Nick's Blog Part Six
25 Aug 2010
Part 6
2.45pm local time at Muncho Park Lake. The starter button packed up in the middle of nowhere on the Alaskan Highway and I thought for a few moments that this was the end of the trip. Something as simple as a 10 cent spring can kill something like this. I’m a poor mechanic and that is bad but hey, what can I say? Anyway a couple of people stopped, one guy a bike mechanic and we push started it and that is how I will have to ride to Salt Lake – not a problem.
At Haines Junction a lorry kicked up a rock and it ripped off my left wing mirror. I get a lot of stones and it missed me. That’s good. I am protected by such things, it’s only a mirror.
I have 18 hours to Calgary so should get there maybe around 5am where my mate Paul is waiting to help me, after a quick 1 hour rest I’ll continue the 1300 kms to Salt Lake. I need to be there no sooner than noon on Wednesday. After a 3 hour service at Wrights, Tim the chief mechanic will send me on my way and I will do a final 400 miles towards Tucson. I will bed down for the night in a motel for 6 hours and do my blogs and film downloads and then enter Mexico mid morning and try to reach to be south of Mexico City by nightfall.
I am now in Grande Prairie. Code 12 has been thrown up on my display indicating a crank positioning sensor malfunction. I have been talking to Tim at Wrights in Salt Lake and he has been getting advice from his people. They say it could be dirt and that the sensor shouldn’t deteriorate which conflicts with Alf England’s mechanics who say the performance of the bike will get worse. This holds with the top end vibration I’m now getting which at 8000 revs would make the bike unrideable. Something is wrong. Normally none of this is an issue but out here it is. Apart from finding people who want to help there is the problem of sourcing parts should they be needed and that is a minimum two or three day delay. We could phone ahead to Salt Lake or even San Antonio.
Think about it – 4 times round the world on the toughest routes that exist and never a single problem ever. So the law of averages comes round. You cant win all the time. The Dalton Highway is no worse than the Didi Gagulu Desert in Northern Kenya, or the Nubia itself. I feel nervous. I had implicit belief in my being able to crack this route – my second attempt – but thoughts in my head this morning were bleak.
I am in Redline Yamaha, Canada’s largest dealership working exclusively with Yamaha. Geoff the Service Manager is in the back trying to isolate the problem. The project could be called off. A three day delay would not be acceptable by my standards. This is a record breaking ride of the Americas and I don’t want to pussy around with a time that could easily be beaten. I welcome the challenge but not with such a delay, especially as I am flying. Never felt faster and smoother and my skill set since 1996 is not comparable. It would be a catastrophe to stop now.
