1 of my Rider buddy wanted to do a long ride this season, so he planned for a 3 day ride to VT. 10 people signed up and finally 4 including planner dropped off, but we continued.
Left Nj on 30 July (6 bikes, 1 NT, 1 Sports, 4 cruisers). It was a leisurely 6 – 7 hours ride to our hotel in Battleboro, VT, with gas stops every 100 miles. We took the country roads which were beautiful and low traffic.
On the way we passed through a forest road that was packed gravel and lil hairy for the sport and cruisers, but NT sailed through on the Shinko 705s. Due to recent rains in VT, the river was overflowing with brown water and the road had caved in / washed way in many places.
Visited Scotts Covered Bridge in Townshend, VT. https://goo.gl/maps/LqTu1sJLeU9ppnoj9
Hotel was good, had a good dinner at local By the Waterfront Restaurant called “The Marina” Very good ambience, staff and food.
Next day, Sat, woke up got ready and started to do a big loop of the Green Mountain Forest. Reached the Mt. Ascutney State Park ($4 entyr fee) and started riding up. Really good curves but the road was very bumpy, so no Tail of Dragon kind of riding, slow 30ies and ½ gear. 1/3 way up, one cruiser refused to move. The clutch was fired. Now the ordeal to get a tow stated, being Sat and post 12, nothing was available: HOG, AAA and Alllstate, all failed. One tow guy said he will come in 2 hr, so we parked the bike in the state park parking and went to local brewery for lunch. Gr8 food and drinks.
Harpoon Brewery Taproom and Beer Garden, 336 Ruth Carney Drive, Windsor, VT 05089
Post food, we returned, there was no sight of the tow, so we decided to take charge of things. One of our friend does his bike maintenance, so with google / youtube we tried to diagnose. We figured that lets adjust the clutch, so we went to local autozone, got the drain pan, oil, tools etc.… and got started.
Drained the clutch reservoir, 1qt oil and it was burnt and black. Adjusted the clutch, closed the cover, and topped off the oil. Were able to ride back to hotel. This took several hours, and I took a roadside nap too … not much riding ~120mile, out of planned 250+
Reached hotel and had dinner at an Indian place, good decent food, slow but good service.
India Masala House, 889 Putney Rd, Brattleboro, VT 05301
Next morning, was ride back, so checked the oil in the reservoir and it was still full, so I was confused, if 1qt oil cam out of the slump, why oil level did not go down in the reservoir. We opened drain bold and 1 small cup of black oil came in. Everyone said, lets ride, but the thing that kept gnawing on me was, why the hell did only 1 Qt oil came out, while the reservoir was full… it was not making sense… I google and youtuebd, and lo behold HD have a separate oil and clutch oil reservoir that fill and drain separately… clutch oil reservoir takes 1qt and has a separate fill point, so basically the clutch was running on no oil. We check and fashioned a funnel out of a coffee cup and filled new oil in the clutch. Whew, major disaster avoided. Then we tilted the bike to one side to get extra oil out of the fill hole, cause we did not want to tamper any more.
Ride back was ok, good twisty roads , fun but 30 miles down, the clutch gave up again. Again the issue with tow started, beign Sunday. So we again adjusted the clutch (this time with the turnbuckle on the cable) and friend and 1 guy decided to ride to Albany to park the bike in a friends house (~40 miles) and get it back on Monday. Rest of us hit the highways, as rain was predicted. We made good time and got caught in light rain in last maybe 80 miles. The NT Vstream windscreen shielded me well form rain and cold wind and nosie (rode with helmet open almsot all the 3 days), I was 90% dry.
Reached home around 6PM. Bike trouble friend reached home by 9PM (as pillion of the other friend). They got their bike home yesterday on a trailer.
Fell in love with VT and NT again. Total trip mileage 650+ miles.
I am not much of pic take now a days, so limited set of pics from the trip ...
Left Nj on 30 July (6 bikes, 1 NT, 1 Sports, 4 cruisers). It was a leisurely 6 – 7 hours ride to our hotel in Battleboro, VT, with gas stops every 100 miles. We took the country roads which were beautiful and low traffic.
On the way we passed through a forest road that was packed gravel and lil hairy for the sport and cruisers, but NT sailed through on the Shinko 705s. Due to recent rains in VT, the river was overflowing with brown water and the road had caved in / washed way in many places.
Visited Scotts Covered Bridge in Townshend, VT. https://goo.gl/maps/LqTu1sJLeU9ppnoj9
Hotel was good, had a good dinner at local By the Waterfront Restaurant called “The Marina” Very good ambience, staff and food.
Next day, Sat, woke up got ready and started to do a big loop of the Green Mountain Forest. Reached the Mt. Ascutney State Park ($4 entyr fee) and started riding up. Really good curves but the road was very bumpy, so no Tail of Dragon kind of riding, slow 30ies and ½ gear. 1/3 way up, one cruiser refused to move. The clutch was fired. Now the ordeal to get a tow stated, being Sat and post 12, nothing was available: HOG, AAA and Alllstate, all failed. One tow guy said he will come in 2 hr, so we parked the bike in the state park parking and went to local brewery for lunch. Gr8 food and drinks.
Harpoon Brewery Taproom and Beer Garden, 336 Ruth Carney Drive, Windsor, VT 05089
Post food, we returned, there was no sight of the tow, so we decided to take charge of things. One of our friend does his bike maintenance, so with google / youtube we tried to diagnose. We figured that lets adjust the clutch, so we went to local autozone, got the drain pan, oil, tools etc.… and got started.
Drained the clutch reservoir, 1qt oil and it was burnt and black. Adjusted the clutch, closed the cover, and topped off the oil. Were able to ride back to hotel. This took several hours, and I took a roadside nap too … not much riding ~120mile, out of planned 250+
Reached hotel and had dinner at an Indian place, good decent food, slow but good service.
India Masala House, 889 Putney Rd, Brattleboro, VT 05301
Next morning, was ride back, so checked the oil in the reservoir and it was still full, so I was confused, if 1qt oil cam out of the slump, why oil level did not go down in the reservoir. We opened drain bold and 1 small cup of black oil came in. Everyone said, lets ride, but the thing that kept gnawing on me was, why the hell did only 1 Qt oil came out, while the reservoir was full… it was not making sense… I google and youtuebd, and lo behold HD have a separate oil and clutch oil reservoir that fill and drain separately… clutch oil reservoir takes 1qt and has a separate fill point, so basically the clutch was running on no oil. We check and fashioned a funnel out of a coffee cup and filled new oil in the clutch. Whew, major disaster avoided. Then we tilted the bike to one side to get extra oil out of the fill hole, cause we did not want to tamper any more.
Ride back was ok, good twisty roads , fun but 30 miles down, the clutch gave up again. Again the issue with tow started, beign Sunday. So we again adjusted the clutch (this time with the turnbuckle on the cable) and friend and 1 guy decided to ride to Albany to park the bike in a friends house (~40 miles) and get it back on Monday. Rest of us hit the highways, as rain was predicted. We made good time and got caught in light rain in last maybe 80 miles. The NT Vstream windscreen shielded me well form rain and cold wind and nosie (rode with helmet open almsot all the 3 days), I was 90% dry.
Reached home around 6PM. Bike trouble friend reached home by 9PM (as pillion of the other friend). They got their bike home yesterday on a trailer.
Fell in love with VT and NT again. Total trip mileage 650+ miles.
I am not much of pic take now a days, so limited set of pics from the trip ...
