Whats your weather right now?

Show us a pic of the offending nut?
Not sure what it has to do with a heim joint but here you go.
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Weather right now is beautiful, 72 and sunny with low humidity. Earlier this week not so much. On Monday my girlfriend asked me if I would take her to a town 35 miles east of here to a butcher shop on Wednesday on the BMr. Since I have been riding almost everyday all summer by myself I couldn't hardly say no. She has not ridden with me since 02 when we rode around Lake Superior. If I told you what happened to the bike and me on that trip you would wonder why I ever agreed to ever take her for another ride. Anyway I took the 650 for a ride Wednesday morning about 100 miles. Got home about 11:30. Needed a butt break. At 12:30 I checked the weather radar and a storm was heading our way. Weather said storm would be after 3. Told her if we were going to go we needed to get going. Being female we didn't leave until 1.
Got to butcher shop. Brats for cookout tonight bought. Headed home. Thought things would be OK. 15 miles down the road could see sky getting darker ahead. In less than a mile it looked like night, had to take sunglasses off and could see rain coming down 1/4 mile ahead. Farm country no where to hide. Rain started, it was like someone flushed a toilet. We were running straight west wind out of west not to bad fairing giving good protection. Then the road had a big sweeping left hander to where it was running straight south. Oh boy. Instant drenching, rain coming straight sideways from the right. Still nowhere to hide, not even a decent tree to hide behind nothing but corn fields. Downshift, downshift again running in 3rd, car behind slows and stays 1/8 mile behind me. Wind increases and moves me from the right side of my lane to the center line, damn that was a big gust. Wanted to stop, no real shoulder to the road. Pavement ends mud and gravel begins plus I didn't think I could hold bike up against rain and wind.
Kept plugging along. Up ahead I could see wind picking up water off of a bean field. New it was a big flat line wind. Got to the white line on the right side of my lane, downshifted to second and braced for impact. I had checked and there were no cars coming at me. There was a truck at a intersection ahead.
Holly molly. I had the bike already leaning to the right fighting the wind. That gust hit us, stood the bike up straight and moved it into the oncoming lane. Half way across the left lane I leaned the bike as hard as I could to the right and gave it some throttle. The Conti Go's held on and we got back to our lane. If there had been a walnut in my you know what it would have been pulverized. Mile latter road turned west into a small town and we waited out the storm under a canopy at a Casies.
Girlfriend wasn't phased much, she did say she thought we were going to tip over. May be another 17 years before I take her for a ride. I've ridden is some bad weather but never had wind move me a lane and a half before.

Jeepers - you sure tell a dramatic story GLJ!

Nothing like that here. We're having a beautiful weekend of sunny weather so with the XS waiting for engineering work, took the W800 for a ride up to the more remote end of the Scottish Borders. Along the Ettrick Valley and over the hills to Eskdalemuir. Not many villages, not many houses even. Plenty of round, glaciated hills and plenty of sheep. Single track un-fenced roads with sheep wandering about. And hardly a car. Some folk get spooked by a big landscape and no people but I love it.
 
After an extremely hot and dry July and most of this month..our pattern has finally broken..it feels like oct here..Yesterday it was 70* and rainy and today will be partly cloudy and about 78*...The humidity had been relatively low for us here in the SaunaEast..and my Arthralgia had been quiet..skipped my regular routine of cortisone shots as a result...Now that the humidity is back I'm 10 times more achy. My oral meds help but not entirely. I'll be returning to the Ortho clinic this coming week. need shots in neck(2) shoulders(2-4) and sometimes both hands between the knuckles..
SOA Chapter 1 (Sons of Arthritis)...Thats why I keep playing with the notion of going back to hot n dry Arizona,,, We get as much rain here in NC as they get sun out there...:cussing:
 
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This morning at 7:30am, blue sky and 18 Celsius and a very gentle cool breeze. Jumped on the Virago and off I go. Half an hour later while pulling up at some temporary traffic lights facing down hill I changed down and my foot said "What am I supposed to be pushing?". The gear foot lever had fallen off. So I turned the bike off, put the side stand down and went to get off and the slope was too much for the stand. The bike went over and I only just managed to hold it off the ground. What a heavy brut, took all my strength to lift it back up, but luckily no damage, better still, no girls watching. I searched the road, found the circlip and put the foot lever back on. Rode home very carefully with minimal gear changes.

On inspection the circlip groove looks inadequate or worn so I drilled and tapped a 5mm hole in the end of the short shaft that supports the foot lever and bolted an oversize washer in place so should the circlip ever fail again, which it will, I'll have a nice backup.
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Show us a pic of the offending nut?
Guess I should have washed bike before taking the picture!

Here it is:
Hiem Joint Bolt.JPG


That is a 1/2-20 thread nut. Due to the closeness of the fender seen to the left I used a jam nut to give me a bit of clearance. Now that I think of it I could insert the bolt from the other direction and put nut on outside. That would let me use a castellated nut and drill bolt for a cotter key, just one idea.

Just as a little more information this assembly has been on two different motorcycles since 1993 and has well over 100,000 miles of road use on it.
 
Stainless lock nut. Under a buck..... Bolt Depot

View attachment 148255

That looks good till I checked the shipping cost. That makes those $0.90 nuts cost over $3.35 a piece.

I did check with Cat, I have online access to pricing from my work days, and I can get zinc plated harden steel nylock nuts for $1.60 each.
I might even be able to talk nice to my former boss and get him to slip a couple nuts in the next parts order:sneaky:

Or I could just clean what's there real good and use the Blue Locktite I have on the shelf!
 
Guess I should have washed bike before taking the picture!
Here it is:
View attachment 148246
That is a 1/2-20 thread nut. Due to the closeness of the fender seen to the left I used a jam nut to give me a bit of clearance. Now that I think of it I could insert the bolt from the other direction and put nut on outside. That would let me use a castellated nut and drill bolt for a cotter key, just one idea.
Just as a little more information this assembly has been on two different motorcycles since 1993 and has well over 100,000 miles of road use on it.

Hi Ken.
make a tab-washer.
Bolt goes through a sheetmetal L-shape that is trapped under the nut.
Hammer & punch one leg down over the lug's upper end.
Hammer & punch t'other leg up against a flat on the nut.
Used by the boxful on aircraft except we didn't have to DIY 'em.
 
Hi Ken.
make a tab-washer.
Bolt goes through a sheetmetal L-shape that is trapped under the nut.
Hammer & punch one leg down over the lug's upper end.
Hammer & punch t'other leg up against a flat on the nut.
Used by the boxful on aircraft except we didn't have to DIY 'em.
Must be where Cat got the idea! The older machines used tons of those, I had enough of them to fill a shoe box saved over the years.

Only problem I see with that type of lock in this application is one would have to use two on each fastener as it is a nut and bolt assembly.

I'm starting to lean in the direction of the Blue LockTite, like I said this is the first time since it was built back in 1993 that I found a loose nut. But I I stumble across a couple 1/2-20 castellated nuts I might go that route!
 
Got a hurricane coming our way ,gonna hit somewhere between Florida and Virginia! If it hits Wilmington and the outer banks I will be directly in its path! At least this one is earlier and looks like it will stay away from the Iron Horse! Keeping an eye on it and will keep y’all posted! Hopefully it will stay offshore!
 
It's been a disappointing summer. Spending most of it in the garage anyway after questionable decision to buy an XS650. But we're having a nice September. Temps are about 17-18°C but the main thing is it's dry and clear. Long may this continue . . .
 
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