Ahoyhoy,
I´m still in Campo Grande alas, no disrespect to the town. we are still waiting for an answer from the distributor about the parts so I guess I´m not gopinging anywhere soon and eating into the dwindling budget the whole time. Being stuck with nothing to do is my idea of purgatory but hay hoy, mustn´t grumble.
In Goiania I met Captain James Tiberius Kirk´s e-girlfriend doing a bit of modelling work for Kawasaki.
Anyway so I got up early in Goiania so I could get to Campo Grande in good time and was greated in the hotel´s garage by Sir Humphrey´s umpteenth flat rear tyre. The innertube leaked around the valve which is near impossible to patch but I tried and it held for 30mins when the whole valve separated from the inner tube, again. I am having fun! Magpaws couldn´t bear to look.
The only spare I had was the now twice patched chinese one tat was too big but in it went and it held. I worried intensly about having no spare but 4 towns later I found one and then relaed into a wonderful afternoon of music and riding through beautiful Brasil.
There are loads of these ant hills beside the roads around here and rather a lot of ants.
And then everything went wrong again. Sir Humphrey seemed to be strugglingso pulled over and was immersed in a cloud of white smoke. This is what I saw.
The rubber strip onto of the swing arm that protects it from the chain had come loose and melted on the exhaust manifold and somehow an massive error in group thinking had occured. Somehow in Goiania Hugo, Wuerker, myelf and others had discussed the state of the rear sproket and noted that the rear wheel adjuster was pretty far back but none of us even did the 2+2 sum let alone get 3. We never thought about the front sproket. Why not (question mark). It was as worn as you can see above i.e. massively and now it was slipping, heating and therefore damaging and stretching the chain. I AM A GARGANTUAN IDIOT! It amazes me even now how I could even have passed over such signs and ridden out of there but I did and I was now paying the price. I tensioned the chain as much as I could and gently went onwards. I stopped at a small Honda dealer but they couldn´t help despite trying.
I stayed here overnight as it was already dark and I could see a repeat of Jean´s misadventure befalling us i.e. stranded with a snapped chain. Next morning I left early to try and make Campo Grande, a big town hopefully with some good bike mechanics and dealer parts gatherers. I made it 30miles before the chain started to slip badly. I rested Sir Humphrey and then managed another 20miles but the front sproket could no longer grip the chain and we were going nowhere. I coasted to a roadside police station and asked for some help.
I found a wonderful group of Rozzers, some very concerned with a Bee Gees coma but keen to help.
In 30mins a recover truck arrived and the worst sight I have seen yet on all my travells befell my eyes.
The driver, Chico - who was not, took me to Campo Grande´s Suzuki dealer for some reason and charged me 200 reals but better than being stuck at the side of the road I guess. Here I met a transport agency inspect called Killy (on left) who I befriended and who helped with translation.
The mechanic made a valliant effort to replace the front sproket by welding a new sproket that didn´t fit the drive shaft to the middle of my old sproket which obviously did. A beautiful job was done ecept noone checked if it fitted. It did not.
I was glad at the time it didn´t fit because the chief then announced by Tuesday a new front and rear sproket and a new chain would arrive and I´d be on my way. A better solution all round. Killy collected me and my stuff and I hung out with him, including driving his car when he collected his work bike from another mechanic, until he finished work and found me a cheap as possible hotel. I watched Thor and slept well.
Yesterday was Sunday and I walked for 5 miles trying to find an internet cafe so I could finish the blog and speak to Sam (who I am missing more and more) but alas I found nothing. Later Killy called and took me and a friend of his out to a dinner of beef and chat. Killy is also a part time philosophy teacher and enjoyed my ´Britian is a post-collonial power with little real power´ point, not what he expected to hear I think.
Now, Monday, I have borrowed a laptop in the Suzuki dealer where there is still no news back from the distibutor about the parts Sir Humphrey needs. I could be here a while. The rest has helped my back which I am afraid has returned to its old malign ways giving me barely 30 mins of pain free riding.
I´ll let you know the score when I do and when I can get near a computer.
TTFN,
A bit of a blue Tigger
Make A Comment
Comments (2)
Kevin