I received an honor tonight—someone asked me to certify their Saddlesore 1000 ride, scheduled for within the next month or two. A saddlesore 1000 is a motorcycle ride that lasts 1000 miles or more, and 24 hours or less. It's the qualifying ride to join the Iron Butt Association. I'm a member already, and I suppose it lends a bit of credibility to my signature on their documentation.
In other MC news, I spent nearly the whole day putting the fairing back on my bike. Late last fall I had a slow-speed accident in a parking lot, and it broke the fairing. A few months ago I had scraped enough together to buy some used fairing parts, a few weeks ago I got them "painted" with truck bed liner so they would all be the same color, and a few days ago I replaced the electrical part that had failed. It was time to attach the fairing.
BMW fairings are held onto the bike by six bolts through slots at the ends of some steel bars. As it happens, these bars, strong though they be, will bend in a collision, even a slow one. It took all day to bend them back, try on the fairing, remove the fairing, bend some more, etc. until everything was close enough to factory original to go back together. We'll see if it stays on when I take it for a spin. I'm not done yet, but I got the main piece on. The rest should be comparatively easy. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the bike
sans fairing, but here's a shot of the current state of affairs.
The white stuff in front is the tool table, covered against the evening dew; the club logo under the turn signal is from the M-Riders, the Mensa motorcycle club. My other club badges are on the damaged fairing parts; I'll have to get new ones. I'm not sure where to put them—the new surface is pebbly, not smooth. Like a truck bed liner.
5 comments:
Dear Rogers:
This is now three motorcycle-related posts in a row. I'm impressed.
I think is was sheer genius to paint the fairing with truck liner-bed black. I can hardly wait to see it. Zap me when it is running again. We'll have crabs on the Maryland shore.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
It's been running since Sunday evening. I've rode it to work all week. Four non-required parts aren't on it, and I'll pick up a replacement mirror at the ride on May 2. Took all weekend to get everything in place. When you hit a car and rip the fairing off, the brackets bend in apparently random directions, and it took a lot of tweaking to get all six brackets lined up right. So we can go do those crabs any time you like!
Dear Rogers:
Plan to ride for crabs soon.
Fondest regards,
Riepe
You should paint the whole bike with truck bed liner! I'm thinking of doing part of the Ural with it to combat the rust.
Great blog and nice to come across a fellow 1000 miles/24 hours survivor!
I'm 62 now and will be doing #5 in October on a Street Triple.
Best wishes,
Geoff in New Zealand
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