Up Front

UP FRONT

Allan Girdler

NO SPARE TIME

Every year with the predictability of the spring flowers and the beginning of the touring season this or one of the other motorcycle magazines has an article on packing for a trip. The article always recommends that you first work out what you’ll probably need, second make sure you have it.

I have written this article many times. Good advice, I say sagely to myself, there are people who will be glad to know this.

Yesterday I learned I have been writing when I should have been reading.

Constant readers will recall my search for a route along a certain river. Without getting into the boring details, I found the route, exactly where intuition told me it should be, so the next step was to persuade Steve and Ron to come with me, to see this new riding area. Being purists we rode Ytiual-purpose bikes, test ones for them, my own XL250 for me, and had great fun careening down hills, splashing back and forth in the river, sliding the dirt trails, etc.

I was in the lead—another good thing about being the boss although I pretend not to notice—w hen I zipped into a tricky ^curve and the bike went Owhoo-OwhooOwhoo, steering with both wheels in two directions at once. Without even looking down. I knew, flat tire.

But 1 never get flats, I protested until the other guys fell down laughing. Well, I don’t, at least 1 never had on the XL before because I run lots of sealer, extra pressure and knobbies that are hardly worn at

U^H-

Can you fix it, they asked?

My XL has a large and durable leather tool bag, the kind sold before inflation, with real leather straps and buckles. Looks like what the pros use, or used back when 1 bought it. 1 have been known to .ybrag about how equipped I am.

The inventory, at my time of need:

The tools that came with the bike,

wrapped in a pouch 1 got when we bought some wrenches for the shop. The original pouch fatigued. I know, magazines scoff at the factory tools but these work, the spark plug wrench fits my plugs and they’ve come in handy before.

An old key case, containing a plastic bag in which were packed a selection of jets. I began carrying them when I was jetting the carb for the re-bore and the pipe and somehow never got around to putting the jets in the tool chest at home, where they belong.

A box with tires patches and glue. Last examined in Barstow-to-Vegas 1979, I think.

A three-way wrench, T-shaped, with 10, 12 and 14mm sockets. Handy because Honda likes to use 10mm heads and nuts on the same bolt.

A key that used to be the ignition key except I removed the ignition switch but kept the key so 1 could open the seat.

A spare spark plug.

A little gadget that's supposed to make it easy to remove the clip on master links. And it works. Not as well as the tip of a screwdriver works, but because I liked the idea, I keep the gadget anyway.

A disposable lighter, which worked

when I put it in the bag. I haven’t tried it since because that would use up the fluid.

Two feet of spare fuel line. Included in the kit the day after the original line split and I had to scrounge some plastic tubing from a truck driver and a knife from a kind woman in a motor home.

A shop rag, which I think is to put tools and parts on and Ron thinks is for wiping his hands after dumping the tools on the ground. Two rags is the minimum, he defends himself.

A space blanket. One of those miracle fabrics that keep heat in and reflect light in case the search planes are wondering where you are. I got it the week after a friend wandered off the trail, ran out of gas and spent a cold, wet night in the Mexican w'oods.

A tiny first aid kit. Contains some bandage and ointment. Acquired after my son took a cactus spike in the knee and we had to ride back to the truck for repairs. It hurt me more than it hurt him, so I found the kit at a camping store and have carried it ever since.

Thus, the moral. My tool bag was stuffed with things I didn’t have when I needed them, learned about the hard way and mostly haven’t needed since I got them.

Reversing that, there are some things I should have had but didn’t.

I used to carry a set of small tire irons. But I pinched tubes with the little ones. I got a pair of those great big Metzeler levers, which work great but are too big to be carried on the bike.

I used to have a pump, too, a nifty little packable one. But one day I patched my son’s flat tire in the middle of the desert and the pump didn’t work so I threw it as far as I could.

And there I was, no irons, no pump.

Ron and Steve explained that they didn't have any tools either because they weren’t on their own bikes, and it was too> hot for their enduro jackets, which usually^ are bulging with bail-out bits.

Next thing 1 learned that the magazine wisdom about how' knobby tires are fine when fiat because of their stiff sidewalls ... is wrong. Well, not always. But being thrifty, I didn’t have a new tire. 1 had an old tire, one 1 found in the back of the sho after the motocross guys had worn the edges off the knobs. Plenty good for my purposes, I figured, not knowing that the tire was made before Bridgestone learned about stiff sidewalls.

It was an interesting ride to the pavement. Steve says the rear wheel was seldom more than two feet to one side or thi^l

other, but from the seat I expected the back to pass me at any moment.

Because the bike lurched and wobbled from full lock left to full lock right any time I pointed the front straight, I settled for angling the bike to the left, the bars to the right and steering, more or less, by( shifting weight. Amazing how long five miles to the pavement can be.

W hile the other guys had lunch, I rode one of the other bikes 20 miles to the nearest town, bought the right tube at only the second shop 1 found, rode back and yanked the old tube.

Hm. Ron and 1 have been having a debate for years. I say, make that said, you should use the nut to keep the valve stem from shifting. Ron says leave the nut off because if it’s held rigidly and the tire shifts, the way they do with low pressure, if the stem can’t shift it will fatigue.

The stem had fatigued and torn. See! 1 said with no real conviction, even if 1 had**¡ packed a pump and irons we wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

Meanwhile, when 1 had the new' tube in place, I left off the nut.

So the day wasn’t ruined. I was mad at the bike for a bit, for having trouble when it almost never does, but when I realized^ that the tire could have gone, say, when i was playing boy racer on the highway, or w hen I was sliding the corners riding dowm the cliff to the river, well, the machine can’t do everything for you, can it?

Steve and I had a philosophical debate. There are those who say you get the trouble you expect, and those w'ho say if you’ri^ ready for it, it won’t happen.

Well, Steve says, either you'll have another fiat or you won’t. Do you want to be ready and not have a fiat, or have a fiat and not be ready?

Ron doesn't waste words. First thing this morning he marched into my offici and plunked on my desk an aerosol can of tire sealer and filler. First thing I'll do when 1 get home tonight is pack the can in the tool bag. IS