After we left Salamanca, we were on our way to Portugal to beef up our tires prior to heading into Africa. We had communicated with a Ural dealer in advance to order the specific tires we wanted so the tires we’re waiting for us at the shop.

On our drive out, we started to hear some clunking in the side car wheel area. The sound was very metallic which made us think something with the hardware was wrong. We pulled over and thought that the bolt to connect the wheel may be loose so we tightened the bolt and put the cottering pin back in and decided to see if the clunking would go away. The clunky was scarce / went away for about an hour, but then the clunking came back and was more aggressive; screeching also started at this point too. We pulled over on the side of the road and reassessed what it could be and decided let’s takeoff the wheel and see if we can look at the axis to see if there’s anything wrong with it. We also thought it could be the break because we heard screeching too so Austin took off the brake to see if it was touching the rotor when not engaged. Once we tightened and thought we had fixed the problem, we jumped back on the road but the clunking was still there which was very unfortunate. We decided to change the tire to see if it was a faulty connector in the wheel. It was starting to get dark at this point so we looked for a hotel rather than camping that night. With the new wheel on, we realized it was not brake or rotor related so it must be the access of the bike. It was still clunking at “higher” speeds (roughly 30 mph) so we decided to press on going about 10 miles an hour which I would only clunk once every 30 seconds or so. We were able to call and talk with Rob who owns a Ural shop in Portugal and he advised us just to go slow and he would come tow us in the morning. It’s kind of ironic that all of these issues started happening the day we were driving to see Rob and Zayne at the Ural shop because originally we had only planned to get new tires from them. Thankfully, they can help solve the new issues which is impeccably timing. Praise God for that!

We ended up making it to our hotel after an hour and a half of driving at 10 mph and had a warm cozy bed for the night as we waited for Rob the next morning for the tow. Rob came midday and we were able to make it back to his place around four in the afternoon. Once we got in, we jacked up the bike and took it apart to see what was going on. We took the wheel off and Rob grab the axis that connects to the bike and drive shaft and it was very wiggly and he said immediately this is the issue. With the axis being wiggly (“having play in it”), it makes sense that it is what caused the clunking because it was not a smooth circular motion, it was more so an inconsistent and uneven motion that the wheel was turning. At this point, we expected the bearing to be busted but before we could make sure it was a bad bearing we had to take out the driveshaft and axis but it was completely stuck, yikes. The next morning Rob went on a walk and had a brilliant idea on how to get the axis out and so when he came back from the walk, he put his idea into action and sure enough it worked out and we could get the axis off. We took apart the bearing and saw that they were broken: it showed a ring that should be filled with metal balls to allow circular movement in a consistent manner but about 2/3 of the balls are missing so that’s why it was very clunky. You can see a photo of the bearings in the photo below.

Now we had a diagnosis and realize that we need to get new parts which would be a delay of a week and a half about. Rob helped order the parts and Austin and I found something to do for that week and a half of waiting. It ended up that my sister, Madison, was in London for work and so I found a flight to London and I’m spending some time with her in London this week. Austin is joining in London on Friday to spend time with some other friends and together we will fly back to Portugal on Tuesday. We will then train to Rob and Zayne’s house Wednesday to start working on the bike with them once the parts are in.