The Road to IRONBEARD: Part 4
I don’t want to start with the negative. Dry runs are important if there is any chance at success. I made it home in one piece and that is a win.
Now the negative…
I left for the dry run at 8:30am on a very chilly Sunday morning. Ice on the road when starting a trip never builds confidence. I barely made it out of my neighborhood before realizing the sheepskin I had put on the seat was a bad idea. Too slippery for the seating position. That’s not an issue with my Goldwing since the seat is shaped differently. On the little Trail, I kept sliding forward. That was the first to go. The Airhawk pad was removed 30 miles later at a gas station in Big Bear.
60ish miles into the trip, the Garmin Montana 700i lost power. I’m not sure where the faulty connection was occurring. I did have a USB cable to recharge it on the move and plugged it back in once I ran out of gas and needed to stop to refuel.
Did I mention it was cold? I was hoping temperatures would rise as I entered the desert but the skies were grey and the temps remained low.
As good a place any to run out of gas.
I successfully managed to run out of gas 114 miles after fueling up at my ‘starting’ gas station in Adelanto. The engine was still running but I had no more throttle, a good time to pull over. My collapsible milk crate where the spare fuel was located looked neat and tidy but it was not. I lost a significant amount of time pulling the gas can out and getting it back in.
More time was lost when reaching the first planned fuel station visit of the day in Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley. There are only four pumps and they only have 87 octane. 87 is fine. Only my Ural requires 91 and I bring octane booster with me when taking roadtrips on that. Four pumps would also be ok if not for half of them being out of order. I waited for the slowest people in the history of pumping gas to get out of my way before I could fill up on the go-juice. A guy on a GS was also talking to me while I was trying to fuel up. He had passed me 2 or 3 times during my trip and we just happened to stop at the same place for gas.
I need to get better at politely saying I don’t have time to talk.
Before entering the national park boundary, I had already decided I wasn’t going to go all the way to Beatty. That town in Nevada was the original target turnaround point and another 68 miles roundtrip added to what had already been a long day. So, after fueling up and performing a quick chain-lubing, I turned around to head home. I had achieved 86mpg in the 165 miles between Adelanto and where I was. The return trip was not as successful.
I noticed the fuel gauge was beginning to drop much more quickly than I had ever seen before. I pulled into one of the two fuel stations in Trona (74 miles) with the last bar on the gauge already blinking at me and less than .2 gallons of gas in the tank. Booger had only managed 61.4mpg in this leg of the trip. Was it low quality fuel from the only station for miles? Was it climbing out of Death Valley? Was it headwind? Probably all of the above.
When I pulled into Stovepipe Wells, I was averaging close to 46mph. By the time I pulled out of Trona, that average had dropped to under 41. That speed isn’t going to get us to our goal. We need 42.
Ninety miles later, back in Adelanto, I had brought the average back up to 41.8. Not quite enough. Headwind wasn’t something I had accounted for when planning the route. I had expected to make up significant time on US395 on the last leg of the trip from its gradual decrease in elevation. Headwind did not allow this expectation to come to fruition. I pulled into the gas station on fumes, once again.
Standing at a gas station in Adelanto, I had a decision to make. The main road back to my home is closed due to storm damage. I could go back the way I came, up through Big Bear and back down, and add two more hours to my trip. The other option is to take a ‘shortcut’ jeep trail. I was tired, cranky and just wanted to get home.
I chose the jeep trail and that’s where the real trouble began.
This route was not completely unfamiliar to me. I had taken the trail before in my truck. That was years prior and before all the rain and snow damage. I should have known better when I had to cross an 8” deep creek running over the road to get to the trail. It was dark. I was tired. There was less than 4 miles of trail between me and my town. How bad could it be?
It could not have been much worse.
Navigating ruts with depths measured in feet, large rocks, mud and steep inclines in the pitch black darkness nearly broke me. Booger’s CEL came on. It started making sounds I wasn’t comfortable with and smells from the engine weren’t what I would consider confidence-inspiring. I got stuck more than once. Had to shut the bike off to let it cool down and also gather myself enough not to just leave the bike there and walk home. The clutch nearly gave up completely. I made it, though. Almost.
Within eyesight of pavement/civilization , I started dropping the bike. I had been riding for over 450 miles at this point and frustration was getting to me. I just wanted to get home. On the third drop, one of the RAM mounts snapped in half. That mount held my front brake lever to the handlebar. At some point prior to that drop, I must have hit something and bent the rear brake lever up into the kickstarter. I had to ride the last mile or so from the trailhead to my garage with no rear brake and very little front brake. The going was slow.
My wife came down to the garage when she heard the door open nearly 14 hours after I had left that morning. She found me sitting on a stool, the bike broken next to me.
I had ridden 458 miles.
What Now?
I’m glad I did the shakedown run. The shortcut, not so much. Booger is currently still sitting in the garage with the bent rear brake lever. There’s a spare around here somewhere.
Tenderheart Bear came along with me on the trip. He saw some things…
I did start it the next day and the CEL was not lit anymore. I also swapped in another RAM mount to attach the front brake. I haven’t had time to dig in and see if I caused any real damage. Either way, the April 8th attempt is postponed until further notice.
I was surprised that I didn’t feel particularly awkward riding on such a fast-moving highway like US395. I did get over into the shoulder to let vehicles go by but it wasn’t nearly as cringeworthy as I expected it to be.
Before I can do a second shakedown, I need to fix whatever I broke and rethink some of my plan. I’m going to fit the 13T front sprocket and probably swap in the x-ring chain at the same time. I’ve got to cut down on weight and also bring more fuel. The county needs to fix the road to keep me from having to ride 80 miles before starting a 1000-mile attempt. Otherwise, a different route strategy will need to be pursued causing even further delays.
Slightly warmer weather wouldn’t hurt, either.
