I left Cynthia’s place around 8am Monday morning with a plan to head towards Banff and Jasper National Parks. The best route to get there was back south towards the border and then track east on Highway 3. When I arrived at the north/south road I looked to blue skies to the south and dark stormy skies to the north. A last second instinct made me head north for some reason. I think the oil leak was playing with my mind and told me to start taking a more direct route to Alaska. So off into the stormy skies I went.
I started getting rained on almost instantly and after 45 minutes arrived in Penticton and stopped at a Tim Hortons to dry off and get a cup of hot coffee. Shortly after sitting down a guy (John) approached asking about my bike and where I was heading. A rider himself, a loaded adventure bike evidently sparked his interest in where I was going. In our conversation I mentioned I was a bit worried about the oil leak. He said he knew some great guys at the local Honda dealership that would be friendly to travelers and probably take a look at it despite a most likely booked service schedule. As Monday was an official holiday due to Canada Day on Sunday, they would not be open until Tuesday. I contemplated finding a camp spot and wasting a day to have a mechanic take a look the next day. After shooting a quick text to his friend at the shop we exchanged contact info and he said he would let me know if he got a reply. He was on a coffee break from work so had to get back to it.
A few minutes later my phone rang and it was John telling me to forget the camp/hotel options he provided earlier and that he had a spare bedroom and I could stay with him. I accepted his offer and killed some time until he got off work at 1pm. I arrived at his house and met up with John and his wife who had to head off to work around 3pm. We spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying some World Cup highlights, beers at the local brewpub and great conversation. Sometime during the day the shop contact had returned a message that I should bring the bike in at 8am when they opened and they would have a look. We ended the evening watching Charlie Boorman’s “By Any Means” documentary over some Safeway sushi. John had a 4am wakeup call for work so we retired early. Thank you so much John for the amazing hospitality!
I arrived at the shop a little after 8am and Andrew got me in the queue for a mechanic to have a look. Only 20 minutes later they had my bike on the lift…and they were super busy so really grateful. The mechanic confirmed it was the base gasket, gave me some Seal-All and some advise on how to possibly slow down the leaking so I could get through the trip. The shop labor to get to the gasket would be almost half what the bike is worth. Plus the down time would delay me for several days or more to schedule the work.
I was off again before 9am and continued north to Williams Lake – a beautiful spot a couple of hours south of Prince George. I found a camp spot for the night, went out to finds some carb cleaner to clean up all the oil on the engine and got to work attempting to seal the gasket from the outside. The process the mechanic suggested involved laying thin layers of the Seal-All and tissue paper along the gasket line on top of each other giving dry time between each layer. We will see today how much difference it makes. Oil always seems to find a way through these type repairs so I am a bit skeptical.
Today I plan to stop in Prince George to pick up a few supplies (my headlamp crapped out on me already), and then find a camp spot somewhere on a lake along the Hwy 16. It’s a beautiful morning so hopefully today will be the first of the trip I don’t get rained on!
Looks like rain ahead…
