Dec 1

Nicely settled into my new pad I now had some time to get to work on the bike. I had to find out what was really wrong with it.

Since I had narrowed it down to the starter I basically jsut read my manual about that and had a serious look it. I decided the best thign to do was to tear it all apart and see if I could define the problem.

The deconstruction was not too difficult as I had a nice little area to work in. ONce in the guts of the starter, like my Dad always said, "look for something obviously wrong". INside the starter are 2 small components they call brushes, mor like metalblocks, but whatever. One moveed readily in its spring loaded slider mount and popped back into position quite nicely. It also had a nice curved surface where it rubbed or brushed the round cyclinder in the starter. Looks good.

The other brush did not slide at all and was not worn evenly. Tearing it apart revealed a small piece of something blokcing the slider track thus not letting it move as it was supposed to. Oh and by small I mean like grain of salt small, piece of metal. Surely that tiny piece could not incapcitate the behemoth?

Nothing else was obviously wrong so I put it all back together as precisely and acccurate as I could. I did notice that when put back together properly the starter was positioned abit more tightly then when I took it apart. I attrbute this to all shaking and rattling and abuse th ebike is taking on these crappy and topa laiden roads.

With a small audience the Big Ole Beast fired right up!!! Better than ever! NIce.

Bike fixed, one big worry dealt with.

Teh main highway I took to get this far south turns inland to Mexico City from here. HNow for anyone whoknows me you know I cannot stand cities. Vancouver and its horrible driving conditions (much more frustrating and dangerous than here btw) are bad enough, much less 20 million mexicans...imagine the pollution?

As that road dissappears and this road is getting too rough for the Wing, I may just camp here til christmas when I fly home to be with family. this will allow me to ride to Cabo within a week in the spring to meet Vik and ride the bike to its Home and Native Land (of nice smooooth roads) in Canada.

I'll continue this ride at some point, just not on the Goldwing. We'll see.