Pretty much a do nothing but hang about kind of day.
Did cruise the whole length of Rock Creek Hills Road in Yagi to count remaining occupied campsites and they’re down to 14.
The day began chilly and overcast and the sun wouldn’t shine through till 11AM; I had lost all motivation to go riding by then.
Tomorrow is a ride to Fairplay about 16 miles away once I get on US 285 South. Need some lock washers and to fill up the spare gas cans for future riding. The gas station in Jefferson which is much closer is closed for reasons unknown to me.
Tuesday, July 14
A gas run, and broken shock absorbers!
Rode Fiona to Fairplay to refill the spare gas cans and stopped for some lock washers for Fiona.
The errand went well and I decided on the way back to forego going back to camp to switch out motorcycles and kept going to the Kenosha East Campground location to check out the sites.
Within the campground they’re pretty small, suitable for truck and tent camping really. The nearby dispersed camping area had a couple of nice sites but cellular signal was basically nonexistent!
Then I decided to explore County Road 126, Twin Cone Peak Road. Big mistake, should have gone back for Yagi as originally planned.
The road was dirt and was quite nice at first, once you’re past the gate and past the private property access area, it got steadily rougher.
I should have turned around when I had to stop to let the clutch cool off.
The road had lots of big mounds of dirt, similar to speed bumps but much larger and steeper. So Fiona was having to do a lot of diving on the other side of these speed bumps.
But I kept going like the stubborn optimist that I am. Got about another mile up and then I started hearing/feeling loud metallic thumping noise from the front wheel area! Dammit.
I kept going till I could find a flat stopping point as the noise started while Fiona was charging up yet another slope.
It was apparently one too many speed bumps for Fiona’s front shocks!
Well that ain't right....you can see the main piston had broken apart
(rope-like object in foreground is the camera's lens cap leash....sorry)
And the view at this spot wasn't anything to write home about either!
Note how low the front fender sits without the shock absorbers in play.
I'm lucky the fender wasn't resting on top of the tire, rendering it immobile!
I slowly made my way back down the mountain, trying to find the smoothest line for Fiona's front wheel and lessen the amount of impacts. Eventually, we made it back to the Kenosha East Campground area, onto US285 and headed on back to the campsite.
Made it there with no issues, taking CR77 instead of CR56 since its paved whereas CR56 is heavily washboarded. Got Fiona loaded up onto the URRV's trailer and made some lunch.
Working with ratchet straps, a small hydraulic jack, a BFH and some cursing, I got the springs unbent and the broken remnants of each shock absorber's piston re-inserted into the shock body's top cap.
You may notice the right side shock is more askew than the left side shock. That's because the half moon shaped retaining clips on the top of the shock cap were missing completely on the right, and one remained in place on the left:
I figured they fell off as the shock absorbers were flopping about once the center piston broke and the rig was still moving. Dammit.
So, after some debate, geared back up and rode Yagi back to the site of the incident. Yagi of course had no issues riding up the same rocky road! I found one of the clips before I got to the spot where I had parked Fiona.
Passing the spot, I decided to see how much further I could get with Yagi. Turns out, about 1.6 more miles of steadily rougher and rockier trail. Got to one point where I stalled her while trying to climb out of a steep depression in the trail, and down we went.
No injuries to neither myself or Yagi but that was where I decided to turn around.
Got back to the site where Fiona had been parked, and walked down perhaps a max of 1/4 mile, finding the other two missing clips! Yay.
The worsening weather had not improved the view
Rode Yagi back down the mountain, to the sound of thunder claps that sounded really loud and close by!
Got home with no issues. I won't be able to install the clips without the shock compression tool that is at home so Fiona is out of commission for now. I do have two old style shock absorbers coming from Belarus which I was going to put on Scarlet's front end. I'll then use Scarlett's old shocks for Fiona's front end until I can either get the shocks repaired or buy two more old style shocks.
Ah, the viccisitudes of the life of a Ural rider. A Ural rider who now understands perhaps leave the mountain trails to Yagi and the city street riding to the Urals.
8 comments:
Are you sure Fiona is not half stubborn mule? Have never seen that happen before. Have you? Maybe one shock but both...? And then still makes it back home.
You are amazingly lucky to be able to ride her back to the trailer. When I saw the photo my first thought was, he's got a long walk ahead of him..
CCJon, these rigs are tough....fragile but tough if that makes any sense. I got lucky in that the springs held the fender off the front wheel otherwise yeah, a long walk.....and probably an expensive recovery effort.
Forgot to add, Fiona is back online. I am using a pair of shock absorbers from Scarlet that have been swapped out for new ones, and I am currently shopping for two more shock absorbers of the old type. To answer your question, no I’ve never seen a shock absorber break like this much less two at the same time.
Interesting failure. Just curious if the shaft broke or the weld holding the piston to the end of the shaft...
RichardM, both broke near the end of the shaft, where the threaded portion was, into which the nut which held all the components that comprised the piston mechanism. The threaded portion is thinner than the main shaft so weaker? All the basing around once the center piston broke dented inner components so will have to replace the whole thing.
The both shocks at the same time does seem really odd. Yes, the shaft would be weaker at the threaded portion but the force required to stretch the metal is incredible. If the piston assemblies weren’t tight on the shaft, I can understand a failure but not both at the same time.
Odd. Or Ural = Odd...
Bummer, the bent shocks are nasty looking, however you seem to have it fixed. The trail must have been quite the challenge.
It's not a trail I'll be repeating anytime soon SonjaM.....
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