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August 07, 2006
Chicago - Paw Paw
I should preface this entry by saying that internet access has been virtually nonexistent so far, I was able to check my e-mail the other day at my dad's house in MI (and upload some photos on Saturday to my Flickr account), but have had little time or access to the internet outside of that. My apologies for the lack of an update until now, I'll see if I can recap.
Thursday, 8/3: I finished moving out of my apartment the night before, spent the rest of the evening going through my gear and getting to know the video camera, and stayed the night at Vanessa's. Thursday morning I said a sad goodbye to the cats, loaded up the scooter and made my way up to Scooterworks, where I spent several hours going through the gear and saying goodbyes. Didn't get on the road until about 3:30pm, shot some video footage from the moving scooter (all the way down LSD) but it didn't turn out very well. Traffic was decent, almost ran out of gas on the south side (South Shore Drive) because I hadn't filled up before leaving, tried to make it to Indiana border where I knew there'd be gas stations. To conserve gas I'd shut the scooter off at stoplights. Made it to a gas station (on fumes, it took 1.7 gallons to fill it), then made my way through Whiting, Gary, Town of Pines, Michigan City, Bridgman, Stevensville, Benton Harbor, Coloma, etc., and finally into Paw Paw just after dark. Called my dad to get directions to his new house and made it there eventually after getting lost the first time. Caught up with him a bit and called it a night.
Friday 8/4: I spent the morning going through my gear, then went to visit my dad at work to show him the paintjob on the scooter. He liked it and was honored, so that part went well. But on my way to town from where he works (about 8 miles) my scooter lost power and made an unhealthy noise. Terrified, I pulled over to investigate. Checked the sparkplug and found it messy but saw no hole in the piston. Put a new plug in, upjetted just to be safe and got it to start. Driving at 30mph in the shoulder I very gingerly limped the scooter to town, about 3 miles away, though it sounded bad and had an airleak symptom. Managed to get as far as Pizza Hut in Paw Paw before it made a horrific sound and died. With dread I pushed it up the hill to Speedway to try working in the shade (it was quite hot out). I spent almost 2 hours there taking it apart and talking to Massimo on the phone trying to figure out what went wrong; obviously some metal had gone through the top end...the cylinder looked pretty good and the piston a little chewed-up but possibly serviceable, no hole in the piston or seizure in the barrel. From my description Massimo thought it could be the clutch side seal but I couldn't see it past the crank no matter how hard I tried, so I had no idea.
I decided that since I couldn't tell how extensive the damage was without tearing the engine apart (possibly even needing a new crank or cases after the shrapnel I found under the reed valve), and given that I was only 140 miles away, the best thing to do would be to get the scooter back to Scooterworks and have Massimo look at it. In the meantime my uncle John and cousin Johnny had come to my rescue with their truck. We loaded the scooter in and hauled it to Lawton. My uncle John generously agreed to let me use his truck the next day to haul the bike back to Chicago. So Friday night I did a little visiting with the Hackenberg family and first thing Saturday AM I drove with the scooter back to Chicago.
Saturday 8/5: Left Lawton at about 8:30AM, got into Scooterworks around 11:30AM (much to everyone's shock there who'd just waved me off 36 hours earlier!). Massimo was able to look at it and we got the engine out of the bike and apart in no time, discovering that his prediction was right, a broken metal clutch-side seal was the cause of the problem. He said that the barrel was re-usable but Scooterworks didn't have replacement pistons for the Pinasco kit, so in a moment of pressure I decided on a stock LML cylinder setup. After all, the stock LML cylinder is a pretty decent and powerful setup, fairly reliable (with better crank bearings of course, which I have), and I can carry an oversize piston/rings with me in case of a top-end meltdown. Not quite as much power as the Pinasco, and heavier, but hopefully will do the job for the duration of the trip. Very disappointing to have to break in another top end after having *just* finished breaking in the Pinasco (and having it run so well). Especially given that my driving on the trip is mostly full-throttle (or damn near it) with little stopping-and-going, unlike driving in Chicago where full-RPM-range "break-in procedures" are a no-brainer because of stop signs, red lights and city traffic.
So we got the scooter back together and running after a few hours, it runs well but makes a funny rattling noise that scares me a little bit...Massimo says it's normal on bikes w/ different clutch gearing but it wasn't there on the old setup, so I hope it's nothing that will give me problems later. Time will tell. I didn't get to see any of my non-Scooterworks Chicago friends, just loaded it up and drove back to MI that evening. Got back to my grandparents' house too late to get the scooter off the truck, so I spent the night there and waited until morning. Saturday night I took their car over to Paw Paw to visit Paul Toliusis, and Isaac drove over from Kalamazoo. Despite all being really tired, we had a little reunion for an hour or so.
Sunday 8/6: I took the scooter with its fresh engine on its maiden voyage from Lawton to Lawrence to visit my grandparents the Coffingers, had a really nice visit and a delicious lunch with them before heading onto my dad's house to pack up the gear. Packed it all up and talked to dad a bit before finally getting on the road north towards Grand Rapids at about 4:30, my first foray out of "the comfort zone."
Posted by pj at August 7, 2006 10:55 PM