Two Wheeled Tales: The 2010 Maine Extravaganza

I’m still behind on things. It’s been over a week since I got back from the Maine extravaganza and I still haven’t gotten everything up here. Even more pressing, we’ve got the Shayne run tomorrow, and of course there’ll be a write-up for that, so I need to get the Maine thing taken care of to keep things in chronological order. That said, here comes a flurry of stuff…
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When we last left our zero…er…hero, he was standing in King’s garage, soaked to the skin, and remembering that his dry clothing was on his bike, some 50+ miles to the west. How did he come to find himself in such a predicament? Let’s tune in and find out…
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It was 5:15am on the previous Monday morning. I was geared up, gassed up, and ready to roll. Hitting the highways on a cool, quiet morning in Maine with nothing ahead of me but miles and miles of open roadways…a clear sky above me…good solid tunes blasting out of the speakers…things were good in the universe.
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The only down side was that I’d been hearing a noise coming from (what I believed to be) the front end for a couple of weeks. It hadn’t been very loud – certainly nothing that my radio couldn’t drown out (hey, if you can’t hear the problem, you ain’t got no problem!). At any rate, as the day progressed, the noise got louder and louder, to the point where I was wondering if I would make it to Olean. I tried leaning to one side, then the other, to see if I could discern exactly where the sound was coming from. It sure did sound like it was coming from the front wheel assembly. I clutched in to disengage the engine, to see what effect that had on the noise. No change, even as the RPM’s dropped. Ok, so it’s not the engine, that’s good. The only thing I could come up with was that my front wheel bearing was on its way out. Ok – not a disaster in its own way, but still something with potentially bad possibilities. If the thing went slowly, I’d be lucky and have time to make it to the side of the road. If it decided to weld itself together, I’d probably do a Superman impression as the bike locked up and I went soaring over the windshield. Hmmm…what to do, what to do. I finally settled on a ‘go faster, get there sooner’ plan, and I was soon hovering around 90 for most of the day.
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Fast forward to 5pm that afternoon (a short 12 hours later), I was pulling into King’s driveway. And who was there, packing his bike, than none other than the man himself! After greeting each other, we went into the house where I was handed a much-needed road soda which I promptly put out of its misery. A bit later, we made it down to the V to say hello to more of the crew and share some road stories. It was during this visit that I found something must have happened to my money on the way out…for it was no good at the V. Time and again, I tried to use it, but it was worthless and no one would accept it. Beers and shots were taken care of for the entire night. Sweet! (On the following nights, however, not only did I find that my money was good once again, it was now encouraged…especially when playing cards!) It wound up being an early night, as King had to work in the morning, but that was ok – it’d been a long day and some sleep wouldn’t be a bad idea.
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The following morning, I met up with Jerry and Mark, and we all headed off to the Jamestown dealership (52 miles away, remember?), for them to give my bike the once-over. Fortunately, with it being a weekday, there was no line when we got there, and I was rolled right in. (I loved this dealership, but I’ll get to that later.)
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They’d had my bike for about 45 minutes when they came out to inform me that the problem was not the front wheel bearing (nor was it a blown fork seal – which was the other possibility that had been tossed around). Turns out the problem was inside my primary – I forget which bearing it was they said, but a bearing was loose and they needed to open the primary to check things out. I asked their opinion of me leaving things as they were and making it back home to the Boston area. The tech’s eyes kinda got big and he shook his head, saying no way, not a good idea at all. If things decided to disintegrate, I’d be in serious trouble, especially if going top speed on the highway. Ok then; have at it. Mark, Jerry and I went out to grab some lunch. Upon our return, I was informed that not only had they found problems with the shafts, seals and bearings inside the primary, but the drive shaft coming out of the tranny was also skewed, and that they needed to open up the whole transmission. Fantastic! And me, with my warranty having just ran out in April! Sweet! I really had no choice, so I gave them the go-ahead, donned my helmet, and hopped aboard the back of Jerry’s trike.

We spent the rest of that day blasting around on some of the fantastic mountain roads out there, but I tell ya; it just ain’t the same on the back of a bike(trike). I needed the controls, Man!! (Jerry, in all his awesomeness, even offered to let me do the driving for a while, while he took the back seat. Thanks, but no way, Brother. I’m not going to put another guy onto the back of his own bike.)

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I called the dealership just before they closed for the day, to see how things were going. They said they’d ID’d the problem; all kinds of loose seals, missing bearings, metal fragments in the tranny, etc. Basically; a mess. They said I probably had only a few more miles on it before things really started to get ugly. At this point, I’m picturing my transmission grenading on me while I’d been going 90 on the way out (I thought of various scenarios, but they all had the same result). The good news was they knew everything that needed to be done to get me rolling again. The bad news was they’d had to ship in some of the parts from another state. With any luck, I might have my bike back by the end of Thursday. Whoa, what? “Maybe”? “By the end of Thursday?” Uhm…we’re rolling out, first thing Friday morning, any chance we can take that “maybe” and turn it into a “you’ll have it” by the end of Thursday? He said yes, most likely. Even further, he said he’d talk with Harley and see what he could do for me in terms of the costs. Sweet! Well let me know how you make out. And with that, I was wheel-less.

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The next two days consisted of riding around on the backs of some bikes, as well as having the honor of using the King’s own personal transportation. But that brings me to another point I want to make; not only did Mark offer me his bike to use, King offered me either his bike or his Jeep. Well, just like I’m not going to put someone on the back of their own bike/trike, I’m not going to take a bike away from someone when the weather is beautiful, warm and sunny, so I went with the Jeep. But that's the kind of guys these folks are - I'm in from out of town, my bike is down, and I've now had THREE guys offer me their bikes/trike. That's what makes these guys Brothers, man !

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Ok, back to the story. There were the obligatory visits to the V each night, along with some mischievousness (of course). One night, after Mary was about to close the place, we realized we had too much money left on the bar. Well, we couldn’t make change (register had been cashed out), and we needed to leave a good tip. Luckily, Mary came to the rescue; drink more shots to use up the extra money! Yeah!! The person coming on in the morning could make the adjustments to the register, so with that, our troubles were over. The following night, we thought the place needed a little spicing up at closing time…so we upended all the chairs.

At which point, we learned that Bub would probably use his personal phrase “WHAT THE F*CKING C*CK!?!?!” when he showed up the next morning.
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I think this was the evening that we wound up going back to Mark and Mary’s house for more beers , pizza and wings. The following morning, Mark took us out for breakfast to this out-of-the-way place, but the food was really good, so it was chalked up to a good morning.
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Oh yeah, another tangent; my rear tire had been getting rather long in the tooth, even to the point where the HD tech had asked me if I was aware I needed a new tire. I’d said yes, but to just leave the old one on there. I’d gotten 20,353 miles out of the last one, I’d be damned if I was going to get only 17k out of this one!! But King talked me into a course of wisdom over bravado, so I’d called the dealership back and told them to go ahead and put a new rear tire on. Dammit. 20,353 miles on the last one!! And only 17k on this one? *Sigh* I must be getting fatter…
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Anyway, I eventually found myself back at the dealership on Thursday afternoon, waiting for my bike. I was assured that it was back together and was ready to roll. Sure enough, we saw it come riding out from the service area, being taken on it’s test drive. About 15 mins later, it returned and disappeared into the wash bay. And that was when I heard the dreaded words; “Dave, I have your paperwork here.” (Ruh-roh…here comes the bad news…) But the news wasn’t bad, it was frikkin’ awesome. The dealership had comp’d me almost $450 worth of parts and labor! Leaving me holding the bag for a mere $250!!! Beers are on me tonight, fellas! Oh yeah, another thing I loved about this place; when I first dropped my bike off, their first question wasn’t; “Did you buy the bike here?”. Dammit, I hate that question – it has no bearing whatsoever on anything, but you go to any dealership around here, and that’s what you’ll get. Not these guys, though, they were truly only interested in helping me out. I’m tellin ya; if the time comes for me to buy another new bike, I will seriously consider making the ride out there to give them the business! Jamestown Harley – if you’re ever in their area, look ‘em up!
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That evening was whiled away in similar fashion; at the V, then returning to King’s for the last good night’s sleep we’d get on this trip.
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The next morning, we were up and on the road in short order, and things were looking good. Even the usual blanket of morning fog was thin and unintimidating. We met the rest of the travelers at the Cuba exit, exchanged hugs and handshakes, and we were off.
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The day was rather uneventful..if you consider spectacular scenery, light traffic, no breakdowns, and cold beer waiting at the end to be uneventful! :-D We crashed in Brattleboro for the night and stayed up too late screwing each other (relax, it’s a card game).
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The next morning brought us good news; we’d been keeping an eye on a hurricane that was coming up the East coast, wary of its potential impact on our camping weekend. But the forecasts told us that it had passed through Maine relatively lightly and was in the process of clearing out; we should be dry and under a clear sky by the time we roll into town. And sure enough; by the time we arrived in South Thomaston, the skies were blue and welcoming, the wet roads were dry, and our spirits were high.
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The bikes had become separated from the chase vehicles on the highway, but not a problem – we caught up with them at the Keag store, no more than a few miles from our destination. We pulled in, cracked a beer and turned around to see our Mass contingent pulling in behind us. So there we were; everyone that was showing up that night, all in one place and at the same time. Man, I love when a plan comes together! We killed our beers and roared off to the clearing.
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That night, we feasted on an Italian spread, courtesy of Rob and Tina, Dave and Karmen. And what a feast! The beer flowed, the food disappeared, and we laughed the evening away. Sunday was more of the same, but with a lobster feast this time around. For those that don’t eat the sea spiders, there were tips, ribs, pulled pork, burgers, dogs, side dishes, etc., etc., etc. I’m tellin’ ya; I was surprised any of us were able to move after that.
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Around dusk, a small fire was lit and the stage was opened to anyone that wished to share a story or poem with their fellow revelers. Following this, The Toast was performed for all new attendees (we had a good showing of newbies this year – always promising for the future!), with the activities finally being adjourned to more storytelling and laughter.
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It was another successful year all around. Great times, great roads, great people. I always look forward to this trip with such anticipation, but when it’s over, it brings a bit of melancholy because it also signals the winding-down of the summer months. But not to worry, there are many things still to come.
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That wraps up the written portion of the trip – now for more pics and side stories!
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Remember I said I'd finally stopped and said hello to an old friend that I've only waved to for 20 years? Here he is. And what I mean is that for as long as I can remember, a few of us have always waved to this guy on our way to (and on our way back out from) South Thomaston. How can you not wave to this guy? He's always so happy, and always waving to us. Seems like waving back is the least we can do.

It was cool to finally get an up-close look at him, too. Whoever crafted him, sure put a lot of time and detail into it. All steel, and obviously well maintained. The salt air + the harsh winters can't be doing anything for his complexion, and yet he still looks pretty good for his age.

Upon arriving into town a bit early, I did some exploring down roads I hadn't ridden before. Rounding a corner, I was shocked to stumble upon an epic battle underway!!

The foes were locked in mortal combat..."Good" on one side...

"Evil" on the other... (Nevermind why the dragon is almost always the evil one, just go with it.)

Fearlessly, the creatures measured each other up, waiting for a weakness to present itself...

The tension was reaching a crescendo....

I couldn't take the carnage - I had to split for calmer surroundings.

Back out in Olean, I found a number of sculptures scattered here and there. Many towns do this, where they'll pick a mascot of sorts, create a bunch of sculptures, and then local artists will turn them into mini masterpieces. Here are 4 that I liked;

"Nutty O St. Nick"

Ronald McSquirrel

Sir Pennywise

Lady Justice

On our ride from Olean to Maine, we bumped into a family that were transporting a couple of baby "Mini" horses. (We actually bumped into these folks twice - I managed to get a pic the second time...not sure what happened with the exposure, though.) The baby mini's were small enough that they were able to ride in the back of a covered pickup truck. Plenty of room back there, and since the family was obviously stopping fairly often (as were we), they were getting plenty of chances to stretch, too.

The view from Hogback Mountain was 'decent' this time - not spectacular, but not clouded in, either.

Strolling through the gift shop, I saw this shirt and thought it was pretty funny.

And in closing, here the hungry travelers are gathered for a roadside feast. The NY crew had splurged and stocked up on food galore. Which reminds me; my money must have been bad again, because they didn't want any of it. Generous folks, they are!