To America We Go

We stopped at BMW in Fresno because one of the low-beam lamps (the RT has two) had blown, but they were closed. We headed north in line with the Sierras and then turned east to Yosemite National Park.

We stopped at a small town for a break, and because there was a motor spares shop in the centre, I found the right bulb and replaced it.


Then the forests began and the riding was fantastic - winding bends thought cool pine trees.



As we approached the valley the scenery was stunning.


Through a tunnel and then the true majesty of the valley was revealed.


As we made our way out of the park the riding was equally brilliant - good roads and smooth corners in fantastic scenery. My gripe again was getting stuck behind a car for miles with no passing opportunities.


About two miles after we exited the park things started to go wrong. As the bike swept through a smooth right-hander at 50mph a shudder ran though the handlebars and my first thought was that the front tyre had blown (Cathy said afterwards the she was confused because the bike was shaking but the road seemed smooth). I got it safely to the side of the road and we climbed off but could see nothing wrong. I took the bike down the road and it felt unsteady - like the front tyre was completely flat. But pressing the tyre as hard as I could it felt rock solid. I also couldn't find any play in the front by moving it when on the centre-stand. I took it down the road again and with it in neutral the unsteady feeling remained. My best guess is that the bearings in the front wheel had broken.

We agreed that it was unsafe to continue, but thought we would risk it to ride the two miles back to the entrance of the park (there was no cell-phone reception anywhere in this area). At 10mph we rode back with a groaning, grinding noise coming from the front (always difficult to tell exactly where a noise is coming from).

The rangers at the gate kindly let me use their phone and I called Wofgang at Dubbelju (it was 4:30pm). He said he would see what he could do and I called him again in 45 minutes. After convincing him that I was not imagining something (or it was a simple flat tire) he agreed to dispatch a truck with a replacement bike which we could expect in 3.5 hours.



We settled in to wait until 9pm. The parking lot emptied and the rangers went home. It started to get quite cold. There were strange noises coming from the forest :)



10pm, 11pm, midnight came and went. We concluded that something had happened to the truck and that it would not be coming that night. We put on layers of clothes to keep warm and moved into the ladies' toilet where it was a bit warmer and settled down for the night.

Unable to sleep, I heard a vehicle outside at about 2am. Opening the door I saw that the truck had arrived and the driver said that he had not been able to find us.

We tranferred our belongings onto the RT he had brought, and seeing no point in trying to find a hotel at this time, we set off into the night at 3am.

Now, we had decided before this that we needed to stop and do a clothes-wash as we were half-way through our trip and needed it, so we would not try to reach the coast north of San Francisco but would spend two nights in Sacramento and take a day to sort out our stuff for the next leg. With this setback, and a new, strange bike, and no real reason to go specifically to Sacramento, we decided to return to San Francisco, do our wash and explore some more, and then we also wouldn't be in a panic to get the bike back on time on Thursday morning.

I can tell you one thing about American drivers: they may appear to be law-abiding during the day, but at 4am it is the wild west. And the I508 into SF at 5:30am is not for sissies.



We made it safely into SF at 6am, found a Starbucks for coffee and wi-fi, booked a hotel and then made our way there for an early check-in. After breakfast and a hot shower we slept for most of the day.

We'll do a tour of laundromats tomorrow morning.