Hey cupcake (8/21/23 Mon)

No early starts. We're just not all that good at mornings. The Comfort Inn breakfast ended at 0930. Luckily we arrived closer to 0900 and completed eating before "last call". Miracle number one.

From the parking lot we could see the highway traffic creeping towards London. That was too scary a start for us. After topping off the fuel tanks, Nate set a course parallel to the slow highway. We crossed a bridge over the highway, and could see an accident only a few hundred meters down from our location.

Continuing on our parallel course for a dozen miles before coming back onto the now normally flowing highway. A hour or so later we arrived at Hully Gully Honda. As expected the bike failure occurred when we stopped in their parking lot. Hully Gully is a very large motorcycle shop. We hung around looking at bikes for two hours while they pulled codes from the bike and checked what they could.

Re-reading yesterdays post I realize it may not accurately reflect the conditions that trigger the DCT problem. The first day we rode many hours at high speeds on the highway without any issue. The problem occurs when the bike/transmission is hot and you come to a stop. If it's not hot, no problem. If you don't stop, no problem. It can reach "too hot" running fully loaded at highway speeds or in very slow stop and go city traffic. Once it becomes "too hot" any stop can cause the automatic DCT to "shift" out of gear and may result in the "-" indicator. Then until it cools off it "protects the transmission" by not allowing it into any gear. Obviosly ambient temperatures affect both the heating up and cooling down. Cooldowns all seem to be in the 30 to 50 minutes range.

My reported 15 and 20 minutes of riding reflected our deliberate testing schedule. We suspected that 10 minutes was enough time to reach a steady operating temperature and targeting decent stops around that time would allow us to run multiple tests. So the frequent failures experienced yesterday had been done on purpose to produce data points for us to better understand the limits in a controlled way. We carefully planned our travel stops such that we would have something to do at possible failure points.

I still believe that we could have ridden the bike all the way to Colorado on highways. Each gas stop would just get extended about twice the normal stopping time. I also suspect traveling some time at moderate speeds just before refueling might avoid triggering the issue.

So given an hour ride to the dealer at highway speeds, and then a stop, we expected it to fail in the parking lot. Perfect for them to debug the issue. They pulled the codes, and the sensor and confirmed our prior forum diagnosis. The failing sensor is back ordered, which normally means a delivery time around 2 weeks. We also learned the location of the sensore and how it can be changed. The skid plate does block air flow over the sensor, so we removed it . Very happy with the service and help from Hully Gully.

With that out of the way we continued to Nate's friend in London. Hey Cupcake is the name of their bakery in London. We arrive and Nate was able to deliver his planned line "you better not be playing video games back there!" It was well received, as where Nate and I. We got a tour of the bakery, a nearby pizza shop and the new community being built around them. I went here expecting to buy too many cupcakes, but he wouldn't let us pay for them. He made us special cupcakes to take home and we spent a few hours talking. How did they taste? Like they know exactly what they are doing. Not just winging it, but exactly how to craft something that is both beautiful looking and tastes great. Everything was the best I have ever tasted. The cake examples on display all perfectly realistic renderings. Clearly the work of people doing what they love. And we loved every minute of the visit. We closed down the place at 5pm and talk more outside. Then Nate and I began our riding day.

We made good time, and decided it was late enough to cross the Lewiston Queenston Bridge and not take the longer route north of Lake Erie. Before reaching the bridge we stopped for dinner at an A&W. Before going in we confirmed the bike was failing and needed a cooldown, and pulled out our passports. We ate dinner and the bike worked when we came out.

We rode another 30 minutes to the border crossing. Pulling up to the booth behind five cars. Nate turned off the bike between moves, and paddled forward under human power for all but two. That worked and the bike went into D up to the booth. After given entry Nate pushed his bike ahead so I could ride in behind him for my interrogation.

I had a long conversation with the guard. Apparently my plate was scanned at a checkpoint in Texas in February. At least that's my understanding. We didn't seem to be speaking the same language and I'm certain he was frustrated with me. I have been to Texas, my sister lives there. I have crossed into Mexico from Texas, but not recently. And I wasn't in Texas in February. My bike has never been in Texas. I suspected that the NH car with my plate was in Texas. New Hampshire allows duplicates between bikes, cars, and commercial vehicles. He also assured me that it wasn't at a boarder. I'm not sure I understand that... But he wanted me gone.

When we tried to leave, Nates bike just wouldn't. So he paddled across to the truck area and waited. We waited, expecting security to question our actions. Security didn't arrive. At least not until Nate layed down on the pavement next to the bike. Then two men came toward us and asked if everything was ok. I walked toward them and said we have a bike problem that required a cooled down before we could move. One of the two guys had a beard (maybe the guard who was already tired of me). They mumbled that seeing a person down on the ground had them worried about him. Nate jumped up and said he was just laying their contemplating his life choices leading to this point. They headed back without further interrogation. After 30 minutes of cooling we tried the bike and it worked.

Heading east out of the city and into the first service station for fuel. That station was about 30 miles from the border. Nate rode at 65mph for at least the last 10 miles, at 61F by my bike thermometer. After gassing up, we saw the dreaded "-" where a "N" or "D" should be. Inside to spend our cooldown visiting the restrooms, having a coffee, some typing and an expedia hotel purchase.

After a 30 minute stop we continued one exit further east to arrive at the Budget Inn in Batavia, NY just past midnight. Never have I ever... seen so many motels at one exit. Ours was one of them. Hopefully it's not the nicest, and it's likely not the worst. With Anderson Indian as my still healing reference point, this place is heavenly. Except for my roommate. He keeps mumbling that my poor grammar and spelling aren't going to win me something called a Pullet Surprise. I think he just has a bad attitude for some unknown reason. And I already have 10 pullets at home, they really don't surprise me all that much any more.