So much for having a spare sidecar rig!

As I rode Valencia, my 2011 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig home with an ailing clutch on Thursday of this week, I was thinking to myself: "Good timing on the part of the Suzuki dealer, having Yoshie, my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom DL1000 Sidecar Rig ready for pickup".  Yoshie would function as my spare sidecar rig while Valencia awaited parts and the repairs scheduled for the 20th of the month.

Sigh, alas it was not to be.

The dealer elected to deliver the rig back to me stating that I should verify the sidecar's alignment myself before taking it out on public roads.  OK I said, that's reasonable as they don't do sidecars every day.

Yoshie was dropped off this morning and I geared up for a short ride around the neighborhood to see how she felt before I got down to the business of checking the sidecar's alignment and such.

She felt a bit weird in the rear but I shrugged that off as having been away from here over two months and having been on my Ural most of that time.  At a stop light, a Harley Davidson rider pulls up to me and yells: "Dude your rear wheel is moving back and forth!".   As you can imagine, a disconcerting remark to say the least!

We both pulled off into a shopping center's parking lot and he pushed Yoshie a short distance while I watched from the rear and damn if the tire wasn't wobbling back and forth!  Dammit.

I thanked the HD rider, and rode slowly back home.  I dismounted the tire, thinking perhaps it was a damaged tire that was causing the wobbles.  I had no luck getting the tire off.

Breaking the bead on the cut tire

I ended up cutting the perfectly good snow tire off using a sawzall.  Once I got the tire remnants off, I put the rear wheel on the ground and found it to be warped!

Yep, in spite of me telling them from the onset that I thought the wheel was bent....the dealer's tech declared the rear wheel as fine.  He told that to the insurance adjustor who believed him and so it was not part of the cost of repairs!  I figure it'll be close to $300 to replace the warped wheel with a new one, associated bearings, new axle and mounting a car tire onto it.  How much would you like to bet this amount might have pushed the cost of repairs over whatever magical mark the insurance guys follow in order to "total a bike"?

Now here Yoshie sits in my garage, sans her rear wheel/tire.  The replacement tire won't get in till the 9th so that's the earliest I can expect to be able to pick it up with a tire mounted on it.

Yoshie awaits her new wheel

Then, you have to wonder what other damages lay hidden awaiting me in the future.  I will surely write a letter to the General Manager at the Suzuki Dealer, his diagnosing tech sucks!

So, now I have two "down" sidecar rigs awaiting parts.  Luckily, there's Brigitta, my 1987 R80 Airhead Beemer, ready to take me to my first day of work on Monday.  

See, plenty of room for two rigs in my garage....