Today I left around 8.30 to ride up north and meet up with Jeff and Charlie at a lovely little town called Mansfield, grab some lunch at a pub then sit around and talk some gentlemen's bullshit while we wait for SteveD to decend down from the high-plains and mountains after his weekend ride up in amoungst white tops, then I would ride back down to melbounre with SteveD then head east home.
ANYWAY!!
Mansfield for lunch as planed it was not, but just over the famous "Black Spur" road just north of the busy touristy town of Healesville and I snap a clutch cable pulling up and out of a sweeping right hander... Oh shit!!
With little traffic in front or behind me, I had time to slow down and gather my thoughts about what to do, do I ride on? ok but where out here? do I stop? oh and btw I stupidly did not have a spare cable on board and tbh this has never happened to me before on a bike but I had practised on my other beemer changing gears without a clutch, easy changing up, harder changing down...
Fuel was just in my favour to get me home as the was 140kms out so 300kms is refill time and I could not stop for fuel because I would not get it going again without doing some damage to the gearbox, not an option..
I decided to turn around and head back to Healesville and take my chances on the busy main street on a Sunday morning and three sets of traffic lights, then three other stop intersections at Launching Place and Yarra Glen then once through these home via Poweltown, Neerim South etc, an easy run to home it would be
All went well except for one traffic light on red as the bike stalled because I was in 4th with pressure on the rear brake pedal to slow and hold me back without changing but luckily it was on a hill so I just pushed it off and clicked it into 1st and she fired up quickly..
Yes that was an interesting lesson today in finding the sweetbox in a gearbox and I think a gearbox oil change will be happening asap..
