Can you believe it? There's a Yamaha dealership right in Bullhead City!!! For real. It's called Desert Motorsports and I do believe things are looking up. A dealer who can get parts and has mechanics who know the Raider - too good to be true AND it's only a mile down the road from where Ruby's stored as well!!!
So we hop into the trusty Hyundai (hey, that kind of rhymes) and set sail for our salvation. We get to the store and well, not big but there are some cruiser motorcycles out front - Yamaha V-Star and a Roadliner. When we walk inside though, echoes abound because the showroom is EMPTY! One Yamaha Wave Runner and that's it. Still, it's a dealership and they have mechanics and parts - WRONG! The guy behind the counter, Jim Box, informs me they shut down the dealership (can you believe $16K/month to retain rights to sell Yamahas in Bullhead City?) and summer's so slow for motorcycle riding that they don't have a mechanic on staff. He can try to get us some parts though, but probably tough for the Raider. We were already told we'd be driving to Vegas to pick up any parts we might be able to snag, and it's only 100 miles one way.
He starts calling around - nope, nope, nope, and nope. Everywhere he called was "backorder with no estimated ship date." But he has a guy he calls his "Parts Bloodhound." "If he can't find it," he says, "it ain't in the country." A half hour later, the Bloodhound calls back and he's picked up the scent but it might be expensive. He asks if I want to pursue it and I say, "Take the leash off that dog and let him run!!!" Well, he found a Raider S wheel (not an assembly, just the wheel) and tire and can get it to us Thursday (it's Tuesday now and we were supposed to be back in LA Wednesday) IF we overnight it. "Let's do it" I say and pay the $80 shipping, which I think is quite a deal for overnighting both pieces.
Jim Box calls later and informs me that Yamaha is charging him $295 to overnight them to his warehouse! Am I surprised? At this point, NOPE. Oh, did I mention all of this is on Tracey's birthday? Happy Birthday Honey, you won't be getting those diamond earrings this year. hahaha Anyway, I agree because I don't see another option. I mean, I feel some short hairs being pulled in a place we won't discuss but is there really a choice? The parts will be here Thursday a.m. - we'll hit the road Friday.
We head down to Arizona Performance Cycles to arrange installation of said parts and the mechanic informs me they probably can't reuse the bearings and for sure not the seals. Uh oh, didn't think of that one. I quickly call Jim and he orders the bearings and seals - no problemo. Geez, did I really think that? What would make me think things would go right now? Sure enough, Jim calls back saying the bearings/seals missed the FedEx truck deadline and will arrive Friday a.m. Back to Harrah's front desk we go to see about ANOTHER extension for our room.
Oh well, at least things are rolling now. At least we have a plan of action and things are happening. We call our respective workplaces and let them know the situation (riding back Saturday). We go back to Harrah's (after swinging by Budget to also extend our trusty Hyundai) for more relaxation and to celebrate Tracey's birthday.
We take advantage of the $50 food credit Harrah's gave us to enjoy a VERY nice dinner at the Range Steakhouse. Ahhh, finally feels like we're on a vacay now and we have all day Wednesday with nothing to do. When life throws ya lemons, make lemonade, right? On a positive note, poker's going well for me - at least we're not losing money there. In fact, I'm up a little over $600 at this point so life is good. Wednesday's only a day away though and Rod Sterling's still in town.........
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