Panheads Are Junk

I had a tappet roller fail after about 5000 miles. All the little needle rollers came out, almost destroyed my new cam, had to clean out the oil pump and cam chest, etc.  Lucky I caught it early - Got it all fixed and back together, cruisin' around town - and I get blown off the road by some kind of sport bike with a nice sounding pipe.  Then I notice my broken rear spokes, brake dragging . . . and all I can think of is RC51s, ZX14s, big, fat Suzukis with Japanese writing on the lowers that go 175+ (I like those goldish orange ones) . . . but, I just cringe with the thought of taking anything to a dealership to spend money to get my fuel injection (or my computer) fixed.  I just like bikes and can't stop.

2 comments:

CHVRCH said...

Nothing really brakes on modern sportbikes.
Dudes ride around the world on R1's and never even adjust the valves.
60,000 miles no problem.

Unknown said...

You are right Noot, I've ridden old stuff for a long time. One day everything's fine,two days later the bottom falls out??
I guess thats part of my attraction to old Harley's,adjust-ride-ride-adjust. I also have a 16 yr. old RK and yes those trips over to dealer for computer issues are like going to the dentist for a root canal.
Keep the Faith