Getting Sudsy in Sudbury

Whew! What a day! The journey from Ottawa to Sudbury took about 8 hours, including all of the stops, and problems that I'll describe later.

I have had a few issues with my bike, probably caused by my inexperience with automotive electrical.

The Lost Passport

I thought I had forgotten my passport, I was stressing for about 100km, thinking of the terrible scenario of having to choose a place to receive a passport by staying put for a few days or convincing a complete stranger down the line to accept it for me. Then I just pulled over and tore apart my luggage looking for it; found it in my tankbag, which is the first place I should have looked because that's where a passport should be!

Let the Magic Smoke out!

I tried to hook up my lighter socket for my phone, I happily stopped at Canadian tire and picked up 2amp fuses to wire it up. I plugged in the USB lighter socket adapter and got smoke and a loud bang. Crap!

They call it magic smoke because when electronics let it go, they magically stop working.

I still don't know what I did.

Bike Won't Start!

I rode for another 45 minutes after the Magic Smoke incident, then stopped to repack some things. I go to leave and the bike wouldn't start! Completely dead dash. Took a look at the battery and saw that the positive terminal was not screwed down properly, and it was also lightly melted where I jammed the power wires for my external fuse box that powers my Stebel horn and (hopefully) the lighter sockets.

Tightened this, and the bike started, though my dash clock was wrong. It was really 16h by this time, when I was supposed to be in Sudbury already and had at least 2 hours to go.

Headlights Dead

My headlights won't work now, no riding at night. Resulted in me lightly panicking that I wouldn't make it to Sudbury by nightfall.

Finally made it - 19h15

Met with Jacques, put the bike in his garage, and went out to eat. The name of the restaurant was Laughing Buddha, there were a lot of hipsters, I felt right at home.

After some online research the problem that I am having with my headlights seems to be common and requires me to disassemble and clean the starter switch.

I'll be leaving at 6AM tomorrow, with Jacques as he leaves for work, and trying to find a motorcycle shop that can look at the lighter socket and other electrical gremlins.

The bike continues to be a bit difficult to start, it takes a few pushes of the button to get things going, and the headlight thing scares me because it's a tool that I use for visibility. Of course, the idea that I've fried my wiring somewhere is also frightening.


Great adventures already!