Ride With Tank

It was suggested that the name of the web site might need to be changed to better reflect the type of recreational activity I currently participate in and since I believe in total honesty I have made the proper changes.

Don’t count me out yet though!  I’ve just about got the KZ in full running order again, and I am making great progress in getting back on the road with a ride that is more suitable for long distance.  I would say that there is a reasonably good chance that I may be off the couch by next weekend.  I am at 14 days without a ride right now and it is really making me insane!

I heard from Morgantown Honda today, and as I feared, they say the crankcase needs replaced. He gave me an estimate of $4,000 and said it would likely go higher than that as they tore into the engine.I took this information to Gollans to see what they could do for me. They seem to think they have a welder who could repair the crankcase, but I kind of have reservations about welding on an assembled engine. Still, this would be a better alternative to no motorcycle at all. When I got home I went ahead and made a call to Geico just for the heck of it to see if they would cover it. I really could not believe it, but they said they would cover it! A claims adjuster will be going to Morgantown Honda in the next 48 hours to check it out. I am kind of afraid they will total the bike, but once again that is still better than going without a motorcycle. I suppose I would rather make payments on a new motorcycle than to have one that has been repaired in a questionable way.  If Geico takes care of me on this, I will be a customer for life and I will put a logo on the web site!

Yesterday on my way to Virginia I suffered a catastrophic motorcycle failure.

The master link on my chain broke and the chain came off and did quite a bit of damage in the process. It broke off the two bolts holding my clutch slave cylinder. One bolt attached to the stator cover and it broke the whole bottom corner off of the stator cover. The other attached to the crankcase cover and it broke off at the cover. The push rod for the clutch was broken in half. The bike was spewing oil and I sure was lucky it did not get tangled with the wheel and lock it up because I was going around 80mph in a turn when it broke.

We had a great turn out for the ride.  I really felt bad to be delaying everyone’s trip and tried to get them to go ahead and leave me but they would not leave until I was on the tow truck.  I sure to appreciate everyone’s support and I am so sorry that because of my problem you guys were riding until well after dark and missed the most scenic part of the whole trip, but hopefully today on the trip home you will get to see the sights you missed last night.

I pay $7.00 a year for road service coverage with Geico and this was the first time I have used it. Geico was very excellent. They only cover for 75 miles, but they put in a lot of time to find a Suzuki dealer that was in the direction of home and open and could look at the bike. They got a towing service right out to me and got me to Morgantown Honda in Morgantown, WV. I could not find anybody back home with a trailer that was at home, so I left the bike there and my wife came down and picked me up. They are going to give me a quote on Monday, but I fear it may be quite high. If the crankcase cover has to be replaced the price will be astronomical. I checked Ron Ayers and the crankcase cover is $1,100. I figure if it needs replaced and I do it myself I am probably looking at over $2,000 in parts. If a shop does it I can easily see it running $4,000 to $5,000 total.

Most likely the trip next week to Deals Gap will not happen.  I suppose there is a chance that the damage is not as bad as I fear and it will be on the road by next weekend, but it seems unlikely.  I’ll post more information as I get it.

You know, this weather just won’t stop!  I can’t believe we had another excellent weekend.  I know I told everyone who asked that I would not be riding this weekend.  I know I said I had too many things to do to get ready for the next two big rides.  I really did.  The wife really, really wanted to go riding so I did not want to deny her needs.  We ended up throwing the tent on the bike and going camping up to Tionesta.  Had a great time.  We rode to Tionesta, set up the tent, and then did the 666 to 6 to 66 loop.  You just have to like that loop because of all the sixes!  This morning we headed north into New York and then back across along Lake Erie and home.  It was really nice too do a more relaxed ride.  We only rode 400 miles total for the entire weekend.  Saturday night we went to sleep and did not wake up for 11 hours!   I justified this ride as preparation for the week long ride in October.  I’ll be camping on that trip and I figure this would be good practice to see if I had everything I need.  I guess I already knew that but I did need an excuse for riding instead of doing what needed done. 

Don’t forget that next weekend is the Virginia ride!  This is going to be a spectacular ride.  The weekend after that I am leaving for the Gap.  I am probably going to take several days on the way down to ride the Parkway.