Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Sled Broke

Today was my third STOP shift this season. I was out with Francis, our fine O.P.P. coordinator, on Wednesday and Thursday. Today, we met at 8:00 at the Great Sudbury Police facility in Azilda. It was still quite cold when four STOP guys and a GSPS constable headed out.

First incident happened as I was leading from Azilda to Chelmsford. The trail was tabletop flat as I rode tight to the right side. Then there was a whack and a sapling removed most of my brand new right hand rear view mirror.

We patrolled Chelmsford, Azilda and Garson, stopping well over 100 sleds. Most were just fine. Then, on the way back to Azilda about 6:00 PM, in the pitch dark, the MXZ lost all its lights. No headlight, taillight, brakelight or instrument lights. And no tach, backup beeper or heated grips. But it ran fine and the electric start still worked.

I followed one sled back to Azilda with another guarding me from behind. We got in, loaded on the trailer and took it home. A phone call to my usual fixer, Charlie, led me to believe this was a stator problem and it would be necessary to take it to the dealer. I'll do this when I get back from down south on Tuesday.

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