Rpoc

[cheesy]

Had our first real on the road breakdown yesterday. Flat front tire. The rig steers not at all when that happens. The bigger problem was that all power to the sidecar went bye bye, too. Only it didn't show up until I tried to run the air compressor.


Long story short, I cut the plug off the compressor and tapped into the power from the trickle charger SAE plug. That got me to my cousins' place. Her hubby helped me breakdown the front tire where we found the rim strip had come apart. It was fine three weeks ago. Used medical adhesive tape as a temporary fix to get us home. Also put in a new tube.



Found the fuse to the sidecar blown this morning. I think Mrs. C may have shoved her purse into the wiring and shorted something. I couldn't make that fuse pop. Patched the old tube this morning, too.

[Weldangrind]

I'm tired of rubber rim strips making me sad. I use Gorilla tape now.
Glad you were able to MacGyver it to get to your cousin's place. Also glad you have a cousin that could help.

[Sport Rider]

the joys of tires with tubes. glad you were able to resolve it, but I suppose it put a dent in your happy riding day. :(

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

I'm tired of rubber rim strips making me sad. I use Gorilla tape now.
Glad you were able to MacGyver it to get to your cousin's place. Also glad you have a cousin that could help.

Ditto. I’ll see how the adhesive tape holds up. Before the arrival of Mr. Tuffy brand rim strips in the bicycle world, the go to rim strip was Velox. Velox was basically heavy duty adhesive tape with the brand name printed on it.

I planned on going with Gorilla tape but couldn’t find it in 1”, but did find Gator brand in 1”. Will give that a try.

SR-Mrs. C was already in a sour mood because of her allergies. This didn’t help.

[cheesy]

I take that back, it's T-Rex tape I bought.

[Emerikol]

Here's a great review of the duct tapes available. T-Rex is on there, Cheesy.

[Weldangrind]

I tear Gorilla tape lengthwise into about six foot strips and wrap around the rim. Hasn't let me down yet.

[cheesy]

I have a 3” roll of Gorilla tape but me tearing it into 1” strips is akin to Creepy Dave using Anti-Sieze. It will just be a mess.

[Weldangrind]

The Gorilla tape I have must be 2", because I simply tear it down the middle. I'd measure it, but it's at the shop.

[cheesy]

I'm working in San Francisco this week. Turned out it was something the sales rep could have handled and saved the company some bucks.



Anyway, as I'm wont to do, if there is a Ural dealer in the area, I will pay them a visit, if I have time. I had time. This time it was TriQuest Cycles in Santa Clara. I had a great visit with Ski, the owner and a great guy. Ural sales and service is all he does. We ended up shooting the breeze for about two hours in his office.



I got quite the education, too.


He showed me the 'Dealer Tools' on the IMWA website and asked me for the VIN of my bike. Surprisingly, I had it on my phone with my insurance policy. He entered it in the IMWA website and my VIN came up as being part of a recall. The recall was for an improperly cut circlip groove on a tranny shaft. Ski emailed IMWA in Redmond, WA, asking if mine had been done. As I've never had a shifting issue, he said it either didn't have a bad shaft or it had been done. Twenty minutes later, IMWA replied that mine had been done on 9/26/07. He told me a lot of the behind the scenes history of Ural in the US, from CMSI, the original importer, to IMWA today, as he was there for most of it. Also told me which online dealers that are good to work with and which to avoid. I'm familiar with all he mentioned, and agreed with his assessment.



I also toured his shop and I got a closer look at the 2018 models. They are a lot less clunky looking than my 07. Ski said 07 was one of the better years for Ural but they still had their issues, as I can attest.


This was one of the best visits I've had.

[Weldangrind]

What a terrific moment in time! I hope you stay in touch with that gentleman.

[Sport Rider]

Urals have issues? no way!

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

Urals have issues? no way!

Perhaps 'issues' was the wrong word. Maybe it's 'character'. Nah, who we kidding, it's issues.


I did learn that the final drive 'character' is finally being dealt with by IMWA and IMZ. The cast iron ring and pinion gears are being replaced with matched and hardened gear sets that will also come fitted with a new driveshaft yoke and u-joint. Hard part to swallow is that ninety buck replacement gear set will now be in the neighborhood four hundred smackers. On the other hand, last one ever needed.

[BlackBike]

Great contact for future network posibilities

[cheesy]

My first attempt at truing a motorcycle wheel started last night.

Mrs. C and I did a couple of trips yesterday, totaling about a hundred miles. The last trip was to the local Cabelas for a $15 fishing license that cost us $80 by the time we got out the door.

Because it was beastly hot, we rode without our usual headgear. We both could hear a clicking noise coming from the rear wheel we wouldn’t have heard with our helmets. My first thought is that I’m pulling the FD again. We get home and I find nothing amiss. Sigh of relief.

So, put some lighter clothes on and commence to swap out the milk jugs on the front bumper of the Jeep for end caps. Finish that and start putting the tools away when I see the rear tire on the Ural is flat. Fuhhhh.

Pulled the rear wheel and found my clicking noise, the hub and rim were loose on the spokes. It took me two hours, a butane torch, vise grips, and a 10mm socket to loosen the spokes from the nipples. Thank God Ural saw fit to have spoke nipples with a 10mm hex on them. Spent another ninety minutes removing each nipple, chasing the threads and lubing each spoke with moly lube.

I’ve built dozens of bicycle wheels, so this is not really a problem for me but it’s the first time I’ve ever done spokes larger than 14ga. These puppies are 5mm and short, so sort of like trying to bend a sewer pipe bare handed. Got the initial eyeballing done last night. Doing the final truing this morning before the sun hits the garage. Russian steel rims are only a facsimile of round, so if I can get within 5mm for out of roundness and 2mm laterally, I’ll be ecstatic.