Palapa Chair

[Charla]

Riding across the border is kind of a strange experience. You cross an arbitrarily placed line and then all of a sudden things are different. Mexican traffic can be intimidating until you realize that all the drivers in the erratically moving cars are actually PAYING ATTENTION to what they are doing.

Shocking!



I didn't take many pics on our way through Mexicali and Ben already posted a few open road pics. We were trying to make time heading down MEX5 since we didn't want to keep the rest of the crew waiting. Little did we know that they were experiencing delays of their own and we all wound up hitting the Malecon in San Felipe at almost the same time.





We had planned to continue on to Gonzaga Bay that day but since we were still a day ahead of the rest of the crew Chris, Kelly, and jack had decided to camp on the beach. Ben and I were cool with that so we followed Chris in the stalker van back to Pete's Camp.

[Klay]

Originally Posted by Augie

Acceptence is the first part of fixing the problem.

acceptance

[InfoManiac]

[Augie]

Originally Posted by Klay

acceptance

Will you stop correcting me, it's my own damn language.

[emerson.biguns]

Originally Posted by Charla

I shoulda took you up on that offer huh?

I think the correct answer is... screw it, don't call at all. Figure it out when you get there. That's more Baja-esque. I try to plan to the gnats ass as well and all it does is induce more stress when things don't go as planned.

Beer and limes will fix most anything.



.

[Charla]

Originally Posted by emerson.biguns

Beer and limes will fix most anything.
.

Trying to stick to a plan is very stressful. Much easier to just go with the flow.

[nwgs]

Originally Posted by Charla

Trying to stick to a plan is very stressful. Much easier to just go with the flow.

Truer words were never spoken..

[ct-ktm]

Another fuel pump.??..WTF...

[Hannda]

Originally Posted by Augie

Will you stop correcting me. It's AugieBonics and I'LL determine the damned spelling thank you very much!!!

(And using that smilie on this one is just icing on the cake.)

[Klay]

Originally Posted by ct-ktm

Another fuel pump.??..WTF...

Fancy schmancy euro bikes.

[homerj]

Originally Posted by Bendejo

Jack's fuel pump died in the middle of the sand, so I cruised out to jump start the 950. The fuel pump wiring was faulty, so we bypassed it to get the beast onto some harder ground for repairs.

So I decided to stay and set-up camp (ride on the sand) while Chris and Kelly went to San Felipe to meet Ben and Charla. Nothing too rigorous, just take the big bastard out for a little spin.

After getting my gear on the bike fired right up and off I went. I rolled off the hardpack and onto the sand and twisted the fun handle. There were a handful of people on the beach and I felt honor bound to show them some class. Then the motor stuttered and died. I got the bike fired up again and twisted the throttle but as the rear tire started to spin in the sand (dig like a dog after a gopher) before it sputtered out again and died. I tried to start it again, no joy. One more time, no joy, and now the battery which hadn't really been used since last August gave up the ghost. I knew right away that Ganshert had somehow sabotaged me. It was the only logical answer. Somewhere out on the frozen tundra of Colorado he was sitting at his desk a little silver and black 950 voodoo doll in hand, poking it with pins,or cutting wires or whatever. I swore right there on that beach, I will have my vengeance.

I made the 200 yard walk of shame back to the palapa and sat in the shade, scheming and plotting how I was going to make Ganshert pay. That done I started considering options. The fuel pump wasn't working and I had a dead battery. There was no way in hell Chris's van was going to make it out there (as has been previously demonstrated). I'd just have to wait until someone got back. But being the kind of guy I am, I decided I wasn't just going to wait. I grabbed my tools and went back out to the bike. While trudging back I thought that if I could get the fuel level up above the carb bowls it would gravity feed enough fuel to get me out of the sand. When I got to the bike I tipped it over on the left side and let it sit for a minute. I then closed the petcock on the right tank to keep fuel from transferring back, tipped the bike upright and waited a few minutes to let the bowls fill up, and tried it again. The battery was just too weak, one, maybe two cranks, and then the starter would stop turning.

It was just about then that someone on the beach took pity on me and came over on a little yamaha 4 stroke. "What's the problem?" he asked. "Well, the fuel pump isn't pumping and now I've gone and killed the battery"
"Bummer. Normally we let people squirm a bit before offering any assistance, but we took pity on you after watching you walk back with your tools. I've got a jump box in the camper, I'll be right back." And with that he motored off to a camper about 100 yards farther down the beach. We goofed around with the jump box only to find out *it* was dead too. Not. A. Good. Omen.

Just about then Chris, Kelly, Ben and Charla pull up. Chris comes out to see what's going on, as well as point and laugh. It's soon apparent that we're going to need something with a better charging system that the little Yamaha or Chris' 525. Enter Ben and his 640 Adv. We start attempting to jump the 950 but aren't having any luck. As we talk it over Ben points out the non-operative fuel pump is unlikely to allow much fuel to leak through if it doesn't have power. Since the float bowls were drained there's no fuel getting into the carbs. I pull some spare wire out of my tool bag and wire the fuel pump directly to the battery, and start the pieeeeeeg. Push up to firmer ground and back over to the palapa.

By this time I've decided that the mystery problem the night before departure was caused not by the fuel relay, but the actual wiring from the relay to the pump. I cut in a bypass wire and foiled Ganshert's evil plan to ruin my vacation. When I fired the bike back up again I could swear I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my kidneys. I have no doubt it was from Ganshert driving a pin through my voodoo doll.

[homerj]

Originally Posted by ct-ktm

Another fuel pump.??..WTF...

wasn't the pump, it was the wiring from the relay (up behind the fairing) down to the pump itself (behind the skid plate). I know the 950s have a bit of a reputation for dodgy fuel pumps, so I preemptively replaced my stock unit with an aftermarket unit.
After I installed the bypass wiring there was never another problem. My bike has 58K miles on it, and the PO took it on a RTW trip, so this sort of wiring issue doesn't surprise me too much, you can only shake the living daylights out of bike for so long before the wiring harness starts to chafe.

The night before I left, when I was working on this same problem, I scanned the wiring harness but couldn't see any obvious damage, but it's packed in there so tightly that I'm not really surprised there's damage I can't see. I'm thinking my winter project will be to pull the old harness and give it a good once over. If it's too shagged out, I'll buy another.

[amazing ricardo]

this Ganshert person sounds very evil

[mommer]

jack, im glad you were in on this trip if for nothing else but your writing skills.. im LMAO already!!

P.S. our little 2 bike 9fiddy "clean up crew" was WAAAYYY fun too

[homerj]

Originally Posted by Klay

Fancy schmancy euro bikes.

quiet you.