Trip 3 May –
Deals Gap 2005
This trip has
started out badly, in fact the trip has only just managed to get under way at
all! I arrived at Birmingham airport (along with local pals Steve and Darrell
who were also going to Deals Gap). My initial flight to the U.S. was actually
the return leg of my previous trip, the immigration guys wanted to see my
schedule for the return leg back out of the U.S. They then said that the
schedule was not enough proof that I was intending to return to the U.K.
According to their records an actual paper ticket had been issued and they
needed to see it before they would let me fly! I naturally assumed that they
could just bring my schedule up on the screen and maybe issue an E ticket – this
wasn’t the case, so with 85 minutes to go I called Dean back at the office and
had him search for the ticket, when he drew a blank I realised that the ticket
must be 4 miles away at my mums house! Dean jumped in the truck and headed over
there, Dean got hold of the tickets and with an hour to go before take off he
headed on the 1 hour drive down to Birmingham airport, meanwhile I am heading
for the departure gate and keeping my fingers crossed that there are no hold-ups
on the M42. Dean made the trip in 45 minutes .. . no doubt there will be a
speeding fine waiting for me on my return!
So, I arrive
in the U.S. and just a few hours later I am loading my very nice standard H2c bought a couple
of Months previously from New Orleans onto the back of the truck to take it to
the driving test centre where if I pas my test I can then get my own bike
insurance rather than having pals in the U.S. insure my bikes for me, I arrive
at the test centre at 9am only to be told that the last test was 8.30am!
Apparently there is a glitch with the “online” booking, but the lady lets me
carry on . . until she sees that the bike I am using for my “ride around cones
in the car park” is not registered in my name – the test is cancelled. I look
into an afternoon test 30 miles away and head for the local courthouse to get
the bike registered. Each state in the U.S. has a different titling
(registration / log book) system and the lady at the courthouse hauls out a huge
book of rules. My bike is from New Orleans and although the title has been
“signed off” by the previous owner his signature had not been witnessed and
signed by a public notary so the only way to get that bike registered in my name
would be to send the title back to the owner in New Orleans to get his signature
verified, looks like my luck had run out. My riding at Deals Gap depended on
this bike and I figure that as long as I am insured I could bluff my way out of
any other problems, I get insurance (6 Months $160) on my “provisional” licence
and have 30 days to pass my test.
I load up my
bags and head off with my H2c for the 650 mile trip up to the Smoky Mountains on
the Kentucky / Tennessee border. The location of Deals Gap motorcycle campground
is a couple of thousand feet up a mountain that is reached by a 12 mile road
that has 112 bends of varying difficulty. Half way into my journey and I get a
call to tell me that “Shifty” (Eric Shepard, a fellow triple enthusiast from New
Zealand) ended up in the hospital the previous evening after hitting another
bike head on when he failed to make a bend. I make a few calls to guys that have
Internet access to see if there is any news, the major problem with Deals is
that it is so remote that no mobile phones work up there!
I make good
progress but within 60 miles of Deals my power inverter overheats in the engine
bay and my Sat Nav and computer die. With no clue where I am going I pull off
the freeway to search for a gas station to buy a map, less than a minute later I
have blue lights in my mirror and a cop is pulling me over, he informs me that I
was doing 59 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour limit, sure enough just up ahead
there is a speed limit sign – the FIRST after exiting the freeway, most roads
are 55 but this cop knew just where to hide to catch the unsuspecting motorist.
It’s the first day of using my U.S. drivers licence and rather than risk getting
an endorsement on it I hand him my U.K. licence and hope that I can bluff my way
out of it – not a cat in hells chance as I see him walking back to the truck
with the ticket already written out, this cop was obviously after funds for the
policemans ball and he gave me the ticket for eighty eight dollars and thirty
seven cents.
An hour later
and I am pulling into the Gap and am quite relieved to see that Shifty is
“walking wounded”, he’s bruised and battered with a heavily bloodshot eye but he
still takes the constant ribbing about his tumble in good heart. It turns out
that shifty trashed not One but TWO bikes the previous evening, by all accounts
he just couldn’t get used to riding on the wrong side of the road and came off
THREE times in a couple of hours! The evenings weather is lousy so we all settle
in for some talking and food and beer, great company made for an enjoyable
evening. It turns out that Shifty was not alone in his misshaps, there was also
a S2a from New York that took a tumble and Gary from Canada was hit on the rear
of his trailer on a freeway with such force that it bent the tow hitch double
causing the trailer to come away from the Bronco towing it an poor Gary was
forced to try to slow the huge trailer down from 60mph whilst just being
connected by a safety chain!
The next
morning sees intermittent showers and the opportunity for me to try to get my
H2c running properly, I had already checked the timing, changed the plugs and
cleaned the jets. The baffles were taken out and checked and I knew that someone
had fitted #95 main jets to get it to run cleanly, It appeared that there was
also a nice new grey airfilter fitted. With an abundance of willing labour we
stripped the carbs again and checked float heights and changed the mains for the
correct ~102.5’s All the time my pal John Aylor was moaning about the darn oil
pipes to the float bowls being a lousy Idea. We started the bike and I took it
up the road – it was worse than ever, a good 125cc bike would have seen it off!
I returned to the campground and quite literally held it wide open at a
standstill and it wouldn’t even redline. I removed the bottom air inlet rubber
and instant performance! I ripped off the new airfilter and was stunned to find
that the problem was solved – Once out it was apparent that the airfilter was
far too fine a grade and wouldn’t allow any airflow!
Later that day
the weather picked up and finally a small group of us set off for a ride around the
mountains, 4 miles into the ride and I decided to step up the pace and overtook
Bobby S at around 65mph, all of a sudden the back end went out and I could have
sworn that Bobby had rear ended me! I slowed and he passed me, I accelerated to
catch him and as I caught him there was a squeal as the back wheel locked solid.
I pulled over and dropped the clutch, the engine sprang back into life. . . . .
but not for long, again the back wheel locked and I pulled over, as I looked
down I saw my left boot covered in oil, a closer inspection revealed that the
oil pipe to the left carb was hanging on by just a thread.
So, by a
simple process of elimination of the people working on the bike earlier young Mr
Aylor was heading for an earbashing on my return
L
But, if you
are going to break down it’s nice to break down with wonderful scenery!
Cody came back
to see what had happened to me, The engine had cooled and freed off, we could
have just tightened the bolt and I could have ridden back but better safe than
sorry Cody was soon heading back to the campground to
fetch his recovery van, with help from the injured “Shifty” we soon loaded the
bike and headed back
Once back at the site the bike was descended on and everyone waited for John to
return to face trial, my own plan was to tell him that the bike had a problem
and see if he could me find the cause – that plan was quashed as a huge notice
was fixed to the bike accusing John of negligence! I was pretty peeved at the
situation after putting in so much work to get the bike legal and up to the Gap,
however, In hindsight I have to say that I will stick to my philosophy on life
and say that everything happens for a reason, John in no way left the bolt loose
deliberately and I can only thank him for what I assume was saving my life! You
see, last years ride at the gap was the best ride of my life, but looking back I
got totally carried away with the adrenalin and rode faster and harder for the
15 mile downhill ride than I had ever ridden in my life, I suspect that this
year I would have tried to top it – the simple mistake that John made stopped me
riding the bike and possibly saved me from a serious crash. What did
however make me wince was the eventual removal of the seized cylinder to find
that the pistons and bore were NEW which made a little more sense of why it
siezed so easily, It seems that the previous owner had tried
everything to get the power back to the H2 and failed – all due to a $10 airfilter being too restrictive.
So, the afternoon was spent trying to ride a H2 hill climber, what a tall, long,
uncomfortable bike it is! The motor was “Paul Gast” tuned and with minimal gear
lever I can hardly comprehend how anyone can go up a vertical hill AND change
gear – it went like hot snot though!
The afternoon turned to evening, the rain fell and barbeques and drink were the
order of the day, a VERY enjoyable time only dampened by the weather.
Next morning a guy turned up from Knoxville (25 miles away) and asked if anyone
was interested in a couple of H2’s that he had for sale, I headed back up North
and stopped off to see him, it turns out it wasn’t just Two H2’s but Two almost
assembled, a H2c parts bike and Two more H2’s in bits! I rushed to the local U
Haul and rented a trailer – My poor little Sonoma now had a 900 mile journey
ahead dragging a load of 7 H2’s!
Sunday evening was spent on the North Carolina and Virginia border, an early
start on Monday had me checking out all the local Kawasaki dealerships before
heading back North through beautiful West Virginia, Ohio and finally back into
my 2nd home of Michigan.
Once back in Michigan and my pal Gary K had found me a Suzi GT750 to buy, next
day it was up to see Bill in Cheboygan who had found me a very early rough H2 to
buy. The plan was to spend some time at Garys fixing up the bikes I had
purchased, the relentless rain soon ended the plans of working on the bikes.
Next day it was a few connecting flights to Florida, great weather as is often
the case but more important a drive down to Sarasota to borrow a bike off Ed “Z”
(aka Triple Ed) and finally take my bike test to hold a full U.S. bike licence,
the 160 mile drive down to Ed’s was hum drum, but Once at Ed’s the joy of
getting on a bike in warm weather was exhilarating - Ed lent me his VERY nice
low mileage S3 400, the same bike I rode last year just a great original bike,
and as I have always said – the BEST all round triple. I have master plan that I
will wear a helmet (not compulsory - and also WAY too small so I look like the
local looney) and also gloves for the test – all over the top stuff but it may
impress the examiner?
So, a short ride to the test center (or centre) and I am faced with a middle
aged lady (the wrong side of 50) to test me. As she looks at the bike she tells
me that she use to have a very similar “450” version of the bike I am on, I
suggest it was a 440LTD and she says no! She goes on to tell me that it was a
450 three cylinder two stroke – I am puzzled . . . I suggest a Suzuki GT380, she
says no, I ask “was it Red?” she confirms it was, “was it back in 1972?” she
confirms it was, in that case I tell her it was a 350 S2 – she agrees with me
that it was indeed a 1972, 350 Kawasaki in red! - The test is in the bag! From
here on it was plain sailing – although I am glad I had a nimble 400 to do the
test on, I didn’t envy those Harley boys that have to do the same manoeuvring
and braking test riding an overweight slug!
I am pleased to say that she passed me and that I now hold a full U.S. car and
bike licence (for as long as I have a current VISA) A quick meal with Ed’ and
it is back in the car for the 100 mile drive back North to make my flight out of
Tampa the next day.
Once at the airport I find that my flight has been cancelled due to bad weather
in New York and rather than spend 18 hours waiting for the next One I head up to
Jacksonville (Fl) for a flight back the next day – yet another trip comes to a
close but, hopefully, I will be back in six weeks
Rick Brett
