Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Tue, 04 Mar 2008

It was all going so well, too

I went out for my fourth breakin ride tonight, in high spirits. I'd put 56 miles on the newly rebuilt engine, and aside from fouled plugs the last time, it was going pretty well.

There was some initial trouble with jetting, which I was able to solve by making a simple adjustment to the carburetors. Eventually, the idle got pretty terrible, and I had to keep the engine above 4000 RPM at stoplights or it'd sputter and die. Fortunately, that was mostly solved by replacing the plugs.

Then, at about 9 miles into this ride, I noticed that the rear brake (the only one that lights the brake light) felt strangely soft. I pulled over to investigate, and discovered that a vital nut, which was part of the system that held the brake steady, had disappeared, and the brake plate was rotated around -- that explained the strange softness. I retrieved the special bolt, which was fortunately still there. Of course, the problem with this is that someone (such as myself) should have safety-wired that nut in place before the first time the bike was rolled out of the garage.

When I stopped to grab the bolt (having not realized at the first stop that it could now disappear as well, which would have actually been quite disasterous), I also noticed that the left rear turn signal was hanging at an odd angle: its mounting bolt was backed most of the way out. I tightened it as best I could, and decided that it was definitely time to go home.

I made it home without further incident, although when I got to my garage, I noticed that I had arrived in a much more substantial cloud of smoke than I liked. I shut the bike off, and a quick inspection revealed that the front of the engine was covered in oil. Once I got it inside and under the light, I could see that the special bolt which holds the camchain adjustment had disappeared as well. Arg! Again, some certain bike rebuilder should have double-checked that the locknut on the special bolt was tight so it wouldn't vibrate out (although I thought I'd done this).

So, all told, not the best ride tonight. And now I see that Bike Bandit (a parts website) lists the special bolt I lost as being discontinued. Double-arg! Definitely done for the night.

Posted at 21:42 permanent link category: /motorcycle

Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.