Guzzisti,
An overdue report:
In the spirit of the old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" last month's lunch meet was "interesting". I had cataract surgery June 28th (right eye) and July 11th (left eye). I didn't want to commit to doing the lunch on the 15th in case there were complications, so I asked Lannis to host, (My thanks to Lannis & Fay on a real find in Tizzone). The eyes have turned out fine (so far). Saturday morning I could have ridden to the lunch, but I didn't want to take a chance on getting anything in my eyes, and I was (am) having difficulties with an arthritic flare-up in my knees. Alice & I fired up the Nissan pup & headed for Daleville. I took Route 43 over the ridge toward Buchanan. Going down the mountain I pulled the auto transmission down into the "2" position, rather than ride the brakes. I headed out of Buchanan on Rt11, just a short distance out I started hearing an odd buzzing sound on acceleration. My first thought was "omagod something's wrong w/the transmission". It was only moments however before it changed to the flap-flap-flap of a flat tire. The only safe pull off was the driveway/front yard of a home on the left side of the road about 50 yards further on. I drove on to get there (thoroughly trashing the tire). I got out of the truck & started for the house to ask permission to change the tire. An older lady came out & said it was fine from a distance, saving me the walk (hobble) up to the house & back.
In the Nissan king cab the jack & tire tools are inside the cab mounted to the side of the body behind the driver's seat, covered w/a plastic panel. I removed the panel & saw that the jack was held in place with (what looked like) a large plastic wing nut. I gave the "wing nut" a twist by hand.....not even a hint of movement. I always travel w/a complete tool box, so I got out the big slip-joint pliers. The plastic started to tear a little....still no movement. Dug down into the box for the vice-grip pliers. Plastic tore some more (both "wings" are gone by now). So here I am, temp in the mid 90's, sweating profusely, twisted like a pretzel trying to get the damn jack free from it's awkward storage hole.....and my knees are screaming in agony. Fortunately the old gentleman (Korean War Vet) had come down from the house. He chatted continuously with Alice & I. I asked him if he had a jack. He went & got a small bottle jack from his Ford pickup, We finally got the truck jacked up (short version of THAT ordeal).....
The spare in the Nissan is stored up under the bed, hung from a chain, raised into place with a simple hoist. There is a long rod with a "T" end that fits through a hole above the bumper. The rod "T" end is inserted into the hoist, and the other end is fitted into a square hole in the tire iron so it can be used to crank the tire down. So I start to crank......3/4 turn and...."sqek" no-go. Back & forth I turn, trying to get it to free-up. By this time I'm light-headed & ready to scream in frustration. The old gentleman saved the day again by bringing us a couple bottles of cold water. After a couple deep breaths I just FORCE the handle around (no option)...it turned....each rotation took another FORCE but I finally got the tire down, crawled under the truck unhooked & dragged the tire out (knees are LOVING all this!). Got the tire changed, spare was a little slack-but safe to drive to the closest gas station for air-up. We finally got to the lunch over an hour late. Our wonderful Virgin Mobile cel phones had no bars at the tire change site, Alice had sent a text to Lannis, but his phone was not set up to receive texts, so our arrival was a surprise.
We had a wonderful vegi pizza, around the table were Allyn Chappell, Lannis & Fay Selz, Curtis & Rhonda Estes w/Rhonda's Mom, Bob Corfield, Mike Jones, Bob Kiger (up from NC to lunch w/us). Bikes ridden were Allyn's new V7III, Lannis's Stelveo, Bob Corfield's LeMans, Mike's Ambassador, & Bob Kiger's California 1200 (a Stunning motorcycle). Ironically, at the first lunch relatively close to Curtis & Rhonda, they had Rhonda's Mom as a house guest and so drove a cage so she could come along to lunch. Curtis & Rhonda have attended several lunches, & he has yet to ride the same bike twice. Each different bike he has ridden has been immaculate.
After lunch we started home, Alice had talked about stopping at an orchard near Bedford to get peaches. We brought it up on the GPS. The "recalculating" lady promptly took us off 460 on to the 1 1/2 lane, no-lines black top country roads. She had just said "1.7 miles to Rt 43" when......buzzzz, flap-flap-flap. The only place to pull off was up a farm driveway & into a hayfield. It was the spare. No flats in nearly 20 years, and now two in 5 hours!!! Of course we had no cel service. I was able to wave down a passing car. The driver had a cel phone w/service. I called our Allstate Road Service number. The ditsy young lady I got on the line started asking a series of questions (likely filling out a form). I stopped her & said "Look Ma'am (I am a Southern boy at heart), I'm on a borrowed cel phone, the owner & his family are sitting here in this heat, just get me rollback out here. If you need all this other info, give me your contact number & I'll call you when we're safely home" (My voice might have been rising a little). She quickly finished w/the minimum she needed & I was able to get the good Samaritan back on his way. It took about 25 minutes for the truck to get there. He loaded us up & we finally got home about 6:00 P.M. We didn't get any peaches.
Lessons learned: Check your equipment, spare, jack, etc. A few days later I got back after my jack. I had to chisel all the plastic off, finding a 12mm bolt & a flat washer w/ raised points. The plastic "wing nut" had been cast over the bolt head & washer. Fine, except that the (robot?) that screwed the jack in place had been set a little "strong" & damaged the threads on the bolt & the threaded insert it was screwed into. It fought me all the way out w/a ratchet & socket. I dug through my metric bolt box & found a 12mm w/the right thread size, cut it off to the right length, "chased" the threads in the insert w/a metric tap, greased the bolt up & remounted the jack in the truck. I wrapped a spare 12mm wrench in a rag & zip-tied it to the jack. I WILL be able to get it out if I ever need it again. When I had the new set of tires mounted on the truck I specified that they check out & lube up the spare tire hoist. It WILL be checked each time I do an oil change. I've always checked the pressure in the spare several times a year, but never thought about the hoist.
Yes sir, an "interesting" Guzzi lunch,
Ron
