Today started out alright, I was returning home from Kansas City and my trip with the BA.com Journal. Those at the Mid West Rally know about my throttle cable issue and how it was "fixed".
So I'm riding across I-70, about an hour and a half from K.C., and there's a town called Blackwater with a historic district and I'm not in much of a hurry, so I exit. As I'm coming up the exit ramp, I feel it go. Goodbye, throttle cable. So I coast up to the stop sign and shut her down, because I already know what happened. Open up the throttle housing and sure enough, there is the cable end sitting all by itself in the grip. So I call AAA and they send a truck. Sure took their time with it too. Probably sat on the side of the road for an hour and a half. And I'm in the middle of nowhere, and up the exit ramp, not even on the highway shoulder. AAA calls me and says they found a shop that can fix it in Columbia, MO, about 35 miles down the road. I call the shop and talk with the guy and he says he can't repair my cable. 10 minutes later he calls back and says he can, and bring it in. Now for the ride of shame. First time my bike ever got transported somewhere not on its own power.
Anyway, I get to the shop, and it's Norm Wilding. The guy who built this beauty! Featured in August '08 Back Street Heroes Magazine
Told me how he stuffed the battery and electrical in this box behind the motor.
Told me he was originally from London, came to America to race NHRA. All out of his own pocket, said he refused to be a corporate **** sucker.
Raced all over the country, apparently did real well, there's a lot of info about it online.
You've got to check out the link to this
Kawabusa He had that sitting in the shop, along with a vintage BMW trike with hack, a custom he was building, a Harley trike, and some others he was working on.
The dude was super cool and friendly, got me a throttle cable from a parts bin, we get it routed and situated, of course it didn't fit right because who knows what it came from, but he gets some round stock aluminum, cuts a piece to length for a spacer, the machines it on a lathe to get it to fit in the housing, cuts a groove in it for the cable, a little tape, a couple zip ties, and we're in business! I still had about 140 miles to go or so, and I ask what I owe him. He tells me 20 bucks, and he was glad to get me on the road again. I'm ever so thankful for his time and help, and told him I would tell you all about him and his shop. That you can find here...
http://www.midmomc.com/I've driven right by his shop probably 200 times in my life, and never even knew it was there, kind of right off the interstate and a frontage road. After my bike was all fixed up, he says "what the f*ck are you still doing here, it's my lunchtime!"
So I thanked him again and went on my way. Stopped by my local Triumph dealer when I got back into town, and they took my Barnett braided stainless cable sleeve and put a new cable with ends in it, so tomorrow I get to install that. So even though I was broke down on the side of the road, it turned out to be a cool little stop that I never would have made without the cable breaking.
