oil change
valve adjust
new rear tire
carb adjustment
And many quick fixes have been done along the road.
It is a town well worth stopping if you enjoy traveling on the quieter roads.
Heading into town from the West you are greeted with the amazing folk art of Dave Snipes. He has been carving for over thirty years. he has been located in Mancos for about ten years although his collection and yard look like a lifetime of work. He lives there with two cats, Snake and Oj.
Basin Motorcycle Works is a definite stop riders or just those who enjoy quality work and a beautiful restoration. Harry and Norbert service a full line bikes from from BMW to Harley Davidson both new and old. And being the “Gateway to the American Outback” they are working on becoming a necessary resource for Southwest adventure riding. Stop by on your way. I am looking forward to the directions Harry Hill is moving his shop and creating a resource for all us riders.
Keep on going down the road and you have beautiful Historic Durango, a small college town tucked away in the hills. you seem to have it all here from narrow gauge railroad to whitewater kayaking. Oh, Southern Colorado I think you might have it all tucked away in these mountains.
The roommates help meditate for the upcoming ride.
And myself explaining something very ingenious like the correlation between Royal Enfields and Rocket Science!
Yes, it must be rocket science…
So Thursday night the motorcycle clutch was fixed. Friday afternoon the Royal Enfield’s rear tire was flat! I decided a simple flat was a good opportunity to test out my AAA for motorcycles. Worked awesome… Tim, a Harley Davidson man, of Hazard towing was there in under 20 minutes. It was also nice having a hydraulic lift rather then pushing the motorbike with a flat tire up into the bed of a pick-up. Before getting to the tire I have decided it is time to get to the chain and sprocket R&R. I have half the specialty tools I need and could not find a 32mm deep socket anywhere! So I purchased a primitive box end wrench and am ready to take on whatever troubles are in Pandora’s bike this time…
The old and the new
After playing with the free play on the motorcycle it became apparent that the problem lie deeper within. I started the search looking over the routing of the new cable hoping it was a simple bind or kink but there were none. I pulled off the caps on the transmission case to check out the actuator and to my dismay there lay the problem. It didn’t take more then a few more pulls on the clutch to realize the clutch actuator was bending and with another pull it broke.
Replacing the part was not bad at all. The Transmission cover on the Royal Enfield had to be removed. The clutch actuator itself was bolted on the back side. After receiving the replacement form Classic Motorworks it was not a hard task at all to simply switch the actuator out and make simple adjustments. I also decided it was a perfect time to reroute a proper clutch cable.
I remembered I had tried to order some spare cables not long after buying my bike. I remember hearing something about cables breaking in a lot Royal Enfield reviews. However at the time I ordered the parts Classic Motorworks seemed to be back ordered on cables. So I ended up with only one.
Last night after kicking the gears all the way home did two things right away. The first thing I did was let out a sigh and grab a beer! The second was to somehow find what I hoped was a clutch cable for the motorbike. Awesome it was! But something about it looked different. When I pulled it out of the packaging it sure was different. This clutch cable was maybe fifteen inches shorter and had a steel tube on one end making a 90° turn.
Well, something had to give! Besides my car the motorcycle is currently the only other mode of functioning transportation in a house of four. So it was going to work one way or another. It took about 35 minutes of routing the cable different direction. One way it would melt on the engine. The next way it would engage the clutch turning left. Eventually I found an appropriate route.
Actually getting the clutch cable ends into the transmission was not as hard as to be expected. By removing the transmission plug #17 one can actually see the operating lever #4. It is much different on my motorbike; there is actually a small metal tab to prevent the cable end from slipping into the transmission. This tap was simply pulled out and pushed back in with a pick.
So off we go… everyone made to school and work this morning!
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