Sturgis a Wrenching Vacation

STURGIS 2019 - 3 Days of Wrenching

Our schedules are pretty hectic this year, so Sturgis was meant to be a quick in and out. The master plan was ride in, go to the Cycle Source Bike Show, the Michael Lichter show, get some sheepskin from Trevino’s Leather, and head home.

Well the trip was an in and out but there was absolutely nothing quick about it. We left our home in Colorado in the early cool crisp air hoping that most of our riding would happen before the heat set in. We met with our friend Quilty and his Shovelhead, turned the bikes north, and we were able to at least do this successfully. Other than a bumpy road we made it to Cheyenne pretty smoothly, well kind of, as we pulled out of the gas station I noticed that the slack had returned in my clutch pull. This has been an issue we have been chasing since the first time the bike put rubber to the road. We adjusted the cable as much as we could and pushed on. After a mere 20 miles Charlie noticed Quilty was no longer behind us so we pulled over and gave him a call. He was broken down and it wasn’t a small fix. He lost his ignition. We went to find him and something magical happened. We were sitting with him for maybe 10 minutes when a massive truck and trailer from “Biker Down” pulled over to see if we were ok. After assessing the situation Laurie Montoya pulled out her bike to ride and Quilty loaded his into the trailer and hitched a ride all the way to Sturgis! What are the chances of that!?? I would say slim to none these days but what amazing people. We adjusted my clutch again and our group was back down to two. Well, due to the stops we cruised through the blazing heat the rest of the way to Sturgis. By the time we arrived my clutch had no adjustment left and shifting was getting pretty stiff. We left the bike in safe hands of Bill Dodge at the Steel Pony where we could tackle the issue in the morning.

Charlie got to my bike before I could find a ride over and he got the transmission and clutch pulled apart looking at everything to find out what the hell was happening. It was the same story as Washington. Everything the bearing, the throw, the parts all looked fine. So why the hell am I out of adjustment. The adjustment screw was damn near all the way in and slightly compromised so we knew that may be an issue, we also found that the intermediate rod or the adjustment screw just wasn’t long enough to properly bottom out. We found a different clutch adjustment, made some tweaks and 7 hours later I had a bike that I could once again ride. In the mean time Charlie was fixing his tail light that got him pulled over the night before. Good thing we don’t drink because the cops were a plenty.

We hurried over to the Cyclesource Magazine show for 10 minutes before I had to leave to paint live at the Lichter show. Exhausted and my soul not in it I did my best to do some painting with the amazing Darren Mckeag. I was beyond flattered by Micheal Lichter’s kind words about my art. It was amazing to be able to spend a few hours saying hi to old friends and meeting a few new ones.

Just like that we were waking up to go back home. Charlie, Quilty, Steve and I had coffee and stopped at Trevino’s Leather in Deadwood where I could find some sheepskin. And holy moly did I find the most magical of pelts. The color is something right out of Game of Thrones or my first thought was “I’m calling this the Zac Efron”

Quilty one upped me by getting a magenta pelt that really tied together his look of awesome. With our pack of furred riders we headed south for a wonderful breakfast that would end the morning fun into an afternoon that was just so horrible it was comical. We hit some road construction which wasn’t a big deal because we all got to use the portajohn, but halfway through it Quilty’s bike started sputtering and popping which lead to the 1st of 15 stops to try to keep his bike running. From foiled plugs to the points being just screwed, we just couldn't get that bike to keep running right. We ended the day riding through a torrential down pour and about 60 miles from home my clutch was back to having slack that was effecting the shifting, but damn it if I was stopping till I got home.

12 hours later we all rolled up to our house exhausted, defeated, and with half the bikes not working right. Mind you this is about the amount of time Charlie Traveling Chopper needs to ride 1,000 miles and we had done a mere 423 grueling miles.

I have ordered parts to replace the broken ones and I am hoping a longer unscathed clutch adjustment will do the trick. BDL says its an issue with the Baker and Baker says its an issue with the clutch. Which ever it is I feel I am getting closer to a solution, but I have had several people look at the components and say everything looks in good shape... well...where is the slack coming from...the bike isn’t slipping. I will recheck the stack height today and reassemble Friday... Any thoughts???