Picto Diary - 25, 26 April 2016 - DUCATI TROUBLES...BETTER CALL SAUL
Above: Prada Marfa. Valentine, TX (US 90). 25 April 2016.
Permanently installed sculpture along side US 90, near Valentine, TX, by sculptors Elmgreen and Dragset.
Originally the sculpture was designed to deteriorate as affected by the elements. But, it was vandalized shortly after completion in 2005. The prop shoes and purses in the "vitrine" were stolen.
The artists then decided to give Prada Marfa more permanence. Windows are now a very thick, near unbreakable plexiglass.
It's a little dusty but otherwise in good condition. Real Prada purses and shoes are in the vitrine.
In the image, Elk reads the Prada Marfa description beside the sculpture.
Note. Reminds me of another road side sculpture I saw last week near Wendover, UT. Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, by Swedish artist, Karl Momen.
On the road... On the Duc... Albuquerque, NM. 25 April 2016.
Above: Monte Carlo Steak House. Mr. Z3, Elk, Bling, Maggie, and The Bishop.
Bling, once a TIMDT nanny charge, married Maggie and moved to Albuquerque 25 years ago.
Small world. Bling once worked for El Contador in Chicago. Also, Elk daughter Kristen, married a San Juan County, UT Redd, who now manages the Dugout Ranch, recently sold to the Nature Conservancy. Bling's mom a Redd, daughter of Parley, who was half brother to trader and Dugout Ranch owner Charlie. Redds still strut in San Juan County. My college friend Bryce Redd owns the Mercantile in Blanding. Redds hold a well known bull auction each April in neighboring Paradox, CO.
Many stories told at dinner. Bling a wealth of historical and family info. Jacqueline, his mom, as a 14 year old, would go from Blanding to Monument Valley, where John Ford would film all his movies. She passed down images of herself posing with John Wayne.
Above: PJ's Motorcycles. Albuquerque, NM. 26 April 2016.
Above: My Duc, parked at PJ's Motorcycles, Albuquerque, NM. 26 April 2016.
DUCATI TROUBLES...BETTER CALL SAUL
On the road... Off the Duc. Albuquerque, NM. 26 April 2016.
PJ's Motorcycles. Home, for foreseeable future for the Duc.
Getting new rubber was easy enough... but, PJ's couldn't solve the ignition problem. The Duc, they said, needed a new proximity key which couldn't be obtained from Ducati for two or three days.
So, I'm leaving the bike for repairs at PJ's and flying home tonight. I'll return to get the bike and ride it home sometime in the next month.
There are back up ways of starting the Duc. Ie. sans proximity key. One involves a pin code procedure, which I had successfully used in the past. The other, which I learned today at PJ's, used the bike's auxiliary "red" key, placed at a strategic spot on the dash, to engage the electronic mode necessary to start the motor.
So...with back up start capability, why didn't I just stick to plan and ride the bike the 800 miles back to Park City?
Here's why.
Yesterday, in Marfa, TX, I couldn't get the key fob to engage the start mode. This had happened six months ago... then, the dealer, Harrison Motorsports, Salt Lake City, had to replace the key fob and do some reprogramming of the ignition software.
No big deal. I used the pin code start to ride the bike to get it to the SLC dealer for repair.
And so, yesterday in Marfa, I thought..."I'm disappointed this key fob fault has recurred, but I can pin code start the bike for the rest of the trip."
I successfully "pin code started" the bike in Marfa, though it took 6 or 7 attempts at the engine start button for the engine to turn. This latter worried me a bit...as it had never occurred before during 8000 miles of riding this Duc. Was the engine start difficulty related to the key fob start mode problem?
Here's the rub. 30 minutes after the Marfa departure, we stopped at the Prada Marfa sculpture, near Valentine, TX. After taking an image or two of the sculpture, I could get neither the Duc's key fob NOR the pin code to engage the bike's start mode. The Duc appeared to be dead in the water.
A mild panic set in. I'm a 180 mile tow from El Paso. And, it's Monday, a day when most motorcycle shops are closed. I try to engage the pin code mechanism again and again. Nada. Here I am in the middle of trans Pecos, West Texas with a bike that, otherwise working well, won't start.
Finally, several minutes later, after the umpteenth attempt to engage pin code, the pin menu illuminated! Big time relief!
I, then and there, at the Marfa Prada sculpture, concluded that I didn't want a repeat of the no start panic I had just experienced. I had to get the bike the remaining 430 miles to PJ's Motorcycles in Albuquerque where I had an appointment, next day for rubber replacement. PJ's could also look at the electronics problem.
I rode toward Albuquerque, US 90, I10, I25, ahead of my companions, only stopping for fuel twice, fueling with the start mode on...ie. engine off, start mode on, only one quick pee break (start mode on, engine off, headlight draining battery), and reached Albuquerque around 2:30PM. 460 total miles from Marfa, TX. An unplanned iron butt experience!
OK. This AM, 26 April 2016. Next day. The bike starts using pin mode mode after, again, key fob start attempt failed. The pin code start also had to be tried three times further suggesting something is wrong in the hands free unit, the device to which the key fob talks. Something is wrong with the fob, for sure... but, pin code isn't working properly, either. And, considering that two fobs in a row have failed on me, is there a problem in the bike's own hardware/software?
After breakfast with Elk and Mr. Z3, I ride to PJ's to keep my 10:00 AM rubber change appointment.
I told Bobby, PJ's service coordinator, to look at the ignition issue as well.
Considering the tentative state of pin code start reliability, I didn't want to find myself stranded somewhere in the remote territory between Albuquerque and Park City. TIMDT and Mwah (sic) are leaving for overseas next week and I didn't want to put that trip at risk with no easy way out of, say, Farmington, NM or Bluff, UT.
So, I'll let PJs do the bike fix and fly home and come back later in the summer to get the bike.
Ducati Multistrada key fob (hands free unit?). Once burned...twice shy. Not good. Bike trips are not fun if you're never sure if your bike will start.
Oh, I also asked Bobby to fix the right pannier which won't lock and can't be removed from the bike, and to replace the bolt which fell off the center stand yesterday, preventing it's use. Oh, and once more, why is the engine surging when idling?
NOTE: The key fob fail (notice on the dash) occurred post a handle lock fault message when I tried to start the bike, as it was parked, arrival day, Sunday, at the Paisano Hotel in Marfa. Correlation is not causation, but while scanning the internet bulletin boards, looking for key fob fail explanations, I noted one discussion where a Ducati owner attributed his key fob fault to a handle lock fault. And, yeah, what's with the iffy morning engine starts?
NOTE 2: It's the southwest.
Several years ago my Triumph Rocket III developed a bearing problem near Tucson. I left the bike there and, like today, and flew home.
On the return trip, a month or so later, I met Brand (flying in from LA to ride a borrowed crotch rocket) in Mesa, AZ, and together we rode over the rez to Monument Valley. We stopped in Winslow for Mexican food and took images of one another "on a corner."
File under "making lemonade from sour lemons."
Addendum:
thanks Steve--good friends in Marfa. One is Boyd Elder who painted the steer skull for the eagles album cover..
good shot of M.V.
Brandman,
Ventura, CA
Above: Acoma Pueblo. 26 April 2016.
Image taken by Mr. Z 3, who stopped here en route west on I-40.
Acoma Pueblo is oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States.
Mr. Z 3's notes on Acoma Pueblo -
1100A.D. First Mesa started & lived in ; no written history until early 1600s when Spaniards invaded area. 50 extended family families occupy Mesa , all property including house, animals is left to the youngest female. Turtle our guide, is standing in front of the oven where bread cooked, each family has own , no running water, sewage facilities Electric in housing .San Esteban del Rey Mission started 1629 completed 1640 - all materials and building were done by the tribe Acoma People though they were treated as slaves by the Franciscan Priest this structured is considered one of the most difficult projects completed by the people materials had to come from very far distances to bring Materials to the Mesa height. White extended ladders is where families go to pray, in their house. Today only five families live there permanently houses are used as secondary homes during festivals.
Mr. Z3,
Ojai, CA
Good to know you are a Marfa devotee. Son Tyler and his soon to be in May wife, Aimee, go to Marfa every year. Getting married in Round Top at the Pillow Ranch which is closer to Houston where they live in The Heights.
Privateer,
Hancock, ME
So you've been buzzed by the B-1 too?
It has happened to me twice. I was the only vehicle of any kind for as far as the eye could see in the openness of West Texas. That pilot had miles to wander..but of course why not fly right over this guy on a motorcycle. (I would do the same if I were at the stick.😁 My old friend and
WW II fighter pilot Rufus Barnes, who still carries around a record of all the hours he had in various WW II war birds, used to refer to it as "shining your ass".)
It is a strange sensation. There is this ground effect that literally makes your hair stand up, you are suddenly in a shadow and then you feel the power of this thing (along with the laughter of the pilot) as it blasts over you and quickly disappears behind the hills and mountains.
Safe riding Steve!
Skip,
Bulverde, TX
The rally is call the BBORR Big Ben on road rally. Runs every year in April from Fort Stockton to Comstock Time both Waze with speeds in excess of 180 miles an hour. I have a local friend that runs in the 130 mile an hour glass in a prepared Corvette. There are four or five different classes culminating with the unlimited class. I would love to do a little Texas touring with you unfortunately spring or fall is the best time of year it gets hot in Texas. I'm thinking about I westward trip in May probably after the 20th.
ITYW,
San Angelo, TX
Snow from Taos to Chama (US 84)
I'm sending a contrast picture from my March ride. Low temperatures from 24 to a high of 80s. The mountain pass was over 8000 feet and I was the only bike that day....
ITYW,
San Angelo, TX
This is the same road ridden today, 26 April 2016, by Elk on his way back to Norwood, CO. I have ridden this road before. Beautiful... isolated. I wonder if the snow is still there today?