The Bun Cooler is always one of my favorite rides and rallies of the year. My first memory was of a member who needed to change his rear tire because the cords were showing. So the group found him a tire and he changed it in the parking lot that night...with about 35 people drinking their favorite beverages and giving him "advice" and encouragement.
I came into the Clearwater River area and Kamiah fairly late in the day. In fact, I was the last to show. By this time, the shadows were getting long. But it was a glorious finish to a long day. No traffic ahead of me. Just open road.
Saturday, the group headed out to Elk City...which is rather a pretentious name, because it is more of a hamlet than even a town. I stopped for a few minutes to take in the scenery.
More than once, I thought with the water raging like it was with spring runoff, that if I let my concentration slip, I'd be out in that water. Many places had no shoulder to speak of, and the bank was steep.
Then when we stopped at Elk City, one of the guys mentioned he heard a loud metallic sound coming from the bike. ???? Except for a couple of times when the rear wheel had felt like I'd run over a tar snake, the bike had felt perfect. Maybe it was just the rubber cushions inside the rear drive pulley. (My bike has a belt drive.) The bike does have almost 97,000 miles on it and they are the originals. I didn't give it much thought.
After lunch, we headed back to Kamiah and hit the corners fairly fast. I pulled into the gas station and noticed I heard a metallic clicking sound when I went on and off the throttle, taking up the slack in the drivetrain, or freeing it up. Again, my thoughts went to the rubber cushions. I pulled in for gas, moved the bike about 20 feet afterwards with no problem at all. Then I went to push it closer to the building...and it wouldn't budge. By luck probably, I got it to move a little and decided to ride it the couple miles to the KOA resort. I figured if it was going to die, at least it would be better there than in the grocery store parking lot.
I only got to about 3 mph on the way. It now sounded like someone shaking a bucket of loose spanners, along with times of someone standing on a cat's tail. Then there were times when it felt like someone was hitting the side of the bike with a 50 lb sledgehammer. And also a few times when I thought the rear wheel was loose and about to fall off...enough that I stopped once to confirm all was still attached.
I got into the parking lot and stopped when about 10 guys came over to check on me and the bike. We decided to park the bike up near one of the rooms. Coincidentally, I think it might've been the same place where the tire was changed a few years before. The bike wouldn't move. As I'd let the clutch out, the rear end just squatted down. Luckily, someone mentioned that perhaps by backing it up, we could free whatever was binding in the rear. That worked and we pushed it up to the parking area.
So now, what next? I can't ride it home. Greyhound doesn't even run through here, it seems. U-Haul doesn't even have anything in the area smaller than a 25 foot truck...and they were all closed.
That's where the COG group is so special. Nancy had driven over after breaking an arm and offered to bring me home...but she wasn't leaving till Monday. Jim and Glena invited me to stay with them for the night. And Steve said he had a motorcycle trailer I could borrow...and he only lives a few miles from my place. Wow! It all fell into place.
Now it wasn't all that easy from there still. Nancy and I left Jim and Glena's home early Monday. The drive was totally uneventful and worth spending the extra day to miss the traffic over the pass. I picked up the trailer from Steve that evening. And the next morning headed out to Kamiah once again. Jim offered to help me load the bike, which is good because it turned out I would've had a hard time by myself. We hit construction on US12 and I figure we lost about an hour and a half waiting for a pilot car to guide us through the construction area. By the time I got home to Lynnwood, it was 1 am the next morning.
In the driveway.
The offending parts. There was a nut on the end of that assembly. It had about 125 ft lbs of torque on it, plus thread locking compound.
This was the other half that came off once the nut was removed. The black portion holds the rubber cushions and should've just fallen apart once removed. It didn't. It took about 20-30 blows with a hammer and wooden block to get it apart. The grease on the bearing surface in there was dried and sticky.
Inside this, are a couple bearings. It is supposed to rotate freely, but it seems seized.
This is what it looks like inside. That assembly is about $1100 plus tax and probably shipping. Instead, I bought a used complete swing arm assembly off eBay for $299.
We talk about joining COG for the bike, and then staying for the relationships. The relationships are so important and what makes COG so special. I mentioned a few people here, but there were many more who also helped. Thank you.
Chris
I came into the Clearwater River area and Kamiah fairly late in the day. In fact, I was the last to show. By this time, the shadows were getting long. But it was a glorious finish to a long day. No traffic ahead of me. Just open road.
Saturday, the group headed out to Elk City...which is rather a pretentious name, because it is more of a hamlet than even a town.
I stopped for a few minutes to take in the scenery.
More than once, I thought with the water raging like it was with spring runoff, that if I let my concentration slip, I'd be out in that water. Many places had no shoulder to speak of, and the bank was steep.
Then when we stopped at Elk City, one of the guys mentioned he heard a loud metallic sound coming from the bike. ???? Except for a couple of times when the rear wheel had felt like I'd run over a tar snake, the bike had felt perfect. Maybe it was just the rubber cushions inside the rear drive pulley. (My bike has a belt drive.) The bike does have almost 97,000 miles on it and they are the originals. I didn't give it much thought.
After lunch, we headed back to Kamiah and hit the corners fairly fast. I pulled into the gas station and noticed I heard a metallic clicking sound when I went on and off the throttle, taking up the slack in the drivetrain, or freeing it up. Again, my thoughts went to the rubber cushions. I pulled in for gas, moved the bike about 20 feet afterwards with no problem at all. Then I went to push it closer to the building...and it wouldn't budge. By luck probably, I got it to move a little and decided to ride it the couple miles to the KOA resort. I figured if it was going to die, at least it would be better there than in the grocery store parking lot.
I only got to about 3 mph on the way. It now sounded like someone shaking a bucket of loose spanners, along with times of someone standing on a cat's tail. Then there were times when it felt like someone was hitting the side of the bike with a 50 lb sledgehammer. And also a few times when I thought the rear wheel was loose and about to fall off...enough that I stopped once to confirm all was still attached.
I got into the parking lot and stopped when about 10 guys came over to check on me and the bike. We decided to park the bike up near one of the rooms. Coincidentally, I think it might've been the same place where the tire was changed a few years before. The bike wouldn't move. As I'd let the clutch out, the rear end just squatted down. Luckily, someone mentioned that perhaps by backing it up, we could free whatever was binding in the rear. That worked and we pushed it up to the parking area.
So now, what next? I can't ride it home. Greyhound doesn't even run through here, it seems. U-Haul doesn't even have anything in the area smaller than a 25 foot truck...and they were all closed.
That's where the COG group is so special. Nancy had driven over after breaking an arm and offered to bring me home...but she wasn't leaving till Monday. Jim and Glena invited me to stay with them for the night. And Steve said he had a motorcycle trailer I could borrow...and he only lives a few miles from my place. Wow! It all fell into place.
Now it wasn't all that easy from there still. Nancy and I left Jim and Glena's home early Monday. The drive was totally uneventful and worth spending the extra day to miss the traffic over the pass. I picked up the trailer from Steve that evening. And the next morning headed out to Kamiah once again. Jim offered to help me load the bike, which is good because it turned out I would've had a hard time by myself. We hit construction on US12 and I figure we lost about an hour and a half waiting for a pilot car to guide us through the construction area. By the time I got home to Lynnwood, it was 1 am the next morning.
In the driveway.
The offending parts. There was a nut on the end of that assembly. It had about 125 ft lbs of torque on it, plus thread locking compound.
This was the other half that came off once the nut was removed. The black portion holds the rubber cushions and should've just fallen apart once removed. It didn't. It took about 20-30 blows with a hammer and wooden block to get it apart. The grease on the bearing surface in there was dried and sticky.
Inside this, are a couple bearings. It is supposed to rotate freely, but it seems seized.
This is what it looks like inside. That assembly is about $1100 plus tax and probably shipping. Instead, I bought a used complete swing arm assembly off eBay for $299.
We talk about joining COG for the bike, and then staying for the relationships. The relationships are so important and what makes COG so special. I mentioned a few people here, but there were many more who also helped. Thank you.
Chris
