Well, yesterday was a good day. Not…! I was travelling from Scotland to spend Xmas with family in Manchester and I left Glasgow a little after 11. It was a really wet start but when I got towards the border the rain stopped. Was that a good omen..?
I refuelled at Penrith and not long after I got back on the M6 – my chain snapped. I was doing about 75 at the time. 5k revs, which is my normal cruising altitude for motorways. As soon as the revs went high – I just knew. I coasted onto the hard shoulder and got off, then noticed steam and hot oil dripping onto the tarmac so it seems that the chain may have holed the engine casing. There is a rubber seal near the front sprocket which covers the clutch push-rod, so I’m just hoping its that because it’s an easy and cheap fix.
I got recovered about an hour later, dropped off at Gretna about 5pm then picked up again about 7pm and was home outside Glasgow at 10pm. BTW: I had a bacon-burger at Burger King at Gretna – and it was disgusting. I couldn’t finish it – so avoid the bacon burger… Sometime this week or next week I’ll take the cover off and look at the damage. Hopefully the hole is small enough for some Liquid Metal. If it’s a holed case or a ripped seal then that’s pretty easy and I’ll also order new sprockets and a chain. If it’s a big hole – then I’m going to have to se how bad the damage is.
It was a DID chain that broke, too. I fitted this chain in February when I was in Agadir and it’s done about 16-18k miles since then and still had a fair amount of adjustment to go. My scottoiler has been working fine too, and I topped it up before I left.
Anyway, all back safely. The surprising thing is that I’ve done so many miles over the past 12 months, going to Western Africa and also around Europe, and the chain goes like this – when I really needed to be at my destination. Also, the most spookiest part of this – is that just over two years ago my chain snapped, but this time on the same stretch about two miles further south on the north-bound. Spooky…! And that was the same scenario, winter, recovered to Gretna and then transferred and uploaded back to Glasgow. This stretch of motorway seems to be a bit cursed as far as my bike is concerned.
But, what can you do…? There’s no point in letting mishaps get in the way or letting it get you down. You’ve just got to laugh it off and go to plan B. Life’s too short for stuff like this. Merry Christmas everyone.
