Tensions were a bit high this morning, especially on my side because I was worried about my bike and stressing about time once again. We get ready and I go out to check on my bike’s fluids. I learn that the coolant is fine but the oil is practically non existent. There is some at the bottom but not enough to even touch the dip stick. Marco inspects his BMW and Gomes’ Shadow and we learn that we all need to top off on some oil. We may have been burning oil yesterday while working our bikes in that heat.
I run into town on Marco’s bike to buy oil for us and return as quickly as possible. We get the oil in the bikes and strap up ready to leave. As I’m pulling out of the parking lot I notice that my bike is still not back to normal and doesn’t have the power it had. I take it down the street and back to confirm and then hand it over to Marco so he can test it for himself. We both agree that something is not right and head into the car shop in town that luckily was open on a Labor Day Monday. We pull in and ask to use their compression tool to check compression on my pistons. The bad news begins to sink in as we realize that my bike is only producing about 90PSI out of the about 170 it should normally hit. Either a gasket is blown or worse, the pistons are no good anymore. With something of this caliber that requires my motor to come off the frame it begins to hit me that this trip may be over for me. One thing is for sure, my motorcycle is not riding anywhere in its state.
We begin going through possible options. Fixing it was practically out of the question because besides being in a fairly remote location I just didn’t have the time to spare any longer. Even if I fixed the motorcycle, by the time it was ready I would have to skip New Orleans and head straight home anyway. So my options are rent a U-Haul, a pickup or a car with a trailer to carry my bike. As luck would have it, just like every other time, it’s either a weekend or a holiday and since it’s Labor Day most places are closed. Renting a car starts looking bleak and I turn to U-Haul. I get on the phone with them to learn that renting a pickup or van requires that the drop location be the same as the pickup location so only a truck will do. I opt for a 10 footer but unfortunately the closest U-Haul with one available is in Amarillo, a staggering 110 miles away. Marco would rather tow my bike to Amarillo using Gomes’ bike. I suggest otherwise as it’s too dangerous and too far. We are better off going to Amarillo to pick up the U-Haul and then coming back for my bike. We opt for the second option. I leave my Honda outside the shop and after rearranging Gomes’ stuff, I get on his passenger seat and off we go.
We get to Amarillo about 2 hours later. Luck has it that they didn’t have any 10 foot trucks so they upgraded me to a 15 footer at no extra charge. Some good news as we’ll now be able to load all 3 bikes in there. We load up Marco and Gomes’ bike and head back to Tucumcari.
We get there just after 5:30pm local time so the shop had already closed. We roll my bike in, strap it down and head back towards Amarillo. I’m not pleased but I’m sure Marco and Gomes aren’t either.
It’s now about 6pm when we head back towards Texas. 7pm in Texas. We had discussed options of what we could do now and change our trajectory a bit. The plan is to drive the 3 of us with the bikes to Memphis, TN. There I would head back home and Marco and Gomes would head down to New Orleans. The mileage limit on the U-Haul prevents me from taking the trip to New Orleans with them. This is the end of the road for me. We drive well into the night, right through Texas and through the rain storms we got it with, and into Oklahoma. We stop at around 1am to get some shut eye. Tomorrow we’ll head for Memphis.