High adventures on the open road with the Atomic Shovel
I posted almost daily on this trip, so I will let my Facebook posts tell the story….
September 1, 2019:
Day 1 of Atomic Shovel road trip to Lebanon, TN. It was 55 degrees when I left at 7:30 a.m. It always seems like it takes an hour just to get out of Erie County, but overall, I think I made pretty good time.
About 100 miles into my trip, I rounded a curve and heard this awful clatter, and the noise persisted, but quieter. I pulled to the side right away, and checked the bike over. I could not see a thing wrong. A guy stopped, and he checked the bike too. Nothing.
Not a lot I could do. Couldn’t find the source. Motor sounded fine. Nothing was hanging, dragging, or flapping. At least nothing I could find. So I kept going. I figured I’d keep riding until I either found the problem, or went crazy from hearing a noise I couldn’t locate.
A little further down the road, I saw my bike’s reflection in a truck tailgate, and I noticed one of my spots was out, and it looked like my headlight was out too. Seriously?! So next time I stopped, I checked, and sure enough, I only had one spot working and no headlight. F*ck.
So I chitty chitty bang banged the rest of the 350 or so miles I had to go today, and got to my hotel. I checked in, hauled my luggage bag upstairs, and went right back out to find an AutoZone. I HAD to get that headlight working. Turns out the bulb and the pigtail were both shot. I don’t know if when the pigtail failed, it blew the bulb, or if the bulb blew and by some odd coincidence, the pigtail fried too. Definitely a bad ground.
I pulled right up on their sidewalk, pulled my tools out of my saddlebag, and went after it.
Before I went after the light though, I called Dan to see if he had any ideas about the rattle. After I described it, he said it sounded like maybe the chain was slapping the chain guard. So I took a look – now I had checked the saddlebags, and glanced at the chain guard, but I took a better look this time. The chain guard was completely detached. It was just floating in between the saddlebag, the chain and the tire. The rear bracket just broke at a bend, and the front bracket was sheared right off. The nut that had held the front bracket in place was completely gone.
I was super lucky that the guard stayed put as well as it did. It didn’t do any damage to the bike that I can see. I’ll look more closely tomorrow to make sure. But it could have been pretty bad if the thing had either got jammed in my spokes, or in the chain somehow, or if it had flown out of its little space, because who knows where it would have gone, and what damage it could have done.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with the day. It was a beautiful ride, even if it was a little noisy! And I got the bike fixed. Time for bed.
Day 2 of the Big Adventure with the Atomic Shovel… Well this morning it was supposed to rain early and clear off, so I didn’t even set my alarm. I’m up plenty early anyway. After the long day yesterday, I figured I’d sleep till I woke up. I only had about a 4-5 hour ride from Lancaster, OH to Lexington, KY. An easy day….
I checked the radar, and it looked like I had a window to get out between rain storms, so I dashed back to my room after breakfast, and grabbed my luggage – ready to make a break. By the time I got back to the bike, it was pouring small furry animals. I went ahead and got the bike ready, and as soon as it cleared, I was off.
The bike was running good, no more clattering, the headlight was burning bright, all was good in the world. About 100 miles in, I decided to stop for fluid change – mine. I pulled into a gas station, and took a little break. Got back on the bike and it would start, but it wouldn’t stay running. I thought maybe I flooded it, so I waited and tried again. Still wouldn’t stay running. What else am I going to do but call shovel tech support – that would be Dan. After asking me a bunch of questions, he said very probably the bike was just hot, and also possibly flooded. I felt the coil cover and it was still smoking hot. So I rolled it into the shade, got another iced tea and some crackers, and waited.
I gave it another try after the coil cover felt like it was at ambient temp, and the bike started right up.
I had pushed the bike hard yesterday, but it was fairly cool out. I pushed it hard again that first 100 miles, but it was much warmer today. So the bike pushed back. I’ve still not ridden this bike that much, and not in the heat, so I had no reference point to go by. Now I know. From there on, I took it easier – went about 50-52 mph instead of 56-58. Sounds silly, but it does make a difference.
About 20 miles from Lexington, I stopped for gas, and noticed quite a big oil splatter down the right side of the bike. Looking closer, it appears my front head gasket is leaking. I checked the oil, and the level was fine, so what looks like the Exxon Valdez down the side of my bike is really probably about 10 drops.
I went ahead and rode it to my hotel in Lexington, and called tech support again. Wonder when he’s going to stop answering his phone… Lol!
But he said what I hoped he’d say. As long as I’m not losing massive amounts of oil, and as long as the motor isn’t making bad noises, ride it. Yes sir!!!
However, I was not in the mood to chase down my spotlights – maybe sometime this week I’ll have time. And I planned to visit a few places in Lexington – I lived here till I was 12, and have only been back twice. Scotched those plans, so I am currently finishing dinner and having a couple margs. That seems like the right thing to do. Stay tuned for Day 3.
Days 3 and 4 of the Atomic Shovel’s big adventure. Been having too much fun to post, but day 3 I rode from Lexington, KY to Lebanon, TN. The morning was cool, and there was a light fog in the low areas. I had forgotten just how beautiful Kentucky is. Anyway, when we last left our story, I had thought I had a slight head gasket leak; however, I cleaned the bike up the night before I left Lex, and when I was warming it up to leave, I noticed a small stream of oil coming from one of the rocker box nut things – not sure what they are called, exactly. The gasket sealer and o-ring were failing. A far easier fix than a head gasket. So on the way, I stopped (yet again) at an AutoZone, and got gasket sealer, another set of Allen wrenches, because I didn’t have one large enough in the first set I bought, and some brake kleen.
When I got to TN, I figured I’d goop the thing up and be done with it. So I was a bit more relaxed on the ride, and saw some beautiful country.
When I got to Lebanon, my friend whom I met at the PA meet I did in June, was here. We were planning to ride into Nashville for the afternoon that day, but he had driven all night to get here, and I had this oil thing, so we debated what to do. We ended up fixing my oil leak with the gasket goop, and he showed me where the o-ring was pinched, so when I get home, I’ll have to fix it with a new one, but so far, this is holding.
We let the gasket sealer set and went to lunch next door. When we came back and were getting ready to go, an older gentleman was sitting on a bench checking my bike out, and as I started it up, it was being a little crabby and backfired a couple times. It does that sometimes, so I didn’t think much about it. But he saw an exhaust puff come from the front of the motor, and noticed the bolt holding my front exhaust pipe was missing. Seriously. Now the shovel is just being a jerk. 🙄
So we rode over to the Home Desperate across the road, bought a bolt, and my pal popped it in. Come to find out the threads are beginning to strip, so he backed it back out, gooped it up with my gasket sealer, and put it back in. Take that!
Then we rode in to Nashville and played on Lower Broad for a few hours. Side note, I had called the Hampton Inn downtown, and asked if we could park our bikes there for a few hours, and they said yes, so that worked out perfectly.
So far, everything has held, so that’s good. I do still have another place oil is seeping. I think it’s coming from between the top of the front rocker box, and the head. So it bears watching, but it’s nothing like the leak we fixed.
Day 4 was spent mostly nursing a hangover from blowing off some steam from days 1 thru 3, so not much to talk about there! However, we did ride over to the event registration, and I ran into quite a few folks from the Panhead Reunion last year, and the PA run in June. Everybody milled around each other’s bikes and then we went in for the opening banquet.
Today, we do the first ride of the run. It’s supposed to be clear and hot. Should be fun!
Day 5 of the Atomic Shovel’s big adventure. First day of the road run – hot, sunny, beautiful day to ride these old bikes. 125 vintage bikes on the roads in the Tennessee hills – it does not get better than this! Sadly, I have nothing more to report – the Shovel ran great, I did not have to fix anything, or re-fix anything, and this means I have probably just screwed myself for tomorrow’s ride. I’m out.
Days 6 and 7 of the Atomic Shovel’s big adventure. Beautiful riding in the Tennessee hills with great people. Again, the shovel is performing pretty well. Thinking the starter button or wiring may need some attention at some point. It is starting to take a couple tries before it responds.
Thursday’s ride took us to a lunch spot in a little park, and there were these spring animals there, just like the ones I used to play on as a little kid.
Of course, me, being me, I hopped on the duck and started rockin’ it! If the shovel doesn’t start behaving, I might just rock the duck instead!!
Friday is the last day of the run, and we have the closing banquet tonight. I will be sad to leave tomorrow, but I have had such a great time, and have met so many great people, and have seen friends I’ve made from previous vintage events. It doesn’t get any better than this!
Day 7 revised… Clearly, I posted too soon about a trouble-free Day 7. After the banquet, we went out to warm up our bikes, and I noticed that my hi-beam light wasn’t lit on my dash. I’d been running my hi since I left home for visibility, and that light was on when I parked the bike for the banquet. So I flicked the switch. Nothing. Hopped off the bike to look – nope – no headlight. Again.
Nothing to do but ride back to the hotel – fortunately it wasn’t far, and the roads were very secondary, but well lit. I also relied on the headlight on Allen’s bike in front of me, and I got back just fine.
So, here it was, maybe 9-9:30 p.m., and I was leaving for the first part of my ride home the next day. With no headlight. Nope. Not gonna happen. For the second time in a week, pulled the headlight apart. We determined it was the switch on the handlebars that was failing. I couldn’t fix that, since I didn’t have a replacement switch or soldering iron, so I didn’t even open up the housing to verify. Instead, I just hooked the hi-beam wire to my spotlight switch, and that gave me a headlight for the ride home. Done.
Day 8: The Atomic Shovel heads toward home. I got my headlight fixed yesterday, and was doing a once-over on the bike today. Somewhere, I lost a hitch pin that holds my saddlebag on. I have extras…. At home in my hardware box. There was a Home Desperate across the street from the hotel, so I just stopped there on my way out of town. I bought 4 of them, just in case any others decide to sproing off.
Everything else was holding together, as far as I could tell, but the starter button is getting worse and worse. And then… I had just ridden through Lexington, and was out in the next county – gorgeous scenery… When I felt something nudge my foot. OK… I’m on a bike, there shouldn’t be anything nudging me. I looked down, and my horn was resting on top of my foot, hanging by the wires. Whattheeverlovingfuck! Lol! Seriously, this bike is STILL throwing tantrums!
There was no good place to stop and pull off the road, so I reached down and disconnected the wires. I put the horn on the seat between my legs, and looked for the gas station that I knew was coming up soon. I had stopped here on my way down, so I knew where I was.
Sure enough, a couple miles down was a gas station, and I pulled in and put the horn in my saddlebag.
I have one more day. 10 more hours on the road. This bike is running out of peripheral things to throw off itself. Gonna have to sweet talk it to get me home. Meanwhile, the winter to-do list grows….
September 7, 2019:
On the ride from Lancaster, OH to Lexington, KY, I passed an old Shell station. It was so super-cool, and I wanted to stop and take pics, but I was kind of on a mission to get to Lexington (which later got delayed anyway), so I didn’t stop.
On the way back today, I took the same route, and passed that station again. This time, I turned around and went back for a couple pics. Happy I did! If you look close, you can tell that this was after my horn fell off.
Incidentally, shell was the first word I ever read on a sign out in the real world. There was a Shell station near our house when I was small, and I still remember reading that sign for the first time. Cool, huh?!
September 7, 2019:
Just for fun, here’s a list of all the parts that have either broken, or shaken off the shovel on this trip:
1. Headlight
2. Headlight pigtail
3. Spotlight bulb blown
4. Chain guard broke loose
5. Rocker box oil seepage
6. Lost 1 screw out of right handlebar control housing
7. Oil seepage between front rocker box and head
8. Front exhaust bolt gone
9. Starter button failing
10. Headlight switch failed
11. Saddlebag hitch pin gone
12. Horn bracket broken
I think that’s it, maybe!
Day 9: Final day of the Atomic Shovel adventure: The last push home. It was cool when I left Lancaster, OH for Lancaster, NY. I gave the bike a once-over at the hotel, and nothing else looked like it was going to jettison itself off – although, nothing ever does, and all of a sudden, something is just gone. Regardless, I do my once-over, and I believe I am good.
However… and I have already learned that there is ALWAYS a ‘however’… It was in this moment that the starter button no longer worked. I knew it was coming. Just a matter of time. So I had to use a screwdriver to bridge the posts on the solenoid mounted under the battery. Thankfully, it is exposed and easy to get to. So I started the bike, and while it was warming up, I checked everything once again.
Apparently distracted by this situation, I didn’t think through the ambient temps, and didn’t dress warmly enough, so I ended up stopping for gas sooner than I planned so that I could put my heated jacket on. The rest of the ride was very comfy. In fact, the final 400 miles of the trip were mostly uneventful. Mostly. The bike ran great in the cooler air, and the route had beautiful scenery, charming small towns.
However… yes, the however again… riding through this one small town, my GPS took me through a section of road paved with red brick. There were deep ruts from car and truck tires, and some places there were these weird uneven swales. The ruts were fairly easy to see, so I didn’t have any trouble with those, but one of the swales caught me off guard.
I hit that thing HARD. I wasn’t going fast – I couldn’t – it was a residential street, I was heading uphill, and the bike doesn’t pull hills all that well – I think I was maybe doing 25 at most. But I hit that swale, and my entire self was off the seat – airborne! To the point where it pulled the plug from my heated jacket. I am pretty sure the bike lifted as well, but the front end smashed so hard that it bottomed out the front fork, which meant the tail of my rocket hood ornament smashed into the bottom of the nacelle. When I stopped later, I checked the front end, and indeed, the rocket’s tail is cracked. So I will add that to the list of repairs.
Aside from that, I made it home, the shovel made it home, and our Atomic Adventure ends.
Despite, or perhaps because of all the shovel’s tantrums, I had possibly the best time ever. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and in fact, I’ll put the shovel on the lift, and start working through my list of repairs, so that I CAN do it again… There are a couple runs next season that sound amazing, and would require a cross-country trek. Thinking I’m IN!
At the closing banquet of the run, I received a really nice award. I was a lot surprised, and it took me the two days’ ride home to digest it and be able to write about it. Here is what I said when I finally posted:
September 9, 2019:
I’ve saved this news since Friday. I wanted to think about what it really means, and how to share it. I hope I do this honor justice. At the final banquet Friday night, they gave out awards for various accomplishments – oldest bike, oldest rider, youngest rider, longest distance, and a few others. These are standard road run awards. But this group added one. It is called “Girls Ride Too.” And it was to recognize the woman they felt best represented those of us who ride these old bikes.
There were more women riders at this event than the previous road run I attended. I did not get to meet or talk to all of them, but there were women riding kickers – knuckles, pans, Indian Chiefs, etc. There were women on evos, and me on my shovel. There were other women who chose to ride two-up with their husbands for the meet, but who ride their own bikes normally.
Out of all these incredible ladies, they chose to honor me with this first-time award.
I am brand new to the vintage bike world, and these people have embraced me in a way that I could never have anticipated. There is a long and rich history of women riders, going back to the beginning of motorcycles as a mode of transportation. Many women riding today can, and do work on their own bikes. But the fact that the Music City AMCA Chapter felt that I represented these women is beyond humbling.
I hear so many women riders (of modern bikes) comment that they are always dealing with ridiculous comments from men. I wish that they would come with me to a vintage event and see how REAL men feel about things. All these guys care about is that these old bikes are on the road, running, and that the knowledge about them gets passed to the next generation.
This is why I get to learn so much – all I did was show some interest, and these guys just open their brains and dish out whatever I need to know.
So, I cannot thank the Music City chapter enough for the honor, and I hope to see more women embrace this amazing culture of vintage bikes.
I post frequently about my adventures working on my shovel, and part of the reason I do this, is because I have a lot of women rider friends, and I hope that maybe seeing me tackle this, someone else may get inspired and try it too. I cannot describe the feeling I get every time I get on that bike and ride it, knowing the work I’ve done, knowing that if something does break, I am not lost. If I can’t fix it, I can give a pretty good go at diagnosing the problem.
The AMCA wants to see more women as riding members, and there is no reason why that should not happen.
After all, internal combustion IS the ultimate accessory!
The Atomic Shovel 