Waylaid In Gatesville

Trip To Madison, IN
My wife and I took a motorcycle trip to Madison, IN in early June. This blog post is part of a series which presents each step of our journey. If you missed the beginning, the story starts here.

From Apple Works we continued south along Sweetwater Trace and through the tiny town of Gatesville. By this time I had noticed something was going wrong for Mrs Rat. She was hanging back in the corners and not catching up in the straightaways.




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I stopped in the gravel parking lot of the township fire department . . . The only public building in the tiny town . . . And dismounted. Mrs. Rat pulled up and stopped, 'My bike won't downshift.'

I 've never worked on a Harley before, but started an inspection of clutch function and shift function. I couldn't spy the problem.






We started calculating alternate routes, with dismay. Instead of twisty roads en route to Madison, we'd have to back track via major roads to Edinburgh, IN, home of the nearest Harley dealer. Our well-laid plans were vanishing like smoke. After I paid a Harley dealer to fix her bike, assuming they could fix it in a timely manner, would I have enough funds to continue our trip, or would we have to cut it short?

One last time I inspected the shifting mechanism on her bike. Suddenly I saw it. A piece of gravel, nestled in the groove atop the transfer case. Wedged tightly,it prevented the shifting mechanism from travelling the full way down.



I snapped this photo, which is hopelessly blurry, but which shows the rock wedged in its place.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Though I hadn't removed the obstacle yet, I had solved the mystery. I knew I'd be able to repair the bike myself, with no cash outlayed. I imagined how ashamed I'd have been if we'd nursed the bike all the way to Edinburgh, only to have the dealer discover such an easy fix. Would they have charged me anyway?

I tried a stick, which was a fruitless effort. The stone was wedged tightly ... my wife had tried more than once to mash down the shift lever in order to downshift. Each such attempt only wedged the gravel tighter.

I thought of walking to the Gatesville General Store, the only other non-residential building in town, and borrowing or buying a pair of pliers. Then I thought to check my own ST1300's tool kit. Though it had no pliers, it had a regular screwdriver. Stout enough, and yet small enough to fit in the slot.  I was easily able to pry the rock from its sticking place.

Woo hoo! Our trip was back on track! We geared up and got ready to head to Story, IN.

Before we left I snapped a photo of the famous Gatesville sign. The town is so small, the "Welcome to Gatesville" sign and the "Now Leaving Gatesville" sign are combined into a single sign.