So went looking for a second bike on craiglist and found a 2007 Suzuki V-strom 650 listed, $2100 low mileage garage kept. Turns out located in same neighborhood as Matteo, so asked him to go kick the tires for me. He is not in Riding condition so he brought Dave with him and everything looked good so I bought it.
Three weeks later me and my GF flew down from Nome Friday and went and picked it up just in time for the long labor day weekend.
We were crossing our fingers for good weather as it had been raining puppies and kittens at home and in Anchorage for several days prior. Fortune smiled upon us and the skies parted ( mostly, we did get sprinkled on a bit) and began riding around town testing out the new to me bike. PO informed me of the quirks in this machine and had some maintenance records, but it became clear that even though the bike was clean and fully functioning he knew almost nothing about maintenance, and just had the stealershp do it. Chain was loose but at least lubed, clutch needed adjusting, both done in ten min. As it was a holiday weekend I decided to forgo oil,filters,fluids knowing that PO had not done in 2 years...though only put about 800iles on the bike in that time.
Put a fresh tank of gas and went out to the Alaska state fair on Palmer on Saturday, cruised 70-80 nice and smooth as it should.
We had a great time at the fair, beat all the traffic both there and back no problem.
Even won 3rd. Place in the beard contest!
I think she found her new summer home...kick the dog out! The fair was quite crowded, Foreigner was the live concert that evening, tickets were sold out but it is open air so we got to hear most of it from just outside, nice!
Got to visit some excellent Alaska breweries ( thanks Matteo!
https://doubleshovelcider.co/ )
By this point we had put about 150 miles on the bike, and this of course is where things get interesting....
Stacy wanted to go visit her sister and family out in Wasilla, so yesterday while the weather was ok we headed out. Wasilla is farther out than Palmer by about 15-20 miles , we get out there no problem, then just before we get to where we were going bike starts to sputter and surge, runs on reduced throttle, I am thinking oh shit.
We stay a while, have baked salmon for dinner yum! I cannot find anything wrong with bike but when we are ready to go no start!
Dash read "check" fuel symbol blinking....fuel pump is either clogged or failing. Fails pre start pressure, no buzz. Bike won't let u engage starter. Would not be a hard fix if I had the part, but not on Labor Day! So stuck!
Now in my.many years of travel on the parks hwy. ( used to live down here and travel between Anchorage and Fairbanks 30 or so years ago....even hitchhiked!) I have always had fortune and coincidence of some sort. This was karma telling me that I was where I needed to be and not to go on. It was bad to breakdown there as I could not fix it at that time and had to be on a plane the next day back home, but at the same time I was planning to ship this bike back up to Nome or find a place to store it overwinter, when Mindy, Stacy's sister says " you can leave it here, put it on the garage, we don't use it. Come back down whenever you can fix it so I can see my sister sooner, we can give you a ride back to town".
Well, fortune..or misfortune?.....just then it started raining pretty bad. I packed us good rain gear but Can't imagine what would have happened if we broke down anywhere else!
Back home today, almost didn't make it..Alaska airlines had to go around on missed approach, foggy and wet. Well back to dodging puppies and kittens!
Will go back late may or early June..the trip never ends.
