I was riding in mid November of '06 from a seminar at Purdue in West Lafayette, IN to a motel just west of the Cherohala Skyway, to setup for an early morning next day ride across the Skyway and the Dragon, and maybe through the park if time allowed. Heavy morning rain had delayed my departure at IN, and so I was passing through Knoxville at around 21:30 hours. I'm keeping pace on the slab with traffic at around 75 or 80, and up behind me rolls a police car with his lights a goin'. I pull to the shoulder, and on my handlebars is a radar detector having a conniption from his radar signal, and as I remove my helmet, it's apparent to the officer that I have audio earplugs plugged into a satellite radio. He says: "Did you you know your tail lights are out?" I replied: "No," and then asked, "Would you mind staying parked behind me while I check it out?" The fuses were all good, and so I told him that. He said: "Why don't you ride the shoulder to the next exit, and there's a parts store just around the corner."
Now let me tell you what - had this occurred in uptight Connecticut, chances are in the 90% range that I would have been a party to:
A - a ticket for 80 in a 65
B - a ticket for no tail lights
C - a tow to get me off the highway because of no tail lights
D - a ticket for ear plugs
Bear in mind too that I'm flying a blue license plate from a jurisdiction 1,000 miles away. Instead of writing me, the officer was more interested in helping me out. As my mind was running fix-it scenarios, I didn't think to get his name. I would like to have written a letter to his Sergeant or Lieutenant telling a tale of his high level of professionalism as a highway officer, and maybe leave out the parts about not writing me.
So anyhow, a mile of three up the road, I find a parking lot with some hefty illumination, and set to fixing the problem. It seems Triumph had installed one of my rear fender wire loom brackets upside down, and so my wire harness had fallen down on the rear tire. The seat, sissy bar & lugagge rack, along with an auxiliary gas tank, lugagge, and rear fender all had to come off, allowing access to the problem*. As my journey was fairly long, I had brought with me an assortment of tools and such. Although I don't believe in them for proper wiring, a butt connector, along with a length of spare wire and some good old (accept no substitute) #33 3M electrical tape had me back up and lit up just fine for the rest of the trip.
Later on during the journey, I discovered in Charleston, SC that one of the heavily loaded saddle bags had significantly bent a mounting bolt. I didn't want to chance breaking the bolt along the ride home, and so finding the right bolt (in the pouring rain no less) took around 4 hours. I finally had to settle on a hex head bolt instead of a button head, but it worked to get me back to CT. It doesn't snow very often in Charleston, but it did the day I left there. I told my daughter: "Don't tell anyone I'm a Yankee, or they'll blame me for drafting the stuff in here."
I'd have to check to be sure, but I usually have on board enough wrenches to fit every fastener on the bike, and a few other assorted gee gaws, like spare squirrel condoms, tire plugs, fuses, electrical tape, a box cutter, a mini compressor, and so on and so forth.
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* I brought along a "few extra things" and some spare gasoline for the 3,200 mile trip.
Looks like my wife and 3 daughters taught me how to pack...
Photo credit to Killboy
