We rolled into Conconully and had a nice lunch at the Sit-n-Bull Bar where we razzed the waitress and had pie for dessert. About 1pm we got back on the bikes and rode up into the hills again passing a few people on 4x4s, when I got a call from Dave to turn around because Tim had flat tire. Well, Dave was super excited to get out his tools and get to work. So we set up cameras and did just that. Tim punctured the rear tire by running over a stick that must have been about 3/4” in diameter, so there was no patching the tube. In fact when we got the tube out it tore in half because the hole was so big. We used Dave’s Coyote Stand to hold up the rear of the bike when we pulled the rear wheel off. Breaking the bead wasn’t necessary because it was already loose.
Dave pulled the spoons out and got one side of the tire off the rim and pulled the torn inner tube out.
We partially inflated and put talcum powder on the tube, the shoved in the tire. Spooning the tire back on was easy, then hard because we forgot to put the other part of the tire in the wheel channel. Then that too was easy and we got the tire reinflated. In no time at all it was back on, with the chain aligned and ready to go.
My GPS says the elapsed time was nearly one hour total. Not bad!
The rest of the ride was back to being uneventul. The roads were relatively pretty but we eventually came down our last dirt road above and south of Palmer Lake. Hitting the pavement with the hot temperatures smacking into us like a blow dryer, we passed the lake on our way to the border. Nighthawk as a ghost town looked
more like farmers and ranchers had taken it over.
There wasn’t much to see there. This last bit of the ride was simply to get to the border as a finish line. But with the temperatures in the upper 90's, there wasn't really any fun in it.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
