4.16.2013

Indy to Cumberland Gap

A friend and fellow Ulysses owner purchased some land in eastern TN near Cumberland Gap.  Eager to put some miles on my bike and take ShrewsieQ on a better trip than our Michigan excursion, we agreed to tag along. 

A few days before the trip, my bike started acting up again.  Weird idle, surging, running hot and extremely poor low speed riding.  With some help from KFR, I double checked the static timing and then moved on to TPS zeroing and reset.  On Friday, we loaded up the bike and went out for a test ride.  Unfortunately, the surging and low speed issues were still there.  My stress level was hitting critical mass.  



 Having replaced all the sensors but the TPS and CPS, I dug back into the fuel system and found this: 


This very well could have been the cause of all my issues.  Knowing that there are many cross compatible parts from domestic cars, I found the correct TPS sensor and started searching the local stores.  The Autozone near my work had one in stock.  

During production of the first generation of bikes, Buell switched TPS models.  The Duralast only fits the original style TPS.  My bike was made in Nov, so I wasn't very hopeful that it would match up. However, the motorcycle gods were on my side.  The new sensor worked perfectly! The idle sounds better than it did when I test rode it, the slow speed riding has improved drastically.  So, to Tennessee we went! 


A tale of two Buells at Waffle House.
(Right after lunch, we saw a pimp at a gas station.  He was wearing a matching red suit and hat.)



With daylight running thin and no good flat spots at Rench's land, we stealth camped here. 


The Church was vacant, so we figured no one would mind if we camped out under the shelter.





We saw/heard a truck with no tail lights or license plate run up and down this road all night.  Running shine?  


Before I left, found a place to stash a spare quart of oil.  Thinking I was clever, I zip tied it 
the bottom of the top case rack.  At some point after we left the church, Rench said he could smell burning oil.  As he checked his bike, I decided to check my oil level.  Glad I did because that's when I noticed this: 



Guess it wasn't a good idea after all. During the ride to get breakfast, my zip tied mess broke free and the quart of oil was rubbing against the rear tire.  It might have been the unavoidable pot holes on the gravel road or it could have been the massive vibrations from the engine finally shaking free the dino-juice.

I made a few laps down a gravel alley to help wear it off before hitting the interstate in search of breakfast. Every right hand curve caused some serious pucker until the 20w50 glaze had worn off. 




Squeezing into one narrow space at our second Waffle House of the trip. 

After lunch, we split up for the remainder of the trip.  Rench had to get home and we were headed to our friends' place in southern IN.  



Much better than sleeping under a church shelter.  


The Buell resting among Ryno's bikes. 


Petey!


Kennedy the Kat


You're handsome author and his lovely wife ShrewsieQ, who handled all the issues of the trip like a champ!





Random Duc. 


This space reserved for videos as soon as I can edit them.  

The trip was great and the Uly ran perfect! We did about 5 miles of gravel roads (now I really want some TKC80s) while going back and forth to Rench's land.  After hitting a grocery store for supplies and getting some seriously weird looks from people, ShrewsieQ said "Even the cows look at us funny here.".  We can mark three states off now, KY, TN and VA.  Total miles: ____________




2 comments:

Surly said...

Right on! I'm glad you had a good trip. Adventure!

red said...

We were in a bit of a rush, so we missed a lot of cool photo opportunities. ShrewsieQ and I are pondering a return trip to actually visit Cumberland Gap at our own pace.