Until yesterday morning, this was the pusher tire
Time for a new one.
I hope to get a new Heidenau K37 tire from the BMW dealer in Anchorage, he's rumored to have four on hand under an arrangement with the URAL dealer.
I have been quite disappointed in the longevity, on Alaskan/Canadian roads, of the DURO brand of tires, both the HF307 and HF308 models only lasted a bit over 3500 kilometers as the pusher tires!
Did a little maintenance in the morning, under warm sunny skies and temperatures. Then I took a nap after noon. Tough day. Must rest up for tomorrow, I plan to get the new tire, put it on the rig as the pusher tire as its supposed to last the longest; then move the HF308 tire to the sidecar where the lightest load is, then move the present sidecar Heidenau K37 (pretty worn down) to act as the new "spare".
8 comments:
All your feedback from roads, weather to tires is greatly appreciated. Very interested in your experiences, roads, stops, tires and challenges. Less than 2000 miles on the Duro is shocking, now keenly interested in your K37 experiences. Grateful...GlennandSun
Dom:
Ouch ! it's hard to believe that your tires aren't lasting very long
I guess you need a new one with every oil change
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
GlennandSun, glad someone is finding the info useful. The latest word from Raceway is that perhaps it wasn't the ignition all along, but water in the air filter instead. There was an email today, which started with "after a careful review of your emails"....wish they or I had thought to swap the air filter while it was raining...would have saved me time and money. Oh well, next rainstorm, we shall see.
Bob, yeah, its painful.
3 thousand klicks? The road is eating up the rubber. I wonder why they called it Duro.
There would need to be a lot of water in the air filter to clog it up that much, plus you don't oil the non-paper filter. I don't buy it…
I guess I may see you this weekend in Talkeetna or will you have taken off for Haines by then?
Been thinking about the water in the filter thing all day while turning wrenches, and I agree with RichardM, it does not fit given the riding you have experienced since starting this Odyssey. It stands to reason you would not suddenly develop water in the filter problems in the short run you made in Valdez that morning the problem returned. and you have ridden in much worse rain over long periods of time previously and never experienced a water logged filter.
Your description of the engine missing makes me very strongly believe from experience that you had an intermittent electrical short....exactly what a faulty coil would do when shorting on water. Your water hose test of the new components was a very good indication that you have isolated the cause, as a pressure water hose will put a lot more water on that part of the bike than any road water would do.
An intermittent electrical short would show up suddenly, while a clogged air filter should gradually and consistently get worse until it stalled the engine. The extremely rich mixture from at choking filter would show up very strongly on the spark plugs. I think you can rest easy that you have eliminated your wet gremlin problem by replacing individual electrical components.
Looking closely at your Duro pusher time, I was surprised at how much tread remained on the outside of the tires, but the center was nearly smooth. I was wondering if Ural sidecar rigs normally makes a tire wear in that pattern? May I ask what your pusher tire pressure is kept at? I wonder if a lower tire pressure would make more even wear? Your experience and advice is an important factor in how I will approach tire wear.
I have read and been told that Alaska roads are very hard on tires, but new to worn out in less than 2K on a tire leaves me speechless! I wonder if any of the locals have have experienced the K37 tire and would give you feedback on it.
Your "de-briefing" and after action reports are very greatly appreciated, as we would like to prepare and adjust our trip up to Alaska based on your experiences. Grateful, Glennandsu
Been thinking about the water in the filter thing all day while turning wrenches, and I agree with RichardM, it does not fit given the riding you have experienced since starting this Odyssey. It stands to reason you would not suddenly develop water in the filter problems in the short run you made in Valdez that morning the problem returned. and you have ridden in much worse rain over long periods of time previously and never experienced a water logged filter.
Your description of the engine missing makes me very strongly believe from experience that you had an intermittent electrical short....exactly what a faulty coil would do when shorting on water. Your water hose test of the new components was a very good indication that you have isolated the cause, as a pressure water hose will put a lot more water on that part of the bike than any road water would do.
An intermittent electrical short would show up suddenly, while a clogged air filter should gradually and consistently get worse until it stalled the engine. The extremely rich mixture from at choking filter would show up very strongly on the spark plugs. I think you can rest easy that you have eliminated your wet gremlin problem by replacing individual electrical components.
Looking closely at your Duro pusher time, I was surprised at how much tread remained on the outside of the tires, but the center was nearly smooth. I was wondering if Ural sidecar rigs normally makes a tire wear in that pattern? May I ask what your pusher tire pressure is kept at? I wonder if a lower tire pressure would make more even wear? Your experience and advice is an important factor in how I will approach tire wear.
I have read and been told that Alaska roads are very hard on tires, but new to worn out in less than 2K on a tire leaves me speechless! I wonder if any of the locals have have experienced the K37 tire and would give you feedback on it.
Your "de-briefing" and after action reports are very greatly appreciated, as we would like to prepare and adjust our trip up to Alaska based on your experiences. Grateful, Glennandsun
SonjaM, yep, they're quite mis-named in terms of Alaska's roads.
RichardM, I am currently planning on being at the Talkeetna sidecar meet so I'll see you then. Re the air filter...I don't oil it as you mention but did find oily residue on it....am thinking it came from the oil making it past the small oil filter that's at the end of the crankcase pipe? I don't know. I did find more water than expected in the airbox itself, especially clinging to the top of the airbox cover.
GlennandSun, let's establish email commo: domchangATyahooDOTcom is my throwaway email address, send me an email there and I'll reply from my real address. The wear pattern on the duro was actually pretty good, it just looked weird cause it was bowed in as it wasn't mounted. I run it at 40-42. Mickey, the anchorage URAL guy says to use 40 PSI on all three tires. I was always taught 40 on the pusher, 32 on the others....it's like an oil thread.
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