I had originally planned to make it to Sturgis in one shot, about 1280 miles if I recall. I had kinda kept my intent quiet, because some people think trying to make that many miles is crazy, and I just didn't want people to worry. Tornado-like weather I experienced that eve pretty well beat me up and stopped me where I was. So I managed to find a semi-cheap motel to recoup and dry out. I only managed 1061 miles.
Got up the next morning looking to get back on track. I was zipping along I-90heading West toward Sturgis (Wednesday morning), running slightly above the 95mph posted speed limit. As I came up on an exit that had fuel (something that does not come along nearly as often out here in the big states), I looked down at my odometer and decided I better stop just to be safe. I came off the Interstate fairly hot, my tires were sticky, and I was slinging rocks and debri up from the road. About halfway down the exit ramp, I must have picked up something big. I heard this ear-piercing screeching and my rear tire began intermittently locking up. My initial thoughts were that I had just had a rear wheel bearing go out, but then it started doing some clunking too. That's when I thought that maybe I was having tranny problems and maybe I was caught between two gears. I upshifted which seemed to make the rear a little less upset, then came to a grinding hault at the bottom of the ramp. I could smell rubber burning, quickly looked to see that I still had air in the rear tire, put it in first, and road the 100ft or so across the gravel parking lot to the gas station. That 100ft or so was was without any hangups, meaning whatever had got kicked up and jammed me up, was now gone.
After a quick inspection, I discovered that the left sidewall of my tire was chewed up and my chain was excessively loose. I sat there for a few, trying to absorb what just happened and decide what to do. I went ahead and filled it up (why I filled up a potentially dead bike, I dunno), then rode it over to a concrete slab out of the way. There I worked on it, cleaned up the mess, tightened the chain, and had a closer inspection of the tire. Although the tire took a lot of abuse, the Shinko has an extra thick extrusion (not sure what else to call it) of rubber on the sidewalls. I think thats what saved it. The chain however was looking fairing beat up. Polished nearly clean on the inside (tire side) and most of the rivets ground down. I was concerned and my adjustment put it pretty far out with not much more adjustment left to spare.
I hopped on, continued West on I-90 and stopped about 2-miles down the road to have another paranoid look. Back on the highway for about another 40 miles and pulled off at the next exit with services. There I had a closer look and discovered that the chain was fairly loose, again. I adjusted it using the last of my rotation in the concentric adjuster. It was at that point that I was confident this chain wasn't gonna make it. I ALMOST turned around and headed home, but decided to buy a chain somewhere along the way or have my contacts in Edson AB buy a chain for me, and I would install it there. That was still a long way to go through and I was going to have to limp on for 1500+ miles with a damaged and continually loosening chain.
I pushed on toward Sturgis. As I came into Rapid City, I saw several japanese dealerships. I pulled into one, bought a chain, and even had them install it (rivit type). They didn't cut me any breaks on the prices, but i was just satisfied paying retail rather than double-retail (I'm almost to Sturgis afterall).
Sturgis is a whole other story, but other than meeting up with a friend from Delaware, it was a waste and set me back another day. I should have skipped Sturgis and met him elsewhere. I'll complain more about Sturgis later.
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