Its been a Tough two weeks

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 5:10 am

This is my tale of woe about the two weeks leading up to a planned ride with Petrat and Moto Canada

A little over two weeks ago I started getting the bike prepared for this particular ride. I swapped out the left handlebar control as the turn signals were not working properly. Of course none of the replacement bulbs from Canadian Tire would blink, they would come on and stay on. Three trips and three different bulbs later and all with the same result. It then dawned on me that I had read on this site that if the bulbs dont draw enough current they wont flash. The solution being to put in an electronic flasher. Well I happened to have one of those fine things and sure enough it worked. It was on to the drive chain for an adjustment. My next ride was out to Darrens place and then on out for dinner. On the way to his place the chain just didnt feel right, the bike shifted funny and made a noise on deceleration. When I got to Darrens we readjusted as I guess I had it too tight. Everything seemed Ok after that until about three days later. I was returning from the Show and Shine, on a nice semi rural road when the drive chain decided that it was time to spit itself out the back. Didnt get far after that. Thank God for fellow bikers. One pulled up after I had spent about twenty minutes with the mosquitos. We wrestled the bike into the back of his truck and he got us both home safe and sound. The next day I installed a new chain. I figured this would be a good time to install the proper rear wheel that has a brand new BT45 on it. As I was swapping the brake disc onto the new wheel, one of the studs snapped off. Now I have to switch all the stuff back over to the old wheel and I guess I will be riding on a bald tire again. A few days after installing the new chain I went for ride with a friend from work. We got about twenty minutes into the ride when I started hearing a rattle on deceleration. It didnt sound very nice. I called off the ride and headed straight home. It was really weird as the bike seemed to run fine, it just made this funny noise. I had figured something had buggered up when I replaced the chain but when I had a chance to look at it the noise was definately coming from the area of the cam chain tunnel. By the way, this is now the Monday before the upcoming ride. After pulling off the valve cover it was immediately apparent what the problem was. The tensioner on the cam chain that connects the two cams was hanging straight down and rubbing on the main chain. The adjusting rod had snapped right off. I ran straight to the local dealer and got there just before they closed. My new tensioner arrived on Wednesday, and I spent the evening pulling cams and installing the new tensioner. This took longer than I had anticipated so I left the cams out until Thursday figuring I had lots of time. Thursday evening everything is rolling along fine, cams are going in easy and the timing is lining up without a problem. It was time to take all the cam cap bolts down to their final torque. The last bolt, I mean the very last bolt just spun and spun, it never really took any tension, so I can only guess that it was messed up previously. Of course this particular bolt wasnt in an accessible place so I spent numerous hours on Friday dismantling things enough to move the engine into a position where we could get at it. Petrat came over on Saturday and we worked about six hours tapping a new hole and putting things back together again.
I owe Darren alot. It was a tough night, and neither of us got much sleep. We must have done something right as the bike ran wonderful and there wasnt a single problem the whole 600kms. It was a great ride and it was great to meet MotoCanada.
Karl

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:15 am

Wow, once in a while these things will have their way with you. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 8:56 pm

What a week...It really is good to have friends...and on the ride you must have felt real good knowing things were replaced and done right with the bike performing well. Thanks for sharing with us, we all get in situations that really test's us with these "f"s Cool

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:00 am

And I thought I had it bad last Friday, I went for a lakeshore ride, destination Port Dover. I came upon some road constuction, where the pavement was completely gone. The gravel they had laid down for the new road bed seemed rolled over enough where I could do 50 K/hr without too much dust being kicked up. Then I came to a section that hadn't been rolled, it was quite soft and to make matters worse, the water truck was spraying the road bed to keep the dust down.
By the time I had gotten to the end of the construction, my bike was a mess. When I pulled over to check things out, I noticed my right side chain adjust bolt and cap were very loose.
I had just put on a new back tire a couple of days before this ride and I failed to tighten the rear axle nut enough. Using the rear brake was causing my back wheel to twist. I found a marine shop where they lent me some tools to readjust my chain and tighten up the rear axle nut properly.
Further down the road, a wasp got into my helmet. Needless to say, I pulled over and removed my helmet before I got stung. When I hit the starter button, it barely turned over. My battery wasn't being charged. I had this same problem back in May, the rotor went 'open circuit'
I bump started the bike and decided to head straight home. I was about 140 kms from home at this point.
When I did get the bike going and checked the headlight to see if reving the engine changed the brightness at all, I noticed my high beam was non functional.
To lessen the load on the battery, I left it on HB and started home. Then came the next problem, I wan't going to have enough gas to get home, and stopping for gas would mean another bump start attempt.
I decided to push my luck and just keep the rpms down and get the best economy I could.
Unfortunately, the battery lost enough juice to finally shut the igniton system down, about 60kms from home. I pulled in the clutch and coasted into a trailer park. I had purchased a cell phone last time my bike quit, so at least I could call CAA. It ONLY took 1 1/2 hours for them to finally show up with a flat bed.
When I got home, I checked the rotor with my ohmmeter, and sure enough, there was no reading between the slip rings.
I hope I haven't done any damage to the rectifier/ regulator by running the bike without the charging system working.
I did hook up my battery tender, got the battery fully charged and it started right up.
Sorry for the hijack disen chanted, but I was feeling that way last Friday myself!!!!

Cheers!
Chris

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:12 am

disen_chanted wrote:

I owe Darren alot

No you don't Wink

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:55 am

Hey Petrat, Thanks for the offers of beers before I headed out here but the time factor was too small. I was hoping to be back by the end of this month but due to 'other things' it now looks like mid October. Maybe a chance for the Ottawa crew to do a fall ride to Calibogie or a run to Doc's place in Watertown? Yesterday I met a Flight Engineer on the Chinook helo's out of Petawawa. He rides a 92 Yamaha FJ1200 and has property by Calibogie Lake. He drew out some roadmaps on some scrap paper of the area with his ride recomendations. Remember when we stopped at that Swiss resturant? A little further up that road was the Pancake House and he recommended it for lunch.

I'll have a few issues on my bike as well finishing up the gold boomerang install but 1st I'll have to drop by Dis_enchanted's bar to hear his tale of woe first hand. It's very dry here and I already have a thirst, can't imagine what it will be like come October!

These things always come in threes so let me know when it's safe to come home cause I sure don't need the pain and suffering of a pissed off F that has not run in a couple of months.

Ride safe gents, ride safe! beerchug

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:29 pm

Fitter wrote:

Hey Petrat, Thanks for the offers of beers before I headed out here but the time factor was too small. I was hoping to be back by the end of this month but due to 'other things' it now looks like mid October. Maybe a chance for the Ottawa crew to do a fall ride to Calibogie or a run to Doc's place in Watertown? Yesterday I met a Flight Engineer on the Chinook helo's out of Petawawa. He rides a 92 Yamaha FJ1200 and has property by Calibogie Lake. He drew out some roadmaps on some scrap paper of the area with his ride recomendations. Remember when we stopped at that Swiss resturant? A little further up that road was the Pancake House and he recommended it for lunch.

I'll have a few issues on my bike as well finishing up the gold boomerang install but 1st I'll have to drop by Dis_enchanted's bar to hear his tale of woe first hand. It's very dry here and I already have a thirst, can't imagine what it will be like come October!

These things always come in threes so let me know when it's safe to come home cause I sure don't need the pain and suffering of a pissed off F that has not run in a couple of months.

Ride safe gents, ride safe! beerchug

Just give me a few days notice and I'll be ready ...... any help you need just let me know Wink

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:28 am

Fitter wrote:

Hey Petrat, Thanks for the offers of beers before I headed out here but the time factor was too small. I was hoping to be back by the end of this month but due to 'other things' it now looks like mid October. Maybe a chance for the Ottawa crew to do a fall ride to Calibogie or a run to Doc's place in Watertown? Yesterday I met a Flight Engineer on the Chinook helo's out of Petawawa. He rides a 92 Yamaha FJ1200 and has property by Calibogie Lake. He drew out some roadmaps on some scrap paper of the area with his ride recomendations. Remember when we stopped at that Swiss resturant? A little further up that road was the Pancake House and he recommended it for lunch.

I'll have a few issues on my bike as well finishing up the gold boomerang install but 1st I'll have to drop by Dis_enchanted's bar to hear his tale of woe first hand. It's very dry here and I already have a thirst, can't imagine what it will be like come October!

These things always come in threes so let me know when it's safe to come home cause I sure don't need the pain and suffering of a pissed off F that has not run in a couple of months.

Ride safe gents, ride safe! beerchug

Fitter, never trust a Helo FE! Do hang out with him, though, they're fun to watch, especially after a couple of beers (probably have to wait till you get home for that part, eh?) Stay Safe, brother!

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:28 pm

We will miss all you Canadians at the Fall ride, hopefully the weather will be nice. Stay safe Fitter and we will take plenty of pictures! Hopefully see you in the spring. Very Happy