Day Nineteen Cheyenne to Alaska and return

[dlennox]

Day nineteen started out with the ladies donning longjohns and bundling up for a cold ride, which is was. We thought since it was so nice in Wasilla it would continue, but as soon as we got to Palmer the skis clouded over and the temp dropped into the 40s. It even started to rain nothing drastic but it pointed out to our wives how changable the weather could be: no "sniviling yet". The ride up the Glenn Highway was as advertised by akspyderman, another awesome ride with the wives snapping pictures or asking us to stop for another photo op. General consensus by the both of them was a picture couldn't really convey what they were seeing; didn't we tell them this early on? We put approximately 327 miles on the bikes today and the gals did great. The other major event of the day was "the dreaded orange screen" showed up. Check Engine Light with Big E where the gear number should be. When I had it service in Anchorage the tech said a shift point code showed up but he thought it was a spurious code and didn't check into it, Bad decision. When are the service people going to realize that codes normally mean something? First indication I had this morning was that it was hard to get it into 2nd then it kept dropping down a gear whenever I slowed down. When I saw the Ck Eng Lite I downshifted from 5th to 4th and it went away; I then went back to 5th and it was fine for awhile 10 min then it did it again. Stoped and shut her down and when I got it back to 5th it happened again. Touched base with Anchorage and Denver service techs and everyone felt it was a faulty shift switch, bring it in and we'll service it. Hey guys I'm in the middle of Alaska heading for a boat scheduled to take me back to the lower fortyeight. What can I do now? Finally decided to continue to Tok but also decided that since it mainly happened when I was in 5th I wouldn't go past 4th; so far it's worked made the last 147 miles with no reoccurences, still hard to go from 1st to 2nd but if I keep the revs up it keeps going up. Any one have any thoughts? I'm going to continue this way until I get to Haines and put her on the boat, wish me luck and pray that the good Lord looks after us. Wouldn't you know that this would happen after my wife gets here. Another interesting fact: by only using 4th as my crusing gear my mpg actually went up.

 

[ARtraveler]

I am guessing the fully loaded trailer and now the weight of a passenger are making the bike "unhappy". IMO: That 5th gear is for crusing the interstate at 65 or higher. The part you rode through today, I would have been in 3rd on the hills and 4th on most of the straightaways--about 60 mph. I pretty much try to keep the rpm's in the 4500 to 5500 range. At first it always sounded like I was overreving the engine, but I have grown accustomed to it. The Rotax likes to spin to be happy. I get 34 mpg consistantly, so it works for me.

Give that a try and see what happens. We will keep you in our thoughts and ray:. No one wants to hear about the :spyder2: conking out in the middle of nowhere--which is exactly where you are at the moment.

Ride Safe.

 

[Ivorspyder]

Good luck.Hope everything goes well and you get where you are going without breaking down.

 

[Yazz]

Wishing you fair skies and a purring engine for the rest of your trip.ray:

No pictures can convey how magnificent the Glenn Highway is. Glad y'all went that route.