The Journey in Jeopardy
Added on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor
The Journey in Jeopardy
I am now in Grande Prarie. Code 12 has been thrown up on my display indicating a crank positioning sensor malfunction. I have been talking to Tim at Wrights in Salt Lake and he has been getting advice from his people. They say it could be dirt and that the sensor shouldn’t deteriorate which conflicts with Alf England’s mechanics who say the performance of the bike will get worse. This holds with the top end vibration I’m now getting which at 8000 revs would make the bike unrideable. Something is wrong. Normally none of this is an issue but out here it is. Apart from finding people who want to help there is the problem of sourcing parts should they be needed and that is a minimum two or three day delay. We could phone ahead to Salt Lake or even San Antonio.
Think about it - 4 times round the world on the toughest routes that exist and never a single problem ever. So the law of averages comes round. You can’t win all the time. The Dalton Highway is no worse than the Didi Gagulu Desert in Northern Kenya, or the Nubia itself. I feel nervous. I had implicit belief in my being able to crack this route - my second attempt - but thoughts in my head this morning were bleak.
I am in Redline Yamaha, Canada’s largest dealership working exclusively with Yamaha. Geoff the Service Manager is in the back trying to isolate the problem. The project could be called off. A three day delay would not be acceptable by my standards. This is a record breaking ride of the Americas and I don’t want to pussy around with a time that could easily be beaten. I welcome the challenge but not with such a delay, especially as I am flying. Never felt faster and smoother and my skill set since 1996 is not comparable. It would be a catastrophe to stop now.
