Cruising down the highway, my Dyna Super Glide humming along, I took in the vast open spaces of the Anatolian steppe. I’d just finished a long weekend of motorcycle camping, SCUBA diving, and general hellraising in the coastal town of Kaş. Sleeping under the stars in a hammock next to the sea did plenty to replenish the soul. The water was perfect, clear, and picturesque. The food and drink was as good as it gets in this part of the world. Overall, a solid weekend on the Mediterranean.

What was doing me no good was the knot developing in my back. Harley-Davidson did not build the Super Glide for the long hauls and I was around halfway through an eight hour ride. When I did stop, my body continued to vibrate for a few minutes after the bike stopped.

Thankfully, I was on my last fuel stop before home. I’d taken some amount of risk to make sure it was truly the last one. I spied a petrol station up ahead. So, with human and machine both running on fumes, I slowed down to pull off the highway. Trouble was that I was used to cruising at 70+mph. This caused me to misjudge my speed just as I noticed a gravel patch between the freeway and the asphalt pad.

The back tire skidded one way. Then the other. Back once more just for good measure. I dared not continue my turn without any grip on the Earth.

Straight down and out a culvert before finally regaining control. I hadn’t tipped the motorcycle but the whole fiasco was witness by the two station attendants who ran out to render assistance. Assuring them that I was OK, I went to put the kickstand down. It was a bit… floppy. The spring holding it against the frame had come loose and disappeared.

A multinational search party convened and promptly found the errant coil in the culvert where I’d done my best impersonation of a two-wheeled porpoise. Now the issue was reattaching it to the bike. It was too tight to pull by hand and there wasn’t a spring stretcher for miles. We put our bilingual heads together and eventually hit on inserting coins into the coils until it stretched to position. After about 1.65 Turkish lira, the spring was in place and I asked about the benzene situation.

They only sold diesel.