Polar Zones | Arctic Circle | Equipement

 

Breakdowns

Gear shift spring broke down! Top rear bearing gave up!
Stephane in Geneva rebuilding my Guzzi gearbox - see Europe 05
Richard from Anderwerks in Calgary rebuilding my BMW gearbox.
Stephane has a very slight smile on his face, knowing that he is going to nail the succer; Richard does even better, he closes his eyes! no fear, they are both pro!

 

  • Ignition switch at lake Erie
    • Between the snow storm of the east coast, when all stop abruptly on the highway, I started wondering how far was the arctic circle!
    • We fix it by short cutting the green coil wire and the red starter relay on a temporary switch on the handle bar… and an other short cut from the sidecar battery to the license plate light with a switch in the water overflow of the sidecar.
  • 100 miles after the return of the Dempster Highway, a bearing in the gearbox broke down.
    • On the way up, I would have been devastated, but on the way down, who cares! It becomes just a normal problem that you have to manage when on the road.
    • I get towed away by John to Whitehorse, pick up the Honda dealer to remove the gearbox from the motorcycle… the back plate of the gearbox was broken because Honda did not have the BMW extractor… the gearbox was shipped to Edmonton to Argyl BMY where Steve open the gearbox and concluded that it was tossed…
    • That Friday morning, before I knew that the gearbox was tossed, Steve told me that BMW Canada did not have the broken back plate… I called BMW USA with the same answer. I send an email on Friday morning to my 50 motorcycles contacts… friends and professionals… 24 hours later, I had 6 back plates available…2 in Switzerland, 1 in Holland, 1 in Germany and 2 in USA …. This is traveling with the web, it makes a big difference with the good all time.
    • I get my spare gearbox (that’s from when Georgio offer me a complete gearbox with kick start) shipped to me from Montana… but I ask for the wrong box and received my spare complete shaft instead. Finally when the gearbox arrived in Whitehorse… Honda did not wanted to touch it any more and I went to “chilkook Choppers” where I ask the owner Dave to sign me a letter that he will not change my handle bar while my sidecar is at his place… he finally laugh and accepted…
    • The deal was that I use his place but I do the job and I can ask if I have a problem…
    • I arrived at the opening of the shop at 11:00 AM and by 8:00PM, I driving the sidecar back to the Beez Kneez…