OK - so I rode to from Taos to Albuquerque and back, round trip total of something under 400mi (made it longer by taking the super-duper awesome "High Road" on the way back. (see soon-to-be-posted TR by that name).
Anyhey, had to stay in Santa Fe overnite due to weather at my mesa home, rendering the "driveway" impassable until afternoon today. While dithering at my buddie's place in SF, I adjusted the clutch to what felt right to me ie, tightened arm adjust bolt to where there was just a smidge of play, and the hand lever same same. Shifting is noticeably less clanky, or so it would seem at the outset. Perhaps the Gaurd Dog is beginning to kick in as well.
To answer your question Rick G, the machine just ticked over 33,000 today, and the splines were lubed at 28,161. But- that spline lube happened back in '01. Poor ol' Chile Red suffered about ten years of serious neglect in the back of PO's garage gathering dust. Makes me sad think of how lonesome she must've felt. So I'm wondering - even though the milage since spline lube was low, that it might possible for the grease to have dried out somewhat in 11 years, thus necessitating that I consult the L Duck Hubbard Splientology manual a bit sooner than I had anticipated.
I think too, that a large part of this situation was caused by an incomplete understanding of Brickitude on my novice part. When I first got the bike, I presumed that as I heard no lessening of revs when pulling the clutch handle and shifting into first while motionless, or even when shifting into second while sitting motionless, everything was jake as far as clutch adjustment went. Second, I'd read in more than one place that Bricks shift well, clunk-ily. So I rode on in semi-blissfull ignorance, only recently beginning to wonder why the clanky-ness was on the increase. Sometimes I wonder if I have just enuf mechanical understanding to be dangerous to the machines I love :bang-head:
Hopefully, now that I've got things somewhat more figured out, I'll get some more miles outta this tranny before having to find another one or - gasp - trying to rebuild it myself.
