7-30-08 Day 33 Eureka to Shelby, MT

Up at 6 and on the road at 7:10. There are some spotty light showers but decide to go without rain gear and see what happens. It's about 80 miles to the entrance to Glacier National Park and at about 50 miles we see dark black clouds ahead and we've hit some wet roads off and on so we pull the trigger and stop to put on the rain gear. This doesn't take long because we've mastered doing it on this trip! Of course now that we are geared up it probably won't rain. That's usually the best deterent! We continue on and arrive at the park entrance and pay our $12 admission. The Ranger cautions us that it's windy at the top. The "Road to the Sun" is 52 miles long and it's 30 miles to the top from the west entrance. The road is barely 2 cars wide and has numerous turnouts for picture taking/sightseeing along with campground areas. About 6 miles in a light rain starts and comes and goes! The road is winding it's way up. It has a 40 MPH speed limit which only works for a little while til we catch up to a line of cars! We decide to drop off the pace a little as no one is behind us and stop to grab some pics. You can see from the pics that the road has some steep drop offs and their isn't much of a guard rail. It's an 18" stone wall that's in bad shape in many places or non existant. We continue on until we come to a line of cars where there is a construction zone with alternating one way traffic. Of course it strats raining again and this area is about 2 miles long and only gravel. So much for cleaning our bikes! After about 10 minutes we start moving at about 5 MPH. We get through this section and from there to the top the weather started improving as I think we got above the clouds. The top is called Logans Pass as you can see from the pic. There's a visitor center there and fortunately bathrooms! Behind the visitor center is a plaque put there by the United Nations in 1976 declaring this area to be a Biosphere test study area. Now we know what they do with there money! I'd like to see the data they've collected! The weather has cleared up but haven't seen the wind the Ranger mentioned.

We start down the other side of the mountain and the views are equally spectacular. Once we get down the last couple miles is flat along a lake. We see white caps on the lake and the wind is blowing harder then when any of us have been on a bike. We are getting tossed over 3 - 4 feet when the gusts come and we're laying the bikes over at a 15 degree angle to fight the wind. We get out of the Park and theres a gas station and Lodge there so we pull the bikes behind the building and go in for lunch. Tom's bike is still making noise so we start calling Harley shops to see if they have a compensator. Unfortunately out here they are not set up with the parts locator network like we have at home so you have to keep calling dealers. The Harley shop in Bismark, ND tells us that a bike builder in town might have one. We get a hold of him and he has a used one which is the best we can do at this point and hope Old Red can make the 700 miles to get there. After lunch we gas up and head out the local road to pick up route 2 east. The road to 2 is very windy and it's still very windy. To add to the challenge a few miles down the road it is being chip sealed. Chip sealing is when they spread liquid oil/tar and imediately cover it with pea stone gravel. This is not very motorcycle friendly cause of the loose gravel so we have to go slow. At list it's not raining! Did I mention this road was windy and windy. We are getting blown around like crazy. It is blowing between 40 -50 MPH! Some times the wind is at our backs and we're using the brakes to slow ourselves down cause the wind pushs so hard . This section went on for about 12 miles until we finally came to where the consytruction was and then we had alternating one way traffic to get through. We get through this area and find the junction of 2 which is a great 2 lane highway. It's flat and straight as far as you can see. The wind is at our back and off we go. This is farm country and I mean BIGGGGGGGGGGG farms. It's miles between houses and barns and lots of cattle. We are going between 65 - 68 as Tom doesn't want to push Red to hard. We are getting passed because people just fly down the roads here. About 10 miles past the town of Cut Bank Tom radios that his oil light has come on and he stops immediately. We pull over on the side of Route 2 which has about a 4 foot shoulder. He has plenty of oil in his tank but it doesn't seem to circulate. We check the in line screen for the lifter galley and fiind it clogged with fine filings but their not sticking to a magnet. He cleans the screen and changes the oil filter. (See pic) He starts the bike and the oil light goes out. It still has the noise. The thought is that the compensator issue is allowing the primary chain to rub on the rotor cover which is making the filings. We decide to get to the next town, Shelby, and Tom has an idea on how to tighten the compensator enough to get to Bismark where there's a replacement. Shelby is about 10 miles ahead and we pull in and check into a hotel. Tom & Mark start pulling the cover off again to attempt the repair. The wind is still blowing about 50 MPH making it difficult to work. The hotel parking lot layout didn't make it available to get on the backside of the bldg to block the wind. Tom amazingly has the tools to take this apart but the socket & breaker bar for the compensator nut isn't enough to loosen the nut. There's a diesel repair shop next to the hotel so Tom goes over to see what they can do. The owner of the shop, Don, happens to be a part time bike builder and understands exactly what Tom needs. He lets him borrow an electric impact gun and gives him some washers to use as shims on the compensator. He gives Tom a ride back up the hill to see the bike. He says he'll be back later for the impact. Tom & Mark get the nut off and Tom puts his shim idea on the compensator and puts everything back together. He starts the bike and the noise is still there. Don comes back and says those compensators always do that and he thinks he has a conversion kit to eleiminate the compensator and that will cure it. It must be fate that we happen to find this guy who has the part instead of 600 miles away. He goes to get the aprt and Tom & Mark start to take things apart again. See tomorrows entry for the rest of the story as I need too get some sleep.

I haven't mentioned this before but we all have CB's which is a huge help. It allows the leader to let the others know if we're turning, stopping for gas, etc, but more importantly you can alert the group to potholes, road debris, construction zones etc. Also with more eyes on the road others can relay if they spot something especially the wildlife and to just talk about stuff we see.