Thanks guys, well I'm home again after a nice ride in a tow truck. Not as nice as riding the ol' Swamp Rat mind, but still good that I didn't have to push it home.
The bike was running really well, I'd ridden over to see Jeff at Ace Motorcycles, and to my absolute amazement, nothing had gone wrong. No missing, no farting, no smoke, no rattles, it was one of those days where everything was going right. I still haven't connected the electric start, so kick started it (started first kick) rode over to the gas station to fill up with 91, started it again first kick. Jeff wasn't in and his shop was closed, so I decided to do a good 100 miler to just enjoy the day.
Everything was working great, it was comfy, the brakes weren't binding, the forks weren't weeping oil, I was heading out on my favourite route, but when I thought the rocker ticking was a little louder. I looked down and saw that the oil pressure gauge, which had been reading a constant 60 PSI @ 60 MPH had dropped to zero, so I pulled in the clutch, and coasted to a halt. The engine conked out as I was coasting.
I pulled up, jumped off, and pushed it onto the footpath. I looked into the oil tank, and could see the bottom. A wisp of smoke drifted out. I let it cool down a little and kicked it over. It wasn't seized, but was making a forlorn squeaking sound, like a muffled Japanese groan... I knew then, that I'd killed it. I rang the RACV (Auto Club) and was happy to learn that due to my purchasing the top cover all those years ago, it wasn't gonna cost me anything to have it towed home. Sweet. What wasn't so good, is that I would have to wait for up to 3 hours, due to the towies being very busy today. Oh well.
What was interesting, was the amount of guys who stopped to see if I needed any help? I was standing up looking at it, and as I was adjacent some traffic lights, with pretty much every light change I had guys stopping and asking me if they could help, if I needed fuel, what sort of bike is it, did I need a push, etc? I sat down with my back to the lights as I was almost getting sick of thanking everyone, but explained that it was dead, and a tow truck was inbound. This has happened to me a couple of times over the years, the last time was 5 years ago when the coils were playing up on the mighty black 'Wang, and once again, I was taken aback by the amount of guys offering help. When those "Negative Neville's" start telling you that the world has gone to sh1t and it's every man for himself, tell them they're full of it, there are still tons of good folks out there wanting to help a dude in need.
Finally the tow truck driver arrived, (only around maybe an hour after it conked out) and loaded the poor old swamp rat and me into his truck, and took us both home. I was trying to decide on the best course of action, and while it's always subject to change, I think I'll pull the engine out of my K2 "Bitsa" and swap it in. It felt like the prospective buyer might have changed his mind after I told him what had happened, so if that's the case and I'm keeping it, well, I want to make sure it's got a good engine in it, and I know the Bitsa engine is fine. That is of course, after I'd popped the valve cover off the swamp rat's engine to see what carnage lies within..........
