Sooner State Valkyrie Riders

It was a beautiful September afternoon, a Thursday to be exact, and my last day off before going into work for a three day weekend. It was also the last day I would have to clean and prepare my bike for a trip to Colorado on the following Monday. No big deal really. I just needed to clean it up a bit, and check the tire pressure. Much to my dismay, there seemed to be a nice puddle of oil below my left fork. Great. I decided to clean up the oil and wipe the fork clean and go for a short ride to see how bad it was. I returned from a 5-mile ride to find way too much oil leaking from the fork. Damn!

We had been planning this trip to Colorado for almost 6 months. The ‘we’ I refer to is Raymond, Rhonda and myself. Here I was with one day, that day, to fix anything wrong with the bike and I have a fork seal leaking. Leaking badly enough that it wouldn’t last for a trip of the length we had planned. Unlike most folks, I don’t live anywhere near a dealership. I’m 120 miles from the nearest Honda shop, and would they even have the parts I needed? I decided it was time to call Raymond and let him know that they would have to go on without me and I might be able to catch up later in the week if I could get the seals replaced. Having to work all the remaining days before the trip I just wouldn’t have any way to get parts, much less get them replaced. My only hope was to make a parts run on Monday and do the best I could. I made the call to Raymond and set about feeling sorry for myself during the rest of the afternoon.

I have been to Colorado many times over the years. Various family vacations and snow skiing trips had taken me to most of the key destinations in Colorado, but I had never ridden my motorcycle in Colorado. I really wanted to ride in Colorado, and we had been planning this all year! I was not happy. A few hours of moping around the garage hadn’t helped either, but things were about to change for the better. The phone rang, and it was Raymond. In a few hours he had located a set of fork seals, and all the necessary specialty tools needed to do the job. He informed me they would be down on Saturday to help get the seals replaced so we could leave on Monday as planned! Things were indeed looking up!

I spent the rest of Thursday removing the forks from the bike so they would be ready when Raymond arrived with replacement parts on Saturday. Removing the forks from the bike was not as difficult as I had imagined. Quite simple really as I had the whole front end removed in less than an hour.

Raymond and Rhonda arrived on Saturday with all the necessary items and we set out to replace the seals. It was a learning experience but we managed to disassemble both forks and replace the seals without any extra parts left over at all. By the time we went to bed Saturday night, the bike ready for a test ride. The journey would begin on Monday, and what a journey it was!

Before I tell that story, I must pause and give thanks to my bro Raymond and his wonderful wife Rhonda. There is more to the story above that must be told. The trip to Colorado was only part of the trip Raymond and Rhonda had planned. Rhonda was planning to do an official SaddleSore 1000 Iron Butt ride in route to Colorado. They had planned to leave on Saturday, and do their SS1000 on the way. I along with Buzz from Edmond would join them at our friend Gary’s place on Monday. After learning about my situation with the leaking fork seal, they canceled their trip to help me out. I cannot thank them enough, because without them I would have missed part of the most amazing motorcycle trip I have ever been on.

Stay tuned for part 2, riding the Colorado Rockies!