Wolfi alone in Las Vegas

The girls had left for their road trip and I rode to Matt to start fixing my bike. The dismantling of the front fork went rather easy and a few hours later the broken parts were off. Luckily for me the replacement trailing arm came already two days earlier - that was a positive surprise!

We went the same afternoon to John to check whether he can do the machining work which was required due to the sidecar support frame. Unfortunately he could not do it by himself but he forwarded us to some machining shop around the corner. We went there and they told they could do by tomorrow or latest the morning after. That was perfect! Things went too good to be true.

Fixing SilberWolf

The Suzi required some regular maintenance (and that was the initial reason why I contacted Matt) and that job was my program for the next day while waiting for my part. The Suzi needed also new brake discs and pads as well as new wheel bearings. I had still one set in the bike ...  remember that in our original plan we would still be in Africa ;)

Old and new Trailing A arm.

Rather thin metal.

The pulling hook got a new shape and some paint was left in Death Valley.

New front outlook :-o

The machining guy did not call as promised and also on the next morning no call to tell me that my part was ready. I helped Matt to fix some things on his KTM and we decided in the afternoon to make a round trip and visit BMW to order me a spare bolt for the shock as well as visiting John to see what he had to say about the rear shocks.  Yes, now John had two shocks on his table. The one which starting leaking at the other one which collapsed in Africa. In the end I left his shop with with my two broken shocks. Things got a bit tricky with those.

Machining shop in Las Vegas.

Interesting collection in the upstairs of the machining shop.

Too small for me!

Definitely too small for me :D

By the time we were at John's the machining guy finally called and told the part was ready. He charged about100USD even though it took them several hours to do the machining. It would have been great if I could strengthen it now since the arm was not installed. That again would bring many variables on the table. A professional certified welder would be my primary choice for the job to ensure that the arm is not weaker after the welding then before. On the other hand, this might bring additional risks due to holidays and we might be forced to stay in Vegas for many more days. If somebody else would weld it it might go faster but with the risk that the arm is ruined or weakened.

Now I had to do some thinking, looking at the schedules and doing some decisions.

Besides that what to do with the rear shock? Fact was that if I did not get the shock fixed locally within the next 1-2 days it will go most likely to next year due to the Christmas holidays. The risk that some semi-professional welder would do the job did not excite me at all. My father was black-smith and even he would not have touched that part. In the end it was clear to me that I will use the trailing arm as it was and the rear shock will easily last some more km since it was leaking a bit but had not collapsed.

Leaking rear shock.

For all those who claim that the spring which I have in my rear shock does not exist! (Strength appears to be "normal" for GS hacks)

Phantom enjoying her first carrot ... of course organic!

American breakfast (heart attacks are welcome)!

Wolfi's breakfast: 1.75l of green banana smoothie (6 bananas and 1/2 lettuce).

Many extra tools were needed to get the trailing arm back together since one of the fork clamp bolts was stuck and snapped when I tried to open it. One hour more work in combination with plenty of swearing! In the end I got the bike together with a good piece of help from Matt. Thanks a lot for that!

American dinner.

Unhealthy but vegan dinner.

While the girls were still on their road trip I had a few free days to enjoy Vegas and its surroundings. Las Vegas was (and is) very expensive, it was extra expensive compared to all the other places where we have been. Besides that in many places you can see the people wearing latest fashion and some times dress code was required to get somewhere. It was putting me a bit off.

Las Vegas was SO expensive that even my ADVrider tent space host asked me to pay some money for utilities (It ended up to be 50USD for 4 nights)! That was another new experience for me.

~ Wolfi