Two weeks and 600 miles...

Two weeks and 600 miles finds the motorcycle incapacitated and on the lift. It was just a flat rear tire, but I didn't find the flat until late Saturday afternoon as I was leaving for a Club event. Luckily I'm 2 deep with motorcycles at the moment, so I parked the new bike and took the old bike.

I had an appointment set up for Tuesday to get the 600 mile service done so at the Club event I asked around if any body had a tube that would fit my bike. It was suggested to call Dave Clark at Forever Endeavor Cycles, The shop was just a couple of minutes down the road and was still open. He didn't have a new tube, but did have a used one with plenty of life life in it and it was free for the taking. Dave left it outside the shop so I could pick it up when ever I got there. Art had a set of tire irons and volunterred time sunday to help me change it.

Saturday night my job was to remove the offending wheel, so out comes the tool kit and owners manual. Owners manual passed, it had the proper procedure for removal and installation of the offending wheel. The tool kit on the other had FAILED miserably, it was missing a wrench in the correct size to fit the axle nut. It turned out that the axel nut was a 26mm, not a size most people have laying around. I have a very nice selection of tool's in metric and standard, but it seems that most socket sets go from 24mm to 27mm, skipping the needed 26mm. My local Sears Hardware Store doesn't keep 26mm sockets in-stock, special order only. I got the wheel off using my adjustable metric wrench.

The tire had a 1 1/2 inch fine thread drywall screw in it. I probably have a few of those laying around someplace, so it could have been introduced to the tire in my very own garage. I was a little bit suspicious of the old bike, the past two weeks was the longest time period that it had not been started since early march of this year. I suspected it had gotten jealous of the new bike, and set it up for a flat tire. I do hope they learn to get along. I don't recall ever getting a flat on the old bike in my 13+ years of ownership.

On Sunday morning there was a handful of tire irons, plenty of grunting and some baby powder involved getting the tube changed out. A big thanks to Art for the time and tools on a Sunday morning.

I will be purchasing a 26mm socket in the very near future, as I'm sure this won't be the last time I will need the wheel off. It also looks like I will be cutting a $25 wrench in half so that I can get the wheels off the bike while traveling.

See you on the road.

GAW