25 - Anchorage :The Repair - ... & Back on the Road
Bill and I made it to Anchorage. He agreed to meet me in the morning at the Honda dealer. With no wheels and no way to transport my gear, I needed a car. He took me to Enterprise where the good folks there hooked me up with a Hemi for the price of a compact. I waited until I was out of earshot before peeling out in the rented Ram, a Dodge 1500 4-door pickup with over 300 hp.
Nice.
The truck proved to be both transportation and lodging. After a night in Anchorage, I met Bill at the Honda place.
They "don't work on old bikes. Nothing over 10 years old, certainly not anything older than 20." I'll keep the rant to myself (ok, to anyone that would listen.) It's been two weeks since that happened and as I write this, I'm much calmer now.
I was FURIOUS!
Then I found Ronnie. He worked on old bikes in his garage. When we saw the sign (Bill from his 81 Ford and me from "my" 07 Dodge) we knew we were close to Ronnie's.
At the Fireweed Lane intersection, I snapped this picture of my bike. It was tethered precariously to the bed of Bill's truck.
He had a Tommy Lift on the back, but the bike was too big to get on the lift. Hence the need for a ramp.
Ronnie wasn't set up for taking big 'ole Goldwings out of the back of big 'ole trucks.
He had a 4-wheeler ramp and a motorcycle ramp. The picture can't describe how precarious this setup is.
Ronnie looked at me to get the bike off the truck. I didn't say a word. Finally, he did.
"I sure wouldn't want to ride that thing out of there."
"Me either" I replied. "'I've got no throttle, no place to put my feet down, and about four feet to line the bike up before hitting a six-inch wide ramp."
Ronnie offered to get back to the drawing board. He didn't want a wrecked Goldwing and mangled customer in his driveway anymore than I did.
He found some plywood, drilled some holes and dropped lag bolts in place to keep the plywood from slipping. He had a shed out back with a small ramp to get his lawnmower in the shed. We rigged it to meet the plywood ramp. The Tommy Lift wasn't good for transporting the bike, but it was crucial in rigging the ramp.
What happened next was the scariest thing I've done on a motorcycle in a long, long time.
The bike was high center. That means that front wheel was on the ramp and the back in the bed. Everything resting on a single point. There was no balance. The two guys were holding up the bike. "On three", I said, "you guys push me and get me going as fast as you can as quickly as you can."
"One, Two, Three" I yelled, hoping that yelling would give me more confidence. I had to do it. The bike had to come out of there and I was the only one who would do it.
On three, the bike took off, the help with balance was gone as they were now mere spectators.
Down the ramp and on the brakes. The bike and I were on the asphalt unscathed.
I left the bike with Ronnie and said goodbye to Bill and started cruising around the outskirts of Anchorage in my hot new wheels.
Ronnie called two hours later. I was stunned, the bike was running! The problem was indeed in the circuit from the battery to the ignition, but not with the ignition end as I'd speculated. The battery had shorted out. My brand-new, top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art, gel battery had been rattled silly by the Top of The World Highway.
Check out Ronnie's "shop." It was really in a neighborhood. He is a heck of a guy and really helped me out. His rates were fair and his work was brilliant. What a guy!
The pictures of the old bikes are eye-candy for my motorcyclist readers.
Before I left, he gave me a hard time about getting the bike out of the truck. "Damn right I was scared" I replied.
"Hey, I'm glad it wasn't me," he graciously replied.
Antsy to get on the road, I took off with route recommendations from Ronnie.
Rather than heading toward Fairbanks, I went south to Girdwood. They recommended that I stop there to take pictures before heading further south to Seward.
If only they knew how that recommendation paid off!
Stay tuned for my off-the-grid experience!
The ride along the water from Anchorage toward Seward is spectacular. Unlike many Alaska visitors, I had beautiful and clear weather.
It was so good to be back on the road!
The bike purred. I was so happy, perhaps I did too.
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