Day 2

The Best Western in Rantoul, IL was adequate boarding for the night; however, my mind was racing a mile a minute and I only ended up sleeping for about four hours (total sleep time, not consecutive hours). I ended up getting out of bed at about 6:00 and after getting dressed went over to the "Red Wheel" Pancake and Steak house across the street. I had the 2x2x2 at 2 eggs (over easy), 2 pieces of french toast, and 2 sausage links. I had a feeling it'd be a busy day so I wanted to eat a hearty first meal. I finished quickly but for some reason I didn't get on the road until 9:15. I guess I just took my sweet ass time.

It started off easily enough. A brisk, beautiful, bright sunny morning. The perfect day to go riding. About 60 miles in something went wrong. I'm not sure what it is/was, but the bike started vibrating more than usual. Wheezy ordinarily vibrates quite a bit at idle, but once under load smooths out quite nicely. I was humming along at about 65mph, the pavement changed and then things started shaking. The engine didn't sound any different and was just as responsive, it just shook quite a bit. Lots of people complain about HD engines vibrating their fillings out and dropping parts all over the place, but this is the first time I had ever experienced something like that. I decided to pull over in Havana, IL just to be on the safe side, check the oil, and make sure that there wasn't something visibly wrong. This is the part where I tell you that I REALLY miss the oil level site glass that all of my Japanese bikes have. To check Wheezy's oil you have to look at the dipstick. Easy enough, right? Not so much when the oil tank is located under the seat and the seat has 50lbs of gear strapped down on top of it. The long and the short of it is that the oil level was fine, but it took a while to unload, then check, then reload the gear. The gear needed to be reseated anyway because it had shifted during the short distance traveled. Anyway, after an hour and a half of messing with things I was back on the road. The bike was still vibrating but it was just an issue of comfort, not an issue of performance to I decided to soldier on.

I started to suspect that maybe a wheel weight fell of throwing the wheels out of balance. To test this theory I got the bike up to a reasonable speed, pulled in the clutch, and killed the engine. If the problem was with the wheels, it would still present itself if the engine was shut off. Shutting off the engine stopped the vibration, so I ruled out the wheels as culprits. So, I don't know what is causing it but it's something I'm going to live with. Actually after my last gas stop tonight, it didn't seem so bad but I think I'm just getting used to it.

Needles to say losing another hour and a half at the beginning of the day was going to ruin my mileage goal for the day. This revelation bummed me out for a while because I was dwelling on it, but then I thought to myself "Self, this trip is about the ride not the destination. So roll with it."

Being focused on my setback made me miss a couple of great photo opportunities. There is a river to cross going between Illinois and Iowa's "udder." On the river is a dam for power generation and the gates were open. It was a spectacular site but I missed out on the photo opp being preoccupied by losing time. I also missed photographing the Iowa state line sign. In my defense, it is on the bridge and there are only 2 lanes so it's not like you can pull over and snap a pic. I think I was only in Iowa for 10 miles or so.

So today's mileage total was 339.2. Not bad all things considered. That's straight from Rantoul, IL to Bethany, MO. I guess I'll have to tackle Nebraska tomorrow.