This was a crazy day.
I started off early in the morning in a light rain.
I was blasting along highway 12 at about 90 mph when the bike got wobbly. I thought it was gusty wind but my recent experience on the Rune made me think it could also possibly be a flat tire.
So I let off the throttle and slowed as the bike handling got really bad really fast. I stopped on the shoulder with the rear tire completely flat, and flagged down a lineman's truck I had passed a minute before. The guys gave me a ride down to town about 3 miles away. There I found a guy at a classic car restoration shop who had a friend at a motorcycle shop. It was still about 7:00am, and the shop wouldn't open until 10:00. But a few hours later, and for $100, he sent someone out to plug my tire. That patch would hold most of the day, but pop out near Clintonville. There, I luckily rolled to a stop in front of a house (the only one I'd seen in many miles) where they guy had a patch kit in his trunk. We plugged the tire again, and I set off carefully. Only to have the patch fail again just as I got on the I-87 highway. I rode a mile or so on the flat tire to a highway rest area where I had cell phone signal. I called a towing company and got a 50 mile tow truck ride to North End Harley shop in Plattsburg. The guys at North End were awesome. They stayed open an extra hour or two to sell me a new tire and get me on my way just as it was getting dark. Google Maps was awesome as the border crossing had closed, it directed me East to a tiny crossing that was open all night.
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