April 24, 2013

A long day to Valladolid. We decided to take some toll roads to make up some time as our friend, Pako, was waiting for us to arrive at his house. About 15 miles from our destination we stopped just before a toll both to get our money out. When I went t start my bike, it was completely dead. Not even enough power to run the GPS or the dash lights. Stone cold dead! So, I took all my luggage off so I could remove the seat and check the fuses. All the fuses were in good shape. I must be a complete battery failure of an electronic problem. I dug out my jumper cables and Don removed all his luggage and seat so we could access his battery terminals. We jumpered the bikes and mine started. Good! Now we replaced our seats and reinstalled all our luggage with my bike running. Just as we were ready to pull out and finish our day of riding, I put my bike in gear. Since I still had my side stand down, the engine instantly died due to the stand safety switch. Oh C#$%!!!!. Then we proceeded to remove all our luggage and remove our seats again so I could jumper the batteries again. Don was not smiling too well at that point. Finally, I got moving and while heading down the road all the way to Pako's, the engine check light kept coming on and both the tachometer and the speedometer continuously swong from zero to full indication and back again. I wondered if it was a complete battery failure of something more sinister in the bikes electronics. In any case we arrived at Pako's and parked the bikes. We made it!