Another fine day on the road- Tuesday, August 5

I wrote Sunday about the catastrophic breakdown of Josh's bike, the 1995 BMW R1100GS. It turned out that there was more wrong with it than I had known, due in large par to my failure to have it properly serviced. We had the bike towed in Sunday to Motorcycle Repair and Rendezvous in Salt Lake City. The owner, Jeff Thrumond, was in the BMWMOA Anonymous Handbook as being able to store and repair BMWs. His shop was closed Sunday and Monday (as are most cycle shops) but he said they would be able to get on the bike Tuesday morning. When one is stranded, one must make the best of things, so we toured Salt Lake City. Huge city, great rail system, pretty darn good food. Here are a few pictures we took.




















Tuesday morning, Jeff's Certified BMW Master Technician Ron Schmidt was as pleasant as could be (especially since, in my mind, I was a bit of a butthead), and told me what needed to be repaired. They were able to reschedule a couple appointments (thankyouthankyouthankyou) and able to repair the rear bearing, replace the brake pads, tighten the front left rotor, and synchronize the injectors, as well as some other maintenance. He was very kind about pointing out that my attention to maintenance had been lacking. The only thing they were unable to repair was the clutch and rear seal, because it is a major job and would have been grossly unfair to push aside regular customers for two days. They assured me (and I had my good friend Mike confirm) that, with proper caution and care, the clutch will finish out the trip.
I said very fond farewells and departed the shop nearly $800 lighter (a very fair price and worth every penny and then some!) on my way to catch Duane and Rich. They had left earlier in the day; I had told them we would be on the road and catch up with them, and not to wait. They called with updates on my cel phone and left voice messages.
Utah and Wyoming are starkly beautiful states; you must enjoy desert landscape to truly appreciate the scenic wonder. Personally, I like forests and oceans and beaches, etc., so I would really never willingly live in such a place. But they are fun to travel through, even when traveling on the interstate to make time.
Josh and I left Salt Lake City around 4:40 pm, and I set the cruise control at 70 mph. This kept Josh's bike running at less than 4k rpms, which was the point at which he noticed clutch slippage. We pushed on until we hit Little America, WY, where we stopped for a drink and to refuel the bikes. Duane and Richie called then, and said they had made Rawlins, WY., which had been our target. A nice ride of about 350 miles from SLC, and leaving us 360 miles from out goal, the RV/Motorcycle rally known as Sturgis. All things considered, things are going well; even with the bike failure, nobody has been hurt, the repair was done quickly and with a minimum of pain, and we got to see an interesting city.
Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow. Da Guyz!