Day 15 - Chaos and Near Disaster.

 At a relatively long 320 miles, the next leg of the journey to The Dalles would have been challenging enough.  Consider the following list of mishaps and bad luck.

• David (Agent Orange) Belleville's BMW blew up.  Our ride leader was out.

• Bernie Nietvelt barely escaped a fall when his front tire went instantly flat.

• Chris' Shadow hard starting and non-function fork returned.  We had to bump start him at every stop.

• Bob Reimer did not make it to the hotel and is out there staying somewhere as we speak.

• Alton's truck ran out of diesel fuel and would not restart.  Solution TBD.  The vehicle is out there still.

Bernie is totally determined to complete the ride on his Vincent.

The solution was to swap in the front wheel from Jeff McCoy's Rapide, (on the trailer due to Jeff's injured leg.)  Bernie had no operating front stands.  Now what?  He jumped over a fence and retrieved some old fence posts to prop up the front end.  Genius.

Not all was a disaster.  Consider the chance meeting we had with Suze Riley during lunch in Unity.  Here is one interesting character.  Riding her BMW alone on a Wednesday afternoon? This is just part of her life.  She is an ex-pat Londoner, an entrepreneur (boldcoffeeroasters.com), realtor, decorator, rally organizer (maupinmadness.com), and the head of the Maupin, Oregon Chamber of Commerce. 

Suze held our attention with her story.  Her sales skills were superb.  

Who knows, maybe next year's epic ride will be based in Maupin?

I cannot begin to describe all the actions that the above set of woes precipitated.  The reader will have to fill in the blanks with their imagination.  Suffice it to say, Charlie and I got to the hotel after dark with a mountain of work to do.  

Another very bright spot was that, on arrival, we were greeted by Vancouver Vincent guys, Ian Wylie and Jim Bush.  Ian and Jim had travelled well out of their way to meet us early on their way to Ventura.  We plan to hook up with several more Vancouver Section Vincent riders later tomorrow in Coos Bay.  But Ian and Chris got a private preview.  So, what did we do?  We put them to work, of course!!!

After a nice taco dinner a fresco, we adjourned to the operating table to deal with Chris' Shadow.  I determined that the magneto was duff with a bad condenser.  The replacement of these always goes better with two people.  Jim jumped right in with his cool Dan Smith-made TDC finder.  The new magneto was in and timed up pronto.  The bike started on the first kick.  

Then it was on to the suspension.  A crowd had gathered for a fork tutorial.  I showed them how to get it all apart without any special tools.  One by one we loosened each link until there was free movement on the forks.  One spindle, and the eccentrics, were too tight. That was fixed temporarily.  To do the job properly, eccentric shims will be needed.  These are being overnight air shipped to Coos Bay.  But, for tomorrow, whoever rides this bike will enjoy proper suspension.  

Other issues on the list remain and will be resolved.  Stay tuned for the solutions tomorrow.  You will not believe how Agent Orange gets back in the saddle.

Oh, the roads in Oregon and the scenery had the WOW factor.

Approaching The Dalles at dusk along the Columbia River.