#9363 Wings Over The Mountains of Life
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Meltdown
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Sitting in the barber's chair, the memory flooded back.
I could almost smell the smell of it, yet for some reason, I am
just getting the revelation.
I have a BMW RT1100 motorcycle. It is nine years old, but it
only has slightly over 4,000 miles on it. It still looks and
runs brand new. I just don't ride it very much now, but I've had
motorcycles since I was 14.
When the BMW had less than 1,000 miles on it, I did a very
stupid thing. It wasn't the first or the most recent very
stupid thing that I've done, but it was a very stupid thing.
I left it on high idle to warm up in the shed (I kept it in a
shed at the time) while I went inside for something and then I
forgot I left it idling.
Now that may not sound like a big deal, but it is a big deal for
an air-cooled motorcycle like mine. Sitting still with no air
moving around it on high idle is a formula for mechanical
disaster.
When I finally remembered an hour later that I had left my
motorcycle running and rushed back to it, it had shut down.
It wouldn't crank and there was the awful smell of something
burnt filling the shed.
I knew the engine had overheated and burned up who knows what.
I felt it was really bad. By bad, read very expensive to fix.
I had it towed to the dealership and after a couple of weeks I
got the news. It was only minor damage. Some type of safety
fuse had blown (or melted) and shut the engine down.
I went to pick the BMW up from the dealer and got on the
expressway headed home.
I didn't drive the same. It was different. It was very
different.
It was a LOT BETTER! The engine seemed more powerful and
quicker to respond. It didn't even seem like the same bike.
I called the dealer and talked to the mechanic. "Did you tune
up my motorcycle or something?" I asked. He explained to me
that they hadn't done anything beyond replacing the melted fuse
and that the excessive heat had simply broken the engine in.
It's been years since that event and only now does the full
revelation of it hit me, sitting here in the barber's chair.
We are often like that BMW RT1100. It takes some heat, some
strain, even the melting and breaking of some things to "break
us in" and get us ready to handle the road ahead.
After a traumatic event, for a truly well-engineered person,
we are stronger, faster, and more responsive. In a word, we are
better simply because of what we have been through and overcome.
Yes, it's scary and yes it's often painful but sometimes it is
the required break-in for the long haul.
Had any good meltdowns lately?
~A MountainWings Original~
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