Sunday – Ephrata, Washington
I was up and at it quite early as I knew with a few days of social meetings ahead, I would need to catch up on the blog. So, I managed to get a few days worth done but still behind, as usual, before packing up late morning. These young kids were interested in my bike and what I was doing, Hi there, hope you are all fine and having fun, but you may be back at school now!
So, I decided not to run out of fuel again and filled up here, just in case, if need be I can drain the tank. I then went back through all the road works and as it was a bright and mainly sunny day, I could see where I rode last night, nothing dramatic and no fresh road kill, so that was all good!
I got to Johns house again in Ephrata and parked the bike up in the garage and met him and his family 🙂 I am extremely bad today, I forgot to take photos while doing everything and nothing, so there is not much to look at sorry.
The plan was to do some tech work, mainly the headset bearing check, but after checking the manual and looking at what needs to be done, we gave up on that, I would need a special tool to loosen and tighten the bearing nuts, bummer. We then chatted about a few things and I mentioned the deceleration wobble, well there was something we could do he said. He had a nearly brand new tyre, if we took off the front tyre and replaced it, we could start with a basic bike and see if it is the tyre, the bearing, the weight and load distribution etc etc .
That all sounds good to me, the next hurdle was a 12mm hex Allan key of some sort. His bike is a 1000cc so uses a 19mm hex, but he did not have a 12mm, nor did I. We tried a few things, then went to the hardware and auto shops that were open on a holiday weekend, but to no avail, nothing around that we could use.
Now, I do not want to be anti American in any way, but this is an absolutely stupid thing they have done. Now, they are US imperial, their own system as everyone knows which has nothing in common with the British Imperial system of measurements. OK, I can deal with that, but metric is metric, there is nothing that needs modifying about this system, it works leave it alone. So, a basic way of a metric bolt measurement is that if you have a 10mm bolt(the threaded section) then the bolt head will be 12mm, so in Australia and probably anywhere there is normal metric, I could buy a high tensile steel 10mm bolt, two nuts and I now have a 12mm tool. Not here though, oh no, that is not normal enough, so here, a 10mm metric bolt has a 13mm head, how Ph&^*ing stupid is that????
So, although we tried, we turned to the only thing to console a couple of tech guys when nothing is going right 🙂
Yep, that is correct, we had a lazy afternoon and evening with a few ales, chatting with the family and a fabulous dinner, with more ales after dinner 🙂 It was not a real late night, but all in all a great time, nice meeting you all 🙂
Day 24 miles and 39 km
Trip – 35,095 miles and 56,480 km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom 