, the bike won't keep
fire.  I field strip the bike, the plugs are not fouled as in Limon.  I
borrow the hotel managers card an run his jumper cables to his battery,
engine off on the car, to see if the battery has run down, no joy.  It'll
roll over 2-3 times fire 2-4 compressions then nothing.  At this time I can
only visualize my vacation ruined and the bike on it's side in flames.
After calming down I decide to bag the vacation, call U-Haul and go home.
Surprise!  U-Haul has no 10' or 14' trucks for me to use, in the entire
Toledo area, and their pick-ups are in-town only.  Much gritting of teeth
ensues.  Out of frustration I call my parents to just let them know where I
am.  My father volunteers to come get me.  So after he drives straight out,
11 hr from Kansas City, we are doing some trouble shooting and discussing.
He tries to start the bike, he holds down the button and slowly opens the
throttle, at about 1/4 throttle the bike starts and runs, raged, but runs.
More images of burning motorcycles ensues.  I have canceled my reservations
in PA anyway, so we load the bike and I drive straight back to St Louis,
9-10 hr, arriving here @ 8am Monday.

The bike is now at the dealer and I am back to work.  The list of things the
dealer is to take care of now is as follows;

- -Get the fueling situation fixed, permanently
- -Get the radiator fan working, it hasn't worked since I picked it up Friday
- -Do a leak down test on the motor and find out why the motor has been using
more oil lately that I would like
- -Replace the rubber washer and bushing for the front tank mount screw that
they lost last week(which I'm not expecting to be charged for)
- -Replace the allen screw I had to put in to replace the torx screw they
hogged out holding one of the coils in place(which I'm not expecting to be
charged for)
- -Replace the shifter pad as I just noticed its almost completely gone on the
bottom(ok not their fault, but I was on a roll)

Some interesting notes while the bike was running, I stopped for gas twice
from Iowa City to Toledo, both times I recorded 48 mpg, averaging about
80mph.  I really pissed off some punk in Chicago.  We were going thru a
construction zone on I-80 where he and his buddy, both on R1's were doing 3
second stand on the rear peg wheelies in interstate traffic, in the slow
lane, and doing racer hand shakes after every other one.  When one looked
over at me an gave the "thumbs up" sign, I gave him the "your jerking off in
traffic" sign.  To which he responded with, more asinine wheelies 2 lanes to
the right of me, but making sure not to pass me.  When I changed over one
lane towards them, they took off and stayed about 1/8th of a mile ahead of
me.  They; in full racer tuck at about 80 mph.  Me; in the same fast lane,
riding one handed, relaxing.  Some peoples kids!  I was impressed that one
was really safety conscious, he had on 2 t-shirts.

Steven "Dirty Dawg" Kohlscheen


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