All the plans I made in the last few days just went on hold.
About two months before I left I ordered parts for the bike. Some were for service, some were for spares. I ordered the parts early so that I could get the work done long before I left. When I left, I still did not have all the parts I ordered but I had all the ones I really needed. It took almost 2 months to get brake pads and a bunch of other parts that are the kind that would be found to suddenly become necessary during service. These are the kinds of parts you NEED immediately, if not sooner. Getting them overnighted and getting them the next day or after is acceptable but that is about it. Any longer and someone should be fired.
I replaced a radiator hose that is in an area that gets a lot of oil from the chain. This can make it swell, so it was looking less than optimal and it seemed like a good idea. It was well past time to change the coolant anyway. And the oil, and probably a lot of other things that I ignored. Remember, I could have sold this bike, with all the metal bags on it, for probably $3,000. With a lot of work. IF I got lucky and found a buyer.
After doing all the work, one of the things that should be done to get all the bubbles out of the coolant system is to lean the bike way over to the right, then way over to the left. Well, it leaned way over to the right. WAY over to the right. There was not enough room to do this in the garage so I rolled it out. Boy did it roll. The incline was more than I had expected and the bike got away from me and fell on it's right side.
This is a dual sport bike. It is supposed to fall over. The problem was, since I was working on the bike, I did not have some of the guards on it, and the metal panniers were not on the bike. Well, the problem continued with the fact that where it fell, it was on a hill, so it was leaning farther than horizontal. With the tank lower than the wheels. Sorta' upside down. Not bad, but hard to pick up that way, especially without the panniers on it.
Normally, I would have grabbed the front wheel, dragged the bike around so that it was the other way, then it would be easy to pick up. But the radiator was on a slab of concrete. It did not look like there was any damage, but if I tried to drag it around there certainly would have been damage. Lots of it.
So I found a jack, and slowly jacked it up until I could lift it. The radiator was a little out of position but thre did not appear to be any damage. The Yamaha Tenere I considered buyin requires a radiator guard, because if the radiator gets pushed out of position, it pushes into the fan causing the fan to overheat and fail very quickly. The Triumph did it smarter, there is plenty of room around the radiator, it is attached with easily bendable mounts and the fan is attached to the radiator, so you can push it around without much of a problem.
Early on in the trip, I was smelling coolant. There was a leak from the hose I put in, which is not all that unusual. I tightened it up, and the problem went away. The last few days I was smelling coolant again. Not a surprise, since I was stuck in traffic in temps that were in the high 90's and occasionally hovering at 100. I can split lanes in some cases, but my bike is very wide, so I can only do that so much. So sometime I have to just sit.
When I checked the hose, there was no leak, but there was coolant coming from the radiator. Right near that bendable mount I mentioned earlier. There is a lot of corrosion on the bike and the radiator, from all the riding in the winter with the salted roads, which may have contributed to the leak. It is not a bad leak, but hard to tell just how much fluid is being lost as this is one of those systems with an unpressurized remote reservoir. That means that if it loses fluid, it is supposed to get it from this reservoir when it cools down and a vacuum is created. If there is a leak in the system, it can suck air in rather than take fluid from the reservoir so you cannot always easily tell how much it is using. I will wait until it cools down to look.
At home, the radiator is $600. But it could take months to get (see parts above). Here, the part is $800 but labor is quite reasonable and they can do the work on Friday. Well, that was the plan. I have a tire change scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday), and I am not 100% sure it is the radiator (98% sure) AND the radiator cannot be returned if ordered. If I don't order the part until tomorrow, I may not be able to get the work done until Monday. If I plan on Friday and it turns out not to be the radiator I have an expensive piece of useless metal to dispose of. I will let them look at it tomorrow. It will cost a total of $900 to replace if no other problems crop up. Not a bad amount relative to some bikes. A lot of money relative to the bike's worth. I have put just under 4,000 miles on the bike on this trip. Really, it has paid for itself, but it is worth fixing. But this is how you end up spending $10,000 for a $2,000 bike. Something breaks that is expensive, but worth doing, sort of. Then something else big but not too big breaks. Next thing you know, you have ten thousand dollars into the bike.
I don't feel bad about this repair. It is physical damage and not due to the bike being old. The bike has been working great, and it is not time to give up on it.
Will I make it to Copenhagen by Saturday as planned? Not likely. Still, put in a little ground black pepper and carry a lot of fluid and I might be fine for thousands of more miles. Google says Copenhagen is an 11 hour drive away (about 600 miles). Well, there are ferries, and traffic, and other issues. If they were able to get the work done by noon on Friday, I could be in Copenhagen Saturday evening. But I am not counting on that. Going to Lithuania through Poland is an option, but it adds 7 hours to the drive. Going via copenhagen means less driving, but a long ferry. And these are Google Estimates. Reality in Europe is a lot worse.
There is a Triumph dealer in Riga, Latvia. I talked to them about tires and they sounded pretty good. They could probably have a radiator by the time I get there. That may also be an option, but still have the issue if I order the part, and I cannot make it there, I may still have to pay for the part.
There are radiator shops pretty much everywhere in the world. They can usually fix a leaky radiator, as long as it is not too bad. I may look into one of those. New and quick is good. Safing a bunch of money is also good.
Of course, I could always get a small car radiator and wire tie it to the bike. Or bungee cord it to the back seat.
Bob L