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I thought I had written this letter before but I can't find it so
in case I didn't write it here it goes.
Dec. 26th of 2000 my wife and I decided to take our first long (for us)
trip on my new Valk. The kids where gone to the mountains skiing with
relatives and we where going to have some fun by ourselves. Hell,
its been 16 yrs. so we thought we deserved it. We left our house,
near Tampa Fl. and headed for Cedar Key, Fl. Not a long ride,
somewhere around 65 miles. Weather was a little cold and windy but we
didn't care. We got to Cedar Key and after having some lunch decided
to leave, kind of disappointed in it. I got back on the main
highway and needed some gas so I stopped at the first store I found.
This store is in the middle of no where, 25 miles from civilization.
Well I pulled in and there was a guy on his Harley filling up on pump
two. I pulled into pump 1 and started putting gas in. Now this pump was
the same color as the rest of them and the sign on the gas pump to
indicate what type of gas was missing but hey, its a gas pump. Well,
after filling up and getting my wife
on the back we headed off.
I got 1.6 miles down the road when all of the sudden the bike started
acting funny and then lots and lots of white smoke came out and guess
what, it stopped on me. My wife told me I must of done something
to the bike and blew the engine. Now this is a 98 model that I bought
out of the crate and only had 2,000 miles on it. I couldn't figure
out the problem but thought I had gotten some bad gas.
Out of no where a pick up truck stopped. A guy with a good size beard
and lots of tattoos on him looked at me and said "that's what you
get for riding a jap bike". He laughed and said he rode nothing but
Harleys.
I told him my problem and where I had gotten gas from and he told me I
put diesel in it. He gets out of his truck "with his
dog" and can of bush beer, feels my gas and said " yup, that's
what it is.".
Being the nice guy he was he took me and the wife back to the store. The
wife and I rode in the back while the dog rode in the front. He
filled his truck up and then I got a gallon of fresh gas (I paid for all
of the gas) and headed back to my bike. Managed to drain the tank
although I did it the wrong way and ended up bending the "whats ya
call it" that runs into the tank and causing a leak in the tank.
I put fresh gas in and still couldn't get it started, couldn't figure
out how to drain the carbs. Keep in mind my wife is taking all of
this in stride, being a real sport about it.
Well, I needed to load this bike up somehow. My new found friend agreed
to give me a ride into town, 25 miles away if we could load the bike.
No ramps and now ditch good enough. My friend, still drinking bush beer
after two hours flagged a guy down. Luck was with us and this guy lived
off in the woods a little ways down the road. He got us some boards and
brought it back. Well another guy in a pick up truck, Harley in
the back, stopped and helped us load it. Now this guy had been wanting
to look at Valks, he sat on mine and said he was going to give up his Harley.
Well, three hours after the bike shut down we had her loaded and where
on our way. My wife decided to ride up front with this bearded, tattooed
and slightly intoxicated guy and his dog. I rode in the back. He
drove us to the nearest Honda Dealer and wouldn't you know it, it was
closed the 26th, took a long Xmas vacation. I dropped the bike
off, hide it with some wood, called a friend and had him pick me up. I
tried to pay my Harley friend but he said no way, glad to help out
another biker. Nice guy!
The next day I was at the Honda shop bright and early. I told the
mechanic about filling up at the gas station and before I could say
"diesel" he laughed and said "Hey Mike, we have another
one". He told me that a lot of people do that. This gas pump fools
a lot of people. This made me feel better.
Well, a couple of days later and a couple hundred dollars poorer, I was
back in business. Next time I'll be a little more careful. Thanks
for reading!
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