Gimper
Junior Member
Hey,
Just thought i would share a little about my trip to Laconia for bike week. Left New Bruswick Canada on Thursday morning and drove down the I95 most of the way to try to get to Laconia as quick as we could. This is the longest (approx 7-8 hours) on the bike only stopping at the boarder and for gas/lunch. I must say that the stock seat makes me pretty unconfortable after about 2.5-3 hours of constant riding. We parked our bikes down at Weirs Beach and walked the stip for a while. Can't believe how many bikes were there. It never stopped. Friday we went back down town for the morning and then went to Loudon International Speedway to was some qualifying bike races. First time I have seen bike races live. HAD A BLAST. It rained while we were there but I didn't care! Got to see Supersport, classics, motard and side car bikes race. wish we stayed on Saturday to watch the actual races. maybe next time. we took some back roads (nice twisties) to Portsmouth and spent the night there. Saturday we went and rode the kancamagus highway. Here we saw some awesome scenery and unfortunately we came accross a bike accident where 2 harleys were laying in the middle of the road. (Prayed that riders came out with minor injuries). The accident made us think not only of how we were riding but also thinking about what the other bikers/cars coming the opposite direction. I think we went a bit slower and tried to say further away from the center to leave room just in case someone was coming around a turn too wide. We then went to Mt. Washington and went to the top. Can't imagine going up in a car. I think I felt safer on the bike. On Sunday we headed home and it was a bit cool so we stopped so i could put a sweatshirt on under my jacket and my buddy looked at my bike and said "ummm ahoh" I said "what" and he said "dude you are missing your rear axle nut!!!!!!" WTF. what to do. we were on a back road in the middle of know where. then started thinking "when did it fall off?" i know it was on there before the trip cuz i remember looking over the bike. I nothing to screw on it; so i used electrical tape and put about 1/2 the roll on and decided to drive slow for about 15 miles to see if the axle was moving at all and how much (based on seeing what the tape did). well we stopped and it moved about an eightth of an inch. so one followed behind me watching and we headed to the nearest town. there we went a NAPA store and found nothing but a hose clamp and some wire. the offered to try to cross thread something but we decided to try some hardware stores. none had any nuts that were the right size. the last store told us to try a John Deere dealer down the road. so we went there and they were still opened and the guy there found one in a junk pile that looked like it was meant to go on. Same thread and everything. The guy didn't want anything for it. he just hoped it got me home. We got it on and tightened it up and headed out. We checked it every so often just to make sure but it stayed on for the next 4 hours until we got home. That was my exciting trip. It was also the most stressed/tense time i think of my life until we found that nut! Here are some of the pics we took.
aside from the trip just wondering if anyone has ever lost the nut of the rear axle. (previous to this trip i did put over 500km on the bike since the rear tire was changed)
Just thought i would share a little about my trip to Laconia for bike week. Left New Bruswick Canada on Thursday morning and drove down the I95 most of the way to try to get to Laconia as quick as we could. This is the longest (approx 7-8 hours) on the bike only stopping at the boarder and for gas/lunch. I must say that the stock seat makes me pretty unconfortable after about 2.5-3 hours of constant riding. We parked our bikes down at Weirs Beach and walked the stip for a while. Can't believe how many bikes were there. It never stopped. Friday we went back down town for the morning and then went to Loudon International Speedway to was some qualifying bike races. First time I have seen bike races live. HAD A BLAST. It rained while we were there but I didn't care! Got to see Supersport, classics, motard and side car bikes race. wish we stayed on Saturday to watch the actual races. maybe next time. we took some back roads (nice twisties) to Portsmouth and spent the night there. Saturday we went and rode the kancamagus highway. Here we saw some awesome scenery and unfortunately we came accross a bike accident where 2 harleys were laying in the middle of the road. (Prayed that riders came out with minor injuries). The accident made us think not only of how we were riding but also thinking about what the other bikers/cars coming the opposite direction. I think we went a bit slower and tried to say further away from the center to leave room just in case someone was coming around a turn too wide. We then went to Mt. Washington and went to the top. Can't imagine going up in a car. I think I felt safer on the bike. On Sunday we headed home and it was a bit cool so we stopped so i could put a sweatshirt on under my jacket and my buddy looked at my bike and said "ummm ahoh" I said "what" and he said "dude you are missing your rear axle nut!!!!!!" WTF. what to do. we were on a back road in the middle of know where. then started thinking "when did it fall off?" i know it was on there before the trip cuz i remember looking over the bike. I nothing to screw on it; so i used electrical tape and put about 1/2 the roll on and decided to drive slow for about 15 miles to see if the axle was moving at all and how much (based on seeing what the tape did). well we stopped and it moved about an eightth of an inch. so one followed behind me watching and we headed to the nearest town. there we went a NAPA store and found nothing but a hose clamp and some wire. the offered to try to cross thread something but we decided to try some hardware stores. none had any nuts that were the right size. the last store told us to try a John Deere dealer down the road. so we went there and they were still opened and the guy there found one in a junk pile that looked like it was meant to go on. Same thread and everything. The guy didn't want anything for it. he just hoped it got me home. We got it on and tightened it up and headed out. We checked it every so often just to make sure but it stayed on for the next 4 hours until we got home. That was my exciting trip. It was also the most stressed/tense time i think of my life until we found that nut! Here are some of the pics we took.
aside from the trip just wondering if anyone has ever lost the nut of the rear axle. (previous to this trip i did put over 500km on the bike since the rear tire was changed)
