Arkadelphia
September 22
This morning on my way to pick up my daily route chart I ran into Aaron Loveless #47. He is riding an interesting bike. It’s a single cylinder Harley that he must push start. He did not ride today as he is doing an engine rebuild. Yep, that is a valve head embedded in the top of his piston!
As usual, what I expect to be an easy day gets out of control quick. Here I am at mile 47 of a 243-mile day. Yes, in the background is a sweep truck along with Cannonball staff. Behind me on the ground is Bill Page #10. He lost exhaust valve function on one cylinder and ended up on the sweep truck for the day. Me, I was turning into the gas station and my primary chain broke again (this is #3 in two days). So, I did the repair with the sweep team waiting to load me up and was out of the parking lot before they got too serious.
In Arkadelphia we were treated to quite a show by the mayor (he is rider #25 Scott Byrd). They had a show on main street and a fabulous meal at the fire station. Dorsey snuck in my photo on Main Street (in the mirror).
The local police like 1915 Harleys! I told him if he could start it, he could have it. I still have the bike…
The fix I did at mile 47 today was to reverse the master link on the primary chain. I suspected the rear chain was contacting the primary chain when things lined up just right knocking out the master link and stopping me.
I did measurements of my older rear chain and my new replacement. Turns out the new rear chain was 0.05” wider. This may not seem like much but both chains are very close. I have run the narrower chain for at least 17k miles on Lucille and never had a problem. It’s just since the rest day that I have had issues. The earlier chain I was using is no longer available, so I was using the replacement. I spent this evening putting my used rear chain back on and really looking at all the clearances. It is what it is as I don’t have anything else to work with. We have completed 2478 miles and I am hoping this setup will get me to the end. We will see.
