Plans don't always come to fruition....

[Supafrog]

Ever had one of those really bad experiences when touring?

Yes yes, I know you can plan your trips until the cows come home... and ensure you have spares of anything.... but sometimes the worst possible scenerio still comes to fruition.

This is my story... Skipped out of work at lunchtime friday to get out of the sysdney basin before mid-afternoon and get somewhere into the upper hunter before dinner..

Bike checked?( chain maintenance done, pre-ride checks complete) Yes!
Have map of NSW(no actual destination in mind, so best to be carying) Yes!
Have all gear packed(wets adn drys and spare clothes)Yes!
Tools packed? (Gotta be prepared) Yes!


..... Ok... so off i trundle happily out towards wisemans on the old northern road... No cops seen... and not many cars on road (after getting out of calringford).. general plan to go up through st albans...

Stopped for fuel and some cold water about 40k from wisemans ferry...
and then pulled in for the first time ever at hawkins lookout... what a pretty view!

and thats when the ride ended... (literally)

For it was about that the time I went to continue on that the problems started...

The old girl just wouldn't start.. Nor even give any hint of lights on the dashboard. Odd I thought to myself.. and proceeded to start pulling out the tools (must remeber not to pack at bottom of ventura bag next time).

First thought, maybe a dead battery? (and yes I have experienced this before due to a dodgy stator on a gixxer , but really that's another story) Checking with the multimeter showed perfect charge.... so next, onto the fun job of disassembling the fairing to get to the standard fuses... nope.. none of them blown. It was about this time that the concept of ripping down all fairing on the side of the road wasn't particularly exciting me...

So, being wise, I thought I would try and ring a mate... and thats when the realisation of no mobile signal kicked in. After cursing for a while... decided it was going to have to just get pushing her.

Thankfully, I was only 2 something kilometers from wisemans ferry.. and even better it's all down hill!!!

so I pushed and then rolled down the hill and into the pub... and of course after all that hard work.. the colld beer was welcomed. Getting back to stripping fairing off, checked the ignition barrel, but it seemd fine to.

By this time decided that dinner was needed, and it could wait until the morning after i had relaxed and read the service manual a few times.



Day 2:

Woke early, eager to hunt down the issue.. upon trying to get to the main fuse(attached to ignition switch etc), immediately found the issue... The fuse hadn't just blown... it had blown a hole in side of the casing and then proceeded to meltdown into a pile of plastic sludge. with connector plug melted as well causing direct contact of many circuits.

So there definitely ended that trip. No chance of getting a sstarter switch on a weekend.. let alone trying to sort what caused the meltdown in the first place.

Moral of the story?

Don't just servic ethe mechanical side..... ensure to check the electricals periodically. (and yes, i had spare wire and connectors , but no point trying to use them).

[6maniac]

Buggar ...... but on the upside ... being stuck at the Ferry pub can't be bad ...

[robracer]

Sux big time

[Supafrog]

oh definitely no complaints with being stuck at the ferry pub!

Good food,, and great bike perving!

no bike = ability to enjoy one or 20 beers and take lots of blurry pics