Trouble on the Prairies........Monday August 26th

After leaving Bob we turned north on hwy.# 2 to again pick up hwy.#5. We then ran into major seal coating operations between Peterson and Carmel which slowed down forward motion in a big way. Dustiest riding to date. As we finally arrived in Humboldt, I followed the GPS instruction to by pass on a gravel road. 

It led us out of town and was about 5 km long heading south then east. As I pulled up onto the pavement I felt the bike wiggle a little and immediately looked at the digital display. It confirmed we had 0 psi pressure in the rear tire! When I pulled over the gravel shoulder made it impossible to put down the bike side stand. So Gayle got off to try and help but to no avail, we were unable to move the bike in the soft gravel and I could not get off without putting the bike over!

No problem, we are not far from town and someone will stop to assist us, we'll wait? Well it seems that all the friendly people of Saskatchewan (near Humboldt that day) had forgotten that you should stop to check on someone stranded on the side of the road! We lost count of how many drove by without so much as slowing down!

Gayle finally decided to get passing traffic's attention by waving and after many tries, Charlene in her black VW turned around and came back to see what was up. She agreed to get a tow truck to come and pick us up when she got into town. I thought Kal Tire would be the best shot, so off she went. 

Some time later she came back "to keep us company" until the pick up arrived. She told us that Kal Tire suggested Discovery Ford would be better equipped to pick us up as they had a Powersport Bike and Marine service. So we waited, did I say waited? I am sitting on the bike all this time (the better part of a hour) and when Andrew a service tech. showed up he had a closed in bike trailer in tow! Good job Charlene had hung around, because it took all four of us to get the bike up the trailer ramp (remember the rear flat tire).

Off to town we went to off-load the bike in the Discovery Motorsports service bay. Now what are the chances of them having a rear tire to fit a BMW K1600 GTL? I talked with James and Andrew and James thought they might be able to find one if they checked in Saskatoon. So I suggested I could call Gayle's bother Bob and see if he could help out. Wouldn't you know it no Rogers phone coverage. So I went back inside to find someone and Stan told me the guys had gone to lunch!

I asked to use the parts department phone and connected with Bob, now back in Saskatoon. He made some inquiries and called me back saying " Harley to the rescue". Just what every BMW rider wants the hear on a hot prairie afternoon! He found a Michelin 73W Pilot 190\55ZR17 at Proline Motorsports and Marine (the last of 20 they had purchased earlier at a good price) and sold it to Bob for $141.70 taxes in. So then Bob asks Lynn whether she would like a two hour round trip to Humbolt (I neglected to mention when I called him earlier, the seal coating that was going on that day on hwy.#5) Lucky for us they agreed to deliver the tire and we waited again!

In this period of time, we took the tire off the the rim and found a 3\4 inch cut in the centre of the tread, but not a rock which I suspected of being the flat causing culprit! Actually we found nothing in the tire or inside once it was off the rim!

I looked at every marine motor, boat, motorcycle, quad, and chain saw they had in stock more than once as the afternoon wore on! Sure was counting on Bob to show up before closing! When they did pull in I had the tire in Andrew's hands and we had the tire on the rim in a jiffy. But he could not speed balance it for me. Darn. Then he thought "they have a five hole machine over at the Ford  garage, I'll be right back." He was impressed with the other garage's balancing machine and that the BMW wheel fit on it perfectly. When he returned we looked up the torque specs on Google and we're finally done. I loaded up the saddle bags and gear while Gayle and Lynn went next door to the Canalta Motel to secure us room for the night. Bob stayed with me until the ladies returned to pick him up. 

When I went in to pay up I got a major surprise. I owed them $140.95!! I had made arrangements earlier to have CAA pay Discovery Ford for the bike pickup just outside town south on hwy.#20. Ernie filled out the paper work and had us sign the CAA claim. That was $80. Now the people were friendly enough, but I was not happy about the financing on the whole transaction. Bob did more on the day and onIy took the price of the tire and supper as payment for his full afternoon helping us out.

The last goodbye after supper was really a BIG thank you to both Bob and Lynn. Family going above and beyond the call to help us out on our journey!

Where are the pictures you might ask? My mind was elsewhere after the flat happened. I have only one on the afternoon and it is of the guys at Discovery Motorsports. My apologies to Gayle, Charlene, Lynn and Bob.

                            James, Andrew, Stan and Jeremy busy on the phone.

Time for some shuteye it's 12:30am!! Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up!