The last straw...

[planedick]

I'm gonna join the AMA roadside assistance program. I decided to take a short ride to Corona this AM and it happened to me for the first time. Flat tire on the freeway, #$&^%*@)&^%$ and tools too difficient to even get the wheel off. It ended up being an all day ordeal, but with some really good things. I called upon an old friend to help and he came with tools and helped remove the rear wheel and let me use his truck for the day to go to Fullerton to get a new tire and take it to a shop in Corona to mount. A man never knows who his friends are until he needs one. I'm a lucky guy I guess because of that and I found a great deal on Dunlop 491 Elite II's on sale this week only for $64.99, so I bought two, the other for the friend, who is the same person who bought the "Ageless Rocket", and it will need a rear tire real soon.

[Ken Talbot]

Yes, but think of it this way. If you had AMA roadside assistance, you probably would not have hooked up with your old friend, you probably wouldn't have got such a sweet deal on the tire for yourself, and your other friend probably wouldn't be getting the sweet deal on a tire for him too. Sometimes things are just meant to happen. Daniel writes about this kind of stuff all the time....

[Pain]

I have AAA, the RV program that covers motorcycles. It is nice to have, to know that it is there.

When I blew the engine on my H last year, I didn't call. I found a parking lot (Not knowing that the engine was blown, of course, just that it was running rough, and leaking oil), took a lot of the bike apart. People stopped. I got free oil from the owner of the garage whose lot I stopped in. I even managed to limp the bike home. It made for a interesting day, and one that my SO (who was with me at the time, and showed extraordinary patience) and I now remember and laugh about.

Perfect days make for great pictures, but disaster makes for better stories. It is good to have both.

[planedick]

Things I found out...

One thing this ordeal taught me is that I should go over this bike real good with a set of wrenches. When we got ready to take off the wheel, I found the nut on the main bolt was only finger tight. Good thing the cotter key was there and now the bike is much better handling. After the ordeal yesterday, I came home and took a wrench to other things and found many other things not tight, spark plugs, header pipes, front brake disc, etc. I think I need to excersize my torque wrench all day.

[webbcraft2150]

Flats on the road are truly a pain. I don't know if you have tube or tubeless tires. If youhave the tubeless style, check out the plug kits the cycle shops sell. They come with the plug tool, plugs, glue and co2 cartridges with a tire valve adapter. While I have never used mine on my bike, yet, I have had two incidents where I have stopped to help a fellow biker with a flat. Usually had em going within 30-45mins. The last guy I helped with a new K1200 drove on the patch job the rest of the weekend (Aspencade in Ruidoso NM.) Funny thing was if he caught me at a watering hole during that rally, I didn't have to spend a dime! I did caution him to have the tire professionally repaired or replaced ASAP. He was a little miffed that his 22k scooter didn't come with one. I told him flat tires don't care what your riding, or how much it cost.

Of course if you a tube type tire, you day is just plain ruined.

(This post is not an authorization for "Murphy" to sneak a nail in my Elite II's just 'cause I piped up about no street flats )

[planedick]

'78 E = Tube....

Tube type and yes, the day was ruined. While in Texas we went for a ride on Sat with a stop at the cemetary and I told Dave I would take care of his baby and he could ride with me anytime. I don't know if he's riding with me, but I think he is testing my luck and sometimes having a little fun. ie, This model has a light switch on the rt handlebar. Haynes says that even with the switch in the off position, the light should come on when the engine starts. Well, it works when it wants to and always while I'm trying to troubleshoot it. I've have always been a good electrical diagnostics technician, that's what feeds us, and I can tell you for sure that the hardest to find problems are of the intermittent type. GGGrrrrrrrrrrr This thing about finding lots of things loose is somewhat disturbing.

[DiverRay]

The loose bolts are from use. I KNOW all the bolts on daily ride are tight, but I STILL find bolts that work loose. Going over the bolts once a month, if you ride like I do, is S.O.P. You probably had a LOT of the bolts work loose on the trailer, as the vibrations from the road are a LOT different than when riding.
Ray

[planedick]

Good theory, but...

Sounds like that might be it, except it hasn't been ridden much at all and, the axle bolt had a cotter key in it to keep it from turning, thankfully, and spark plugs coming loose??? Really sounds like it was in the middle of some work when Dave left us and of course no-one knew except him. So far he has let me find these things without anything serious happening like losing things like wheels on the freeway. Maybe he is riding with me.

[skippy344]

This is totally a Dave stunt!

There has not been a ride that we went on that he didn't have to stop and fix something. It usually turned out being something he was messing with the night before.

So, I always carried a bag of tools and even bought him a canvas bag so he could carry his too!

It never stopped us from riding, though. We may have cut the ride short, but we always rode.

I think that Pathfinder wants to be an AMF Harley when it grows up. You know, before every ride, you gotta tighten all the bolts!

greg