Bad Luck?...I think Not...so here's how it went today...

Fished my broken clevis pin spring out of the oil tank!

The little bastard!

Slammed a pothole from hell and almost crashed...

This side of the rim doesn't look too bad...

...But this side does!

Holy shit!

Fucked...but I still have air in the tire...I wonder....

Found a friend with a sledge hammer!

More sledge hammers!

All better! Down the road I go...

It was a beautiful Sunday Morning. I had been at the Denton NC AMCA meet since Wednesday so I had a few things to do around the homestead...Around noon I decided to take the Old '46 Knuckle out for a blast. While checking the oil I decided to pop up the seat to dump some in. As fate would have it the clevis pin spring that holds the seat to the seat post broke and I wasn't sure but it looked like it dropped into the oil tank! I broke out my telescopic magnet and fished around...nothing...did it fall into a crevice on the bike somewhere or the gravel driveway...hhhhmmmm...fuck....

I drained the oil tank and looked in... sure enough there it was laying right on the bottom...I fished it out with the magnet and I was good to go. I grabbed a few quarts of oil and began dumping them in...and out it ran...forgot to put the drain plug in...IDIOT! I got the oil done and I noticed the two pinch bolts on my Flander's triple tree were loose...weird...OK I tightened them up...

The sun was shining and the sky was blue. I was a little off track but still had most of the afternoon to take a ride. I walked into the house to grab a few things and heard a strange noise...no fuckin' way! It started raining outta nowhere! I pushed the bike back into the garage and looked at the sky. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees and the cold rain was coming down...it stopped after a few minutes and I was ready to head out. I figured I would get gas on the way, I had some in the tanks but my reserve doesn't work for some reason and I haven't gotten around to fixin' it for the last year...but no big deal...

I met up with Tyler and we decided to head down to the River Road. It started raining again so we changed our route a bit. It cleared up again and we were good. Just when all was right with the world Bang! I hit a fuckin' pothole and went airborne! I just about crashed but kept it up...Holy shit! I looked at my rim and it didn't look too bad on the right side of the bike, then I checked out the left side...fuck! The rim was so bent I could see the inner tube! The tire was bubbled out and scraping the chain guard... I pulled the bike off to the side of the road and we stood around staring at the rim...now what...

I figured if I had a heavy hammer I could bang it back to "rideable" condition...I called the only person I knew out in that area and he came out with various implements of destruction...and I went to work...

After much banging, smashing, hammering, etc. I had the rim beaten into submission and off we went!

It held up extremely well. We got a little riding in and I peeled off and headed for home...I was about two miles from my house and guess what...I ran outta gas! That's right, I forgot to stop and get gas on the way...

As luck would have it I was right in front of a friend's landscape business and a kid was out there working on his car. We went around checking all the gas cans and came up with about a cup full of gas...good enough! I made it home and parked the Knuckle...

I wondered... were all the dilemmas of the day just really bad luck? Was it an awful day to ride? Should I have taken the first bad omen and stayed home? Fuck no...I rode the Knuckle out and rode the Knuckle back in...I figure it was all fate keeping me off some road where I'd get crushed by a dump truck or something...

Hey the littlest decision, like whether to make a left or a right, can change your whole life...

On the bright side:

I found the broken spring in my oil tank

My Knuckle got an oil change

I didn't loose my triple tree bolts 

It was sunny for most of the day

I didn't crash when hitting the pothole

I found a friend with a sledge hammer in the middle of nowhere

I ran outta gas in front of a friendly location with enough gas to get me home!

I got out for a ride on the Knuckle and made it home in one piece....

It was a great day!