First ride, first breakdown, first roadside rescue

[Kent in Upstate NY]

Interesting day today. Got my 01 Cal Special ready to go for its NY yearly inspection. Passed with flying colors. So I decided to go wandering around. As I turned right onto a busy highway the bike suddenly died. "Bugger!", I thought. I had spent the last few winter months chasing down and fixing electrical glitches and I thought that I was good to go. I am sitting on the road side and have pulled off the seat, battery cover and side panel to see what was wrong.  It seems that when I installed a new battery I over stressed a connection and it had decided to let go. While I am pulling out my phone and was about to call my wife to tell her that I might be delayed, a fellow rider who had just passed by had turned around  to see if I needed any help. I asked if he had any tools and he said he had an adjustable wrench. That was what I needed. While I was loosening the battery connections and trying to figure out how to connect the broken wire to the battery so that I could make it home, another fellow showed up and offered to help. He was an electrician and had the connectors and tools to fix me right up. I was stranded for a good ten minutes. Sometimes things just fall into place.

[LowRyter]

 

[twowings]

Marvelous news! Glad some folks still look out for fellow riders...

[rodekyll]

Now you get to help someone.  :)  Maybe those electrical pliars, wire, and connectors you'll start carrying will save the day for someone else.

[LowRyter]

Guzzi-sense tells me to keep fuses and relays in the tankbag. 

[fotoguzzi]

I almost always have tools and stop whenever I see someone stranded.. even when in my car, the trunk carries my tools . I've gotten a few stranded motorcyclists back on the road.

[Lannis]

Fay and I were heading south on Interstate 81 one evening on an 8-lane section, bumper-to-bumper traffic at 70 MPH in all lanes.   Suddenly up ahead, brake lights were flashing on, people swerving, and we could see a car headed for the right shoulder, which was narrow and had a guardrail.   To avoid hitting people, I moved to the right lane, and saw the car that had caused the perturbation ... a little old Toyota of some kind with a completely shredded left front tire.

Fay said "I think that's a woman by herself in that car", so (as we do in those situations) I pulled onto the shoulder ahead of the stranded car as traffic speeded back up.   Fay went first (not to look intimidating) with me behind her, and sure enough it was a young girl, 18 or 19, driving.   When I got to the car, the girl already had the lug wrench in her hand and was jumping on it trying to break the lug nuts free, which wasn't happening.   

Big trucks were flying by about 3 or 4 feet from us, so Fay stood a few yards downstream so people could see there was something going on.   Almost without a word, the girl handed me the lug wrench and went to the trunk for the jack and spare.   By the time I had the nuts broken loose, she had the jack under the rocker, and held it while I spun the crank.

I took the wheel off, she took it from me and took it to the trunk, I put the spare wheel on, lowered the car, and tightened the nuts while she put the jack away.

Between the noise of the traffic and the hurry we were in, I found out that she was a student at a college in Danville, Virginia, and that her father had taught her how to work on cars.   That was all .... because 4-1/2 minutes by Fay's watch from when we started, we hopped in our car and she ran interference in her car so we could merge back into traffic.

The consequences of blowing a tire on a crowded interstate generally range from dented cars and smashed plastic, with the best case being a several hour delay waiting for a tow.   

If I'd had a daughter, she's the one I would have wanted!

Lannis