Motourama Part 13: What’s Wrong, Falkor?!

Hello family, friends and followers! If you remember, that Falkor didn’t want to show Esben how fast they were flying through the universe (link here), you might also remember, that we promised to find out why. This is what we set out to do in today’s instalment of “Travel Stories”.

We knew the secret had to lie around the front wheel or the speedometer itself. We decided to start with the wheel. After disassembling the front wheel of Falkor, he finally revealed to us, just what the problem was: the speedometer gear, which is made of plastic, had shed all of its teeth. No teeth, no indication of speed. The speedometer gear is situated on the axle of the front wheel, and turns with it, driving a cylindrical gear, that in turn spins a cable, which transmits all of this action to the speedometer indicator in the instrument panel.

This proved to be an expensive piece of plastic: 45€ to be exact. It also involved an hour’s work of picking out the stripped teeth, which was stuck to the grease in the gear housing, with pincers.

Both of the Hondas also got new chains and sprockets. We did it ourselves on Falkor, with the help of Esben’s earliest friend and his dad, who is a skillful DIY guy. It wasn’t as easy of a job, as we had thought. The bolts on the rear sprocket were really stuck, and we ended up bending quite a few tools, trying to get them loose. It wasn’t until we spotted, that there were nuts holding the bolts in place, that the job got easier. Yeah, not our proudest moment. There was still one bolt and nut in particular, that wouldn’t budge with the tools we had available, so we had to persuade them with an angle grinder. That got the job done, though.

Impromptu work shop.

Phoenix got the luxury treatment: a scheduled appointment at a local workshop, where the mechanic had ordered a new chain kit home, and had offered to fit it for free. That was a deal, which we could not refuse. There is just something about our bikes and their affinity to have sparks flying. Phoenix did not allow her old chain to be removed without a bit of angle grinder action either.

In the end, though, everything went rather smooth, and both Falkor and Phoenix stand ready, once again, for the adventures that lie ahead.

Until next time, just bring an angle grinder to any problem you have. It worked for us… so far.