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I woke up at 0500 this morning. Nothing new there, it was a workday and this is my usual time to get up. I step into the shower when my wife is done. I had just lathered up my hair when I can hear my cell ringing. My wife catches the call then pokes her head into the bathroom to tell me I had just been called off from work.
I get dressed and we hop the car so I can drive the wife to work. (I'm not too trusting of the bike right now.) As I'm driving home I have my arm out the window enjoying the cool temps. It's 75° with 81% humidity. I know it's going to get hot down here again. I'm thinking about how nice this weather would be for riding. By the time I get home I've decided.
I run inside and gear up. Boots, jeans, denim jacket with a leather vest, Helmet and Gloves. I'm ready. I back the bike out of the parking spot and fire it up as I finish pulling on my gear. I can see whisps of smoke coming from the exhaust in the light of a street light. I have to look for them though. Finally the engine smooths out and I drop it into gear. Off I head for the beach road.
I don't want to get too far from home, I'm not too trusting of the bike right now. The ride I'm planning is maybe ten miles long but the walking distance is only a couple of miles at the most. I hit the beach road as the sun is coming up. I have to stop to watch the sunrise. Talk about heaven.
Soon enough it is time to head for home, the sun is rising as is the temperature. It's forecast to reach 90° with high humidity and storms here. The bike fires on the first try and it is running great. I head for home but for some reason the bike doesn't make the turn onto the road for my place. Instead I find myself heading further down the beach. Before I know it I'm at the end of the beach and some 50 additional miles from home. I'm much further from home than I had planned and I'm stressing a bit as I was thinking about driving through some of the worst parts of the area to get home. I really didn't want to break down here. Thankfully the bike ran just fine.
As I was coming up on the entrance to my Trailer Park I saw a bike pulled over on the side of the road. I pulled in behind the guy and shut the bike down. I walked up to him and asked what the problem was. He explained/described how his bike had seemed to lose power before it shut down. I started looking his bike over and within a minute had figured out the problem. His petcock was in the reserve position and his tank was dry. I told him to hang on a minute as I climbed back in the saddle and prayed the bike would start.
Not only did the bike start it fired on the first try. I road the short distance home, parked the bike and ran inside. I dropped my helmet on the couch as I grabbed the keys for the car. Back outside I grabbed the gas can I had filled yesterday evening as well as a couple of other items. Before too long had passed I was again pulling up behind the biker. I had him connect the battery tender to his battery as I poured the contents of the can into his tank. We stood there talking for a bit as his battery picked up some charge. After asking his permission I climbed aboard his bike and started hitting the starter. After a bit the bike had pumped enough gas into the carbs that it started.
I put things away in my car as he put his side covers back in place. When he offered to pay for the gas I just told him to help someone else. I watched him shift his petcock to run and motor away before I climbed back in the car and headed home.
What the hell. Two gallons of gas and a couple of minutes and I had another guy on the road. Maybe he'll help someone else.
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