|
The 2006 season
The 2006 season started just before
the snow and ice left the roads. Spent some time tuning the new carb
and the ignition initially. The carb had some icing problems in the
freezing weather, which made tuning difficult and unpredictable.
Anyway, I got some nice shorter rides early in the season before I
got busy with my new job.
The engine was a bit noisy from the camside after changing to ollie
cams, but it ran like a champ compared to last year. The ollie cams,
the ignition timing really opened the potential of the 84" while
still running smoother than ever.
However, after some 5500 kilometers and some rallies/ meetings
..including the Superrally in Norway:
the engine started making noises after riding home from a vintage
motorcycle rally. Turns out that one of the snaprings for the piston
pin had fallen out.
The piston and the cylinder was a total mess, and while digging into
the engine more and more problems appeared.
The spiral grooved pushrods had worn down the pushrod guides and the
valve seats was damaged and worn enough to put the cylinders in a
resthome.
Since this havoc happened just 3 weeks before the international
Indian rally, it looked like both the rally and the planned Norway
tour (with friends from USA and Sweden) were not going to happen.
However, Jørgen Sundberg in Sweden stepped up and let me stay for
almost 1 week while working on the engine and waiting for parts to
arrive. Lots of parts needed replacement, and the whole engine was
torn apart and rebuilt.
I got home on friday evening, and worked until 3am. Thx to the Red
Bull drink The night before we had worked until 2 am, and then I had
to drive home for 7 hours. The engine was started on saturday
afternoon, and the first ride was to a biker party. There were some
issues with the oilpump which was solved on sunday morning. After
some 600 kilometers of break-in on sunday and monday, I left home
early on thursday morning and rode down to the international rally in
Sweden. I found the engine to have a sweet spot at 116kph in 4th, a
speed where also the rider and the engine seemed to keep cool in the
warm weather.
The 2006 international Indian Rally Sorry,
I don't have any pictures from the event.. The rally weekends are
hectic, lots of bikes to see and people to talk with. We had a bit of
rain this year, but this gathered the people at the tables in the bar
area. There was a nice lake nearby, so I got the chance to start the
days with a swim excercise. Several really old indians were
displayed in the bar area, including a 1905 model. The saturday ride
was nice..quite a crowd of Indians riding through the Swedish woods.
The best part of the rally was the unveiling of a monument near the birthplace of Oscar Hedstrom. The Swedish Indian society really put lots of work into this, it was really special. Ok.. the motorcycles really are just a piece of metal... but one cannot beat the worldwide Indian motorcycle community and the history of the Indian motorcycle company. Thx to the Swedish Indian society and all of the attending indian riders from of Europe/Australia/USA!! |
What's up..
Where does the time go.. suddenly it's a new year..again.. and I'm now 20 and 13 years old. Not much changes anyway.. still busy with work and still single. But I have a new and better job now, although travelling to work takes 3 hours each day. Less time to work on my bike, and chase women:)
Well, the good news is that I still have the freedom to ride most of the weekends in the summer season.
Eventually I will need to redo this website also.. being lazy using Microsoft Frontpage editor messes up the html and styles.
Rides this year..
Well, this year I attended the Superally (Harley and Indian) rally in Vinstra here in Norway. I saw just 1 more indian there, but there was a third one on the camp site also. Well..it was a big event, and some of the music was ok (including a Uriah Heep reunion concert).. but I'm not really into the "biker" thing. However, there was a lot of cool harley
bobbers and lots of nice craftmanship on the custombikes. Had a nice
ride home on sunday on some of my favourite roads. Had to stop and
wait for my harley riding friends every now and then...lost them
through the twisties:)
I also attended some vintage rallies, including a local rally and the
main rally of the Norwegian vintage motorcycle club. Too bad the
vintage harley mafia outnumbered the Indian riders..but this year we will try to gather more indians. A '30s chief chattered the rear sprocket and needed rescue, and I blew up the engine on my chief on the way home. After the Troll tour (see below) it was just a few days at work before heading to the Norwegian Indian club meeting. This was a nice meeting once again, and the hillclimb went well also this year. I had to skip some rallies/ meetings this year, including the Nordic Indian meeting in Denmark and the Swedish Indian meet. But it's hard to find the time to do it all, and sometimes the bike breaks down.
In the late autumn I spend some weekends
on the road, including a trip over the Suleskar road. Then via the
"Eagles nest" down to the southernmost point in Norway and
back home along the coast.
More pictures here: http://www.indianfrance.com/vilist/gallery/Suleskar2006
Later in the autumn I rode to Fagernes for a preview of the rally
site for the 2010 rally. It's located in a place with beautiful
mountain scenery and with scenic access roads which should suit most
indian riders. After the preview I rode over to Geilo and then down
to Uvdal, where I rode on a gravel road over the mountain to
Austbygdi in Telemark. From there I rode along a mirror smooth
Tinnsjøen lake to the town of Rjukan, famous from heavy water
production in WWII and later in the Hollywood version( very different
from the true story) of "Heroes of Telemark".
Still I have no problems of sitting on the bike a whole weekend, as long as the roads are twisty and the scenery nice. Getting from A to B in Norway takes a lot of time due to the terrain and speed limits, so I get a lot of seat time:)
This is a picture with the Vemork power
station in the background, famous for heavy water production in WWII
and a sabotage operation from a extremely tough group of Norwegian
commando soldiers flown in from England.
The report from our "Trolltour" will be here soon...
|
