Battery replacement

[lragan]

So my Colorado friend and I rode from Thursday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, in the Hill Country area.  First night at Marble Falls (hoped to see the bald eagles off the road to Llano, but they have apparently abandoned that nest).  Friday we took every obscure back road we could find to wind up in Leakey.  Filled up with gas, and one of the Magnas' starter wouldn't turn the engine over.  Push started it and went to our rented cabin and unloaded our baggage.  Found the positive terminal corroded and cleaned it up.  Still no luck.  Rode down the road and back about 10 miles round trip (after another push start), hoping it would charge, but no luck.  The battery was warm but had not lost fluid out the top.  

At this point, I was fearful that the Reg/Rect demon had finally hit, but went to the local part shop -- CarQuest -- the only one in town.  Sign in window says "CLOSED".  Hours 9-5, at it was 5:10 or so.  The door was unlocked, so I went in anyway, apologizing for keeping them after closing time, and asked if they had MC batteries.  The nice young man looked up 3rd gen Magna in his book, and announced that he had a battery, but it was the gel cell type, and more expensive than the traditional battery.  When I asked how expensive, he quoted (approx.) $90.  "Well", I replied,"That beats pushing the bike to Austin".  I couldn't believe my good fortune -- Leakey has population of 380 people, according to the sign at the edge of town, and the entire shop would fit in my living room.  

So we installed the new battery, leaving the old one by the coke machine in front of the store (he trusted me to do this and did not add a core charge.), and it worked fine.

For the next two days, I wondered if the Reg/Rect was cooking my expensive new battery, but I had no voltmeter, so just had to wait until I arrived at home.  As soon as I returned from dropping my friend at the airport for his flight home to Colorado, I came home, pulled the seat, replaced the interface plug for the trickle charger, clipped on my voltmeter and saw that the R/R was working perfectly.  End of story.

Except for this comment -- I just had three entire days of riding amid the most spectacular wild flowers that God has ever placed on the planet, in perfect spring weather, with a long term friend that I really care about.  Saved from a major hiccup by a tiny parts store in a tiny town who just happened to have a battery that fit.  Amazing!!!  Thank you, Lord!!

[TLRam1]

Lucky for you that could probably not happen again.

I was down there a few weeks back and saw the flowers you speak of and for the first time I found and had lunch at....what is the name of the BBQ place.....anyway it was fantastic, the sauce I never had anything close to the flavor profile. The place was hopping, filled with 300 people or more. Parking lot was full, nice guitar player outside and vocalist, popcorn and the list goes on.

What was the name of the place...

[hootmon]

Glad it all worked out for you Lawrence..
Good times!!

[TLRam1]

Salt Lick BBQ, that's it.

[tedkraus]

Sounds like fun, glad things worked out.