Misadventures on the road to Sofala Sunday 17/04/2005

Now, Sofala. What a day. A mix of emotions for me. It was my second REAL outing on the new ZX6R and this time I had a vastly improved suspension setup. So to say the least, I was excited. Then I noticed that Ray was there on his 636 and I cannot remember the last time I saw him on a ride... let alone our president Sean!

I have to tell you all that there were no less than 3 bike from team green, with a special mention for Dave on his ZX9R - right brand, wrong colour :-)

So here I am, out on the new bike, good suspension, perfect weather, great roads (maybe a little bumpy at times) and not a bad bunch of people at all. Almost too perfect. So before I had a chance to get too cocky, someone, somewhere, decides I need to have a stone fired at an extraordinary velocity through my radiator. Puncturing several of the delicate fins quite low down. Meaning, high pressure, high temperature coolant is jettisoned everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. To look at my bike now you would think I have been carving up some dirt roads (well, we did that today too).

Ever the boy scout with merit badges up to his eyeballs. Our ride coordinator ChrisT, or MacGeyver, lead an eager repair team who set about getting me back on the road. How do you fix a hole in a radiator on the road side? Simple, cable tie through the fins that secures an ear plug firmly against the radiator. This worked perfectly so my only problem would be keeping the pressure in the system low. This was solved by loosely refitting the cap and using a rag and some cord to secure it in place. This allowed the hot gas to escape thus keeping the pressure low enough to not blow the ear plug off the front, in turn losing the water and coolant and finally overheating the bike.

The first stretch of the ride home I kept a close eye on the temperature and I was looking good. As long as I was moving, quickly, the temperature stayed under 80. But when I slowed down through towns and traffic the temperature rose a little.

Our next stop was Oberon so it was a good opportunity to refill the radiator. At this point it took on about another litre of water and with some rough calculations we guesstimated that I was going to make it home. Once we got back to Bells Line of Road things started to get worse. The temperature had been steadily rising into the 90s and low 100s. Now it wasn't cooling at all regardless of speed. So I pulled over to the side of the road and my colleague from the BA I.T. department stopped to offer some assistance. All of the spare water we had mustered up earlier was somewhere down the road on other bikes. Not much good to me down there and not many taps by the road side in rural NSW. We did find a half empty water bottle courteous of some litter bugs.

We topped up and continued on down the road. It wasn't working. About 1km later I had to stop again. It was clear we needed more water. Much more. Fortune favoured us and a mild mannered cager stopped to see if we were alright. Luck would have it that he had about a litre of 50/50 coolant in his car which I added to the radiator. Then, the familiar sound of an inline 4 approaching from the distance, it was Al on the ZX10R ever eager to deliver a smile and more importantly 2 litres of water.

So, with a full radiator I was back on the road again. The temperature stayed low enough, back around the 70-80s, so my biggest problem was the overweight bugs that explode in spectacular fashion when they meet their fate on your visor.

Needless to say I made it home. But what a way to get home from so far out of town. I now have an ugly coolant spray effect over just about every inch of the front of the bike, an ear plug and cable tie fixed hole in the radiator, a section of cloth and length of cord serving as a radiator cap holder... did I have a good day? For sure! Was it worth it? Absolutely? Will I do it again... not without a radiator guard!