How not to travel on the Trike!! Our first day, of our 6 day cruise up and back the California coast line did not start out so well.

Cruising up the California highway 1 enroute to Morro Bay. Came to a stop in Guadeloupe, twisted the throttle to start out...no throttle. I shut it off and restarted a few times, eventually it started working. Same thing happened again.

I Looked up the nearest Harley dealer ( on my Zumo 600) and located Santa Maria Harley about 10 miles inland. So, we headed in that direction. Hobbled about another mile, until we were in the middle of nowhere, where it did it again and would not come back. It was 3:00 on Saturday afternoon, and buzzards were circling overhead. I called the Harley dealer, and they said they were open 'til 6:00, and if I could get it there by 4:00 they could look at it.

Called AAA at 3:00. They arrived at 3:25, towed me to the dealer and dropped the Harley at their door at 3:45. They discovered an apparently common problem.. Terminals and wire on the throttle position sensor connector were cooked. They replaced the terminals, and I had them replace the battery ( that's another story) and were back on the road at 5:00.

Plaudits to AAA for their responsiveness!!
Major plaudits to Santa Maria Harley for taking care of us so quickly.

BTW... A testimonial to the advantage of the great Harley dealer network.

1,000 more miles and all is good!! Knocking on wood.

 

Glad you got back on your way. Should be smooth sailing now. Do you have the RV package with AAA? Have a great trip!

 

My favorite area to travel in.
Love the San Luis Obispo area.

After I Googled your problem, it made me glad I have an '07 UGC with a real throttle cable and not TBW.
Good info to know if on the road.

 

not really in the middle of nowhere if the dealer was 10 Mi away...
but it's good you got it back on the road that fast

 

Glad to hear everything turned out good for you!

Rax

 

"Hobbled about another mile, until we were in the middle of nowhere, where it did it again and would not come back."

Well, I don't know that I'd call a mile down the road 'the middle of nowhere'... But a breakdown is never a good thing no matter where we are!

Glad that AAA was available & the dealer open... That could have worked out a LOT worse!

 

We made it home!! 1,000 miles on the repair and all is good.

Hey...we are from the 'burbs!! No street lights, no Starbucks within sight, then we are in the middle of no where. But, we were fortunate that we broke down where we did as both earlier and later we really were in the middle of nowhere...with no cell phone reception.

Yes, we have the RV & Motorcycle coverage on AAA. I know people criticize AAA, by saying you can do cheaper. But, I really like that as long as I have phone reception, I only have to call 1 number...and someone is on their way.

Also, I'll repeat again. Versus most of the alternatives to Harley, it is great to have the well covered dealer network. I can imagine this happening to a Polaris product. Uh yeah...the closest dealer is 200 miles away...but they are all booked doing summer special service on snowmobiles. Just my $.02 FWIW.

 

Wife and I ride up there all the time. Santa Maria Harley used to host a 'gathering' Motorcycle Madness back in the hay day. Last year we rode up Hwy 1 / 101 to Coos Bay Oregon then turned right through Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Home inland through Utah, Nevada and Arizona. You are absolutely right about the dealer network and availability of help.

 

Amazing...from call to AAA to repair two hours ? My experience with dealers is it takes two hours for tire change and they know I'm coming!..Good story and it worked out very well for ya .


And those Chrome wheels look very nice...


Hap