Mechanico Tigger

Ahoyhoy or HolaHola mas amigos,

Come on! Really no suggestions for the name for a guinea pig from Pasto, Columbia? All I can think of is Roastie and that sucks.

This will probably be a bit of a `boy`s own´ blog entry today; sorry.

I woke so stiff from my night´s kip on the floor with my thermarest and sleeping bag I stuggled to get to my feet but after a few stretches all was well. I hopped into my biking trousers and went downstairs to get a tinkering.

Good news is that I´m no longer constipated. I didn´t know one could do a foot long pooh. Alas there is bad news too. Max`s wife has had a car accident so scrub dinner and I´m going to his house to see if I can help. I wouldn´t be surprised if this is a frequent occurance in Caracas for even the best driver. Meanwhile its been a frantic day to tinkering in Max`s good friend and now mine Genzy`s garage. He is a mechanic and thanks to his tools I´ve managed to get loads done.

Genzy and Max are absolute stars are I am so lucky to have met them. I would like to say I´ve done everything myself but one of Genzy`s workers welded the broken bit of centre stand back together using my idea of splinting it internally with part of an allen key. I do`´t know how to weld and this was a non-essential job so I think my unsupported vow still holds, no?

Next, having realised that I didn´t need to change the rear brake pads I took the opportunity to try to sort once and for all the tank/crash bar/fuel line problem. I can´t go on with the fear of one topple over ruining the trip by fracturing the fuel tank. The plan was to drill a new hole to mount properly the spare pannier flange I´d been using and grind away the bit of the bracket that was fouling the crossover fuel line and valve. I even polished it to a nice finish. Very satisfying.

Having felt chuffed at my manufacturing ot should I say butchering of the aluminium bracket it took anothe rhour to get it all mounted and bolted back in but I am pleased with the result - good mounts for the crash bar and in the event of another crash the force should be nicely transmitted through the crash bar to the chassis and not the fuel tank, valve or fuel pipe.

After a quick lunch I fixed the number plate that had become warped I think by the very hot engine´s exhaust gases when he got a bit warm in Caracas traffic yesterday and all was done. I was done in and in a lot of pain from by chest and neck but I was satisfyingly mucky.

So much for seeing more of Caracas but I hear I´m not missing too much. Thanks to Genzy & his team and Max & his family for making Caracas a great place for me. Genzy also tells me that the grand savana in south-east Venezuela is very beautiful and I ride straight through the middle of it. Excellent!

Soon after this Sir Humphrey Bikelby was very proud to be admitted to and marked as a member of the Zapegato Motorcycle Club, Caracas:

What I think and hope will be the last really difficult part of the trip is Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana and crossing the Amazon is coming up in a few days time once I´ve finished traversing Venezuela. I hope I´m up to it.

TTFN,

Senor Cris Tiggeros