Our planned departure date came and went but we remain grounded. We had planned to leave Friday, August 7th, in the early morning and get as many miles done in the first day as possible. Unfortunately life doesn’t always work out as planned and we found that out the hard way. My bike had been having some clutch issues which needed fixing and while fixing that we broke a piece on the clutch so we had to wait to get the part. We decided we could push the start date a day or two without affecting us much. The part comes in, clutch goes back in and problem solved.
It’s Friday, the day we were supposed to leave and with the bikes finally running we decide to take them for a ride. We set out to visit a motorcycle store in the area and then later at night we planned to head out for a ride to Brooklyn. My bike dies twice, at two different traffic lights, but quickly fires back up. Nothing to worry about probably just idling too low. Runs fine other than those two hiccups and the ride goes well. Night comes around and we set out for Brooklyn. Gomes had to drop off a drive, so we said why not take the ride with him and just hang out in Brooklyn for a bit. We get through the Holland Tunnel, take the last exit towards Canal and just as the light turns green and we’re about to get on Canal we have another bike problem. Only this time it wasn’t my bike, it was Marco’s. I have to admit, for me it was a bit of a relief to know that it wasn’t my bike causing headaches this time. Marco wheels his bike off to a side street and we try to start it. No luck getting it to start. The motor turns but it’s not getting a spark. We try to pop the clutch on it with the same results. Luckily we were near a studio and we met a nice guy who was friendly enough to provide us with some tools. We check the spark plugs and those seem alright put no spark is happening when we try to start the bike. We chalk it up to possibly a problem with the coils or the electric ignition system that sends a signal to the coils. Our night ended there.
We park our bikes and head to the Nancy Whiskey Pub while we wait for Marco’s dad to come around with the pick up and for Gomes to get back from dropping off the drive. After a drink and some chit chat we head back to the bikes and load Marco’s motorcycle onto the pick-up bed and finish strapping it down just as Gomes shows up from his trip. We head home with our heads down a bit because we knew we would not be leaving this weekend.
Marco has been troubleshooting the bike and everything seems to point to the electronic ignition system going bad so we’ll have to wait for that and then take the bike back out to make sure we have no other issues. The trip is currently postponed for a week, pending Marco’s bike getting back on the road. The plan is still to successfully complete this trip, this summer.
