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Since both bikes have rolled over 72 thousand miles, it was time for a major service with a fine toothed comb. Jym's forks had been leaking for a while, and Ann's front brake rotors were rattling like a pair of castanets.

After disassembling the front end of Jym's bike, the seals in the forks were replaced. Proceeding with a normal major service, including a replacement of the generator belt, things went smoothly. Although, swapping the fuel filter would probably be only slightly more inconvenient if it were inside the rear tire! The fix for Ann's noisy brakes involved replacing the floating pins that hold the rotors to the wheel (all 24 of them). Now, they should be good to 100,000 miles without major difficulties.

After 63 some odd thousand miles, Ann's clutch was about shot. It was slipping so badly that you couldn't stall it if you tried. After a little research, we found that the average for an RT clutch is around 45,000 miles, so we didn't feel to bad. After enlisting the help of a couple of interested ladies from a club we ride with (Gold Country Riders) we started to tear in to the replacement of the offending parts.

After stripping off everything south of the back end of the motor, the actual clutch replacement was pretty straightforward. While the major assemblies were on the bench, we cleaned, lubed and replaced flaky items (like the neutral switch).

After the clutch was installed, and all the bits that littered the shop had been reattached, we took a test ride, and nothing fell off! Another job well done! Shortly after, we did Jym's clutch. Just look at the pictures again and you'll get the idea.

As part of the continuing education effort that Gold Country Riders affords it's members, Amy tries to get riders out to the practice field on a monthly basis. You get to practice all of the skills that need fine tuning in a safe environment. We don't know anyone who's skills can't use a bit of fine tuning, do you?

We recently took a trip to Arlen Ness's new facility in Pleasanton, CA. It was a tour of the facility sponsored by two Bay Area Women on Wheels clubs. Ness was one of the original customizers back in the early 70s. The facility now produces about 60 unique bikes a month. All, however, take the form of V-Twin cruisers, and the price to play starts at $35,000.

Upstairs is Arlen's museum. It includes about 40 examples of his award winning work. Many of the bikes he has repurchased from the original owners. All are stunning works of art, even though they may not be very practical motorcycles. Although it was fun to sit on a bike or two, we declined the test rides - much quieter that way.

Late in the winter, it was time for the 54,000 mile service on the two RTs. Not bad for being 2 1/2 years old. Jym does the dirty work while Ann does the clean (?) work. Since our top boxes end up with a variety of stuff, and every ride to anywhere involves two miles of rutted dirt roads, the support frame for the rear rack gets flexed, then breaks. This time, we inserted 7/16" steel rods in the tubes before welding them back together.