More Africa Twin foolishness...

Well Friends,

Got out on a little ride, yesterday, up and around the southwest side of Payson, on the 414 road. Three intrepid adventurers: One on a KTM 790, one on a BMW F800GS, and one on a Husqvarna 701 that was juiced up a little.

We caught the dirt road over on the east side of The Beeline (Route 87) off of the 188 by about Jakes Corners. Had not been on that road for about a year, so it was "almost" new to me. The hot dry weather and lack of rain left it a little more dusty and washboardy than I remembered it being, but overall was in pretty good shape.

We ran north and crossed over the 87 to the 414 Forest Road and continued as the road climbed in elevation to about 5,000 ft or so. Temps stayed cool in the mid 50's F and it was a pleasant little rip around some curvy, hilly dirt roads with plenty of embedded rocks to keep it interesting:

While stopping at a gas station in Payson, a lad in a lifted 4x4 truck stopped to say hello. He told us about a couple more routes that we were not aware of, up in the area, so notes were taken.

We decided to check one of them out on the way back to town:

Interesting little route that the lads on the KTM and Husky (white KTM) explored. Will do that one again, when all have appropriate bikes, for sure!

Got back in town just in time to enjoy some heavy traffic back to Skunk Hollow. Got home and was ready for a nap!

Had a blast, but decided that I miss my windshield on high speed highway runs. Eagerly awaiting the plastic/rubber bits to reinstall it, soon.

Well Friends,

Greg was nice enough to lend me his GoPro for awhile, so I am having a little fun figuring it out and how to mount it.

While fiddling with software, editing, uploading, etc., I practiced a little on some video that was living in the SDMicro Card onboard the GoPro... I had a starring role, from a ride a long 5 years ago. So anyway, here is my edited version:

I place all the blame for that fall on the Corbin seat you had at the time, as Corbin has no respect for riders....They are the Rodney Dangerfield of motorcycle seats.

If you have noticed, your Africa Twin has not fallen over at all, since you installed a Russell Day Long seat on it  

Nice work on the video.  😎 

While every Africa Twin looks good, Black Betty (that sweet girl) is definitely a sexy sample. 😍 

Well Friends,

It was a pleasant afternoon to dink around in the shop... I was on a mission, to chase down an annoying popping noise that I could hear sometimes, under braking and lowspeed turns.

After disassembling the top clamp and tightening the steering head up a little I finally figured out that the pivot bushings in my leading link had worn sufficiently to allow a little slop in the swingarm (front one.)

I continue to sing Chuck's (@54vintage">@54vintage) praises for the outstanding leading link he built for me. It has survived and thrived on abuse for the past 32,000 miles on the rig. When we were deciding on pivot bearings, many alternatives were discussed on the forum and in person with Chuck, and the team of engineers that ultimately designed and fabbed up the pivot bearing holders.

I ended up (after designing in shoulder bushings) buying sleeve bushings and thrust washers out of time constraints from McMaster. I ordered a lubricated Copper/Iron bronze alloy, with grease holes and spiral groves. We spent a lot of brain power speculating on how long they would last under dusty, dirty, creek crossing conditions, with the addition of grease fittings and the occasional squirt of red molly grease.

Well the answer to that question appears to be around 32,000 miles. They were a long way from any kind of failure mode, but I could hear a noise, and noises must be investigated.

Here is poorly edited video of the surgery... I had ordered two sets of the bushings, thinking that I might need them on the way home or something.

That was not the case, but they were in my parts bin, so dammit, I was not going to order a set of shoulder bushings for this time around.

After the surgery, I took Black Betty (that sweet girl) out for a rip around Skunk Hollow, and immediately noticed that the hint of head shake at 17 mph that had crept back (and I thought was from a worn front tire) was 100% eliminated. Kind of liked that.

Here is a long, boring video of that ride, in case anyone wants to see the canal roads around Skunk Hollow. Weather was near perfect, and we had a little rain Friday, so the dust was even settled.

The GoPro has decided to live on the nose of the sidecar, to give the perspective that a passenger might have... we will see how that goes.

Also got tired of waiting for the list of plastic crap (little sliders and rails and such) to rebuild the adjustable windshield mount to get rid of a rattle that had developed from wear. There were something like 50 parts, counting washers and crap from Partzilla to rebuild it, for about $100 total. I had them all on order, but one stinking slider went from "in stock" to "more than 200 day wait" after I submitted the order.

I of course found this out when I went back on their site and checked order status after not getting anything for a couple weeks. Decided to cancel the order and just make some shims and washers to take the slop out of the existing kit. Works a treat.

Last "to do" for awhile... blew out one of the TFX LL shocks a while back. The fine folks at The Beemershop are kind enough to rebuild it under warranty, once I get around to returning it to them. Kudos for customer service, Ted Porter! Fortunately Philippe @Prmurat was able to loan me a shock to install for the interim period, so I won't be having to ride my sissy bike everywhere!

Opps, forgot the video links in the post, above... 🤓 

Shop vid:

Ride vid:

Dane, two very good videos. 

However....I had to watch them at 2x playback speed,  so it resembled the speed of which I work on a bike, and drive a sidecar rig. 

Watching any videos at 2x playback speed is FUN 

Well Friends,

I got out on a very pleasant little ride today with three intrepid friends. We decided to explore the Ironwood National Monument, out west of Marana, AZ (Northwest of Tucson.)

The weather was near perfect, maybe 50's F to high 70's F, (15-25 C, maybe). There was a slight bit of rain at the end of the day, but nothing to speak of, really.

We met up at a favorite Shell Station out on the reservation, and made some introductions for folks that had not met each other, yet.

Riders were on: 1.KTM 790, 2.BMW R1200GS, 3.Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sport, and of course Black Betty (that sweet girl.)

Route looked something like this:

After blasting down the Interstate, we got treated so some pleasant desert scenery:

The roads went from winding two lane tarmac to twisty, winding gravel road with a few embedded rocks. Easy riding but there was a little loose stuff from time to time.

I only managed to get stuck once, due to some inattention in turning off the traction control and stopping at the bottom of a berm, instead of using a little momentum to clear it. Good friends push sidecar rigs out of holes they dig!

I had the new to me GoPro on the tub nose, so had about 8 hours of video to cull through and see if I could find any interesting bits. Here is a long form video for any interested; it is about 40 minutes, you might want to watch at 2x! Sorry about the wrenches that decided to go on walkabout inside the sidecar... made a little racket from time to time.

This was one of those rides that takes advantage of BBTSG's multiple personalities... Some blasting down the interstate, some two lane twisties, and some sandy dirt roads, all in a day's ride. Exactly what I designed her to do.

Nothing broke or fell off, so we will call it a win! 

ride-break-fix-ride

Well friends,

Today, I continued chasing popping/squeaking noises in the front area of the bike, and finally found it...

Apparently a shock transferred to the steering head, maybe a long time ago when I was having trouble getting spring rates right and was bottoming out the front a lot. I found that it had cracked a couple of frame tubes where they join the steering head.

I kept hearing a slight popping noise that finally got to be a slight movement to be able to see between the steering head and gas tank during low-speed braking.

Just pulled the tank and airbox and figured it out...

Planning on building a gusset and welding it up. Have to do a little further tear down before starting that though.

Will design a gusset that spreads the load a little further down the frame tubes from the joints where the current little gussets stop.

Probably just a step towards building a frame/subframe combo out of Chromalloy, eventually, but will get it back on the road for a while!

Stay tuned for some butchery!

Congratulations and well done. 

You broke a Honda. 

But ouch it's a nasty  break. 

In more ways than one. 

Here that would be an official write off.

There's a legal term I'll think of later. 

A bit of hot and sticky should fix it though.

Should keep your TIG skills up nicely.

Spent a fair bit of time in Cambodia recently stick welding 1.5mm and 2 mm tubing.

Yours should be easy.

Go big or go home!

Dane....WOW.....just WOW !

Not that having the original Honda Warranty would be much good in this case, due to the sidecar attachment....but enquiring minds want to know, did you buy the Honda Extended Warranty for this bike, and is it still covered ?????

I rarely ever buy the Honda Extended Warranty, because....it's a HONDA. But I did buy it for my 2019 Wing w/DCT, simply because of the added wear that the DCT "may" take, when used as a sidecar tug. My local dealer told me THEY would cover any warranty issue, even with the sidecar use, as long as I removed the sidecar so they could work on it in their shop.

You may want to think about finding/buying a wrecked AT 1100 Adventure Sports, and use the frame from it, as a starting point to build a BETTER mousetrap.

@miles-ladue Miles,

Nope, didn't buy a warranty, so no go there.

I found a frame on ebay, but not sure that the AT frame is really strong enough around the steering head.

It looks like the side loading flexes the frame torsionally at the steering head, and it gradually fatigued.

Not any good way to brace against that force.

So, I see a decision point:  

1. Call insurance.

Or

2.  Weld it up, and decide that i found the platform's limits.  Then plot out a custom build with a stronger frame/integrated sidecar, while riding BBTBB for another year or so.

I'm reasonably sure that i can weld and gusset it up stronger than OEM, but not likely "strong enough."

Dane, one idea....make an insurance claim....they will total the bike as a complete loss. You then buy back the total loss bike back for pennies on the  dollar,  reweld it, weld on a saddle gusset,  then ride it again. 

@miles-ladue Thinking about that, but not sure i want to pay the rate increase across all the vehicles that would likely yield.

Will be doing a little more disassembly/inspection today, while I think about it.