USA 2019

---

2019 American Adventure Starts

Arriving in Sacramento after 2 flights for Ian & me & 3 for Keith & Bryan we spent a night trying to get some sleep at an airport motel before our “sponsors ” Motion Pro (www.motionpro.com) picked us up Monday morning & took us to their warehouse at Loomis. They had our bikes out of storage & ready for our preparation work in their fully equipped workshop.



Sprockets, chains batteries, oil change & new rear tires as well as general prep took us most of the day before we discovered that none of the bikes would run at low revs. Researching the issue we found that this is a common problem with stored bikes particularly in California where due to emissions rules, the carburettor pilot jets are a minimum size & get clogged by the ethanol in the fuel if not run regularly,

Not a major problem (or so we thought), buying some carb clean that you add to the fuel to clear the jets. Not a successful cure so we decided that it was a carburettor clean & rebuild on each of the four bikes. Straight forward enough except getting the carbs out and then back in is a major issue requiring loosening & lifting the rear subframe. Fortunately, Chris Carter the owner of Motion Pro provided two of his top engineers to assist & the next morning by the time we arrived to start work Joe & Jeff had removed all four carbs, started the jet cleaning and had complete control of the project. We spent the day carrying out other preparations to our gear & feeling a little superfluous to requirements but extremely grateful for the comprehensive assistance.

By 3pm the bikes were all reassembled & ready to go, so thanking the team at Motion Pro we left Loomis for the ride to Gardnerville in Nevada. Some good windy back roads - all seal led us to Lake Tahoe & although autumn here, this ski resort was pretty cool as we climbed over a 7000’ mountain range then down into Gardnerville where we headed south to Lake Topaz. Staying at a casino resort on the edge of the lake we dined in the restaurant resisting the temptation to put all of our kitty on black 5. The bikes all ran well (normal high altitude minor missing not withstanding) we reached our destination around 7.30. 240kms was a short distance day but a good first day after a late start. Tomorrow we head South to Benton Hot Springs the official start of the Southern Californian Back Country Discovery Route.

---

Comments

[Richard Vinsen]

USA 2019
Good start to the trip. Stay safe