The Breakfast Club: 2010 Spring Ride to Death Valley [Saturday]

Saturday, 17 Apr 2010

Crash!

Day 2 started well. I was making a cup of coffee when Carl and Dan walked over to the campsite. It was an excuse for an impromptu lesson in the art of chopsticks by Dan. Carl doesn’t quite get it. They left to go to breakfast and I made a second cup of coffee then got the campsite ready for my absence. Today we were going to head back up Wildrose to the charcoal kilns. I’d never been there.

The last mile or three of the road to the kilns in dirt. No-one had any problems other than losing a filling or two on the bone jarring washboard condition of the road. After taking a few pics and walking a short ways past the closed gate toward Mahogony flat (Carl left us in the dust) we headed back toward Furnace Creek to meet the Beatty contingent for lunch.

The washboard that was terrible going up hill wasn’t felt going down. Perhaps we took a different line. I certainly took it a lot faster. In any case we re-grouped at the end of the dirt section and headed down Wildrose when Dan hit what will now be called Bockmier Bend. His R100RS low sided then slid into the berm at the right side of the road. The berm did a number on his fairing. We picked up the bike and got it out of the way while Bob made sure no traffic ran over us and Carl picked up loose pieces, sticking them in his tail bag. The only repair necessary at road side was to rotate the front brake controls and tape off a hot wire that went to the now broken off the bike riding light.

The bike started and ran fine. We continued on to Furnace Creek, meeting Rich, Ginny, Rob, Paul, and Derek. Not a large turn-out this spring. Derek had already had lunch. The rest of us waited for a table and settled on two tables for four side-by-side.

After lunch it was back to Stovepipe Wells. I changed out of my riding gear and into something suitable for jumping in the pool. I rode my bike over to Dan and Carl’s room to have my tools for any needed R100RS repairs. The most needed item was cable ties. I now need to replenish my kit. The item of concern was a spark plug that was broken in two pieces, yet still supplied spark to the bike. More on that later.

Another dinner, earlier this evening, then back to the campground where I had a cup of tea before going to bed.