Stranded - again

I'm still behind by a couple weeks on my full updates, but I've unexpectedly found myself with some "free time" so I'll be working on rectifying that today. I am, you see, stranded once again by my BMW.

Yesterday we were cruising at about 120 km/h (75 mph; the speed limits are reasonable in MT and was 70 mph) south down highway 287 just south of Townsend Montana. Just as the cross wind really started to pick up, my bike started to get a funny vibration. I downshifted, and it seemed to get worse. I shifted back up, and it seems to get better... for a few seconds. It then went from "funny vibration" to "I must pull over NOW", which I did.

The short of it is, I was eventually towed 260 km (160 miles) west (wrong direction!) to the closest BMW Mottorad dealership. It seemed that the problem could be the gear box, so I figured my best bet for a speedy and proper repair would be at a dealer. My AAA membership covered the first 100 miles of the tow, but it cost me about $230 for the remainder. The tow truck driver was awesome and did everything he could to get AAA to cover the entire thing, but none of our schemes worked out in the end.

On the tow again

View Larger Map

Joe, from the service department at Big Sky BMW-Kawasaki in Missoula MT, was kind enough to come back to work an hour after closing to let us bring the bike inside for the night. (He lives across the street, but it's still working on his personal time.) He and a service tech whose name I didn't get had a quick look over the bike and found a disintegrated u-joint at the front end of the drive shaft. Hopefully nothing else died along with it. I smelled burning clutch plate and am concerned there is clutch or, worse yet, gearbox damage due to the resistance of the failed u-joint. We're waiting to hear back from the service department with an estimate right now.

I Hotwired us a hotel while sitting in the ally behind Big Sky BMW after the bike was put away, so we're staying in a cushy Holiday Inn with beds! electricity! internet! shower! and even a pool! I've nothing planned today except internetting, waiting to hear about the bike, and maybe seeing a movie tonight. I think Dad is going for a swim at some point.

The best I can hope for right now is to be back on the road Saturday afternoon, with some money left after the repair work to buy food. ; If that doesn't happen, it'll probably be Monday. Monday would mean really pushing hard to get back in time for a day's recovery before I have to be back at work, skipping all nice highways and just flying down the interstate almost all the way across the continent. Ug.