What happened
Well it seems like yesterday when I was asking advice on Melbournes Toll roads, the trip had been in planning for 9 months. Ride across the Nullaboring again for the 20 something time to see Lieflong friends in the Gippsland & High country area of Victoria, then onto Mildura for the Ullysses AGM and parts of inland NSW.
The bike had been serviced (by me) oil/filter, pod filters cleaned and re-oiled new tyres front and rear, hard bags fitted and we were ready to go.
To cut a short but painfull/EXPENSIVE story down to size, the crossing of the country was a breeze the best ever in fact. 2.5 days of bliss on a bike when between Port Pirie and Port Wakefield SA the following happened:-
(I copied and pasted it from another thread)
(I have just had both the internal and external bearings go at 130 Kph on a major trip around Australia, noise was unbelievable, instant and scary 40kms from the nearest town. Finally got bike to Triumph dealer who quickly stripped bike down, diagnosis was bad both bearings had totally collapsed (exploded) the output shaft and gears were damaged. Some parts of both bearings were missing presumed travelling around engine internals somewhere and the crankcase were badly damaged internally, the whole area within the output housing was covered in a fine metal paste.
New crankcases / oil pump / output assembly and gaskets etc plus full rebuild to cost approx 10K, yes thats ten thousand dollars it would never be the same bike and I just cannot afford it. Not sure which direction to take next, secondhand engine? buy a wrecked R3? are they available?, not in a good head space right now.
RIP MY R3 )
Stuck on the side of the road, I heard several bikes approaching. I had unpacked most of my luggage to start attemting to sort the problem out, NOT one of the bikes stopped or slowed down to see what my plight was (They were Ulysses members).
I pushed the dead R3 into a farmers driveway (No one home) and left a note explaining I would be back a lone Harley rider from Whyalla stopped and gave me and all my bags a ride into Pt Wakefield.
At the BP servo I was told I had missed the Last bus to a Adelaide, a rider by the name of Colin offered me a lift to Adelaide in his wifes (Sam who worked at the servo) car.
They will never know how much I appreciatted their help, the other Ulysses members could learn a lot from them.
I hired a ute and trailer picked the bike up and took it into Peter Stevens Adelaide, the service staff Campbell and Jason were great and the head Mechanic Anto was onto it straight away. That was the end of the good news, as you will have read above the bill to reserect the R3 is beyond my finances at the moment. It may never happen? as the disaster after having to Hire a car, Trailer, Accomodation , Air ticket home, Diagnosis of the problem and Frieghting the bike home to WA it has cost me nearly $4000.
That in a Nutshell is what happened, I have a longer version (yes I do) but I did not want to subject you all to it.
I have been riding for nearly 56 years, The R3 aka the Black Rhino was the only bike i have owned that stopped me looking for the next one.