Stories From the Road

June 20, 2011

A few weekends ago, my fiancé and I decided to take our motorcycle down to Eureka Springs and ride some of the nice twisties (very curvy roads) that they are famous for.

While riding, we had an unexpected adventure when, two miles from Seligman, MO, we found ourselves with a flat tire. Having a flat tire on a motorcycle is a little different from having a flat tire on a car. First, you can't carry a spare, and secondly, you practically have to disassemble the bike before you can get the rear tire off. Thanks to the kindness of a passing stranger, we were able to get some fix-a-flat, which we hoped would plug up the hole so we could be on our way. Unfortunately, the fix-a-flat did not work since the arrow-shaped rock we ran over made a larger hole than we thought. Oops.

We ended up having to walk beside the bike as we used the throttle to get the bike back to the gas station two miles up the road. When we got there, we bought some tire plugs. They worked for a time, but then they failed. Luckily, we were close to another gas station. We bought more tire plugs there and made it to Cassville. Eventually, we limped our way near Neosho, where we hoped to get a U-Haul truck to take the scooter back to Kansas City. We left the bike at a gas station and began walking to town. After two miles, a very nice person stopped and gave us a ride to town.

After spending the night at Neosho, we hoped to rent a U-Haul truck and take the bike home. We called the one and only taxi and rode to the first U-Haul store only to find there were no trucks. We continued to the next U-Haul place, and joy of joys, they had a truck. We sent the taxi on its way and called the owner of the U-Haul place only to find that the truck was reserved. Truly, the fates were against us! Due to the devastating tornado in Joplin, all the U-Hauls were rented out. We shook our heads and walked about a mile down the street to a car dealership. Our luck returned when, after telling our sad tale, we found out there was a car rental next door. They did not have any trucks of course, so we rented a car. After 5 1/2 hours of driving back and forth, we finally got the motorcycle back home. As we were walking off and on through the weekend, I thought it was too bad this was not a mechanical problem. Then, at least, I could have looked up our problem on the Small Engine Repair Reference Center database.

If you find you are having trouble with your bike, and you are away from civilization but you have access to the internet, you can check out our Small Engine Repair Reference Center database. They have repair manuals for everything, from lawnmower engines to motorcycle and boat engines.

Jennifer B. 
North Oak Branch