Day 10 - Rest

This was a planned day off, from riding.  Several of the crew and riders went out in the morning to see nearby Mount Rushmore.  A few other souls remained behind in the "garage to work on bikes.   In particular, Bob Reiner and Bernie Nietvelt toiled away all day.  Bob's Vincent was trailered several days back with strange engine noises.  The suspected culprit was the magneto.  But, after replacing the bearings at both ends, retiming and reassembling, the noise was still there.  So that will be it for that Vincent.  It is running, however.  Perhaps we can drop it off the trailer near Ventura so we can have all the Vincents rolling into the International.

Jeff McCoy - Laptop Machinist

Bernie replaced a worn rear tire.  But he loves to fuss over everything and was there all day.  At the start of the day, a lazy start, I road-tested the bike that had dropped its front axle.  Big D had sent up a huge package containing a completely built front wheel with tire, etc.  As soon as I got it up to speed it was obvious that the wheel was badly out of balance.  The rest of my day was about trying to find balance weights.  There were none to be had.  Off I went in the truck with Logistic crew guy Mark Dunn to the hardware store.  For washers and soldering wire.  The washers were not even close to enough weight.  I ended up fashing weights by creating triple-layered coils of soldering wire.  I needed almost all of what we had bough.  It is crude-looking but effective.  This is what the late great Marty Reynolds would have called a "Provincial Field Repair".  See the Mild Ones for that great line.

Deadwood is what most would call a tourist trap.  It is Wild West-themed with street shows.  There are casinos galore and souvenir shops.  It was crowded and noisy on this long weekend.  Greg McBride says that this will be about it for the year.  He has been here in October when almost everything is closed up, even the chain restaurants.  We will be looking forward to moving on to more familiar environs where the support facilities can be set up properly.  Everyone retired early to rest up for another 400-mile day and early start.