Mixed Blessings.

After determining that it wasn't the oil pump or an easy fix I had some decisions to make. I nearly bought another engine that was known to run. Then, there was the spare engine I had kept from the build. The biggest problem with the spare engine is I had never even opened the dipstick to see what the oil looked like, let alone whether or not it would run.

After considering my options I decided to risk it and put the spare engine in the frame and cross my fingers it either ran or would be an easier fix than the Hari Kari success story. I put the spare engine on an engine stand so I could clean it off and check what I could before trying to start it.

All the work and help I gave Mike came in handy since he was more than happy to give me a hand getting the engine loaded and washed.

It's not too hard getting the engine on the stand, and it makes it TONS easier to work on since can rotate it like a rotisserie chicken. Some elbow grease, a couple cans of engine degreaser and a few hours of work had the engine looking pretty good. The paint on the casing is pealing and it doesn't look really cherry, bit it's better than no engine.

I started taking the bike apart in preperation for the engine swap.

When I removed the carbs, this is what I found.

That is the intake side of the engine, fuel/air mixture is supposed to go in there, nothing is supposed to come out that way. I was admittedly very surprised to see this, and for a minute or two I was very puzzled as to where that metal had come from. The trail of metal continued all the way back to the pods on the other side of the carbs. This is the side of the carbs that is attached to the air pods.

It was a pain to clean the metal shards out of the carbs, and even worse to clean out the pods.

I took off early a couple days of work so I could get the engine swapped. Mike was nice enough to come over again once he was off work. Before he came over I was able to get the buggered engine out of the frame using a ComeALong mounted to the ceiling of the garage.

The buggered engine was put on a dolly and I loaded the spare engine onto the ComeALong. Mike was still at work and I needed a hand steadying the engine while it hung suspended, so I asked my little brother to lend a hand. Thanks Mathew, it was much easier with your help as usual. We got the spare engine mounted into the frame, and I started hooking things back up. Rounds about then Mike made it over and started helping me reassemble things.

OHHHH no Mike, you've been framed!!!

Working in a hot garage by yourself is boring, so the company is always appreciated.

We put the bike back together far enough to test the motor. I hooked up my external tank and fired her up. It took a we bit of doing but she fired up pretty easily. She ran pretty smoothly, but after a few minutes of running she started smoking out the exhaust pipes. It wasn't too terrible so I did a vaccum sync on the carbs. I had added some Seafoam to the engine oil to help clean the engine's internals. After the carb sync we changed oil to some fresh oil. Unfortunately it didn't stop the smoking.

I arrived home from work a few days later and went for a ride. The new engine seems to work really well and is a bit quieter than the one that chewed itself apart. The smoking is more intermittent right now and I'm not sure what is causing it, but I'm not super concerned.

I also started taking the buggered engine apart to see what the damages were. Here's some pictures, I'll let you judge for yourself.

Here's the spark plug from cylinder 1. Wonder if I can regap it ;)

When I got the valve cover off, the valve retainer (thing that is circled) was on top of the valve, so I initially couldn't see any damage. As you can see, it snapped off.


I was thinking of putting a stake through the engine, but decided against that course of action, so instead I posed for this picture.



Hmmm, that's not a good thing. The ticking noise I was hearing must have been the valve shaft chipping away at this piston. I really wish I knew at what point a hole had been put into the piston since the bike ran for a couple hundred miles with ticking noise.

The exhaust valve is snapped off and all that is left is the bent shaft. This is what I'm guessing ultimately punched the hole in the piston.

Even the cylinder sleeve is chewed up and beyond repair.

Even the bottom and sides of the piston took a beating.

This poor machine really tore itself up before giving up. I somewhat suspect that had the hole in the crankcase not occured I might have made it back to Salt Lake on the bike. I will never know for sure the exact timing and sequence of events that brought about this amazing amount of destruction.

With the spare motor running, I'm pretty happy. I'll just fix this engine up with some modified pistons that will make it into a 750cc engine and go from there.

The Aftermath

I was pretty beat and slept in till about 11.

We unloaded the bike and put her in the garage.



After pulling off the left sprocket cover I examined the oil pump. Having figured I'd blown the oil pump seal I was expecting bits of oring or some indication of the catastrophic failure, but I couldn't see anything. I looked off to the left and noticed something that didn't look right.

I guess it wasn't the oil seal after all, something went wrong and punched a hole in the lower crank case!


The silver lining to all this is I had a spare engine from when I refinished the bike, and it is looking like it won't need much work at all to get it running. Just one more part of the motorcycling adventure.

The Long Road Home

Having decided that I was ready to go home I packed my gear. I finished a few jobs my uncle had me doing for him, said goodbye to my aunt and headed out.

Before hitting the freeway I wanted to see my uncles new business. He runs a retirement home in Glenwood, and opened a new on in Monroe, another little town just outside of Richfield. I had heard lots of things about the new building, but hadn't had the chance to make it down there myself, so I went.

I didn't take any pictures, but I should have. It is a really nice facility, open, airy, and just really classy. He gave me the grand tour. My Grandpa and Grandma (his parents) lived there in their own little apartment, and I wanted to see their pad and say goodbye. I sat and chatted with them for about an hour, it was nice to catch up and relax.

About noon I took off and headed back to I-70. The ticking noise that had started a couple days earlier was still there, but since I had decided to ignore it until I got back to Salt Lake, I just put in my headphones and turned up the tunes.

I had a full tank of gas, and I had determined that I could easily make 90 miles on a tank before I even need to worry about finding a gas station. After about 60 miles I decided to stop in Scipio and stretch a bit, plus I wanted to check the oil level. I pulled into the station, drank some water from the bottles I was carrying, filled up the gas, checked the oil which looked fine, reset the odometer to 0's, and took off. As I gunned the engine to merge onto I-15 I was anxious to be home and relax, but also enjoying the memories of all the great miles I had ridden on this first really big trip.

About 12 miles later I felt the bike hiccup, but just assumed that it was a cross breeze or something, and continued riding. A minute or so later I started losing power fast. At first I thought it was an electrical issue as I'd had problems with them before, so I tried giving her more throttle while I figured out my best course of action. More throttle didn't do very much and I was continuing to lose speed very fast. I must have thought about the oil leak coming from my oil pump because I looked down at my left foot and saw a huge geyser of oil coming out of my left sprocket cover. Figuring I had blown the oil seal around the pump I quickly pulled off to the shoulder where the bike died before I could hit the kill switch.

As I was quickly contemplating my options and wondering what damage the engine had suffered I pulled out my cell phone and called my mom, hoping I would be able to get a hold of her. My phone was on the last bit of battery as it connected my call, and the reception was spotty. By the grace of heaven or something the line cleared up long enough for me to give her my location and ask her to pick my broken down butt up.

Even though her and my little brother were on their way to go camping, she agreed to come pick me up, just as my phone started making the noise that means it's about to die.

Having arranged a ride I got off my bike and started pushing it toward the off ramp. I was .4 miles from exit 202 (Yuba Lake). Fortunately the uphill was pretty gradual so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. As I was pushing a truck pulling a toy hauler trailer pulled over in front of me and the man driving got out and started walking back. I don't know if anyone else is this way but I was embarrassed and part of me was hoping that people would just ignore me. But at the same time I was really grateful someone took notice of my predicament, even if I'd already made arrangements to get home.

As he approached he called out asking if I'd ran out of gas. Man, I wish that was the problem, but since it wasn't I explained I thought I had blown an oil seal so gas wasn't the issue. He offered me a ride into Nephi, and I think he could have fit my bike in his toy hauler trailer, but since I'd already made arrangements to be picked up, and my phone was dead so I couldn't call my mom to let her know what was going on (I don't have numbers memorized, accursed speed dial) I thanked him for the offer and for stopping but said I was just fine.

He pulled away as I was pushing my bike up the exit ramp and he honked his farewell. This is one more example of why I still have a little faith in humanity.

With the bike on the exit ramp, and no shade in site, unless you were the height of the Roaming Gnome, my choices of where to stay were pretty easy. I figured I had at most 3.5 hours to wait before my family would be there with my pickup truck, so I just put the bike on the center stand and proceeded to wait.

I was in the blazing desert sun, and I really should have grabbed my hat out of my sissy bar bag, but it was in the middle of the pack and I didn't want to unload the bike. I was half expecting a Highway Patrol Officer to come by and tell me I could stay there and to move, and I didn't want to have to repack everything. So I just sat there, wondering if my balding head would get badly burned. It's been nearly a week and I was super fortunate, I just got a really nice tan, no burning or blistering, so woohoo!

After a while, sitting and watching cars go by got pretty boring so I pulled out my laptop and typed for a while. It was mostly just stream of consciousness stuff as I tried thinking through my life and my goals. After the battery on the laptop drained out I put it away and just sat at thought.

Should I fix this bike, or should I call it quits and buy a new one? I finally decided I had so much time, money, and soul into this bike that I would fix it. Even if the engine was seized and needed to be rebuilt, it would still be cheaper than buying a new bike.

Normally I'm a rather pessimistic person, unfortunately I tend to focus on the bad things, but as I sat there I made a decision. I was ok, I had the skills and knowledge to fix the bike, I had a network of family and friends to help and support me, so there is really nothing to worry about. I would get the bike fixed and enjoy many more miles of touring.

Luckily I had made it a habit to carry water with me, mostly because I didn't want to have to buy drinks everywhere I went, but in this case it was a life saver. I had made it a point to stay very hydrated while riding around, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There was a decent breeze, so all in all it was pretty tolerable.

I decided to take some pictures of where I was stuck at.

Here's a couple pics I snapped of the bike. Notice the oil covering the lower part of the engine an the back tire. This could easily have ended with me laying the bike down at 75mph.

For some reason that no one is really sure of it took my mom and little brother a little over 5 hours to get to me. After a while I was getting concerned that something may have happened, and since my phone was dead there would have been no way for me to contact her to find out. I knew my truck had a coolant leak, and I was worried that it may have overheated or worse and stranded her.

While these concerns were running through my head I noticed a lot of things about my environment. There was a large hawk or some other bird circling that was probably disappointed when I turned out to not be dead. There were a couple birds that were either fighting, or may have been trying to distract the hawk from their nest. Someone had scribbled Communism under the STOP on the stop sign. And why were there 2 grasshoppers that were both missing their left hopping leg?

The sun was beginning to go down and I started thinking of what I should do if my ride didn't get there soon. I was in the boy scouts and learned how to survive in the wilderness so I wasn't really concerned about that, and Yuba Lake was only 5 miles away, so I could always hike over there if I needed too, there was bound to be a ranger station or something.

Another person pulled over to see if I needed help, but I told him I was ok. Not long after that I saw my mom and little brother pulling off the freeway and heading over to me. We loaded up the motorcycle and headed home. We stopped in Nephi to get some food and water and more radiator fluid for the ride home. It took over a gallon and a half of radiator fluid to make it back to Salt Lake. Turns out my water pump had failed. Oh well, it wasn't too hard to fix.

All things considered, it was a great trip and the bike breaking down is just one more story to tell!

Fish Lake, Capitol Reef, and a Worrysome Ticking Noise

I hadn't accomplished as much at my Grandfathers as I would have liked so I went back over there the next morning to spend a couple more hours before taking off for more riding. I managed to get 20 of the 2x2 slats up and you can get a pretty good feel for how it will look once it is finished.



I think it will look good, and while I didn't accomplish near as much as I felt I should have, I'm really pleased with how it's shaping up. I promised him I'd be back down in two weeks to try and finish it up. I was hoping to ride my motorcycle back down, but as you will find out, the motorcycle gods have other plans it would seem.

I left his house about 9:30 and headed back to Glenwood to pick up a gas can and fill up the tank. I ended up purchasing a gas can since I was unable to find one that I felt comfortable would seal properly. Here's the bike all geared up ready for the days adventure, complete with gas can :)
I had noticed a pesky ticking noise coming from the top of my engine. It reminded me of the sound made when as kids we put basball or playing cards in the spokes of our bikes in an attempt to make it sound like an engine. I would contemplate this noise off and on throughout my trip, but I had decided to have some faith that my bike wouldn't let me down, so I rode on.

As I rode up the mountain from Glenwood toward fish lake I encountered a road sign that alwasy troubles me "Loose Gravel". This sign always sends a chill up my spine and causes a moment of panic. In a car loose gravel is a nuisance and might chip your paint, on a motorcycle it can cause you to lose control of your bike and lay it down. I practice the motorcycle religion of A.T.G.A.T.T (All The Gear All The Time), but even with proper riding gear you rarely walk away unscathed. I decided that I would have to remain alert and cautious, and I slowed down a bit. In hindsight I'm not sure this was necissary as the gravel appeared to have been either pushed in to the soft tar by all the vehicles that had come before me, or had been pushed off to the side of the road. Still, cautious riding will keep you riding.

I came up and over this hill, and the twisties would have been a lot of fun if I had been able to ride them at speed, but as I said, I erred on the side of caution and rode slowly. On the way down a car came up behind me and I figured I'd pull off at a pull out and let him pass since he could safely move at a faster pace. Besides, it gave me the opportunity to snap these pics.

I pulled back on the road and headed back toward fish lake. After a while I became a bit more comfortable with the road and picked up a little bit of speed. Another 10 minute or so brought me into a really green valley, I'm not really sure if it has a name or not, but I liked it so I pulled over and snapped some more pics.

I haven't done enough riding to know if these things are common or just a peculiarity of central Utah, but every now and then a sign would announce "Historical Marker 500ft". At 65mph 500 feet passes pretty quick, so by the time I've processed what the sign was saying, and decided to stop and check it out the turn is right there. It's a good thing my brakes and in good shape. I thought the information was interesting so I took a picture. As a side note, I'm a huge advocate for the individuals right to own guns, I own them and enjoy the responsible use of them. However I get very put out when I see that someone used one in an irresponsible manner and vandalized a sign or monument. I doubt any of the people who read my blog would be so irresponsible and for that I'm glad.

The temperature cooled down a bit as I continued riding and going up in elevation. Compared to the heat in the valley, I was really enjoying the cool air. Another 3o minutes of riding or so and I came to the turn off for Fish Lake. I noticed that the types of trees had changed. Where before I was used to seeing Juniper and Sage Brush, Quakey Aspens became the dominant tree. I'm not sure what caused it, but it was just a detail I noticed. I rode to the lake and parked the bike. For lunch I enjoyed a couple of granola bars and some water. I always made sure to bring water with me, mostly so I didn't have to buy it when I stopped.

Fish Lake is a pretty area, and it's very well developed. There are bathrooms with flushing toilets and developed camp sites. I'm all for roughing it, but I enjoy the comforts of civilization as well.

Here's my attempt at an artistic framing of the above pic using the camera. I think it came out pretty decent.

More pics of Fish Lake.



I relaxed in this area for a half hour or so and then hit the road again. Here's a few pics as I'm leaving.

On the way to Capitol Reef I stopped in Loa to fill up my tank since I wasn't sure how much further it was to my destination. I went in to give the station attendant cash for my gas, and it turns out you can pay with cash AFTER filling up. I haven't seen that in years.

I think I'm going to have to take a trip back to Capitol Reef.

This one is known as The Castle, it's actually on the little map you can get from the Ranger Station.

After 4 days on my motorcycle I was pretty sore and decided to head back to Glenwood. It was a nice ride back. I took a few more pictures as I was entering Glenwood.

I decided that I would go home the next day. I had a great time and a lot of beautiful miles passed beneath my tires and the bike had handled very well, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I felt it was time to get back. The ticking noise was concerning, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it without my tools back home.

A day off of riding.

After talking with my Grandfather, I had promised him I would come over and help him with his project to enclose his porch.

I got over there about 10am, we measured the back porch out, discussed the options, and went shopping for the materials we would need to make it happen.

Here's some pictures of what it looked like before we got started.

I was a little hesitant to cut the Trumpet Vines, they were very thick and I liked them. However, to get in and really frame it correctly I had to chop them up. I'm sure they'll grow back quite easily. Here's what I accomplished in about four and a half hours.

Grandpa and one of his neighbors that came over to talk with him helped me steady the top sections while I measured them out and screwed them in. It came out super solid and I was very pleased with the work.

I called it quits around 4:30pm as I had promised to cook dinner for my aunt and uncle that I was staying with. I headed back over to their house and proceeded to burn the first batch of rice I tried to make. I'm used to the Minute rice and they didn't have any. My aunt was very gracious about it, and I did manage to cook the rice properly the second time around. The meal was very good. I then proceeded to mow the lawn of their house and business with the riding lawnmower they have. Their property is pretty big and it took a couple hours to do. Near the end the lawnmower died and I thought it was out of gas. I fetched a 5 gallon gas can and proceeded to unscrew the lid on the mower. It must have been severely vapor locked because as soon as the lid came free it geysered at least a half gallon of gas into the air, soaking my left arm and part of my shirt and getting all over the mower. Fortunately it didn't catch fire, and after waiting a bit I started it up and took it over to the water tap and washed it off, and finished mowing the lawn.

I'm just glad the gas didn't get into my eyes or mouth, somehow I lucked out and dodged that liquid bullet.