The roads in South Carolina seem to come in two extremes. There is rough with holes, craters, bumps, mountains and cracks. We are talking harsh. Rear wheel launched in the air harsh. Screws and bolts loosened. Riders cringing at the thought of the frame suffering. Then there is smooth. Baby’s bottom smooth. Fresh tarmac. Hands off the bars. Nice.
We had both types during Stage 7. We also had occasional contact with the repair crews out with their heavy equipment and hand tools. I made a point of waving thanks to them as the smoothness was definitely appreciated! The rough road section seemed to be responsible for the loss of a couple of Lydian’s machine screws. One was a screw which hold a bearing in place in the transmission case. Not critical but it still will be replaced before Stage 8 as the open hole allows some oil to seep from the upper case. The second screw loss was more destructive in that the rear wiring sub-harness (from mid bike back to tail light) got chewed up. The clips that normally hold the wiring in place under the rear fender let go, the wire dropped down and the rear wheel ripped it apart. No tail light, no brake light. Thanks to Vince (riding next to me) for observing this so that I could pull over and secure the flapping wires safely against the frame with a tie-wrap. We made up a new sub-harness during the nightly maintenance session so lights will work as designed.
Not everyone was so lucky as more bikes ended up on the sweep trailer. As you can see on the standings page, about half the riders/bikes have completed all the daily miles. There is one first place and that is held by Dave C. on his Class I Harley Davidson single…he is awesome. It takes a hardy soul to ride that machine over so many miles. He deserves a win if he can keep that up….but the next three slots are all Class II Henderson riders and they are hovering right behind him.
The toll of long hills and harsh roads is exemplified here on Doug’s Indian with burned exhaust and broken seat:
The grim sweeper keeps track of their haul as shown here:
Stage 8 is a shorter ride but we are going to visit the Wheel Through Time museum in Maggie Valley, hurrah! Rain will be present through a good bit of the ride but I have my Aerostich suit and ancient water-proof riding boots so all should be fine.
I don’t think I should ever complain about bad roads again. Great description of the good along with the bumps, cracks holes etc. More clothing changes than I expected. Ride safe!