Here is the long winded reply:
Since this is a long read and most wont get through it, does anyone know how to find out who won in each category and what their bikes looked like?
7am I got my bike ready ride the ride, Checked all the usual's and tried to fire her up. Some reason she didn't have much juice? Hmmm, how old is this battery? 2 years? 3 years? Hmmmm Oh well, I am sure it will be fine. Shut the lights off and she fired up.
We were going to meet up at the Fuel at 8:30am, but one of the guys in the group needed some glass fuses. I still had a few from before I switched over my fuses, so I rode over to his place with Ron (a neighbor of mine). Once the fuse was replaced, the battery started acting up. We jump started his bike, and we were on the road.......until the battery decided it was done. So after gassing up, we picked up a battery and were on the road....
...until the Gold Wing threw up oil all over Chris's leg, engine, muffler, etc... I could barely make out him or his bike through all the smoke. So we pulled over to see what we all figured was a cracked case or some other un-fixable problem. After cleaning up the oil, it turned out the bike had over heated and the oil came from the overflow hose. So we rode over to the gas station to fix the problem. The radiator was not running, so the thermostat was removed from the equation. While we were there a few different guys walked over to talk to us. One of them that was riding a Harley said "It's about time class has come back to Milwaukee." He then told me about his adventures of wrenching at the side of the road when he was younger. He had the same mentality that the bike problems make up half the adventure. Now that the problem was fixed, we hit the road!
Somewhere south of Zion, we had more electrical issues. After 20 minutes and some tape, we were back on the road! The rest of the ride to Chicago was nice and had a few twisties. Chicago it's self was not that great though. The temps spikes, the traffic was unreal, and we dodged manhole covers sticking 3 inches out of the road. That's OK though, because we made it to Mods vs Rockers with 10 minutes to register! Yea!!!
Tons of nice bikes, and every style was represented. Even the gangsta scooters were there. I don't know what they are really called, but they were pretty neat looking. I didn't take as many pics as I would have liked to, but oh well. Ran into a couple MilVin guys and a couple guys from other moto forums. All in all, it was nice.
We left around 5:30 and stopped at the gas station that was by the 7/11. We figured we would stop at the hotel and get cleaned up and then head over for fish n chips. After gassing up, this older guy hollers over to us that he needed some help. So Chris and I walk over to see what's going on. He said he needs help getting a drunk woman into her apartment. There I see a 60+ year old woman laid out on the sidewalk, covered in bruises and drunk off her arse. We told her how luck she was to have two guys as experienced as we were in handling drunk friends. I mean really, who hasn't been there? I hope she heals up OK.
Just before we get to the parking garage at my buddy's hotel, by bike dies. No power, the fuses are fine, WTF?! Oh yea, all that stop and go traffic combined with a crappy battery likely sucked all the juice out of her. I pushed her to the parking garage and went in to cool off. When I got back out, the oil light was on. Checked the oil and it was fine, so I checked the plugs. They were pretty nasty, so I replaced them. It's nice to have a friend that think to bring extra plugs!!! After swapping out the plugs I went to kick her over. First kick *BANG* and the baffle comes half way out. Poor Chris was sitting right next to the bike when it happened. I always thought the baffle was welded in, but it's the kind that is held in with a screw.....and there never was a screw in it. So I pulled the baffle out and fire her up. She seemed to be running fine, so I turned the lights on.......and she died. I decided to ride her with out lights till we got to somewhere we could eat and then I would look up a local parts store and get a new battery.
It was already 8pm (where the hell did the day go?!) and we figured the fish and chips were over, so we pulled into a Mc D's. We were immediately approached by security and told that bikes are not allowed after 7pm. After explaining that we were from out of town, hot n tired, and just wanted something to eat he called his manager and we were able to stay. While there I tried calling some parts places, but who is open on a Sat at 8:30pm? I'm starting to get worried. Not only is tomorrow Fathers Day, but it's my wife's birthday too! What kind of lousy husband misses his wife's birthday?! Or crappy Father is not with his kids for Father's Day?! I could hear myself explaining to my wife "Honey, I am stranded in Chicago at a motorcycle event......" That will never fly, I have to get this figured out. I was so stressed about it, I lost my appetite. LOL!!! I figured I would limp to the freeway and keep the RPM's high enough to recharge that battery. Someone rides in front of me and someone rides behind me, that should keep me from being cut off or rear ended. Then I can switch the light on and hope the bike doesn't die on me again. Going to be dangerous, but what other options are there? I get out to my bike, and she starts up like nothing was ever wrong. I didn't question it, we hit the toll way and opened up the throttles! The ride home was nice and the pockets of cold air were a real treat! We ran across quite a few bikes on the ride back after we crosses the WI/IL border. Few older bikes too, maybe one of the other MilVinners coming home. Would have been around 10pm-10:30.
Here's a link to some pics:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/bobbycleveland/Mods%20vs%20Rockers%202009/I'll post the pics on MilVin when I get some spare time.
Bobby
