Dragon Pics and a close call!!!

[davidhollinger]

OK, first day back from our trip to the Smokey Mountains and the Dragon and I have an interesting tale to tell. Overall the trip was outstanding and I have some great pics and memories and the better half really loved it. The ride thru the Smokeys was incredible and the time in Gatlinburg was awesome. Then we headed to the Dragon. We stopped at the bottom of US 129 and rested a minute after the climb thru the Parkway. Chatted with some Australian chaps and then made our way up. 10 curves into the 318 of the Dragon, I feel a click and my helmet has come undone. Never had that before. Quickly pull over and snap it back and my buddy waits for me at the next pull off, thinking I may have wrecked probably. Anyway back on the road. 3 minutes and a couple dozen curves later I am loving life and hitting the road hard and digging the switchbacks when all of a sudden...No Rear Brakes! I pull the front hard, slid to a stop on the opposite side of the road just against the mountain. My buddy turns around and comes to see what happened. I get off the bike and check everything out and I see the rear caliper hanging completely off the rotor. The 2 bolts had worked their way out, one was gone and the other was still in the caliper. I took a deep breath ( almost changed by undies) and set to getting it back together. 10 minutes later I am back on the dragon with one bolt holding the caliper on and only using the clutch and front brakes for the corners and curves. If you know the area you know there are no parts at all for miles so its back down the Dragon and into town to get a bolt. Long story short, it held up and I got to live a dream and walk away in one piece.

[Loafer]

Alls well that ends well. Glad you had a safe trip!

[elvis]

Holy smokes.... Glad it all ended without a major accident.

[Sin City Stan]

My friend, knowing that YOU recently put brakes and a rear rotor on, all I can say is I'm glad you and yours are OK and please buy a torque wrench and use it.

[davidhollinger]

Yeah, Stan, that was crazy. My buddy and I worked all month to get the bike ready for the trip. I was super confident that we had done everything right...even the cam chain extenders were complete. When we took the caliper off there was no lock tite on the screws so I didnt put any back on... lesson learned.

[ringadingh]

I think you may have forgotten to tighten them, you were lucky that time.Ive never used loc tite and its never been a problem on those bolts.

[Sin City Stan]

Again, I can't say this enough. Tighten bolts with a torque wrench.

[davidhollinger]

Those are Allen head bolts. Can you use a torque wrench?? I know on the bottom bolt of the caliper assembly we used a big ass torque wrench to remove and replace it. I know I tightened them because I was worried about stripping them out from over tightening. Yes I was damn lucky!

[Old Bear]

Originally Posted by davidhollinger

Those are Allen head bolts. Can you use a torque wrench?? I know on the bottom bolt of the caliper assembly we used a big ass torque wrench to remove and replace it. I know I tightened them because I was worried about stripping them out from over tightening. Yes I was damn lucky!

Metric Allen head sockets here: big ones, little ones, long ones ... just poke on the Torque Wrench and tighten to spec!

And I am glad you are okay, certainly understand if the whities now have racing stripes!

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by davidhollinger

Those are Allen head bolts. Can you use a torque wrench?? I know on the bottom bolt of the caliper assembly we used a big ass torque wrench to remove and replace it. I know I tightened them because I was worried about stripping them out from over tightening. Yes I was damn lucky!

Yes, you can use a torque wrench to tighten allen head bolts. You use hex sockets. You can also get torx sockets to properly tighten torx head bolts. Here's an example: http://www.sears.com/craftsman-6-pc-..._tnt=39869:4:0

You were lucky this time. Attention to detail is important.

[Jared]

Whew! I bet that was scary! Glad it went okay and you had a good time!

[glwilson]

Glad you made it safely and a powerful lesson was learned about working on your bike.

Don't beat yourself up too bad... there was a guy (either on here or another site) that rented an HD from a national rental firm to ride that area for a week or so.

He had just finished the Dragon and looked down to notice the front forks did not have the bolt in them to fasten them to the wheel. In other words... his forks stayed on the wheel because of the weight of the bike. If something would have bounced the bike hard enough to lift the forks off the wheel he could have been killed. (Not likely to have happened... but still...)

Needless to say... he didn't have to pay his rental fee; and they picked-up the bike that day and replaced it with another.

[davidhollinger]

Thanks for the well wishes and the links... my tool bag will definitely grow quickly. I rely enjoy working on the Nomad and knowing its done. There is a real learning curve though. And I realize just how important it is to do it right and completely. Thanks again guys...

[Rasta]

Glad you came back home all together!!

[sly]

No rear brakes on the Dragon?.... G U L P !!!!!!!!!! buy lotto tickets and share with your Nomad buddies =)