I had a buckload of things to do, so I sat about on the couch thinking about it all for a while before nailing it and having some time to kick back and relax. All packed up, I was just getting into the bike gear when more thunder boomed overhead... I briefly wondered if this, also, was some kind of omen.
I headed out at about 11:45am, I had to drop my keys into the real estate agent's, so I did that, then to the servo for fuel and my start receipt - my start receipt was 12:00:36! (according to the clock on my bike it was 12:09). I didn't have a pen with me, so I decided to take a picture of my odo and write it on the receipt later... pulled my camera out and "MEMORY CARD FAILURE". Bugger. Spent some time stuffing around getting my phone out of it's waterproof hidey-hole, took my photo, and off I went. Heading up Southern Cross I tried turning my heated grips on and they promptly turned themselves off.... I figured that I had left the ignition on too long when stuffing around taking my picture and didn't think too much of it..
It was raining fairly heavily and I headed out on the Barton towards Yass. By Murrumbateman my feet and chest were soaked. By Yass (about 50km) I was soaked to the skin and freezing! Luckily my heated handgrips had recovered and at least I had toasty warm hands.
I had to pee really bad but I managed to make myself wait until I got to Gumly Gumly for fuel, I also had a little dim sim to warm up :D It continued to rain and I headed through Wagga Wagga trapped between B-doubles. Eventually about halfway to Narrandera the rain stopped, HURRAH! It still looked pretty nasty.
Splash and Dash at Narrandera... "you're the kawasaki" says the servo attendant. Yep. "Is it a 250?". No. a 600. "A 600. WOW!!!!". le sigh.
Headed out towards Hay and the weather stayed dry, hurrah! Got into the 110km/h zone and was pleasantly surprised at how far ahead of schedule I was. About halfway to Hay my heated grips turned themselves off again :( A bit further along I lost the dash... it's a bit weird to be cruising along under power and for my bike to appear "off" (0RPM, nothing on the screen). Crap. I was still probably 50km/h from Hay then so I flicked the indicators, nothing. Flicked the high beam on and the bike immediately started losing power... screw that, high beam off, bike recovered and a few minutes later dash came back on. Phew. Let's just get to Hay. 40km... the dash died again. Crap. 30km/h. the bike started losing all power so I started pulling over and the motor cut out. Pulled the seat off and couldn't see anything amiss however when I turned the ignition off and on again I had very faint lights on my dash, but the bike would not start.
Sad 6
And waiting.
And waiting.
Another bike approached and pulled up. He had a FarRider sticker on his bike, but I don't recall ever meeting him before, it was Shannon, who decided that he was going to wait with me until the NRMA came, even though I insisted that I was okay!
When after an hour the NRMA had still not shown up, I called back, turns out they had gone the wrong way out of Hay. By this time it was getting quite dark. and the mozzies... they were giants!
Eventually the NRMA turned up, he just brought the truck to bring me back so he could work on it in the workshop. But the bike started! So I took off with the towtruck behind me, but only made it about 5km before I lost the dash again... then watched as my headlight got dimmer and dimmer... so I pulled the plug. Loaded him up and road the rest of the way in the truck.
As we got into Hay Ian (my NRMA White Knight) we noted the large motel on the right being full up... Ian's daughter was with us and had predicted that the town was going to be pretty full that night. "that's 50 rooms!!!" says Ian.
Left the bike on the truck and he started looking at it, thought it might be a partially collapsed battery, rang around and got the number for the local bike shop guy who would have a battery available in the morning. Meanwhile Ian's daughter said she would try and find a motel for me... first one she rang had just had a cancellation so HURRAH I had a room! Apparently everywhere was completely booked out. So she drove me up so I could sort the room, done, back, still nothing on the bike so left it there, back to the motel where I had one of the best showers of my life (my knickers were still wet from the rain earlier... EWWWW TMI).
As it was pretty late, the Roadhouse was going to be my best bet for some dinner so wandered up there (it was quite a walk). Saw a few bikes heading in and when I was just about at the roundabout a BMW pulled up... "MELLIE". It was Karl! I bitched at him about my predicament for a bit while Kimmie and their friends caught up, then they set off for their accommodation and I went and had a big sulky burger with the works, bought a Marsbar for dessert and made the hike back to my room. Pretty tired so pretty much straight to bed.
Up and at 'em at about 7am.... COFFEEEEEEE! Wandered down the street a bit, nothing looked particularly open, but then I found Robertson's Hot Bread... what a find! Best coffee I have had in a long time. I also had a muffin which was pretty good but nowhere near as spectacular as the coffee.
Ian's daughter had given me a card with a number to call... "call about 8" she had said. I duly did so, only to get the answering machine. I left a message. And waited. at 9 I called again, answering machine again. So I called Ian's mobile (he was heading to Melbourne for the grand final). He called me back "bike should have been dropped at the bike shop first thing this morning". Righto. I knew where that was!
Wandered up to the bike shop and met Marg and John. John had had enough of a look at the bike to confirm that it definitely wasn't the battery and it was going to need some parts... we're not going anywhere :( So they started a job card while I went back to talk to NRMA about getting me home.
Chris from the NRMA Premium Care was very helpful. He reminded me that I had the option of getting a tow truck to take me and the six back to Canberra if I liked... that sounded easiest to me so I agreed to that. I rang Marg and they were fine with that too. So Chris said he would try and find a tow truck and would give me a call back. In the meantime the 10:00am checkout time was looming... the motel only had two rooms available for that night, the owner said he would hold mine for me while I sorted myself out... but the cleaners had cleaned all the other rooms, so I had to get out of mine 'just in case'.
I headed over the road back to Robertson's and this time I had a pie.
It was fabulous. (so was the second coffee). While I was there Chris rang me back... a tow truck was coming from Narrandera, would be here in about two hours. Awesome. So I finished my pie and coffee, headed back to the motel to get my stuff and the owner kindly drove me down to the bike shop :D
John was really good, he didn't charge me for looking at the bike. I had quite a wait and they were happy enough for me to hang out there while I waited. I put all the bits back on my bike and then we just chatted for ages. a couple of years ago various chapters(?) of the Rebels had all met up in Hay and all fuelled up at their servo... she showed me all the photos from the event, it was pretty amazing.
Eventually after a lot of hours waiting the tow truck turned up and the 6 was loaded up. I thanked John and Marg for all their help and then we were off, back to Canberra.
It was a pretty uneventful run back to Canberra, getting home about 9pm on Saturday night.
Sad panda =(
(turned out the stator was gone - Kawasaki covered it under warranty, replacing the reg/rec again at the same time).
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