Chicago
02 May 2024
The glorious Wisconsin spring has given way to unforecasted rain storms, moving rapidly from south-west to north-east. At 08:00, it’s teeming and set to get worse over the next two hours, according to Apple’s iPhone weather app. For the second time in three days, I attempt to outrun the weather and succeed, only for the day to unfold badly.
Fifty miles from Chicago, the temperatures rise rapidly to 30ºC from 8ºC in Spring Green, just over a hundred miles north. With it, the coolant temperature of the bike rises to about 95ºC. Not a cause for concern per se but the normal operating range is 85ºC to 90ºC.
I’m due at Motoworks, BMW’s Chicago connection at 15:00 to book the bike in for its 48,000-mile service. 10 miles away, I get stuck in traffic on the I-90 freeway. The temperature rises to 110ºC and beyond. The gauge turns red and starts flashing. As I get off the freeway at the next exit. It's reading 124ºC. This is serious.
I park up at a gas station and blue fluid gushes out from the bottom of the fairing. Either the radiator or a hose has blown. Regardless, it’s not going any further today.
Again, the North American BMW dealer network takes the problem in its stride. I call Motoworks and Jordan dispatches a recovery truck. Within an hour, it’s been picked up. They will investigate first thing in the morning.
Meanwhile, weighed down like a pack horse, I trudge to nearby Harlem station. The forty-minute ride into town, courtesy of the Chicago Transit Authority costs $2.50 compared to $105 and 90 minutes that an Uber would take.
Despite the breakdown, I still consider myself slightly fortunate. To get so close to my destination meant recovery by Motoworks was possible. Then I was virtually next to a subway station that took me to within a five-minute walk of my hotel.
Apart from this major failure, there are several other minor faults that have developed. The engine is also now noticeably rougher than usual, but that might be because it needs a major service. I expected a dealer-maintained-from-new, regardless-of-expense BMW to take this trip in its stride, but it just hasn’t.
Too much rain, too often; temperatures too high or too low, and maybe, too many miles in too little time. Jeremy Clarkson is fond of saying how he believes machines have souls. He may be right, and I may have asked too much of this one.
And then there’s my kit: A Rukka Nivala jacket, two pairs of Daytona GTX and TCX boots. Bikers will recognise these as premium products but the US weather has destroyed them all.
As I sit in the Industry Ales pub, off South Wabash Avenue by the famous loop, licking my wounds, I open the Michelin app and a forest of rated restaurants pop up.
As it’s close, I wander to the Purple Pig, slide onto a bar-stool and order Arancini with mushroom, Parmigiano cheese and black truffle followed by crispy chicken with bacon, potatoes and cauliflower, washed down with a half-bottle of rosé from the Sangiovese grape.
There are worse cities to be broken down in.
03 May 2024
My bike was stored overnight close to where it failed as Motoworks have a facility nearby. They advised the afternoon traffic is always so bad on I-90, they wouldn’t make the twenty-four-mile round-trip to and from the workshop in what remained of the working day. And it was only 14:30 when I called them… I thought London traffic was bad but this is on another level.
I check the location of the bike at 08:30 via the tracker. They have already delivered to the workshop, a few miles from downtown. I get an email a few minutes later with a revised estimate. The recovery service was $150 and it seems like the repair was $481. Ouch - but it could be worse so I reply, authorising the work.
Not so fast: Wilfred’s email by return explains this is the diagnostic charge only…the repair will be on top of this. Further evidence that owning and running a BMW motorcycle is a much more expensive proposition in the USA than at home.
It will take a few hours to find the problem and identify the root cause so I book onto the Wendella ‘original’ Chicago river tour. It is far and away the best way to get a view of the magnificent architecture on which the city rightly prides itself. The narrative and anecdotes from the guide are well up to the usual very high standard of US tourist attractions.
Taking decent photos is tricky though, as there is a no standing or walking around rule, so other people clutter up the view. The vistas will just have to remain imprinted on the imagination. Well worth doing, if you are visiting, whether or not you need a distraction from fretting about a broken motorcycle and the potential jeopardy of the tour overall.
Around 17:00, Jordan phones me with the news. He didn’t want to call me until they’d established the root cause of the problem. A forensic level of investigation reveals a thermostatic valve has seized.
Parts will be ordered and be delivered by Tuesday afternoon at the latest. Work should be completed that day, or by Wednesday late morning. To give them some contingency, I suggest I extend my stay in Chicago by another five nights.
Not only is this really expensive but the mid-western weather is closing in again after Saturday. Great: four days cooped up in a grotty hotel (three nights at $195 per night and two at $280 for a Travelodge that is - frankly - shit) while it pisses down with rain outside.
No thanks; I like Chicago very much but not that much, and not in these conditions. The bike problems have cast a shadow over this visit so I want to get away from the city for now.
I call my friends in Florida to see if I can come for a few days. They are around until next Thursday so I book flights to and from West Palm Beach, leaving early afternoon the next day, Saturday, returning on Wednesday evening.
By now I’m getting hungry. Having learned earlier on the boat trip that Chicago is the home of the skyscraper, I remember it also claims to be home of the pizza so I search out the city’s finest. Giordano’s keeps coming up online and is famous for their ‘deep pan’ version. I’ve never been that keen on this variant but reason that this might be the place to come to a definitive view.
And it’s perfectly edible but no more. Seeming of English rather than Italian heritage insofar it really is a pie, albeit populated with Italian ingredients. Notwithstanding I’m definitely of the thin & crispy persuasion, it’s barely up to Pizza Express standards. And not in the same league as Del Popolo in San Francisco a few weeks ago, despite being in the same ball-park, price-wise, at $70. This is a ridiculous amount of money when, in this city, for another $30 or so, you can eat at the likes of the Purple Pig.
I drop my bags in at Motoworks the following morning. I ask Jordan if I’m asking too much of the bike.
“Not really” is his considered view. He goes on to make the perfectly valid point that, in the last two months, I have covered what is average mileage for three years. What I’ve experienced is issues that are par for the course for a bike with this mileage, but telescoped into a very short period.
So with that, I jump on a bus and subway to O’Hare airport. The hire car I collect at Palm Beach International stinks of BO but less an hour later, I’m in Paula and Richard’s house, Mint Julip in hand, watching Richard and a friend of his lose money on the Kentucky Derby. After some seriously good steak and stunning wine, I slept the sleep of the dead on the most comfortable mattress for over two months.
Rising late, it’s raining again. In Florida. In May. Unheard of.
That’s it for now. Over and out until mid-next week.
07 May 2024 - Port Saint Lucie, Florida
Parts have been delivered on time. The bike is being put back together and will be ready by Thursday morning. The text from Jordan is unnerving though:
“You will definitely need a radiator replaced at some point. We cleaned it out as best we can but it’s full of gunk and seems to be disintegrating. We just won’t get one here fast enough to be able to make it all happen this go round.”
Resorting to Sales Training 101, I ask the question I fear the answer to: “What are my chances of doing the final 3,000 miles on it?” getting the response:
“Should make it just fine, just take care of it when you get it home. Right now it’s mostly just decreased efficiency.”
With that, I confirm my flight for the day after and book a motel by the airport. I’ve replanned my route to take account of the five lost days. Deere Isle in Maine, along with Cape Cod, Provincetown and Martha’s Vineyard will have to be for another day.