All the bike prep was in advance of an AMCA road run in Kanab, Utah, June 1, 2, 3, 2021. It is a 6-day ride for me to get there, 3 days of riding, and 6 days home.
These stories, like all of my blogs posts, began as Facebook posts.
Day 1
Lancaster, NY to Dayton, OH
The day started out well. Ran into rain somewhere in NY near PA. By the time I could pull off to gear up, I was pretty well drenched, but I geared up and kept going. Later when I stopped for gas, I noticed way too much primary fluid all over the right side of my bike. I knew there was a very small crack in the cover, but I hadn’t had any issues till today. Of course.
Further down the road, I started hearing chain noise. SO not good. And of course I was in wherethef*ckamiohio. I needed to get some kind of fluid in the primary like now. About 10 miles and I found a gas station. Got some oil and sure enough, there wasn’t much left in the primary. But now I am kinda freaked out. I can’t stop every 200 miles and fill the stupid primary, and I don’t want my new clutch and primary chain to go crash bang.
So I posted for help on the AMCA page. Within minutes, Jason Wadzinski replied, and not long after, Marty Zavakos also replied.
They live literally minutes from where I was staying, so once I got to the Dayton area, they were ready to give me a hand. I still had 230-some miles to get there, and while I was trying to staunch the bleeding, it started pouring rain again. I figured I would just ride till I heard chain noise again, but the bike held together just fine till I got to Jason’s place.
Jason hauled my bike up on the lift, and Marty pulled the primary cover off. Thank god and all that is shovelhead, no damage to the chain, or the clutch. No evidence of any real issues, actually, so Marty used some special sauce on the gasket, buttoned it back up, and we are all keeping our fingers crossed that it holds!
Big HUGE thanks to Jason and Marty!! Another long day tomorrow, but hopefully not quite so grueling.
The Atomic Shovel 