In August, my friend Mike Russo and I rode to Mt. Airy for the North Carolina State HOG Rally. I told him it wasn't likely to rain, and if it did, it would be light and brief. You can already imagine how this is going to turn out.
The rally itself was a bit of a disappointment so I suggested we ride further north up US52 to Fancy Gap, Virginia where we would get on the Blue Ridge Parkway and head south. We could see some scary looking clouds ahead to the north and northeast, but I was confident that as we turned west and then headed south on the Parkway we would be high and dry. Wrong. We did encounter some light rain for a few miles but it ended. However, there were even scarier-looking clouds to our south--the direction we were headed. So, we got off the Parkway at NC16 and headed south into North Wilkesboro.
At the bottom of the descent, it started raining harder and harder until it was pouring on us as we entered the town. We managed to reach Crossroads Harley-Davidson on US421 where they had a nice large porch on which we could sit with other bikers happy to be out of the downpour. What happened next will be a dispute between this Mike and the other Mike for many years to come. To make this story short and avoid further controversy, I will just say that we ended up back on the road in the pouring rain and got soaked down to the undies before reaching Greensboro, NC--still an hour from home.
As we were enduring our shower and lightning show, I happened to glance down and notice that my oil temperature gauge (HD part no. 75265-04) was maxed out at over 350°F. I almost freaked out but quickly realized that given that I was riding through a sea of rain, it was very unlikely that my engine had gotten anywhere near that hot. But, given my history with these air cooled behemoths, I was panicky for a few seconds. I got my eyes back on the road and began to wonder what it meant. A few minutes later, I glanced down again and my oil temperature gauge needle was all the way over to the left at zero. Boy, was I relieved; the gauge had gone bad.
My next emotion was irritation that a three-year old gauge had now become useless. A few minutes later, I looked down again and watched the needle flip from left to right and then back to the left. I laughed. Hey, at least it had gotten entertaining: it allowed me to take my mind of the near death experience I was having with the weather.
Anyway, I am happy to report that after many weeks of appearing to be dead, my oil temperature gauge has come back to life. The picture I've included with this post is one I took with my iPhone earlier today. That 190-200°F it indicates is what I suspect my actual oil temperature--in the pan--was at that moment.
The lessons here are that (1) heavy rain and Harleys don't go well together, and (2) if a gauge appears to be dead, don't be too quick to replace it. Leave it be for a month or two and see what happens. Also, based on my experience with my last bike, a 2000 Road King Classic, and this bike, a 2006 Electra Glide Classic, exposure to heavy rain for extended periods of time also damages the air intake manifold seals/gaskets (HD Part No. 26995-86B, 2 x $2.99 each). By the way, check out this great video on Youtube for properly replacing your air intake manifold gaskets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDMjl5O66BM. Leaking gaskets may be why my fuel mileage has been so bad, I'll let you know if the new seals Rommel put on make any difference.
Now, if I could only figure out what's going on with the oil pressure gauge! That's a story for another time.
As always, keep the shiny side up!
-The Long Rider