Mr WeCVO and I were on our way to York, PA Sunday morning after the Maggie Valley Rally and we had gotten 30 miles down the road when we pulled over for gas. We were riding with Twolanerider and WFP and we met M.White at the gas station. Mr was hearing horrible sounds coming out of his engine so he asked the more mechanically inclined fellows if they had ideas of what might be the problem. Well Twolanerider and M.White said, park it and call a tow truck, your riding time is done for this trip. Mr.We's stater bolt had backed itself out and was tearing things up inside. We were at a gas station, but there was nothing else even close around the area. After making a few calls, find out what our insurance covered and the availability of shops, we decided that we would turn around and start heading back the way we had just came and go as far as we could to a more habitable location if possible. The horrible noise only happened upon decel, so Mr.We did his very best to maintain a constant speed. We made it all the way to Hickory, NC. We arrived about 10 am, and there was a couple of other bikes in the parking lot.
Well we found that the shop was having it's 1 year anniversary open house. We saw activity in the service department, but the store did not open until 12:30 on Sunday. We got the eye of a mechanic and explained that we were trying to determine our best option. Mr jumps on my solo seated SEEG and ride the 5 hours home, get truck, drive 5 hours back, load bike in truck at night to bring back to VA to get serviced, get serviced in NC Monday... What is the best option?
Well two hours before the store is even open, that mechanic came out listened to the bike, and said Oh No! that bike needs immediate attention and he could get it looked at and back on the road same day. He took the bike immediately into the shop. You know you can break down in a lot of places at a lot of times, but if you have to break down, we were in the middle of malls, restaurants, hotels and sitting at a dealership that was being visited by Bubba Blackwell and about 600 of our favorite friends. A hooters stlye restaurant next door, bike in good hands, we felt so cared for.
Well 5 hours later, bike back together new stater installed, all covered by warranty, we were back on the road to home. We had wanted to go to York with other forum riders, but with the break down we just figured was not available, but at 7 pm, we pulled our bags off the bikes, threw them into the car and continued up to York, PA for the tour in the AM. We got to the motel at 11:30, a bit weary, but there. In the morning after a few cups of coffee and a fantastic breakfast we met the others going to the York assembly plant and got to go on that tour. All because of a mechanic in Hickory, NC and for Twolanerider and M.White diagnosing the issue and gettting us pointed in the direction of assistance before it got much worse. Thanks guys. And we cannot say enough good things about the Hickory, NC HD shop. We will be sending them a nice thankyou note.
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Bonus meeting Spydglide, NiteAl and BlackDog while our bike was just being finished up being serviced. It is a small world after all. ;-)