Trouble

Last Tuesday I went for a Digital Treasure Hunt with Al and Wendy. By 8am that morning my battery was flat as a tack once again, preventing me from meeting them at the agreed time. This has been happening a couple of times before, especially when I don't ride as frequently as I would love to. My companions came by my place whilst I popped the battery on the charger. A chat and a coffee later we had a go at pressing that starter button, but no go...

Ok. It's time to call roadside assistance.

NRMA's Terry arrived within the hour, started the bike and left (us with a great impression.:..Terry:"Ah, a bike! See, that's why I like my job...variety!")

Wendy and Al had agreed to meet me at Picton for lunch, so I got on the bike and seeing that I was running on empty, I rode to my nearest petrol station down Bulli way, where I had to call the NRMA again (and wait around for another threequarters of an hour), as the Service station attendants were unable to help me fullstop! Not a set of jumper leads in sight! Some Service station! No way I'm going back to Bulli for a fill. Just not good enough guys!

Another NRMA guy got me going again (thank you, thank you!) and this time I rode up the Pass and all the way to Picton in no time. A momentary scare...revving high to recharge the battery at a good speed it started to struggle. Ah-oh!

No lunch at the Picton, but Wendy and Al turned up just as I got there myself. We had a drink, a chat and then took off, fingers crossed as I started the bike without problems. A few miles down the road we stopped for some fast food and petrol, but once their bikes were filled, mine momentarily refused to start.
That was a bit of a scare...so I took off to do a quick 10 kms at pace and high revs...fun! By the time I got back our food was ready...yeah!

By the time I got back home via the Pieshop at Robertson, everything felt ok...

...until DaMan and I were going for another ride a couple of days later, on Thursday and it played up again. That's it! I'm ringing my mechanic!

My WONDERFUL mechanic Steve told me to get down to his Russel Vale workshop (MaxPower) and pick up a good second hand battery to check wether it was the battery or the charging system. I knew I was in good hands then! Drove down and picked up the battery, swapping it for the old one. Thank goodness I noticed that the little nuts that are wedged in the bottom of the terminals had been removed, so I asked and was handed a couple. One of them appeared to be smick and shiny...that was the one I had to put in the vice and file down about a millimeter to fit it in the hole...

DaMan and I saddled up to get on our way to Gerringong and we stopped over at MaxPower to check that the battery was being charged sufficiently and when I told him that I was about to do Dubbo in a couple of days, he told me to leave the second hand one on the bike and pick the new one up when I'm back. Generous! Thanks Steve and Nat!

Gerringong was no problem..just a beaut ride via Jamberoo with DaMan taking it easy on the pillion seat...

To think that that was one of the last sunny afternoons to be seen for some time! We certainly made the most of it.