Done and Done Thursday 615217

Today started with very blue clear skies and crisp morning air at about 56 degrees.

We had breakfast and loaded our bikes as this has become our ritual.

We headed north a bit and turned off on Montana  Highway 200, our old friend from yesterday. The wind was light and things looked good. I even found a sign of some note about the road being part of the Lewis and Clark Trail.

These two men and their fellow explores traveled the new lands of the Louisiana Purchase. They traveled 4600 miles across the United States all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Here is a link about the Lewis and Clark Trail.

http://lewisandclarktrail.com/

We left the gas station and headed west. After traveling about 4 miles, my Triumph started to make unusual vibration in the foot pegs and handle bars. At first thought, maybe road roughness, Nope. Then the vibration got worse and loud metallic sounds and then the engine quit and the bike became a bit unstable. I was able to get the bike stopped and informed LeRoy via our wireless headset of my bike quitting.

There was not much of a shoulder on the road so LeRoy came back and we pushed it about 200 yards farther down the road to a driveway to access the problem. LeRoy saw wisps of smoke near the front part of the drive shaft housing and when I started the engine and tried to move, lots of metal to metal noise came from that area. Not a good sign. The bike was Done moving under its own power.

After some discussion and calls to the nearest Triumph dealer, located in Missoula, about 150 west and trying to figure what to do next, here is what we came up with.

1. Get AAA to get us off the road and back to Great Falls.
2. Price truck rental to haul the bike to Missoula, Montana.

We determined that the Triumph dealer would most likely Not have the parts necessary to do the repair so we would have to wait in a hotel for several days and that would cost $$$.

It would make more sense to rent a truck and take my bike back to Tallahassee and that way, I would be at home waiting for the fix which may take several days between getting parts and doing the actual fix.

That is what we finally decided to do. The cost of a truck, one-way to Tallahassee from Great Fall, Montana, came to $1041.00 plus fuel.

Now the Alaska bike ride is Done.

We loaded Trixie into the box van from U Haul. The bike looks kind of sad with the front wheel wedged in the corner when tied down to travel. Kind of like a kid standing in the corner when they have been bad.

We grabbed some lunch as we had not eaten since breakfast and it was now after 4:00 pm. After a snack at KFC we headed out of town and ended here at Billings, Montana.

As it stands now, LeRoy and I will travel together to Rapid City, South Dakota and split up there with him taking a more scenic route back to his home in Sylva, North Carolina. I will take the Interstates back to Tallahassee as quick as possible.

My bike made it 150 miles past 100,000. Oh well, things break and you move on.

Actually things have worked out OK. Then the failure happened, the rear wheel could have stopped rotating and caused me to crash hard. No Hospital visit, no injury. Found a truck to get me home so all things considered, a fair outcome.

Sorry for the failed adventure but still a nice ride with a good friend.

Mike