D
DanTheMan
Guest
Two weeks ago Tuesday, I was riding my bike, only about a 280 mile round trip. I went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, MN (90 miles) for my scheduled appointment, then I had a couple other stops to make before heading home. My bike had been doing a little clanking from the rear for awhile, but I needed to change the tire pretty soon so I figured I'd diagnose and take care of that problem then. I suspected splines, but I misdiagnosed that one! Heading toward my last stop of the day before heading my butt home, I smelled hot rubber, and started experiencing a very bad vibration. I pulled onto the shoulder of the freeway, checked the driveshaft tube.......burned my fingers through the summer gloves I was wearing. My ujoint was now in self destruct mode. I'm sure one of things that hastened it's demise were unmarked "bumps" of newly surfaced road versus spots that hadn't been done yet. My suspension was getting a major workout from it, which was really flexing my ujoint.
On with the tale, my last stop was at my wife's cousin's house in Big Lake. I still had close to 30 miles to go to be in her driveway. I rode down the shoulder of the freeway at speeds no greater than 30 mph, and then the same on surface roads to her house, infuriating the drivers behind me, especially since I wasn't riding a scooter or a moped. I was in luck when I got to her house since she still had the trailer in her driveway that she used to transport the little Yamaha 250cc bike I had found for her. It was a very hot day, so I sat in her air conditioned comfort for awhile and ate some lunch before we loaded it up and hauled it the 120 miles to my house. She had no problem with that as I've helped her out several times.:victorious:
Now, I was in a quandary, I had nearly a week of working into the wee hours of the morning working on our house, getting it ready for the realtor to put it on the market, and no time to work on the bike. I have the parts but not the time.....could almost be a country song, huh? So, as I was lining up a friend of mine who has somewhat of a rep for being a good mechanic on bikes and cars, I remembered another friend of mine who might still have a Honda (oh no, that's the dark side, isn't it?),an '86 Goldwing GL1200 Aspencade SEi that he wanted to sell since he upgraded to newer bigger 'Wing. The reason I really needed another bike was that I use my bike primarily for transportation once the ice is out of my driveway and it's warmer than 28 deg. F. Also, my wife and I left on vacation last Thursday for a Nashville trip. The 4th ship I was stationed on, the USS Ajax AR-6 is having a reunion here, and my bike goes on the combination car dolly trailer behind the motor home when we travel. So, now, I have added a Honda to my stable, the GS will get repaired, but not immediately when we get back home because I have a bike to ride now. The "Wing rides differently, it's kind of like the difference between a Cadillac Fleetwood and a Pontiac Firebird that's set up for performance. Both nice, but not the same, I guess I've joined the "geezer" club now...
Oh yeah, pictures of the new ride:
My wife in the pillion spot and our puppy riding in his spot. He loves riding motorcycle, here's a picture of him on the GS:
I'm enjoying the hot weather here in Nashville, my wife not so much. We head north tomorrow.
On with the tale, my last stop was at my wife's cousin's house in Big Lake. I still had close to 30 miles to go to be in her driveway. I rode down the shoulder of the freeway at speeds no greater than 30 mph, and then the same on surface roads to her house, infuriating the drivers behind me, especially since I wasn't riding a scooter or a moped. I was in luck when I got to her house since she still had the trailer in her driveway that she used to transport the little Yamaha 250cc bike I had found for her. It was a very hot day, so I sat in her air conditioned comfort for awhile and ate some lunch before we loaded it up and hauled it the 120 miles to my house. She had no problem with that as I've helped her out several times.:victorious:
Now, I was in a quandary, I had nearly a week of working into the wee hours of the morning working on our house, getting it ready for the realtor to put it on the market, and no time to work on the bike. I have the parts but not the time.....could almost be a country song, huh? So, as I was lining up a friend of mine who has somewhat of a rep for being a good mechanic on bikes and cars, I remembered another friend of mine who might still have a Honda (oh no, that's the dark side, isn't it?),an '86 Goldwing GL1200 Aspencade SEi that he wanted to sell since he upgraded to newer bigger 'Wing. The reason I really needed another bike was that I use my bike primarily for transportation once the ice is out of my driveway and it's warmer than 28 deg. F. Also, my wife and I left on vacation last Thursday for a Nashville trip. The 4th ship I was stationed on, the USS Ajax AR-6 is having a reunion here, and my bike goes on the combination car dolly trailer behind the motor home when we travel. So, now, I have added a Honda to my stable, the GS will get repaired, but not immediately when we get back home because I have a bike to ride now. The "Wing rides differently, it's kind of like the difference between a Cadillac Fleetwood and a Pontiac Firebird that's set up for performance. Both nice, but not the same, I guess I've joined the "geezer" club now...
Oh yeah, pictures of the new ride:
My wife in the pillion spot and our puppy riding in his spot. He loves riding motorcycle, here's a picture of him on the GS:
I'm enjoying the hot weather here in Nashville, my wife not so much. We head north tomorrow.
