America The Beautiful

 It was a debate about the title for today.  Should I title it "Busted!"?  The ride started out with a bang as the bikes went through the Black Hills, a road with never-ending curves.  Into Wyoming's high plains, the whole train was pulled over by an overzealous State Trooper for the bikes not having headlights on.  The polite diplomats among us went to work and coaxed a warning out of the officer.  But, that was not before checking the licenses and I.D. of each and every rider on his computer.  That took over an hour, a terrible waste of time on a 400-mile day.

Busted! 

From there, on things went according to plan with a bare minimum of mechanical grief until very late in the day.  The following is a series of pictures that capture the best of what America has to offer.  We went from the high plains to foothills. and then a breathtaking climb over the Rockies to our destination, Red Lodge Montana.

Vincents Reach the Rockies - A thrilling moment

We will end with a mechanical summary,  David Belleville's K75 BMW sputtered to a halt on the climb and had to be loaded up on the chase vehicle.  Our fearless road captain, AKA Agent Orange, was out!  Speculation was that a fuel pump had failed, allegedly the only thing that ever goes wrong with this motorcycle.  David carries a spare and all would be well.  But, at Red Lodge the bike started right up and ran perfectly without any intervention.  A mystery.

12 miles from home, Chris suffered his second flat rear tire.  We loaded him up and put him on a Triumph T160 triple, an alien device to this English gentleman.  Back at the field hospital, I found the cause.  A poorly designed wheel weight bolt with sharp edges has broken through the rim tape and punctured the tube.  I always grind these down.  See below, my modified version and the original tire wrecker.

Tomorrow, my birthday, promises to be another great day in the mountains starting with crossing the famous Beartooth Pass.  As a treat to myself, I plan to be back in the saddle on the Vincent Rapide (electric starter version with a new, now balanced front wheel).