So I'm current driving across the county...Made it to SoCal!

[2mAn]

Come out to the Van Nuys gtg this friday in LA. Drive safe

[Nick_S]

I was hoping to make it to van nuys!

Spent the day riding some awesome spots around the Denver/boulder area. Such cool stuff to ride out here!



This place was amazing



And this is probably the best bowl I've ever ridden in my life. (Click for video)


Unfortunately while out my car started running pretty rough. We got back to his place and found one of my ignition coils is cracked and arching on the valve cover. Found a local guy parting out a car and has some coils I'm picking up tonight. Still hope to be back on the road early tomorrow morning!

[tig welder]

Kick ass story ... keep us posted on the repairs

[Nick_S]

Found the issue. Two of my ignition coils had stress cranks in them that we're shorting out causing misfires. Hoped of the old trusty Craigslist. Found a local guy parting a 92 325 and picked up four spare coils for $40. Car runs great again! The people I'm staying with have been insanely generous too. One is an old riding friend and his roommate has been an enormous help. He races spec miata and is a driving instructor. They've been hugely helpful and awesome hosts since I've been here.

[Nick_S]

Today started awesome!

I left Colorado around 8am and had an absolutely spectacular drive through the mountains. The views were spectacular and the car was running great. Decided to bypass the Eisenhower tunnel and went for a rip up the Loveland pass. About half way up the car started bucking and misfiring again. So, literally on the continental divide, I changed two more coil packs and went on my way bombing down the other side. So worth the extra few minutes to skip the tunnel if youre out this way.

Heading up!


Panorama


Post coil change


The views were spectacular and were nothing my phone could come close to capturing. I would do this drive over and over and over again.


Shortly after that, around Vail it started acting up again. I pulled into a walmart and the remaining two coils had popped and were arching all over the place. SHIT. I saw a walmart at an exit and turned off. I bought some quick dry epoxy and covered the absolute shit out of each one of them since the issue was stress cracks all over them. I figure excessive use, alot of heat and the extreme altitude did them in, they were quite old. While I was working a nice guy stopped by who also had an e30 (not with him), he offered to help and we shot the shit for a bit. It wad fun and the epoxy solved the issue and I was on my way again.

I hit Utah which intitially bored me to tears. Mild scenery at first, lots of heat and very little cell phone service...but holy shit was it a surprise. The landscape was other worldly! I could barely believe some of it.









Then it got boring again. Mostly flat, some hills and lots of damn wind which isn't normally an issue unless you have two bikes on the roof. Finally hit the end of route 70 and started on 15S which runs into the LA area


It got insanely hot again and was sort of just the same stuff I'd been seeing for hours. Had zero cell service for hundreds of miles then hit a few small towns just before Arizona. Filled up before the trek to Vegas and hit the road again. Then the fun began. About 20 miles outside a town called St George, Utah and just into Arizona I smell the distinct smell of burning rubber. Thinking it's a truck or something I didn't bother much. Then I hear a load POP and my dash lights up. FUCK. I pulled over immediately and found my idler pulley had seized and R3V'ed itself to pieces and shredded the belt. Extra fuck. So I call AAA and barely have cell service, a nice cop pulls up and calls it in direct to a friend of his. Dude shows up and was super cool and real helpful. Loaded the car up and headed back to the St. George.







We get chatting on the way back and got along real well. While heading back I was texting my friend back home whos shop I did my swap in. He looked up the parts at the local napa and got me part numbers to call in in the AM. The tow driver was even nice enough to drive near NAPA to try and get a hotel so I can hopefully fix my car today or latest tomorrow. The hotel I ended up is literally DIRECTLY across the street from NAPA. Couldn't be any more perfect.



So here I am, stuck in a random mormon town and know no one. If anyone local cares to help shoot me a message. Otherwise I'll be slaving away tomorrow. I'm not letting this break my excitement. Shit happens and this will make for a good story down the road!

[mitchlikesbikes]

i have a couple roommates from st george. its a bunch of mormon people but they're all old as fuck so you should be able to outrun them on foot if it gets ugly. if you go to the walmart in st george its infested with polygamists since colorado city, the largest polygamist settlement in the world, is pretty close to st george. good luck fixing the car, and have fun driving through the gorge on your way to vegas. it's a very winding and fun road for a little bit. after that little fun bit though its barren wasteland til vegas.



by the way i enjoyed your pics on the million dollar highway in colorado. i used to go to the street rod nationals with my grandparents in pueblo and we would cruise that canyon road every year in their 47 mercury. unbelievable scenery down there.

[Nick_S]

Thanks man! It blew up seriously one corner away from entering the gorge which we had to drive through anyways to get turned around. This town weird and I hope I scare some people.

[Nick_S]

parts are ordered, hopefully in this afternoon. Should be able to fix it tonight and hit the road in the morning.

[F34R]

Could not have asked for a better turnout of events, if something goes wrong with your car on the road!

[Aleman]

Thankfully it wasn't the timing belt that broke! Thanks for sharing the story - good stuff right here. You should submit these pics for the 2015 calendar (may be too low-def though). Good luck with the rest of the trip!

[2mAn]

Hope you can make it out here by Friday! good luck

[15Michaeljoseph]

send those pics to Bav!!


--Mike

[Nick_S]

Thanks for the kind words guys. The picture are only from my iphone so the the resolution is pretty terrible.

Got the old part out. Had to unbolt the alternator and it was all out in about 5 minutes. Assuming the part on order is correct I'll be back up and running in no time.

Well theres your problem...bearing overheated and blew out.


Unfortunately it doesn't appear you can buy just the pulley for the mechanical tensioner either. Lame.

Atleast I've got a nice place to stay. Good swimming pool and hot tub and free breakfast. All they had was a two bed room suite so they gave it to me cheap and it's right on the end and my car is tucked in a corner so I wont be in anyones way to work on it.

[rcsoundn1]

love stories like this and I envy those who can do this. GL man

[slammin.e28]

Epic trips without a good break down and fix aren't epic trips!

All the best man! It's so beautiful out west. Going to have to make my way out there again.