A Fool's Progress: Texas Day 1

I got to MPH cycles in Katy Texas at 10 am. Mike Haven was a stellar gentleman and did me the favor of looking over the Q. He fired it up, listened, sniffed the leakage and shrugged "What do you want, it's a guzzi" Fair enough. I would normally feel the same way but events on this trip have caused me to doubt my luck and judgement. Mike noted that the tranny leak was engine oil and not gear oil. Good thing. That is just messy and doesnt mess up the clutch plates.

But he did find something worrisome. A single crack emanating from one spoke nipple. I knew that Quota wheels can crack, particularly the Excel rims. But since mine was replaced already I assumed it was a good Excel rim. Apparently there are no good Excel rims. Damn. We discussed it and Mike noted that he had never seen a complete failure and that a failure like that would most likely result in the spoke poking a hole in the tube and be an unfixable flat. A flat on the highway is nothing to snear at, but it is manageable. So it is unlikely that the wheel will come apart or something. But then no one has taken a wheel with that issue and then run across a couple thousand miles of road with it and a load of gear and a less than petite rider. So Mike offered to ship some of my gear home. Gratefully I offloaded my tent and some other stuff that hasnt been seeing much use. It didnt amount to much weigh and Mike noted so with that wry "you are a dumbass" dry way that some folks will do.
And I deserved it. But what I did do was lose a bunch of bulk. This let me shift things around and and in particular move the tool kit to my tank bag which shifted a big chunk of weight forward.

After that it was a short, hot, flat run to Austin. Probably Texas saving grace is Austin. Funky college and music town. But I was a bit tired and constrained myself to getting food and bed. I found a small mexican restaurant and took home the best Carne Asada I have ever eaten. And lots of spicy pico and hand made flour tortillas. But the bit that made it heaven was that they had Horchada. Rice milk with cinnamon over ice. And this place sold a large container holding nearly a quart for a mere buck and a half. Oh man...that was the perfect end to the day.