WENT OUT for a blast on the iron piggy shortly before midnight, just for nothing. See the video below.
On state 102 in rural Exeter, a lightless 2-lane through the trees, the left footboard starts buzzing. I know what it is: the front lever on the transmission linkage has slipped off the heel-toe shifter. That means all I have is the gear I’m in, fifth.
It’ll get me to a streetlight in North Kingstown before I need to pull over and do something about it.
The shifter coming apart is a known issue on Harley baggers. The hex socket cap screw that secures the lever to the shaft tends to work itself loose. You need to check it now and again, tighten it back down if necessary. Regular maintenance.
Oops…
When the lever falls off the shaft you can lose the whole shifter assembly if your boot happens to be up on the highway peg and not on the footboard. The shifter will slide right out of that bore in the inner primary case.
So I’m on the side of the road in North Kingstown, no tools, no zip ties, no duct tape… things I almost always carry in the saddlebags. Oops again.
Did have my pocketknife. Could have cut a strip out of my shirt and tied the shifter back together with it. Then I thought, nah, let’s just stick the lever back on, it’ll stay on long enough to get me into top gear on the highway. Then even if it comes loose it won’t pose a rideability issue until I’m within two miles of home.
Except it didn’t get me into fifth; it fell apart again at fourth. Which had me poking along at 50mph.
On a motorcycle you want to be going a little faster than everybody else. You’re vulnerable going 25mph slower.
Happily, I had no near-encounters with the distracted, the impaired or the merely reckless at baseline.
When I got off the highway, my too-low fourth gear was suddenly high, of course. But I didn’t have far to go on local streets, wasn’t concerned about heating things up by slipping the clutch, so slip it I did, and between that and disengaging fully to coast whenever I could, there was no lugging the engine.
Piggy and I freewheeled into the driveway around 1:30.
This clip below rates as a Monday afternoon time waster… Fifteen minutes of me going too slow on the highway this morning. If you’ve seen one minute you’ve seen them all.
At 2:08 note the state cop running radar on the left, real stealthy-like. When I rode by I had an idea what the trooper must be thinking:
Harley guy in the wee hours doing 50 in a 55? Shouldn’t that be probable cause for…? Something?
Tony DePaul, May 23, 2022, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
Oops in a bike?
btdt.
Hey Tony,
Glad you made it home uneventfully; there’s nothing like the adventure that goes with riding an old machine, right? I was taking a night course in downtown Philly at one of Temple’s satellite classrooms about a dozen or so years ago. When I went to start my twenty-something year-old Honda Nighthawk, I got nothin, nada, zip. The ignition switch was bad and I had to ask the parking lot lady attendant if she had some electrical tape, a paper clip, anything to get me going. Fortunately she had enough stuff in her desk drawer, I was able to get the old bike going and get home at a reasonable hour. Hey, when the old Harley does this again, you can just copy and paste your entry for this post into the next issue and I’ll be none the wiser, like Groundhog Day with Bill Murray!
Very cool. Electrical issues can be tough to diagnose and fix in the field; no multimeter, no test lamp… Mine was simple, purely mechanical, part A fell off of Part B.
It’ll definitely fall off again one of these years. Maybe I’ll tighten the bejesus out of the bolt and pre-zip-tie it to boot.
At about minute 4, I caught myself nodding off. I might just put that sweet sound on a loop to lull me sleep tonight. Oh no, on second thought it won’t work. At 4:46, the bike gives a slight hesitation. At first I thought maybe you chopped the throttle. It happens again later, so maybe it’s the film. At any rate it was disruptive to my mechanical meditations. Then gf walks through the room, “why is the phone so close to your ear?” I answer, so I can hear the wind…
Haha! Oh, I know. I’m so starved for a bona fide journey. Please tell me you’re riding somewhere for distance in 2022, David. Somebody’s got to get out there!
Hi Tony, love your videos! I always feel like I’m traveling somewhere exotic. Which could be anywhere other than my daily commute, haha. Best always!
Ha… that was your daily commute, I think. You must come west on 138 to 4 north? Unless you come up the East Bay.
Thanks for reading, Sherry.
Let me introduce you to my Little Friend…….
Loctite Blue!!!
old dogs like you know better! But hey, it kept you from getting sleepy out there.
Your headlamp is good, that’s no stock 2004 Road King Sealed Beam which can barely light the way, whatcha running in that nacelle?
Hmmm, trying to think, D. Some semi-well-known aftermarket LED, I know they use them in jeeps. Low beam is good, high beam’s bad, I don’t even use it. The road really goes dark once the side lamps cut out. You do get a little more distance on the center beam but it’s orders of magnitude darker than the low center.
I switched to high beam twice on the most rural road I was on this morning, just for yuks. It’s alarming.
Those shift levers run hot, they eat red loctite…
Tony, I’m no mechanic by any means. My lips moved as I read your description of the problems, your diagnosis, and your “oops!” as you tell the reader what common sense rules of biking you violated. CCjon’s “ATTATT” which I liked, reminds me of the space walking astronaut’s FORB (Fuel, Oxygen, Radio, Batteries).
Tony, you do it all: Journalism, House Construction, Bike Mechanics, Screenplays….I would enjoy reading a memoir/essay/biography of how you learned to do these things and the people you met doing them. And the wisdom you obtained about learning new things and tips on doing difficult tasks.
Durig the height of Covid, I took my household tools and replaced the fuel line on my
Weber propane grill, a high point in my home handyman’s career. (Great owner’s manual) A half hour of carefully following the directions, followed by a loud “woosh” as I lit the front burner. It is very satisfying to fix once malfunctioning things and subsequently having them do what they are supposed to. Warm smile from the wife as well.
FORB! I love that. That’ll be part of my vocabulary now.
Thanks for the good word, Robert. If you like fixing things, there’s quite a bit of it on the blog from a decade ago, winter and spring of 2012. Here are two you might like.
https://www.tonydepaul.net/piggys-got-her-drive-back/
https://www.tonydepaul.net/in-the-home-stretch/
Second one’s got a bit about the shifter-linkage issue; rear lever instead of the forward one.
Many thanks for following the scribble.
You should have called…
Haha… need to elaborate for others: my friend John Ross lives a mile from where I was futzing with the shifter on the side of the road. John is the original give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back type. He’d be delighted if you rang him up out of bed at 1 in the morning and asked him to run a tool kit out to you, he doesn’t have to be at work until, you know, 7.
Tony, ATGATT… except in your case, ATTATT… All The Tools All The Time.
Am very pleased to see you out riding. I know its good for your soul and mind.
Thanks, amigo. I’m getting out there only at odd hours (really odd hours) but it really is good for the inner life. I’m finally up on the second floor now, renovations-wise. Starting on two more rooms this week. Much to do yet but every day a little bit of it gets done.
Meant to text you yesterday about your own plans. Where are you headed next?
Drill it out and run safety wire? Nah, screw it. It’ll just make something more important rattle off.
Haha… Motor sounds good, doesn’t it? Even with the detached shift linkage rattling around atop the primary. The ex-Navy machinist who rebuilt the bottom end for me really knew what he was doing. Lighter rods, balanced the crank according to his own proprietary method, welded against scissoring, I love this motor!
You might want to clip a pair of small needle point Vise Grips on piggy somewhere. Those don’t fall off when properly clamped. Might come in handy and you don’t need to remember to bring them… or just keep doing what you do. Y’er a sharp cookie as is.
Dude! Glad you made it home! Is this truly an HD regular issue?
I’m out of touch on the newer bikes, there might be an improved design nowadays. When I was piggy’s age I had to register for the draft.
Tybee plans this year, Eric?
Sucks when there aren’t any materials to MacGuyver a fix. Tree bark and spit are plentiful but not really much help on that bit of foobar’d design.
I put new weather seals in the pelican cases I’m using for saddlebags on the Harley, dumped everything out for that, never bothered to sort through it all and put the necessaries back on board! Need to do so asap.
Duct taped a floorboard rubber back on the iron piggy in Montana once… 🙂
So glad you made it home safe and sound. Enjoy your lunch with D1D2.
She’s a sweetie, lots of fun. Thanks for reading, Ellie.
Tony,why don’t you do your maintenance.That shit wouldn’t happen.Too bad.
Got home from Boston once with the shifter zip-tied on. That bolt and the one on the rear shift lever are easy doh-forgot points. Threadlocker doesn’t seem to help, not even red. It’s subjected to lots of primary case heat and oil. The zerk fitting for the shifter isn’t stock, I drilled and threaded the bore for it. Piggy’s all set for Long Way Down, Long Way Around, just bring zip ties…
Well….since it’s Victoria Day holiday here in Canada I could have wasted that much time watching your video, but then the flower beds wouldn’t get turned over and the bedding out plants put in the ground. Get the Piggy fixed!
Yep, I’ll put the shifter back on this evening, it’s a 5-minute job. Right now I’m minding the littlest little one, D1D2. We’re drinking blueberry tea in the playhouse under the side stairs and eating peach slices and chomper beans. That’s what she calls cashews.