July 5th trip to White House TN

Took off this morning without much of a destination, nor a plan. I filled up at a local gas station and then headed down 41-A toward Nashville. It was really nice, decently cool while moving, and the sun was behind me. There were some other bikers out riding, but not as many as on recent weekends. I ran down to Pleasant View and then took TN-49 East through Springfield. Continued along at 55mph, was a nice smooth ride through typical middle Tennessee terrain.

Once I got through Springfield, I got to TN-76, so decided to take it. I'm not sure I'd been on it before, variety is good. I rolled through the interstate corridor in White House, presumably headed toward Portland. I figured I'd probably take TN-52 around back toward Nashville, or maybe head north into Kentucky and then head home eventually. I had just made it through the commercial zone, headed up a hill when I started to loose power on the bike.

I realized it was running out of gas, so I pulled into a driveway. The bike promptly died, but at least I was out of the flow of traffic. I pulled over, dumped 20 ounces of fuel from my "reserve" into the tank, and started the bike back up. It was hesitant, but if I stayed on the throttle, it was okay. I turned around and headed back toward White House. I made it back to the bottom of the hill and the bike died again, about half a mile from a gas station. I pulled over, titled the bike over to the left, and then fired it back up. I was able to run back to the gas station. Oddly, filling it and the reserve bottle up took only 1.4 gallons of gas. Not sure what that's about, but it was bugging me.

I decided I'd play it safe and head toward home. I know where all of the gas stations are that I passed on the way out, and I could stop in 30 miles to fill up again before heading home. I did so, rather uneventfully, but I've got to suck it up, carry a fuel can, and head out. Worrying about gas is not fun, but I am gaining confidence in the bike. Having more gas on hand will calm all of my concerns. Getting on the bike and going will become my priority. I will have the opportunity to do so next weekend, Karen is going to be out of town. I can't just head out and take off for the entire weekend as I've got to take care of the dogs still, but I can take off on both Saturday and Sunday. I think I'm going to head west, and I might be able to talk Matt or Adam into riding with me.




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