Nature's Burlesque

I went for a ride yesterday in full hopes of both clearing my mind and harvesting a story to share. The plan was to ride the Mountain Loop Scenic Byway, which includes roughly 14 miles of gravel. Getting there was the usual affair of slab, which, when the goal is distract oneself from an overwhelming distraction, isn't ideal. I made it off the slab and onto the secondary highway. Navigating by gut, I followed a road sign, and wound up making a big boring loop. Oh well. I rolled my eyes at myself and continued on.

I made the right turn in Darrington and started out the Mountain Loop. I'm a bit amazed I'd never driven or ridden this section of road before. I've known about it, but somehow it never became a priority for me. Perhaps the out-and-back nature of the road imposed by my previous aversion to the loose stuff is to blame. Leaving town, the road has the distinct feel of an old park with weathered pavement and lined with trees planted just a bit too perfectly and a bit too close to one another. The easy, cambered, sweeping curves start just a few minutes out of town. As I rode, I caught glimpses of the mountains through the break in the canopy. I caught glimpses of the surrounding natural beauty through gaps in the undergrowth and places where the road bumped up next to the river. That's when the idea popped into my head. Mother Nature was putting on a burlesque show, with the foliage serving as so many peacock feathers.

Once the idea took hold, that's what I was looking for. That the story I intended to tell. The stream just barely and momentarily visible. The soaring peak framed, for an instant, by deciduous trees in full summer splendor.

Stopping for a brief brake, and considering turning around to snap a photo changed my plans.

As I clambered back aboard the bike something wasn't right. I thought I'd slipped off the foot peg. But no. When I looked to see where I'd gone wrong the problem was obvious. The left side foot peg and shift lever were dangling from the transmission by the shift linkage. I obviously wasn't going any further.

I dug out the tool kit and went to work. My first order of business was to understand the nature of the problem. One bolt had sheared off. In retrospect, I should have suspected this. It's on the side the bike landed on when we went down a few months ago. There was no way I was reattaching the foot peg. So my next challenge was to get her into gear, any gear, but preferably 3rd. She'll get rolling, even up hill if necessary, in 3rd.

She was stuck in first. I couldn't get the leverage necessary to change gears. So I disassembled the foot peg and shift mechanism and stowed them under the seat. This was going to be interesting.

Holding a relatively steady 6000 RPMs, cruising at 27 mph, it took what seemed like ages to get back to town. I stopped at the gas station and tried to sort things out better. Using a lever, I could shift into neutral or first, but not 2nd. Even 2nd would have been better than being stuck in 1st. I spent half an hour trying to figure out. I asked about a hardware store: there was one at the west end of town. They lent me a prybar to try to achieve more leverage. No luck.

I rode the 36 miles to the nearest motorcycle shop in first gear, most of it on the shoulder. I was comfortable cruising at 25-30 mph, but on occasion, where there was no shoulder for a brief section, I which it up to 10,000 revs, 40-45 mph to avoid impeding traffic too much. I'd make the occasional dive into a driveway to let the engine rest and get out of the way. It was a long, slow ride, and by the time I go to Smokey Point, the engine temp light would come on anytime I had to stop. I burned through most of a tank of fuel in that 36 miles as well.

The part I needed was not in stock. The parts guy wanted to order one, but this shop is more than an hour from home under ideal conditions. So I visited the service counter. They were able to extract the broken bolt and find a suitable replacement, so my adventure went about as well as it could, given the circumstances. It certainly did provide, for the most part, the much needed distraction from distraction. I'll have to make the ride again soon to see the rest of show Nature was putting on.