The Hodaka Club Forum

Well turns out I had little to fear. The break-in's all done and the Wombat is a blast! Last weekend I decided to get in some riding time and really get to know the bike. My family and I are house hunting so I also wanted to take a look at a few local neighborhoods too. As chance would have it the Wombat turned out to be a litmus test of sorts for finding friendly people, too bad Honda came up with that "you meet the nicest people..." slogan first.
After a few hours of street riding I decided to try out the Wombat's trail legs and rode up to the Copley Mt. access to the Chappie-Shasta off-road riding area. I cheesed out and took trail #3, because it was "easy" and I wasn't wearing any of my off-road riding gear. The map at the trailhead stated it was a 4x4 trail, I figured it'd be a cake walk on a bike. Well it turns out that "cake walk" started with enough drastic downhill sections that I started to feel my brakes fade before I got to the "bottoms." Yikes! Not a good feeling. Just FYI, the bike had 800+mi when I got it so I suspect the linings are original.

I planned on taking it easy but after dealing with all that "pucker factor" I focused on having some fun. Fun it was too, whipping turns and smiling from ear to ear... well it was until I encountered Cottonwood Creek crossing the trail. The creek didn't look to deep and since most of my previous riding experience consisted of desert expanses I figured it couldn't be THAT deep. Could it? Well in fact it was. As we emerged onto the far shore I took pause and while sitting there in awe of the "Hodakability" of my happily idling, little Wombat I noticed the high watermark about 2" from the center of the air filter. Upon seeing that I was quickly brought back to reality when I remembered I still had the stock unsealed bearings in the wheels, Double Yikes! Also, I discovered the exhaust nut was loose too, not having the tool or channel locks to hand I made due with a flathead screw driver and a rock.

Secure in the knowledge I was going to be breaking out the wrenches that night to check for water intrusion, I decided to continue having fun. That call to fun was quickly exchanged for panic and fear when on a rather surprising and sudden decent I discovered wet brakes only work in an on or off fashion. The off only being achievable with Herculean efforts. Needless to say I'd had enough fun and needed some time to relax.

My initial goal was to trail ride to Shasta Dam but I was stopped 1/2 mile from my goal by a corner worker, apparently the local Redding Riders club were hosting the Shasta GP that weekend. My conciliation prize turned out to be just as good in this instance, as it was nice to speak to some local bike guys and get some local knowledge, while watching the race and letting the Wombat cool, of course. After the race my grumbling stomach and the descending sun told me it was time to double back to the trailhead. So with goodbyes said I was off and as luck would have it I was having so much fun that I forgot about the dang creek but just managed to skid to a halt and avoid a swim. Remembering my earlier mistake I carefully decided on a different line this time, unfortunately, it turned out to be just as deep(!) but the Wombat motored through with a victory wheel lift on the adjacent shore. Oh well, not much I could do about the water after the fact, other than try to fly and dry, well that is after tightening the exhaust nut, again! (Apparently, water acts as a loosening agent on that little bugger.) In fact I soon found myself flying a bit too quick a few times and getting some air to boot. On one particular flight my landing was rewarded with a particularly loud "clunk" and "tink" noise, which I later discovered was the lower exhaust bracket breaking off. After a bit of investigating I found that the exhaust hadn't fully settled and that I should have loosened the other two points after tightening the exhaust nut each time. Oh well, some lessons are learned the hard way.
When I finally reached the trailhead I was still grinning ear to ear and the Wombat seemed to be enjoying herself too. After ensuring we still had lights and that we didn't leave anything on the trail we were homeward bound. It wasn't until I hit the asphalt road that I noticed 5th gear + half throttle on a downhill slope only equaled 20 mph! At that math lesson I decided to pull over and see where I went wrong. I, in fact didn't, however, the inner speedo cable did and was strangely noticeable by the lower end of the speedo cable with nut swaying in the breeze and no inner bit to be seen. With the end secured back on the speedo drive and yet another thing added to the repair list I bee lined for home via the back roads. Noticing that the vibration of the bike made the speedo dance between 18 and 22 mph at speed.

On the final stretch, only 5 miles from home I encountered one heck of downpour, it lasted all of 5 minutes but by the time it was done I was soaked to the bone and my face was either numb or still tingling from the drops pelting me at well over the indicated 20ish mph. How come there's no such thing as fat or soft rain when you're riding a motorcycle?

When I did get home, I stopped the engine, closed her petcocks, took a few moments to step back and take a look at my Wombat and despite our adventures for the day and the trials I put her through, I remembered she never fussed or let me down in those 80 miles. Until that moment I realized that I never put much faith in my trusty, albeit small steed, and well that's the one less thing for the list.

Ooooooo, you had me holding my breath - wondering if the points got wet on the second stream crossing . . . or maybe going so deep that the engine sucked some water. I love it when a plan comes together!
Ed

Yep, that's a heckuva maiden voyage!! Nice!!!

Thanks Ed, honestly getting the points wet never came to mind but when the creek got deep I was also concerned that she'd suck in some water and die mid-crossing leaving me to get us across. Luckily, that didn't happen, I wasn't too keen on getting wet but as you read, mother nature made sure I got wet.

Matt, in hindsight it was a pretty good journey for a day but I just kept having fun and racking up the miles. Truth be told I did do more than 80 miles but the that's where it was at when the speedo cable came off.

The epilogue to my tale consisted of me taking the bike down to look for water intrusion. The front wheel bearings got a bit wet, the speedo drive and the cush hub bearing too oddly the rear wheel bearings were fi ne. I chose to heat the hubs up with a propane torch to get the water out for now. I'm going to source some sealed bearings in the near future since this will be my primary trail riding spot and water crossings happen. Ed, I did find about 1/4 cup of water in the mag cover so I left it off for a few days to dry and shot some grease into the zerks as a precaution too. If the gear box took in any water it must have evaporated as I never found and evidence of imulsified oil in there.

Hey Bevman, that, my friend, is what it's all about. I have a wombat and I'm here to tell you that that bike is just about as much fun as a guy can have on two wheels. Great piston port engine, tracking, stamina, and pulling power. You just cant beat it. One suggestion you might consider, noted elsewhere on the forum, pertains to the shift case. I've done it to all my Hodies and find it a valuable and easy preventative measure. Next time you have the shift case off the bike, remove the inner cover and completely pack the shift mechanism compartment with grease (I use Belray heavy waterproof grease but I'm sure any heavy grease will do) until level with the bottom of the inspection window. This maneuver will trap all the water, mud, sticks, leaves, rocks, debris, dog poop, etc. that gets rammed in there by the chain and keep it out of the shift mechanism. After a day of hard trailing, simply open her back up, skim the crud off the top, repack, replace, hit the shower, slather on some Ben-gay, get some rest, then get up and do it all over again. I highly recommend it for the type of gnarly off-roading you do.