The personal writings and photos of Jonathan Smith.

First of all, I am a year older now. The posts have been pretty scarce so I need to catch up a bit on that.

Tomorrow I will be doing my first charityish ride for a co-worker. His son was in a severe accident not long ago in which he was thrown from the vehicle. The insurance company only covers a small fraction of the medical bills. So we are riding to raise money to help the family.

My bike is in dire need of a sprocket and chain. I’m going to double-check it tonight and see if it is safe for an 80 mile ride tomorrow. If not, my friend Ron has decided that I can ride his wife’s Harley-Davidson Sportster. She’s new to riding and not comfortable riding in a large group so she’ll be riding with Ron. I REALLY don’t like Harley’s, but I am in need of some two-wheel therapy and getting out with some friends on such a beautiful weekend seems like it may really cheer me up.

We’ll be meeting at Susquehanna Valley Harley-Davidson at 10am tomorrow, kickstands up at 11am. The ride is going to be about 80 miles through Cumberland, Perry, and Dauphin counties. And it looks like it’s going to be fantastic weather!

I mounted the Oregon Scientific ATC2K video camera to my bike instead of my helmet today. Then I decided to go for a short ride around the city to see how the perspective of the camera is and to see how sturdy the mount is. And I had just the right music for the video too.

Yesterday was an amazing day for riding. My daughter and I woke around 7am and geared up to head out to breakfast with the BMW Dutch Country Riders. It was a beautiful morning and the temperature was great.

Later in the day I was out exploring some of my favorite roads here in Dauphin County with the addition of my new helmet camera. After about 50 miles of riding I pull up towards the gate at my back yard like normal. I pull in the clutch to put the bike in neutral but the clutch didn’t have any tension on it and freely came back to the handle grip. And the bike was still in gear! Quick thinking, I hit the kill switch to turn off the motor before I hit the fence. I then proceed to mash the bike into neutral with my foot and put the bike on the side stand. After a close inspection I come to the conclusion that the cable must have snapped. Luckily I was at my house and simply pushed the bike into my back yard. Too bad I wouldn’t have a bike to ride on Memorial Day.

Tomorrow I will call the dealer and see if I can get two replacement clutch cables. One to replace the broken cable, and another to keep on the bike as a spare in case this should happen again and I’m a long way from home.