Elliott's Cross Country Motorcycle Trip

Friday, June 18, 2010

PLEASE GO TO NEW BLOG

To view my new blog on my motorcycle trip to Alaska please go to moto.elrader.com

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

It turns out that getting this bike back to Chicago is going to be a joint father/son effort. My dad is super excited about the idea of taking the train out and picking the bike up in Malta and riding it back solo. He plans on doing it this month. As disappointed as I was that I wasn't able to complete the trip, I'm really happy that my dad will get to enjoy the open road and finish the journey!

Bummed...

It turns out Malta, Montana is going to be the end of this trip. Scott and I pulled the bike apart this morning and found a small tear in a rubber diaphragm inside of the carburetor. Unfortunately this can't be fixed because gasoline will eventually dissolve any kind of glue or rubber cement and then I could break down again in an even more remote area.

Here were my options

1. Order the part. I called about 10 places and no one had it in stock. They could have ordered one from BMW and then "overnighted" it to me in Malta. But there actually is no overnight service to Malta so it would have been Friday at the earliest but maybe not until Tuesday (and I'm supposed to be back to work on Tuesday).

2. Try to glue it and hope it holds for 400 miles to the nearest dealership in Sturgis, SD. I wanted to do this, but if the glue doesn't hold I break down in an even more remote part of Montana. If I break down within an indian reservation that would not be good. Fort Peck Indian Reservation has the highest per-capita murder rate in the US.

3. Ditch the bike. Although Malta is 200 miles from any kind of minor airport, Amtrak does roll through town and the train goes all the way to Chicago. Scott would let me leave the bike in his garage and will even fix it once I send him the parts. Of course I'll have to go back in get it.

I'm writing this email and about to get on the train. I so badly wanted to try to jury-rig the diaphragm but I guess I pussed out. Fuck.

When I think about it though, I can't really complain. I rode almost 2400 miles, saw some of the most ridiculous scenery and met some amazing people along the way. I guess I'll be figuring out when I can go back to Malta to pick that bike up and properly finish this trip.

Some pics from the past few days:

our friend Rick who we met at Glacier and was riding his bike to Portland

where the road split and Tad went west and I went east

what the open road of highway 2 looks like

an Indian church and cemetary

the laundromat where I met Scott

why the laundromat was so dark

SCOTT!!!!!!!!! coolest dude ever

train station in Malta

Stage 3: Eastbound and Broken-down

Anyone know somebody that fixes BMW motorcycles in Malta, Montana? Yeah, me neither.

Well, let me start out with the good news. The past few days have been really unbelievable. Tad and I had an awesome ride up to Glacier National Park. That place is just incredible. We arrived on Saturday about noon and drove the going-to-the-sun road all day up and over the continental divide. Then we went to the east side of the park (which is much less traveled) and went to camp in Many Glacier campground. You can see a picture of our riverside campsite in the pics below. On Sunday we went on this crazy hike out to Iceberg Lake. Along the way we basically walked stride for stride with a grizzly and her three cubs. Apparently it's a rare site so that was pretty crazy to see that. Out at iceberg lake, there is a glacier that dumps right into the lake and icebergs break off and float around. I bet Tad dinner that he wouldn't swim out to an iceberg, but as you can see, he did. Then I had to do it too. The water was cold, but not heart-stopping cold. It was probably mid forties. The scenery, the grizzly, and the iceberg lake made for a truly unforgettable day.

Tad and I parted ways yesterday morning and he ended up doing an all day (and night) marathon ride back to Vancouver, WA and I headed east on highway 2. Highway 2 is known as the high-line hiihgway as it heads along the top of the country. It's full of history and Lewis and Clark took this route when they did their western exploration.

ANYWAY, I rode aobut 320 miles yesterday to the town of Malta, Montana. I was really low on gas and filled up just outside of town. As soon as I rolled into town the bike started to sputter. I had had a few flooding issues before and the mileage has not been good and this is all pointing to carburetor issues. I may have gotten some bad gas, but I also think I have a stuck float in the carburetor and need to get that cleared somehow. This is where a guy named "Scott" comes into the picture. I'm doing some laundry in this dark laundrymat last night (they turned the lights off cause the mosquitos are so bad) and I was just feeling a little dejected and wondering what I was gonna do. There was one other guy there (Scott) and we got to talking and I told him about my porblems and it turns out this guy knows everyone in town and knows quite a lot about engines himself. I got his number and I went to the local bar this morning (they serve free coffee) and I met him there along with a few other locals. We looked at the bike and I put some fuel/carb cleaner in the gas with no luck (yet). Scott had to go out and do some work on a guy's roof this morning but we're gonna look at the bike when he's done with that. He knows another guy in town that is a bit of a bike mechanic so between the three of us we should be able to figure this out. I'm hoping to be back on the road by tomorrow.

Monday, August 31, 2009

pictures from the last couple of days in glacier national park

ready to depart in the morning from our random camp site about 80 miles from spokane

after riding all day we arrived outside of whitefish, montana and this was another random campsite we found off the road - that's whitefish lake in the background