Coop's Corner: Broken Helix Diagnosed

Friday, October 24, 2014

Broken Helix Diagnosed

More than one of my friends has asked about what really happened to the Helix this summer when Lauren and I had to have the scooter hauled home. At the time, I pushed the yellow one back into the corner and since then I've just put any repair efforts into things I thought could be dealt with quickly. This afternoon when we really wanted to be out riding (never got as warm as they'd said or stay as dry) we instead came back home and I began the arduous task of Winter Parking.

That meant that the Helix would finally come out of the back corner and roll into the shop and up on the lift. this evening while the rest of the Coops were watching TV, I decided to head outside and open up the scooter.

It wasn't until the next day after we'd had our Helix ride interrupted that I remembered going over a very rough railroad crossing, jolting the rear end of the scooter severely enough that it actually hurt. I've been wondering to myself if just possibly a casting had cracked, causing the oil leak and rear end failure.

Tonight I found the culprit; a ruined bearing. Thoughts of a parts bike as a reasonable fix have seen me online checking out used Honda parts and complete bikes. Discovering some very nice looking used scooters for decent prices have made me wonder all summer if my best repair solution might just be replacement rather than repair.

Online parts prices for my initial discovery cost less than $50 w/shipping. Now that I'm not working every day in a machine shop, I'll need to find some help getting parts disassembled and pressed together again. Hopefully I'll have the scooter back together soon, possibly in time for another ride yet in '14.

Bad bearing on the left, good bearing on the right.

Ben and I had a shortened ride today, tomorrow we'll do some compensating. Warm and pleasant the prediction going in.

4 comments:

SonjaMOctober 25, 2014 at 1:20 PM
Wow, that bearing looks crushed. Hope you get it fixed in time for another ride before winter kicks in.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayOctober 25, 2014 at 8:03 PM
Thanks Sonja. I'll need a better mechanic than myself to know why it failed in the first place. Hope to do some more sleuthing this week to make sure nothing else needs replacing.
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VStar LadyOctober 25, 2014 at 9:27 PM
Coop it seems you've been able to make a diagnosis now to weigh the cost of treatment ... parts and labor verses replacement. Factor in entertainment value and satisfaction of fixing it yourself ... Awesome, you'll be able to use up at least a few hours of winter deciding what to do ... and a few more bringing the plan to fruition. Good Luck. (Did you get the rest of the winter parking done?)
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayOctober 26, 2014 at 4:39 AM
Karen, you are now at the top of an extremely short list of my Schedule Planner candidates. It's obvious that you have experience with 'available winter time', a big plus for the position.

Thanks, right now I'm in no hurry to proceed with the fix and even though I mentioned getting it back on the road before the cold and nasty arrives, those weather conditions make for good motorcycle repair.

Most of the parking is done, a new system implemented this year. Almost every arrangement has been tried but this time I'm leaving the fronts away from the wall to make Tender access easier. There's a nice big space out in front for a couple of the machines that haven't gone to sleep yet. They were warmed up yesterday and will see service again today.
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Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

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As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

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