Gettin' Dirty with the Wans: 8400 miles - UTBDR, KLIM rally, Canada, WABDR, OBDR +

Oh my word, what have you gotten yourself into. You'll have to do a report like Shogs does.

A little back story....Last year when I rode the OBCDR ( RR here http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=904727 ) I was going to grab this cone. I completely forgot about it as the ride got closer and didn't include it in my plans. Soooo...this year as I was planning my ride to the Wallowa Rally (http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=938131) put on by Ladybug0048 I was reminded by Little Wan the the little cone was still at Fraizer Point Lookout, well guess what?, I wasn't going to forget this year. In the post that Little Wan originally posted about her cone there is a picture of Big Wan sitting at a picnic table and pointing the direction the cone was at. That picnic table is no longer there as well as no sign of where it might have been. I wandered all around the top of the mountain looking for "the stump" in question. Nothing. As I was about ready to give up and slowly walking back to the bike, I was bummed, I was walking up the hill and looked off to my left, BAM! there was the stump and I imediately saw the baggie the cone was in on top of the stump.


As it turned out, the stump was behind a clump of trees behind the lookout. In the picture below from where it was taken, the stump is located directly in line with the boxed in staircase going up the lookout. Behind the trees in the background.


And here it is completely unscathed, nice and dry.


So ends my quest for little Mr. Safety Cone. He'll be attached to the key on my KTM to hopefully give me some of the Big Wans riding JuJu. I need all the help I can get on that beast.
Mission completed.

Wooo hooo!! Congratulations!
So glad you persevered (it never dawned on me that the table would disappear)!
best wishes to you and your new friend.



Matt and I both laughed at the "Big Wan riding juju" - I hope it works (in a good way...)!
I was thinking about all the cones that are floating around out there and a few of them seem to be sleeping on the job lately...
(there have been some crashes by cone-holders )


Wake up, you lazy bastards!
(um, the cones, not the cone-holders )



But, don't worry redog1, I think you got a good one. Just heal up properly so he has half a chance.



Thanks for going out to rescue him!




I think that concludes the Great Safety Cone Hunt of 2010-2012.
They should all be accounted for now.
well, I still don't know what happened to the Lippincott Pass cone or the one I left at the Port Orford sign...



but they aren't waiting to be found. They've been picked up, just don't know by whom.

heh. No worries, David! We've turned the corner...
That box of parts is empty now.




This is how things were going yesterday...




at lunch time today...





And, here's the latest:



yay!



Have a great summer everyone!

some serious progress being made. You'll be soon.

That's better!! More like what they are s'posed to look like...

Time for a road test shortly....

Haven't had a Wans ride report for a while. Your audience is getting nervous.

Pop a Top !

That is a cool looking motor. Someday I will have one...

Thanks, you guys!

It's going well - lots of progress today...









just needs a few more things (like the bash plate).
But - so far, so good.
Matt just took the bike for a short spin and said it's smooth and has more power.

And, it sounds incredible!
Matt will have to do some testing on his own (in case I need to come pick him up in the truck),
but, I have a pretty good feeling about it.


Oh yeah, here's what started it all...
He noticed that our countershaft had some wear...so he ordered a new one.





And then he spiffed things up while he was poking around in there.
So, that's it.
Hopefully, we'll get another 40,000 fun-filled miles out of this engine!

That's funny...that's what Matt says about your bike!

What? The Oso Loco Baja ride report was in march!
it's only been like 3 months.
you guys are spoiled!

whew!

I'm off the hook for that one!
thanks, ladybug!





edit: I sounded a little too happy about that, didn't I?
Sorry that your Coney didn't help you out. Glad your healing is going well and hope you are back to riding soon!

It's great to see that the Mighty Schoolbus is back on the trail so soon!

I'm in!

Well, Matt is back from his test ride and there's good news and bad news...


The good news...the engine purrs like a kitten.
He said it's running perfectly.




It was running so great, in fact, he decided to take it in the dirt.
(he was supposed to stay on the pavement so I can find him in the truck ).
Someone was having fun. Maybe a little too much fun...
perhaps jumping a bit? tsk tsk.


It's all fun and games until this happens:




Yep, snapped another steering bolt.




Well, at least it wasn't anything to do with the engine work!
These were the much stronger replacement bolts that we got from Radek, too.
(I didn't mention it, but it was back on page 37 of this report)

Radek's secret stash




Matt thought he'd have to call me for pick up, but he Magyver-ed his way out of it.
He stole this bolt from the tank...



and, fortunately, he had one spare nut in the toolbag... and that one nut just happened to fit the bolt perfectly!
Seriously, lucky.
Wow.

Hey, can Coney take credit for this one??








Anyway, with that little fix, he made it back on his own.
So, next assignment - find better steering bolts. those only lasted 2 years.
Jeeze. I wonder what else is gonna break?



Guess I'd better quit while I'm ahead.
It was a fun little update, nice to see everyone!


Thanks for checking in.
The end.

Aw, thanks Erik - love your enthusiasm (extra clapping!), but there's nothing to be "IN" on...
this report is over. Sorry!

Can you change the top triple clamp to a dirt bike one and then use a Highway Dirtbike top and bottom handlebar clamp? Their setup has 4 big bolts to the upper triple rather than just 2. 2 of them go thru the top handlebar clamp and lower handlebar clamp all the way into the upper triple. The other 2 just go thru the lower handlebar clamp into the triple like stock.

I'm not sure if the dirt bike setup would work or not. It sure sounds stronger.

The triple I'm using now is the Scotts BRP w/Damper, you would think they would've gone with the strongest possible system.
I think the real issue has to do with the amount of handle bar rise I'm running. I've got an additional 2" of rise on top of the already tall BRP mount. It must create a ton of leverage at the triple clamp.

I think changing these bolts yearly as part of routine maintenance will probably put a stop to these fun surprises.

Matt,
Do you know what grade the bolts are? Go to your local Caterpillar parts dealer for new bolts. Make sure they have CAT Reg logo on the head. Cat uses grade 8 bolts of the highest quality.

I think you are right on the leverage being the problem and annual replacement helping out with the unexpected breakage. I know I have friends who have broken and bent those same bolts on their KTM trail bikes when they have been running some risers under the bars. I would think that if there is a way to run the HDB 4 bolt setup on your big bike, someone will chime in as there has to be some people who would have done it reading your awesome thread.

You might talk to Paul at HDB. Maybe he could machine your top triple to use his 4 bolt setup rather than the stock 2. He has been very helpful and open to improvements in his product line in my discussions with him.

I also saw someone (I think it was Geek) had pictures of a HDB upper handlebar clamp on a 95x when I was researching the HDB setup for my 500EXC.

Looks like that bolt has been "almost broken" for a while!

Yes fatique. Going to higher grades won't help unless you can use the extra torque that the strength can give you. Most likely they are getting loose some how, errosion of the joint material, compression of the aluminum, high stress hits that exceed the strength of the joint material. Once the bolt has stopped being the tension that clamps the parts together it starts bending and cracks.

Ive been in a discussion like this on the footpeg bolts for the XR650R.

David

Yeah, these are harder than the bolts provided by BRP, they're 10.9

I'm sure it started failing back in Baja earlier this year at the same time as Lica's- see this post.

After that happened to Lica I took mine apart at the hotel in Loreto to double check they weren't going also.




At the time I was hearing a creaking noise coming from the triple clamps and the bars felt a little loose. All I could really confirm by taking them apart was that the bolts weren't bent. I couldn't see any cracks. I knew something was wrong though.

That is really interesting. I was thinking of trying to find 12.9 bolts, but I was concerned they might be too brittle.
You know these bolts are secured with rubber cones on both the top and bottom of the triple clamp. There's a lot of intended movement in that joint.

Maybe I should look into the hard cone bushings made by CJ

That's funny about the XR peg bolts. I kept shearing those too.