I'm a Slacker: Part 2 - a new chain

As I mentioned back on May 6, I had some sort of strange vibration start up after I had tightened my chain. I probably took longer than I should have getting it into the shop to look at it, but I finally got there. I explained the problem to the mechanic and his initial thoughts was that I had messed up the alignment of the rear wheel when I tightend the chain.

If you're not familiar with motorcycle chains, tightening one is essentially the same concept as a bicycle. You losen the rear axel and slide it back until the chain is the proper tension, making sure that the axel stays perpendicular to the midline of the bike so the wheel doesn't "wobble" when it turns. Most motorcycles have notches on each side of the axle to assist in the alignment. Theoretically if the axel is lined up with the same notch on both sides then your wheel should be straight. The mechanic says this isn't always completely reliable so they have other more rigorous ways to check alignment. I still need to learn what those are.

Anyway, when he got checking it, the alignment was okay, which made me feel better about myself. What he did find, however, was a section of the chain that was corroded. This caused some of the links to not fully straighten and bend at the joint. When the damaged portion of the chain would pass over the sprockets it would not fully bend or straighten out. This caused the chain to be extra tight during part of the rotation and loose for the remainder. So there was no way to tighten the chain evenly. The vibration was caused by the repeated tightening and loosening of the chain as it went around.

The cause of the corrosion was probably due to a lack of proper lubrication and winterizing of the chain. I was a little surprised at this since I road my bike most of the winter. I only road when the roads were clear and dry, but I road most of the time. However, there were a period of a week or 2 here or there that I wouldn't ride at all. I hadn't been lubricating the chain as frequently as I should, so I can imagine between that, the down-time and the winter road salt, the corrosion probably set in relatively quickly. The chain was getting pretty stretched anyway, so I probably didn't loose to much chain life, but it was a good reminder to properly care for my chain. That's one of the last things you want failing on you as you cruise down the freeway.

So, I got a new chain. A stock chain for my bike costs about $50, but they only had a high end $90 chain. The life of the high-end chain is supposed to be double that of the stock chain so I figured it was worth the extra money.

Part 2 down; a few more to go. Thanks for dropping by and keep the shiny side up.

I'm a Slacker: Part 1

Okay, so I'm a huge slacker. I call this "Part 1" because I'm sure it may take me several parts and several days to catch up on a month of thoughts that have been blowing through my head. Obviously, creating a blog that people enjoy reading probably requires consistency, if anything. Sure, good writing style and good content are important, but who cares? If you don't write, what will they read? Now that I've chastised myself, lets get down to business.

This last month has been a good riding month...for me, anyway. At least 2 weeks of it have been filled with storm clouds and rain. Lots of it. In fact this June has been the 9th wettest on record. To this point in June, the state is around 300% of normal rainfall. Now, I've noticed that this has deterred a lot of riders, but not me. Why, you ask?

Well first, my car's registration expired at the end of May and I haven't renewed it because it has a massive crunch where it's right tail-light should be. Thanks to some unknown person who kindly slid into it and drove away while I was pulling a nightshift at the hospital back during Christmas break. It is now in the shop getting it's butt fixed.

Second, my wife is building up a little day-care business and needs her car to haul around the kids, though now she just about has more kids than she can haul and travels less than she used to. But she needs the van, so I can't use that.

Third, I've been too lazy to get up early enough to take the bus an hour and a half each way. It's great reading time, but I'm just not in the mood.

Finally, I just love to ride. So, I try and time the storms so I get to work and back between cloudbursts. The nice thing about Utah weather is that it rarely rains constantly. Sure it's been stormy for 2 straight weeks but the drizzles, showers and cloudburst are usually short lived and have nice gaps between them. It's kept the temperature in a real nice range too.

I did get caught in a couple showers though, and one really good soaker. I have only riden in the rain once or twice last year when I got caught about 5 minutes before I got to work, but I made it in before I got too wet. This time though, I wasn't as lucky. A couple weeks ago I tried to time it between two big showers and failed. Half of my ride was in the rain. Part of the time it was coming down in big, cold drops that would run like a river down my jacket and puddle on my seat right between my legs. Woohoo, that is not a fun sensation. Then it started hailing for a few seconds and gave my knuckles a fair punishing, though it was only pea-sized hail. Much bigger could have really started to suck.

After these few episodes, riding in the rain--the Utah rain, anyway--isn't too bad. I don't mind getting wet. I do need to get a good rainsuit though. The main trick is to avoid it if you can, but if you get caught in it, just slow way down, try and stay out of standing water and ride in the tracks of the cars ahead.

Well, I could keep going, but this post is starting to get a little unwieldy. I'll pick it up again in part two. I need to update you on that mechanical problem I mentioned back on May 6, tell you about my Disneyland vacation, my test ride of the Hyosung GV650 and GT650, and throw in some nice tidbit of motorcycle safety information. Stay tuned.