Uralisti at the PBTF Publicity Shoot

Yesterday, I had a chance to join four fellow Uralisti in providing sidecar support for a publicity shoot at local TV station KWGN (CW2, Colorado's Own).  They were providing air time for the upcoming 2012 Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation's Ride for the Kids.

Rachel Ward, the task force leader, had coordinated the whole thing via email along with the help of Chris Brigg's the mother of one of the PBTF's beneficiaries.  James, has ridden in my sidecar rig the last two years during the Colorado Ride for Kids.

Please click on the link to get more pictures, details and a view of the video shot by Channel 2 to help publicize the event.   CLICK HERE.

Dave S's dog Humphrey with his doggles, enjoying being petted

by two of the PBTF kids.

Uraling once again to the top of Mount Evans

Time to introduce my 2011 Patrol, Valencia, to the summit of the nation's highest paved road: The Mount Evans Road. 

We made it to the summit, 14,130 ft, with no issues to speak of though both of us had moments when we had to catch our breath at altitude!


More details and pics here on my examiner.com byline: LINK


As the comment feature on examiner.com is "lacking", please come back to this window for any commentary you'd like to make.


Thanks


Dom

Memorial Day Weekend

Yesterday evening, I motored to the Fort Logan National Cemetery to pay my respects to the many Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and their family who rest there.

As do many others, I use this posting to remind folks that they have this long weekend to remember those who've given their all in the service of our country.

I first spent a few minutes at the grave site of SSGT Brian Joiner, the son of a friend of mine, who served with the US Air Force.

Flanked by Army Men, Brian is in good company.

His portion of the cemetery is all filled up now and the grass is fully grown in, it seems like yesterday that I first visited the site and it was just bare ground and tiny metal holders containing a piece of paper listing the names of the recently buried.

Brian's Section

I spent some time afterwards just riding through the extensive grounds, watching row upon row upon row of gravestones, lined up precisely as if in formation.  There were less than a half dozen cars with visitors in the cemetery while I was there.  Folks visiting their interred loved ones, probably there today to avoid the hopefully large crowds that will be there tomorrow, on Memorial Day Monday.  I too preferred the relative solitude of the evening; I'll pass on the speeches and crowds.

Sunset at Fort Logan National Cemetery

Martha and I thank our fellow Veterans, both those of years past, and those in the present, for your service to our country.  If you know a Veteran, take a minute to thank him or her....better yet, go to your local National Cemetery and be reminded of what Memorial Day means.....

Rainy Ride

Just a short posting, went for a short 20 mile ride around the home neighborhoods.  Started off just as the rain was starting, that good old Colorado rain.  We've not seen much of it in the Denver Metro Area and so it is quite welcome even though its quite cold.

Rainy afternoon ride.

Played with the above pic using Google Photo's HDR effect tool.  Didn't come out too badly, don't you think?

Valencia's got a new clutch!

Craig and Darrell, fellow Uralisti and mechanical gurus, showed up a bit before 9:00 AM today at my home on their Ural rigs...ready to show/help me install the new clutch components onto Valencia, my 2011 Ural Patrol.

From previous posts, you know I had "smoked" the clutch on Valencia while attempting to reach the summit of Engineer Pass near Ouray, CO.  The trouble was, the clutch was not properly adjusted and the conditions and my constant "slipping" of the clutch caused component damage.  This caused "suboptimal" clutch operation and led to Valencia being sidelined the last two weeks while I waited for parts and Craig's time.

Craig walked us through the dismounting of the engine from Valencia's frame, the process went incredibly smoothly and soon we had the engine out and onto the workbench without anyone getting injured!

Getting ready to remove the transmission from the rear of the engine

The transmission slid off easily, and good news, the drive splines were fine!

 While I blocked the flywheel from moving with the screwdriver above,

Craig removed the staked material holding the six clutch screws in place.

I then loosened the screws with an impact driver and they came off easily enough.

I buggered up the screws pretty good this way but was replacing them with better ones.

 OK, mounting plate off, the outer clutch plate is visible and noticeably damaged!

               

 I pried the outer clutch plate off and look at all the loose clutch material

that was just separated and crumbling.

 The above picture shows the inner clutch plate which had all it's clutch material

completely crumbled off!

 The above shows the thrust plate where the springs go, note the

pile of crumbled clutch material at the bottom portion of the flywheel!

 All that remains of the inner clutch plate's material.

Note the heat discoloration on the thrust plate above.

 One last view of the old springs, the crumbled clutch material and the

flywheel which appeared undamaged but coated with clutch material/dust.

                            

 Much cleaning, blowing by compressed air, and use of vacuum cleaner later,

the new clutch springs are placed into the new thrust plate within the flywheel.

 The above shows the outer clutch plate in position, the intermediate plate and inner clutch

plate are already below it and it's time to align the plates with the Ural tool that Craig brought.

Note how tight a fit it is into the flywheel. 

 Using two M8 x 1.00 bolts and nuts, we compressed down the cover plate 

(after a couple of careful alignment attempts) and finally got it to go into the tightly fitting 

gear grooves of the flywheel.  I was sure glad to have Craig for this part, I would have 

messed it up for sure!

 Cover plate is in and the new allen-headed clutch screws are in place and

the use of red loctite was ensured.

          

 I put the clutch release rod into the square hole where it meets the engine drive spline,

then it was a simple matter of sliding the transmission onto the release rod.  A little

alignment, nudging, some light blows with a rubber hammer and the transmission was on!

It helps also to move the rubber donut to align the splines.

We got the engine into the frame with very little problems, though we did find out that the mounting rods are of different length!  Still, we swapped them easily enough and from that point on it was a flurry of reconnecting activity by myself and Craig.  Darrell had assisted during the engine mounting and dismounting and other portions but mostly he did tire swaps for his rig and also ferried his stepson over to the zoo.  I sure was glad he was there for the engine moves though, the sucker is heavy!

 The only photo taken of the work involved with hooking all the cabling back up, remounting the carburetors, re- installing the starter, the ignition system, putting the final drive back on, the rear wheel, 

the battery and finally the gas tank. (there's more to it but those are the main items).

 We put a bit of gas into the tank, and she fired up on the second attempt after engaging the 

chokes on the carburetors.  Success!  Craig had adjusted the clutch cable and it was

spot on in terms of clutch movement!  Houston, we have clutch action!

We all donned riding gear and went for a short check ride, Valencia did great and her clutch permitted smooth up and down shifting of gears once more!  The idle was a bit high but I would end up fixing that up later.

     

 Here are Craig, Valencia and Darrel.

My profound thanks to both of you for giving up your Sunday to help!

Thanks especially to Craig and his confident expertise and advice throughout the process.

I couldn't have done this without both of you.

 A parting shot of the guys, Darrell above on his Patrol

and Craig below on his Gear-UP Rig.

The guys headed home while I put away all the tools and I cleaned up the garage.  There sure was a lot of clutch material dust all over the work area!  Once everything was squared away, all the other vehicles put away and things cleaned up; it was time for a social commitment.

I rode Valencia to get her fully gassed up and picked up my youngest son to go to a friend's daughter's high school graduation party.  It felt great to be riding Valencia again and she was running great!

All is well with my motorcycles once again.  I have to do some minor tweaking of the carbs on Valencia but that will wait till tomorrow.  We also found the locking ring on the spare wheel to be stripped so I'll be getting a replacement under warranty hopefully.  We found this while mounting what had been the spare as the pusher tire.

All in all, a great tech day, I learned a lot about the clutch on a Ural, how to dismount the engine, some tricks to remounting the final drive and how to adjust the proper angle of the rear brake pedal.  Also covered were how to properly adjust the clutch (both major and minor adjustment points) and I enjoyed the help and camaraderie of fellow Uralisti.

Thanks Guys!  I am in your debt.

Ready for Surgery

A bit over two weeks now since I returned from the "In Between Jobs Ride" with Valencia, my 2011 Ural Patrol.  I had "smoked" the clutch attempting to reach the summit of Engineer Pass near Ouray, Colorado but she got me home.

Replacement clutch parts have arrived and I spent yesterday afternoon after work and this morning taking parts off the tug so we can remove the engine.  The plan is to remove the engine tomorrow, with the help of a couple of fellow Uralisti and the guidance of Craig H who's done the operation before.  We will be replacing all of the clutch plates.  The theory is that one or both of the below listed #1 parts got overheated and parts melted causing things to "stick" together.

Everything above is being replaced, for good measure.

In the process of dismantling, I examined the components involved and cleaned as I went.  No real major issues encountered, a stubborn nut here and there but nothing a little patience and force couldn't overcome.

One piece of good news, I was able to examine the thrust ball bearing which is part of the mechanism that pushes the clutch release rod into the clutch plate assembly.  I'd read on sovietsteeds.com that this could lead to clutch failure and I had been a bit worried.  Mine turned out to be fine!  :)    Lucky for me that it was, apparently the list price for this special bearing plate from SKF is $99!

The thrust bearing is #4 above.

All of Valencia's components appear OK.

There is a guide on Bill Glaser's myural.com website that details the procedures not only to remove the engine from the frame, but to disassemble/assemble the clutch actuating mechanism, clutch assembly and removal/installation of the final drive and rear wheel to make room for things to be removed!  A must read/use website by any Ural owner:  myural.com..

Along the way as I took things off Valencia, I noticed a hole where there shouldn't be one in the small u-joint located next to the final drive, I cleaned it off and damn, I am missing a grease zerk:

Apparently, the newer Urals now sport a grease zerk in the driveline U-joints.

Mine apparently fell off somewhere in the last 5000 Km.

So this morning I rode over to the nearest NAPA dealer and the 6mm Grease Zerk fit just fine.  It's now mounted with red Loctite.  I'll have to watch this u-joint, who knows what crap got into it in the last 5000 Km.

In case you were wondering what the heck a zerk is...

So, the engine is ready to be dismounted tomorrow.  

 The "operating" area

We'll dismount the engine and work on it while

it sits on top of the small workbench

 The tool table, some of the components I removed are underneath

ready to be re-installed.

Valencia, ready to have her engine removed.

Hope the clutch assembly removal and installation of the new components goes well tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Yoshie is back online...

In my previous post I'd mentioned how I'd gotten Yoshie, my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom/Dauntless Sidecar Rig returned to me in less than optimal conditions.

I've since taken receipt of a brand new rear wheel for the V-Strom ($1023.00 cost to the insurance company) which seems high to me but since it's not my money.  The insurance rep had a "talk" with the service manager who assured him that he'd be taking actions to prevent such glaring screwups from happening again.  I've my doubts but since I can't really influence things, am moving on.

Once I got the new wheel (which the dealer mounted my summer car tire on) back on Yoshie, she rode much better without having the rear wheel wobbles!  Go figure.

Then I found the DOT4 Brake fluid level low on the clutch circuit, sigh.  Refilled and it seems I caught it in time before air was introduced into the system.

Spend the last two days getting her sidecar alignment back to correct toe-in (it was set up wrong by the dealer's techs).  They also somehow managed to mess up the wiring going to the sidecar.  Not sure why they even messed with that but there you go.  Finally got the lights working as they should and a couple of test rides later, I believe Yoshie is operational once more.

So, once again, I've a working sidecar rig for when the weather is bad or I need to carry cargo.  Valencia's replacement clutch parts are rumored inbound, perhaps arriving even today.  Still over a week to go though before I'll have access to a fellow Uralista's expertise on mounting said repair parts.

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....

The In-Between Jobs Ride - Day 6 (Last Day)

I woke to temperatures in the high 30s in Silverton, Colorado.  The plan was to ride Valencia home, via US 50 from Montrose to Colorado Springs where I would pick up the I-25 Super Slab homewards.

As expected, the engine cooling down overnight permitted enough working movement on the clutch mechanism to enable me to ride and work my way up and down the gear range, though not very smoothly.

I got packed up and left Silverton around 8:15 AM and rode north on US550 towards Ouray, the crisp morning air and clear skies made for some nice riding.  Montrose turned out to be a medium sized-city which probably would have a motorcycle shop or two but since Valencia was rideable, I motored onwards onto eastbound US50.

The rest of the day was just riding through the middle of the state of Colorado, over passes such as the Cerro Summit and Monarch Pass, past the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a multitude of farms and horse ranches and only moderate traffic.  I held an average speed of 55-60 MPH and still, was passed by everyone, wonder why they were all in such a rush?

I changed my mind at Salida, CO and turned north towards US285 and took this road instead.  Fairplay and Jefferson went past and I crested over Kenosha Pass with no issues.

Traffic got heavier the closer I got to Denver along with wind speeds.  By the time I got to the C-470 Highway, the winds were really blowing strong from the south, at times causing me to ride as if I was in a right-hander turn to keep the sidecar steady.

Got home around 4:30 PM, roughly 350 miles of riding in a bit over 8 hrs, pretty good for a Ural with a sick clutch don't you think?  These Ural motorcycles are built tough I must say!

A good enough ending to what was a very good trip for me.  It was a needed trip to "reboot" my brain between jobs.  While rideable, I am going to replace all the clutch components on Valencia for my own peace of mind.  I am scheduling a "Tech Day" on the 20th of the month where Valencia will be worked on and inviting all the Uralisti in the area to come watch and learn.  Craig H, a fellow Uralista who's experienced in such matters and has done the actual clutch replacement, will be tutoring me.

The In-Between Jobs Ride - Day 5

Started out from Durango, where I'd overnighted, around 8:30 AM.  I headed North out of town on US550 which is also known as the San Juan Skyway; a part of the highway between Silverton and Ouray is known as the Million Dollar Highway.

The weather was beautifully sunny and cool but not cold.  Traffic was light and my rig was running well.  I'd ridden this road before on Brigitta, my 1987 R80 Airhead Beemer and it was time to introduce the scenery to Valencia, my 2011 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig.

 Rocky cliff sides near the settlement of Needles, CO

 Above and below, the mountain views from the

Durango Sports Center

 Twilight Peak

 Engineer Mountain

 Above and below, more views of

Twilight Peak

 Turks Head and Grand Turk Mountains

 View of several peaks from near Molas Pass

 Some more peak views from north of Molas Pass

 Approaching Silverton, CO

 Riding North of Silverton on US550

 Part of the Million Dollar Highway

After shooting the pics along the Million Dollar Highway, I tried to start up the trail to Engineer Pass from the western entry point near the above picture but the way was blocked by a truck!

I got to Silverton and after asking for directions, found myself on County Road 2 leaving Silverton and soon found myself at the start of the Alpine Loop which is how you get to Engineer Pass:

Alpine Loop entry point north of Silverton, CO

 Not much remains of the town of Eureka which

is on the Alpine Loop enroute to Animas Forks

The road to Animas Forks is "maintained" according to the lady at the visitor center but it's very rocky and rutted and not for the faint of heart.  Still, it wasn't too bad really and soon I was at the outskirts of the ghost town of Animas Forks:

 Animas Forks, a Ghost Town where I should have turned around.

From Animas Forks, the road got much more rough and conditions were pretty iffy.  Valencia was doing fine for the most part but I could tell the clutch was starting to overheat so I stopped often to let things cool off.

 Above and below, are the last shots I took on the way up.  

Less than two miles from the top....so close and yet so far

After the above stop, I continued on and got within 2 miles of the summit according to my odometer.  Then I hit mud and this in combination with the steep dirt trail led to my clutch finally being "smoked".  The theory is that the clutch plate had overheated and gotten "stuck" to either one of the other plates or the pressure plate, preventing smooth operation.

Got myself turned around, the clutch not seeming to want to disengage the transmission from the engine when the lever was pulled in.  Still, it was all downhill, I had first gear and could shift up as needed even though the clutch wasn't working.

I slowly made my way back down the mountain, past Animas Forks was back at Silverton shortly after 5:45 PM or so.

Made it into town with no further issues, I rode over to the Triangle Motel which had a Vacancy sign and got myself a room.  I called a fellow Uralista: Craig H. and also my friend Oscar and discussed the situation with them.

Between our talks, it was decided to adjust the clutch cable to allow engagement of the clutch to some extent (not perfect but usable); called the dealer and ordered parts and turned in for the night.  The hope is things will become "unstuck" overnight as the rig cools to allow better clutch operation.

That's it for the pleasure riding for this trip I'm afraid.  I pushed Valencia way too hard on the way up to Engineer Pass.  I will ride her home tomorrow, using the route with the least amount of city traffic!