The Rear is in Gear

Well, it's not really in gear per se, but the back tire is on! And you were probably thinking that because it took me eons to get the rear brake apart that it would take me forever to get it back together. Well you were wrong!

The drawback of it taking so long to get the bike back together is that I had to do a lot of referring to the manual to make sure I was getting everything back in the right place. Fortunately, I only had to put the sprocket on twice. Also, I'm not putting the cotter pins or torquing anything down until it's all together and lined up correctly. In particular, it looks like getting the rear brake pedal adjusted is going to take a bit of fiddling. The good news, however, is that it (the brake) seems to work fine even after my taking it apart and cleaning it up.

The next step is to get the front forks back together and get the front wheel back on. Then it will be looking like a proper motorcycle again!

Nail in the Tire

Wow - I dodged a bullet on this one. First of all, while I'm still working on my EV bike project, I do still need to get out and ride, so I do have an ICE bike. It's an old 85 Vulcan 700 - a cool bike. It was ahead of it's time in several ways (two spark plugs for each cylinder, auto canceling turn signals, hazard signal function, etc).

I just put this bike on the road recently and had to get a new back tire to pass inspection. No problem it's money well spent. Less than 200 miles later, I picked up a nail. What is more odd is the way in which it lodged in the tire. When I picked up the bike at the shop (they've been in business for years and have seen a lot of tires), they asked me if I had been shot at with a nail gun.

That tire was so new it still had the little nipple things in the center of the tire. *sigh*

The odd thing is that I remember when I picked it up. I was riding along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I started hearing a subtle but strange high pitched sound from the right hand side of the bike. Well, that's where the nail lodged. I had only been riding this bike for a short time, so I didn't stop and check. I wish I had - the last part of my ride had me doing over 60 MPH on a separated highway.

While I normally examine my tires from time to time to make sure that nothing is wrong, my wife beat me to it. She was down in the garage and said "OMG - look at that!".

So, I now have a new tire. I hate having to pay again, but it beats tire failure!