Day 33: Wed., July 15: To the Repair Shop (Again!) and a Ride to Summerside

GRRRR ... I wonder if the world can hear the grinding of my teeth ... GRRR

I woke up exhausted this morning with all kinds of aches and pains in my arms, shoulder and especially my elbows ... and I realized that yesterday's ride to get here had been really taxing, and that in fact, riding had been becoming harder and harder physically.

I also realized that riding has not been as much fun as it had been previously. What is wrong, I wondered -- I then realized that is has just been plain hard work to wrestle around curves, etc. and the roads here are in quite rough condition in many spots ... and it has been plain hard work because the bike is not functioning as easily as it used to ... so, I abandoned my ride plans and rode Delilah straight over to Red Rock Harley Davidson to see if they could solve the problem.

I explained all about thinking that the front wheel is out of true, hard to steer, etc. even though tire pressure is fine, blah blah blah.

The technician took her for a ride and totally agreed that she was handling roughly like a 1946 John Deere tractor ... and then went to work on her for about an hour. Well, he pulled the cap off the steering column and discovered that the main bearing was loose, about 1 and 3/4 turns, which is quite a lot. They told me it was something that would normally have been done at each full service (!)

Anyway, I was happy about that; I took her for a ride but she still felt not quite right, although the massive vibration was gone, totally gone. Then he suggested to me that perhaps the back tire was the culprit as it was just about time to replace it, as it was getting that flat look. I told him to go ahead and do it - they did, I took it for a spin and it's like night and day. Thank goodness. So, all this tinkering and to-ing and fro-ing took about 3-1/2 hours.

So then I went off on my ride and wended my merry way to Summerside, a little seaside community. But I wound up on the way back to Charlottetown snarled up in rush-hour traffic and congestion (why is there always a semitrailer bearing down on me from somewhere???), so didn't really have as good a time as I'd have liked -- and I missed hooking up with the Steeletto's, which makes me a bit grumpy. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow.

I think I will eat chips, drink beer, watch violent, unredeeming shows on the TV and take my grumpy, sulky self off to bed ...