The Long Way Around

All Cannonball pictures are now going to be available here:  



I have a few more to put up from my actual camera (not my iPhone), but they'll be up there in no time.

I'll also post a composite video of some footage I "shot".

'cept it's not quite.

Well, actually, it could be worse.  It could be much worse.  So I tore apart the Cannonball bike today.

The rear wheel was wiggly and that put me on edge.  Realistically though, it wasn't just the movement but the fact that the hub could have been wearing away at the spline shaft which freaked me out, so I tore into it with Aaron.  That was an interesting experiment if only because neither of us had done that on the bike before, so there was a bit of a figuring-out-as-you-go deal.

So after we got the exhaust off, then the backing plate off, then the backing plate / swing arm, what we noticed immediately was that the nut that keeps tension on the hub and keeps it in place was...  uh...  let's just say it came off with just a little wiggle with two fingers.  It had basically broken free and left the cotter pin safety to keep the frickin' wheel in place.  Scary as hell.  I don't know how long it had been that way but it certainly explained why I had problems braking, too. 

So we looked at the splines on the shaft and everything looked "right", and not particularly worn.  Hub seemed fine too.  We replaced the rear wheel with a 130/ 70x12" Heidenau H61, and buttoned it up.

For the proverbial "shits and giggles", we took apart the transmission to check out the variator and clutch splines.  Those were potentially the most worrisome, as damage to those splines could mean a whole new engine.  The spline shaft coming into the variator is basically the crank shaft, so...  damage = broken.  Done.

After ripping it apart, though, it seems the splines were in pretty decent condition.  The spline grooves on the variator, on the other hand - and I mean both halves - were toast.  Utterly done.  Chewed up, ground down, and useless.  It was actually a bit of a pain to get the back half of the variator off. 

When it came down to it, though, the ramp on the variator was also pretty bad.  Even though it was a new one I had put on just at the start of Cannonball, it was definitely worn worse than a variator that I had put some 11,500 miles on previously.  Think about that for a minute.

So I put the old variator with perfectly good spline grooves back on, put a fresh set of rollers on, replaced the Cannonball belt with a reasonably decent-but-used belt, and then put the bike back together (after forgetting a washer once) and fired it up.  Seemed to be good.

It runs pretty decently.  Has run better but has also run worse.

I still worry about the plug.  I think what's going to need to happen is that I'm going to buy a head, then convince someone who knows how to not screw these things up help me un-do the plug that's in there.  If the threads are stripped on the head, we'll put the new one in and put in the new plug there.  

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

You might not have been on this trip with me, but you were on the trip with me.

I thought about you constantly, in every moment I could (those where I was not distracted by tricky roads).

I missed you dearly every night, and every morning.

I brought these with me, and in a sense brought you too. So here you are, at Ocean City.

Sea life from California, meet the East Coast.

Grace, you will likely never see this beach again so enjoy the weather.

It is actually quite beautiful around here. Warm, nice sky. A bit touristy. Could be worse though. It's like Fisherman's Warf in SF, with a twentieth of the people wandering around.

They have everything you need here - mini-golf, laser tag, karaoke. It's all good.

I was a little reticent to put the Cannonball sticker in the bike until I was done so that way I wouldn't jinx it.

Now that I'm on the other side of the country, it's on.

The leg shield is also a horror show of mutilated bugs. The butterfly is still in the stupid radiator cents and I have no idea how I will get ten thing out of there.

Windscreen is a mess. Can barely see through it. That's ten days and 3400 miles for you.

Top speed, etc.

Here's travel distance.

God that's far.

Here's the view from my room. Don't think I've ever seen the sun rise on a beach.

Wow.

I feel alive right now.

Rocket and Rolf.

This is how I feel right now. Only I'm drinking and they're actually sleeping.

We go to this crappy pizza joint here in Ocean City due to some resourcing SNAFU (it's NASCAR weekend), and they serve a frickin' cheese steak called a 'coast to coast'.

Funny.

Especially when you literally ride from one half of it to the other.

I'm done. Standings and tale later. Let's just say. Leg 4 involved a field repair.

We stopped for a bit here at the national arboritum or how ever that's spelled.

We are about to take off. Epic. Battle for fourth with Rich.

Yeaup. Lots of bikes. Lots of people. Lots of friends. This'll be fun.

Pete an I caught up with each other at White's Ferry at the Potomac.

Crazy. This is such a ridiculous distance to have gone.

Or so they say. You have no idea how fast I took this picture. I was in a rush. ;)

It's kinds sad. We're going to meet up with a group over in DC and have a party, and that'll take be place of the third leg. No way to make up time on this day really.

I'd pontificate more but I think I'll just let this be. It's sad and somber but there's been more adrenaline in my system the last 20 minutes than I've had all week.

Mere minutes.

We're in Oakland. Not that Oakland, the one in Maryland.

So that's strike one.

Strike two is that there's a power sports shop here just down the street from the hotel. Only, it sells cheap Chinese piece of crap bikes that will invariably have problems after the first 300 miles or so. Sadness.

At least they look 'cute'. They're a typical style, often referred to as Honda Joker clones. The only real legit Joker clone out there is made by Aprilia, and it's called the Mojito. I love that bike.

Not these. These depress me. Thy never would have made it past day 2 on this run.

Holy crap dude. I'm almost done. I'm in Oakland, Maryland. One day left. Finish line is in sight.

Well, not literally.

There's a bit more than 300 miles left to sort. Through DC and through to Ocean City.

We cleared 3000 miles on Highway 50 near Salem. It's been a blast.

Though I honestly might never sit again. Must arrange for a standing desk at work.