Starter.
June 18, 2008
Aaah, a beautiful day at last, sunny after many days of rain and dark skies, a good omen!
I do my daily excercises and waddle down to the local internet cafe to check the online tracking my starter motor.
Status: Out for Delivery
Fuck yeah! About time, it should have arrived days ago, but yours truly typed a 5 instead of a 6 in the postcode of the campsite he’s staying at while ordering the new starter motor, and this delayed matters somewhat.
I buy my measely €4 worth of groceries and try to force myself not to run back to the camp site, instead maintaining an easy saunter.
“Hi.. Any post?”
“Ah! Yes!”
Woohoo! I run over to my bike and tear off my old starter motor and oh-so-carefully fit the new one.
Right, moment of truth… Key in, turned…
*Pushes start button*
*click*
AAAGH.. Bugger… Oh well, it’s probably just a flat battery.
So I wheel the bike over to the start of the hill that leads conveniently into the campsite and push the blasted thing up it.
Sweating profusely I get to the top, wheel it round, leap on and whoosh, starts first time!
I sit it by the side of my tent and give it a bit of time to charge up the battery.
Flicking through the Oddyssey I decide it’s probably best if the revs are above idle, and grab my mole wrench to jury-rig the throttle open.
I pull back the throttle *PHUT WHIRR BANG*, a huge black cloud of smoke issues forth from the exhaust and the bike stalls.
“Hmm.. that’s not cool”
I tentatively try the start button again, still clicking.
“45 minutes was enough to charge it anyway I’d have thought… must be the relay..”
Where was that relay again?
In the process of wrecking the bike I discover that the airbox had a certain amount of oil in it, a gobbet of which probably got sucked in and caused the earlier stall, apparently this can be due to overfilling the oil (which I may well have done).
I eventually pull out what I assume to be the relay, as it’s situated between the battery positive and the starter.
Proudly I present my trophy to the local mechanic who sets about it with a battery and a multimeter.
“Si, working”
Eh? So wtf is wrong?
I retire to the internet cafe and learn a number of things.
1) I just tested the solenoid
2) The location of the relay
3) 45 minutes at idle probably isn’t enough to recharge the battery.
So once I leave this internet Cafe I need to get back to the bike, reassemble it, bump start it again and leave it running for a few hours.
Fingers crossed eh?
Happy Birthday to me!
June 20, 2008
Yup, highly egocentric this post, for today I am 22, the first “uncool” birthday! Next stop 30!
My attempts to repair my bike myself have been utterly thwarted.
A full charge and even a jump start were insufficient to get it moving, though a bump start worked no problem.
A few days ago I had an amazing stroke of luck.
Quite out of the blue a chap called Guido messaged me on CouchSurfing.com and offered me a place to stay if I was in the area, and where should his area be but 15 miles down the road!
I jumped at the chance, and despite my crippled bike, I pushed it painfully slowly up a hill and bump started it down, hastily packed my gear onto it and set off for Salo, praying it wouldn’t stall.
Stall? No, it belched black smoke and died.
I was left to walk the 8km on foot in 30 degree sun and full leathers to the nearest bus station to complete my journey.
Given time to mull my situation over, I decided I’d had enough.
My bike has been held together with bootlaces, luck and duct tape for too long, it’s time to get my issues sorted once and for all.
So I’m getting BMW to sort out everything, fork seals, black smoke, all the little niggles that have been bugging me and then some.
Unfortunately after ringing up the nearest BMW Motorrad (which was pleasingly close by) it turns out that all my local BMWs are booked up years in advance.
So where shall I take it?
Germany!
I’ve pre booked a rental van and I’m taking it to Munich on Tuesday.
In return I’m getting a courtesy bike which I’m going to ride around with great pleasure (it’ll be nice not to have to worry about my bike falling apart for a change!)
The above solution represents a days work, head bashing, bad translation and frustration that I won’t bore you with, so back to last night!
Once I’d arrived at the bus station I discovered the next bus wasn’t until 2 hours after I’d agreed to meet my host for the evening.
A quick email to warn him and hope he didn’t mind and I sat down to wait.
After the picturesque bus ride down the west side of the lake I turned up in Salo and headed for Guido’s house.
Amazingly it was pretty easy to find, I’d been geared up for wandering the streets of Salo for hours and forlornly ringing him at 10pm asking how to find him!
I rang on the door, waited… Rang a second time… No answer.
Err.. fuck…
As I hung about the gate not really knowing what to do a lady and her son approached the gate.
“Ciao”
“Ciao!”
“You… are waiting for Guido?” (not goddo)
“Si!… Err.. Dove?”
“I don’t know, but would you like to wait in my house?”
“That would be great, thank you so much!”
I didn’t stay long in her house, just enough time for a shower in fact (which I was in very obvious need of and was offered as soon as I stepped over the threshold), before Guido turned up with his other guests.
“Sam! Hello! We have been waiting for you at the bus stop!”
“Really? I’m so sorry, I must have missed you!”
“No matter, let’s go to mine and eat!”
Some time, some carbonora and some red wine later we went strolling along the sea front under the light of a full yellow moon and an artfully lit boardwalk over the crystal clear waters of the lake, beneath which you could see salmon flitting in shoals of untold magnitude.
Guido gave me and the couple staying with him the historical background of Salo and treated us to ice cream from the much touted local gelato joint.
And the next day? Well, although it’s been my birthday, not much of note has happened, so… Though I should like to leave you with some photos, I decided not to lug my DSLR from my bike, so I shall have to merely bid you Arrivederci for the moment!