06/23/2010, 272 miles
Same route as day seven. It was raining pretty hard when we woke up but we were hopeful. The rain only lasted a half day from Tok to Whitehorse so hopefully it'd clear up. I was a worried about the metal bridge just outside Teslin that would now be wet. Otherwise the terrain was easier than the road out of Tok so I figued we'd be OK.
The rain never let up. There was no wildlife out and there are no photos from today.
We stopped for gas and coffee at Teslin and the SV650 was having trouble idling. The parking lot was thick gooey mud and the bike died as Janna was pulling in. We filled up the bikes and the SV still wouldn't idle. At first we thought maybe the idle speed was turned way down. I turned it up and the bike idled fine for awhile, then cut to half speed, then died. Sounded like the front cylinder was cutting out.
We decided to press and see if the bike would make it to the next gas stop. The metal bridge was the least of our worries at this point and we crossed it in the rain without any trouble.
At the next stop, which I think was Rancheria, the SV sounded worse. The front cylinder wasn't firing at all and it'd barely start. I noticed there was an empty garage and asked if we could pull the SV in there so I could work on it out of the rain. Luckily they said sure.
As I was pushing the SV650 out of the rain a couple on Harleys rode up. I was a bit preoccupied but chatted with them briefly. They were from upstate New York, headed to Alaska, and were 9000 miles into their trip. On Harleys, riding in the rain. Go figure.
I pulled the radiator bolts and moved the radiator forward as best I could, cleaned off the forward cylinder, and with some effort pulled the plug out from behind the radiator. The plug was wet and muddy and the spark plug boot was all wet on the inside. So I dried out the boot and swapped the plug for a spare one, applying a generous quantity of dielectric grease to the plug body and the inside of the boot. Put everything back together and the bike started right up, firing on both cylinders. Quite a relief. It continued to rain on us all the way to Watson Lake but the SV didn't have any further trouble with the front cylinder. But we no longer fully trusted it and decided we should try to get home quickly without any further rest or sightseeing days.
We pulled into Watson Lake pretty late and once again missed eating at BJs cafe. We'd reserved the only room available at the Big Horn Lodge which turned out to be a smoking room. We could really tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment