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The Dilemma

P1100700 After a brief moment of happiness thinking I was using the wrong plug, I found out I wasn’t.  As a result, the fact that the last two plugs have come out impacted implies there is something potentially very wrong with Red.  I rode around to two mechanics in Edmonton and both agreed – worse, they both said they’d need to do an entire teardown to investigate and that this would cost up to a thousand dollars Canadian!  Even better, one wouldn’t be able to get to it until Tuesday and the other shop said middle of next week.  Add the cost of a hotel for all those days and things look quite dreary.

This is definitely something I didn’t consider on this trip – I’m entirely too used to third world mechanics tearing down and rebuilding things from scratch for pennies.  Genuine isn’t a global brand like Yamaha or Honda, so I can’t find a dealer up here to work on it under warranty (in fact, the big dealers won’t touch it).  The end result is that I’m facing a dilemma.

Do I continue on, sticking to low RPM (thus reduced inertia in the piston – the fact that it runs completely fine for awhile and both times the plug was impacted happened shortly after or during 45+MPH runs) and speed and hope that I can nurse Red through the rest of the trip?  Or do I turn tail for the US and find a dealer that can fully check it out?

It looks like the best bet for the latter is Scooterville Montana in Missoula, about 600 miles from Edmonton.  Then I can head west a bit and go all the way up highway 97 to Alaska. 

I think maybe that’s what I’ll have to do.  It may mean losing a week but at least it won’t mean losing tons of money.  This is adventure!

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