After Banff I took a breather in Calgary, staying in an astonishingly nice new hotel -- a Residence Inn, of all places -- and rested up. Then I backtracked back towards Banff to travel north back through the Rockies.
About 60 km from Banff, my bike got a little louder. At first it was a low rumble, then it got a little more throaty still. I looked down and tried to grasp what was going on. The shoulder was narrow and the highway was fairly busy, so I decided to continue until I had a good spot to pull over.
Moments later, my beautiful Rebel transformed into a drag racing muscle bike. The noise was overwhelming, and it scared the crap out of me. I looked down again and noticed that my muffler had detached from my engine. I promptly pulled over and assessed the situation.
That's the muffler on the left. On the right is the exhaust pipe coming from the engine. It's hard to tell there, but the muffler was floating freely, completely detached from that pipe. Every time I hit a bump or accelerated, I heard an unmuffled engine blast. Exciting, but not at all ideal.
Long story short, I bought this bike used from a guy who had removed the stock muffler to install his own louder muffler so his bike would be more noisy. I prefer a quieter bike, so I had the seller reinstall the stock muffler. I watched him do it, and it looked like everything was in order, but I failed to check the screws over the past 2500 miles of driving. The vibration knocked at least one important screw completely out of the bike, and the photo above was the eventual result.
After making some calls, sitting on the side of the road, and assessing my options, I survived a slow and LOUD 60km ride on the shoulder to Banff. The muffler could have fallen off, but the remaining support held up and I made it safe and sound. In Banff's industrial sector, an absolute saint of a man named Sal had his shop fix the issue in record speed. Also, this was the view near the shop:
The bike was back in good shape within 3 hours of the incident, and the journey continued. You're a lifesaver, Sal.
About 60 km from Banff, my bike got a little louder. At first it was a low rumble, then it got a little more throaty still. I looked down and tried to grasp what was going on. The shoulder was narrow and the highway was fairly busy, so I decided to continue until I had a good spot to pull over.
Moments later, my beautiful Rebel transformed into a drag racing muscle bike. The noise was overwhelming, and it scared the crap out of me. I looked down again and noticed that my muffler had detached from my engine. I promptly pulled over and assessed the situation.
That's the muffler on the left. On the right is the exhaust pipe coming from the engine. It's hard to tell there, but the muffler was floating freely, completely detached from that pipe. Every time I hit a bump or accelerated, I heard an unmuffled engine blast. Exciting, but not at all ideal.
Long story short, I bought this bike used from a guy who had removed the stock muffler to install his own louder muffler so his bike would be more noisy. I prefer a quieter bike, so I had the seller reinstall the stock muffler. I watched him do it, and it looked like everything was in order, but I failed to check the screws over the past 2500 miles of driving. The vibration knocked at least one important screw completely out of the bike, and the photo above was the eventual result.
After making some calls, sitting on the side of the road, and assessing my options, I survived a slow and LOUD 60km ride on the shoulder to Banff. The muffler could have fallen off, but the remaining support held up and I made it safe and sound. In Banff's industrial sector, an absolute saint of a man named Sal had his shop fix the issue in record speed. Also, this was the view near the shop:
The bike was back in good shape within 3 hours of the incident, and the journey continued. You're a lifesaver, Sal.
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