First Ride of the Season

Friday Apr 10th





I know I was pushing it deciding to take my newly rebuilt bike on such a long trip but I had confidence that Mark & I did a good job.



Left Campbell River with Glenn as my escort to Qualicum Beach just in case I had any major issues.


After leaving Qualicum ended up on the highway trying to go fast and the throttle kept sliding off the handle bars as well as not having any get up go, thought maybe it was because the grip just wasn't strong enough but I kept on going.


Stopped in to visit a friend in Ladysmith and decided I should check the oil - well it was empty thank goodness they had some oil and topped me up so that I could at least get to Canadian tire and buy some engine restore and some more oil.


Was really surprised when I left and got around the corner I had to put the bike into reserve at only 180 kms last year I went 260 kms before I had to go into reserve. So off I went to the first gas station I saw.


Upon arrival in Victoria was dead tiered so never looked at the bike closely until later in the evening then it was an Oh my god moment! no wonder I was so low on oil, the cap for the top cam chain tensioner was missing. So the first thing I do is get on the phone to my darling boyfriend and ask for suggestions to fix the problem - he says I should try high temp silicone so the next day off I go to Canadian Tire to purchase some. I clean the hole out with brake cleaner and put in a piece of tin foil so that the silicone won't get into the engine. Once the silicone set and it stopped raining it was time to take her out to see if it was going to hold. After taking my nieces out for a quick ride each the plug is already starting to leak. My sister wants to go for a ride too so she gets all geared up and hops on and we go to Wal Mart to pick up a present for my niece and some other things that she needs and I decide to get a package of two part epoxy to try filling the hole with because I am returning to Campbell River the next morning and don't want to have oil issues. The next morning I agreed to take my sister to work so we leave the house before 8 am it was a little cold on the face because I gave my 3/4 helmet to my sister cause she isn't used to the cold. After dropping my sister off at work I make my way to the gas station to fill up and check my repair job - Yeah it seemed to be holding. I get on the highway but the bike still won't go when I want it to but that is a major issue that couldn't be fixed on the road. I planned on meeting Mark at the Michael's in Nanaimo at 11:00 and I had no idea what time it was as I was riding so I never stopped until I got there. The first thing I did was check to see if my repair had held or not, I was dismayed when I discovered that the plug was gone but it couldn't have been gone for long because there was very little oil on the exhaust. Mark arrives and we go for a bite to eat and try to come up with another temporary fix for that now annoying oil plug issue. We decide to check if Michael's has any rubber bottle stoppers - no such luck there but they do have cork ones so we buy a package of them and some quick setting crazy glue to keep the cork in the hole. We leave Nanaimo confident that our repair will hold for at least the trip home when I stop for fuel the plug is still holding, but once we got to Denman and check it is missing again - thank goodness we bought a package of them so we replaced it once again and off we went to Courtenay Motor Sports to order the proper plug and an oil filter for Marks bike.


It was definitely a memorable first trip, probably not the best first trip but it had to be done.