skreidle | Driving clutch-free, partying with family

On the way back to Manassas, my truck had an unexpected mishap. I was headed west on 66 (after making the arguably bad judgment call of not just heading back south on the Fairfax County Parkway and then west on Braddock), which was backed up past the FCP. See, it looked to be going about 35mph before I got to it, but it immediately slowed to 5-20mph. About 5 miles of this later, I decided to get off at 29, and take that back to Manassas. I got into the right lane, headed for the exit lane, and *pop*--my clutch failed. Clutch pedal ceased its job of disconnecting the engine from the transmission.

I pulled onto the shoulder, shut down, and started poking around--under the dash, under the hood, and under the truck; after about 10 minutes I concluded that the clutch pedal actuated a piston at the firewall, that ran a house/pipe into the tranmission--not much I could do with that. I called my dad back (he'd called minutes earlier to see where I was and to pass on the message to pick up some stuff from the house) and talked with him. He concluded that there was nothing I could really do on the side of the road, so I could try driving home w/o the clutch--possible, but potentially difficult--or have him come out and meet me so -he- could drive it back like that.

I opted for the former option, having never really done it before except the occasioal clutchless shift, based on his explanation of how to do so. Shifting out of gear is easy--remove load from the engine by easing off the gas, pop it into neutral Upshifting is pretty easy--pop into neutral, let the engine speed decrease to what feels the correct engine speed for the desired vehicle speed and target gear, and pop it into gear. Downshifting is similar, but with the gas to -increase- the engine speed to the right value--again, by feel. Starting, though--that's a little tougher. Turn off the engine, put it into 1st, and use the starter motor to start both the engine and the truck, and go from there. This is rather taxing on the starter and battery, so the risk is run of draining the battery in stop-and-go traffic. Thus, when stopping, it's best to pop it into neutral before coming to a stop, to leave the alternator charging the battery and leave the brakes pressurized.

The problem, as you may have surmised, is that all the traffic between Centreville and Manassas was stop-and-go. In retrospect, I probably would've done best by riding the shoulder of 66 at 2mph back to Manassas, but instead I took 29, hoping it would be more clear. Ha! It was atrocious, and I had to try to stop as little as possible on a road that would occasionally stop for minutes at a time, and had no shoulder to speak of. I rode with my flashers on, trying to let traffic get moving ahead of me--especially on uphill grades, downhill is easier, killing the engine whenever I had to stop--not gently, either, as if the engine speed gets too low, it's impossible to pop it out of 1st--and eventually getting home after 8, having left Lorton at around 6:20 for what should've been a 30-min trip. :P

I then donned motorcycle attire, and took my bike over to Steph and Matt's, where I found not only mom/dad/Shauna/Steph/Matt/Brendan/Kangaruby (grandmother), but also Steve (uncle) and Logan (cousin), and Mitch (uncle) and Evelyn (aunt). Food was waiting, much good conversation was had--a lot of it about motorcycles, which both of those uncles and their dad formerly rode--and we eventually parted ways around 10. (Some to stay at Steph&Matt's, some to go back to mom/dad's, and me back to Lorton.) I then caught an episode of Boomtown which Nathan had taped, and retired to my trust computer, where I'm IMing Melody and will get a call from her when she finishes a Support review. :)

Tomorrow, I'll head back to Manassas early-ish to help dad work on my truck, to greet the Steiners--long-time family friends, directly responsible for getting me in touch with RDR in the first place--and probably to help set up for the afternoon/evening birthday party for mom. :)

Chicago is overreacting. In some sort of hyperextended effort to curb "wild animal" bites, they're planning to ban ferrets, sugar gliders, iguanas, pythons, tarantulas, and hundreds of other animals, ranging from "actually dangerous" to "what are they smoking?" Were I in Chicago, and were this passed, I'd have to give away three of my seven animals, including my ever-so-vicious domestic ferrets.

Full text: http://www.livejournal.com/users/spikesleman/86489.html