- Joined
- Apr 22, 2011
- Messages
- 3,337
- Reaction score
- 395
- Location
- Princeton, Texas
- First Name
- Gary
- Last Name
- Waugh
Well 4 years ago, my wife, myself and a good friend from England rode the CDR from Canada to mexico and had a few issues (One engine threw a conrod, the rider later fell on anther bike and broke his wrist) and electrical gremlins, but we completed the CDR and had a great time. My wife and I decided we wanted to do it again, but in the opposite direction, so my youngest daughter (18) and my brother from england decided they wanted to join us. My brother arrived sunday, so we decided we would just take an easy ride on Monday and get him use to riding on the wrong side of the road, we turned on the gas and it just poured out of the carburettor. we decided he would ride my bike and I would take the super tenere for the day ride. On getting home we pulled the carb apart and found the float valve completely jammed with crappy ethanol deposits from the fuel (The bike had been standing 2 months. we cleaned all the junk out and the bike started and ran like a champ, but the battery was dead so $65 for a new battery. we took it for another ride tuesday to check all was good (it was!!), then wednesday we fitted new tyres to the 4 bikes, cleaned the air filters, changed the engine and gearbox oil and got everything ready for the 2 week ride to Canada. Thursday morning with much excitement we started all 4 bikes and drove to the gas station to fill up. we will ride for 2 days from Dallas to Cloudcroft in New Mexico, then turn north and ride the dirt trails all the way to the Canadian border, we will not be crossing into Canada. So 2 hours into the ride and the first CRF450 (with the new battery) is having electrical problems, all the lights work when the engine is running, but the battery only shows 6 volts and the GPS connected to the battery wont work. we spend 30 minutes removing the seat and checking the electrics, but without a wiring diagram, we cant do much (I suspect the brand new battery is faulty) but we wont know until we can get to a garage Friday.. So we press on, then the GPS on my wifes bike shuts down, we don't need it for the minute so we continue and around 2:00pm find a restaurant to eat lunch. had a nice little snack and then press on, about 30 minutes later my bike is weaving all over the road, we pull over and the back tyre is completely flat (a puncture!!). It has obviously been flat for a while and the rim and tyre are so hot that after I touch them I have a large blister on my finger!! We change the inner tube and then notice a bolt has dropped out of my daughters bike, it holds the rear subframe of the CRF250X to the main frame, but we cant find a single auto parts shop in Post (Texas) that has metric bolts, so we hope we can find a shop tomorrow that has some bolts!! So we are on day one, riding on regular rads (nothng difficult and all 4 bikes have problems!! we found that the wire connecting my wifes GPS to the bike battery had broken, so her GPS now works, my back tyre is fine, so 2 of 4 bikes are fixed and 2 need some attention on Friday when we find a large town with an auto parts shop!! God knows what will go wrong when we start riding on the dirt in 2 days time!! Still we are all in good spirits and enjoying the ride. I will try and post a few pictures!!
Also wanted to give a massive shout out to Mikey Bell Helmet Moore, He offered a couple of Bell helmets at the Redneck Ramble and my daughter was lucky enough to win one, Mike has been great getting the size and colors that she wanted and bringing it to us. Bell seems to have a good range of helmets and I can highly recommend Mikey if you are in the market for a new helmet!! Find him on facebook.
Also wanted to give a massive shout out to Mikey Bell Helmet Moore, He offered a couple of Bell helmets at the Redneck Ramble and my daughter was lucky enough to win one, Mike has been great getting the size and colors that she wanted and bringing it to us. Bell seems to have a good range of helmets and I can highly recommend Mikey if you are in the market for a new helmet!! Find him on facebook.