With the mandated rules at school being that both principals cannot be in the office at the same time, I opted for a little social distancing with Spawn. Temps were warming up nicely about 9:30 as we geared up and headed.......south sounds good. There is a nice motorcycle shop in Terra Haute. Let’s go see what’s shaking there. Plus it has a really nice FJR type road called Lower Terra Haute road. About 15 to 20 miles from Paris Illinois to West Terra Haute. Curves, elevation changes, and some banking all while being pretty rural and lowly patrolled. About the best we have around here.
I take my time getting to Paris as Spawn is listening to her music and me mine. We talk a little about her college plans and “to do” list for finishing high school. It’s really pretty lame finishing out this way. Senior-itis always hits kids this time of year, but it’s even worse due to the shituation upon us. She is fighting it, but not valiantly.
About 6 miles from the end of the road, I am leaned over at FJR nominal speed and I feel a clunk like I hit a rock mid corner. Never saw one, but oh well, it happens. Next few curves seem normal, but I dialed it back a little as we were coming into town anyway. Popo hang out there often.
We roll about 3 more miles and I start feeling a little wobble that feels like the tire is going flat. We ease over to the shoulder and hop off. Nope, seems full with a squeeze and a toe kick. We hop back on after a few inspections. Seems fine, but I still hear a few weird noises and the steering feels off. We stop again and I get down on the ground and really start looking. Nothing seems amiss. We are about 3 miles from the dealership. We head that way. On surface streets, I am really getting a crunchy sound every once in a while and a weird brake feel.
We pull up to service bay and start talking to Bill, the service guy. He doesn’t know anything and I can tell something is wrong with the axle or brakes. We look around, but he eventually says he has no OEM brake pads there or aftermarket. I just want to take the wheel off, but they say nope, I can’t do that. The service manager Lane comes out and starts helping. It’s a few min and we know it’s the wheel bearing on the right side. I don’t have to ask him if he has any bearing here. He says straight away, special order. I am 60 miles from home and no clue what to do with the bike. I need to get it home and on my lift, this board can help me fix it. I call my oldest son and we FaceTime what I need him to bring me. Canyon dancer, 4 straps, and my Ridgeline. No ramp needed, they have a dock. Lane in service is cool and says we can leave our gear on the table if we want to go look around and they will help is load it upon Connor’s arrival. 70 min later, we are loading up and after a quick carry out at Chick Fil A, we head home. Unload the bike at home. The KLX was on the lift in preparation of the shock spring coming in the mail. It did and 45 min later. I swapped it out.
Time to dig into the FJR. I called Pants and he walked me through some likely things. I pulled the wheel and the clutch side seemed just fine. Flipping the tire over made it obvious. Pants FaceTimed in and got me started on the removal. It wasn’t hard, the thing basically fell apart.
Will make the order tomorrow and get the wheel up to Autozone. One of my player’s mom works there. Pants said I can borrow a bearing puller there. I prob could just push the other one out, but after cleaning up the whole wheel, I realize we were damn lucky we didn’t have a disaster.
Anyway, shoot me any advice on the fix up if you would. I appreciate all the advice from Pants and whatever you all give me. Thanks
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