Powered By Blogger

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

There are days...



...when it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

Yesterday was such a day.

My primary purpose this trip was to "move back in" to my digs in AZ.  Of course the Adventure 150 would get lots of service, but I also expected to be riding my 1998 Yamaha XT 350.

Normally I come in the fall.  For me that's the best choice for weather, like the three bears, not too hot and not too cold, but just right!

The current temperature here is 100F and it's going to stay that way for most of my remaining days.  Coming from the North Country, I can appreciate heat but riding in gear at triple digits, can be life threatening. Especially in a country where most of the water resides in a cooler!

Although I have the use of a mid sized truck this trip courtesy of Judy and her brother Harold, between the work I am doing here and the heat, I have simply not made it out into the mountains except for the day Holly and I visited the White Tank's on the west side of the city.

I'll be able to extend my range with the Dakota!

In my spare time I've been looking at my surrounding area maps and thought I might try and put some time in around Teddy Roosevelt Lake.  I bisected this mountain range a few years back and it appeared in a CB story (Rolling Up the Rim) shortly after.  State highway (?) 288 climbs up to nearly 8000' on the back way via Young, to Payson.

Having a truck and bike, this route would give me the option of exploring the countryside and camping out at a comfortable altitude.  The higher up, the cooler. That was the plan but as so often happens, that Murphy character showed up and spoiled the show.

I'm fueling up the 350 from my little Jerry can.  It's one that  has a security spout.

Yup... that's a gaping hole, just waiting to catch the unwary!
Hi tech vented can... useless

The apparatus has a spring and self sealing device that is meant to curb a loss of fuel when using.  On the spout, there is a protrusion that is designed not to pass fuel unless the spring is sprung, so to speak.  The 350 has a rather large opening in the tank about 2 1/2" across and to get fuel flowing, you have to rest the tiny protrusion against a solid object, in this case the opening lip of the tank and voila... fuel flows into the tank.

As I am filling the tank I think quite unconsciously to myself, this has the makings of a disaster.  Just about a nano second post thought, my hold slips and the entire spout assembly, at some velocity I might add, flies off, you guessed it, right into the fuel tank!

Now what.

See that little red troublemaker...

I have my saddlebags secured, which I would have to remove, followed by the seat, side covers, the louvered air deflectors that channel air over the engine, and finally, the fuel tank itself, all of this during the time I am draining nearly 3 gallons of gas that I just put into the tank... out!

I really don't want to remove all this stuff at 99F

Of course the Jerry can holds about a gallon, which means I have to find a suitable container for the other two.

Fortunately I have a clean plastic coffee can, plus some empty oil containers, that will between them, hold the fuel from the full tank.

Peering into the tank with a pen light, I at first could not see the red spout.  Probing with a bent metal hanger, finally turns up the spout and I begin the process of attempting to 'fish out the item'.

To say this turns into an ordeal and bypassing the cussing and swearing that increases in volume the more times I have the thing in my finger tips only to have it slip away yet again, and thinking I'm back to removing the tank, which of course I was trying to avoid, I finally manage to fish the thing out on my 99th try!

Now remember... it's like 99.9 degrees, I'm mostly in my sunny back yard, sweat pouring off me, I'm in no mood after all is done which included filtering the fuel a few hundred millimeters at a time, from an oil can back into the fuel tank

I'd spent nearly the entire day with this thing and by this time, after chiding myself dozens of times in NOT immediately recognizing how wrong this could go.  By then I was thoroughly disgusted and worn out at my little misadventure that I can only think of a cool shower and a fluffy bed!

Trip to Roosevelt Lake would have to wait.





Sometimes, you have to listen to what the Universe is telling you!



No comments:

Post a Comment