Ride to East - Day 11

Oil

Greenville, SC to Alexandria, VA (490 miles)

There's nothing like a little engine problem to put a damper on your day after riding 2,500 miles out of 3,000.  Yesterday was a big riding day and I was determined not to let it go to waste.  Focused on the finish line, I woke up early and was on the road by 8 am.  I only had 7 hours to go, the finish line was in sight.

On my first fuel stop, I got the bad news.  An engine hose had broken on the Ducati, and oil was now spraying the top of my engine.  Luckily, I never leave home without zip ties.  I did my best to zip tie the hose to the engine.  I rode on for a few miles, nervously hoping the engine would continue to run.  I pulled into the first rest stop to survey my quick fix.  Not great, but the idea seemed solid, so I pulled off my gear and went to work on improving it.

After a little more sweat and burnt fingers (motorcycle engines get hot, so does oil), I finally had a better zip tie fix.  I rode for another 50 miles, before pulling over to check that the zip ties were holding.  It looked surprisingly solid, I could get on with my ride.  I didn't stop until lunch and kept my lunch short.  By the time I had less than an hour to go, I was so exhausted I had to pull into a Starbucks for some ice coffee and to cool down.

Naturally, I ran into traffic on my sprint the the finish, but nothing could stop me now.  I was so close, I could coast to the finish line.  Around 6 pm, I rolled into my brother's driveway, just in time to surprise my nephew for his birthday.  Mission accomplished!

Petter on his Ducati Multistrada 1100S