Sunday, 14 May 2017
Marc writes:
WWWobble took these pictures before breakfast at the Country Inn on Mothers Day. Not pictures is Fred’s Ducati laying on its side in the parking lot. Fred managed to drop his bike without scratching plastic or chrome. Don’t know how he did that. He did mess up a cheap bar end mirror.
After breakfast while kicking tires at Alice’s I got a phone call from Tom who headed straight home after breakfast. Flat tire. On his Gold Wing. He was off the freeway on Ralston/Polhemus less that 1/2 mile from my house. Oh, and he still hadn’t replaced his pump which was lost when a saddle bag fell off his beemer last year.
I arrived and helped Tom pump up his tire and try to locate the flat. Turns out Tom has a special knack for flat front tires… he breaks/cracks valve stems on both beemers and Gold Wings. This one lost air as the stem flexed. It held held air for the 1/2 mile ride to my house.
I have a spare valve stem – in the wrong size for the wheel on the Wing. OK. Super Glue to the rescue. Tom slathered super glue in and around the cracks in an attempt to patch the valve stem and keep it from flexing. Once the glue had been given some time to set we filled the tire with air and Tom set off for home in Hayward.
Tom wrote when he got home: There might be 10 pounds left. Turning was a bit of a challenge in the last mile.
Note to self: must add super glue to emergency kit.