Yeah,
i know it's quite a chunk of time, but day by
day would be both painful for me to write and
for you to read. Needless to say we had a roller
coaster of a ride in every sense and we're now
almost prepped to head over to Japan and start
the Asian leg of our journey. Here's a brief recap.
We'd
left Xpu-ha beach and headed North hoping to make
the USA border in 4-days, we were looking good
for it too until it all started going sour.
My
clutch had been slipping on the 1100 and I'd
been keeping everything crossed, hoping I could
make it back to California, where we'd planned
on taking the bikes for the over-haul, courtesy
of BMW Motorrad USA.
Things were getting getting worse by the day and
it was now impossible to even accelerate. Lisa's
rear sprocket had desegregated on day two of our
ride North. I don't use the world lightly, check
out the picture. We'd pushed her bike to the side
of the road, I'd taken off the rear sprocket and
and then spent two hours filing it with a small
curved file. We then turned the sprocket around
and hoped that the chain could at snag a few of
what used to be teeth. With luck and some pretty
skilful throttle control form Lisa, we limped
another 52-miles to just outside a small town
called Zapata. We weren't going any further.
We'd
managed to pull in to a gas station, with a pay-by-the-hour,
set of 4-rooms. We ended up being here for 3 nights.
I rode 100 mileseach way to Villahermosa to buy
a sprocket for Lisa, which when we sized it up
didn't fit, it was to thick, that led to 8 separate
trips into Emiliio Zapata to a metal worker who
ended up making a sprocket from scratch using
the new sprocket as a template. He cut the teeth
and welded a inner piece of metal so that the
holes would line up to mount it onto the wheel.
I went back 8 times so he could shave fractions
of a millimeter off with each visit. Eventually
it fitted.
With
the sprocket on we limped into Villahermosa and
eventually found a chain that would do, Lisa existing
one was already separating.
Two
day slater and we were making slow going. My clutch
was about to give out and on one particularly
unimpressive hill, it went completely. No matter
gentle i was on the throttle it wouldn't hold.
At
the side of the road I managed to get access to
the clutch by taking off the starter motor and
then undid each of the 8 clutch bolts, which allowed
me to remove the spacers that I'd fitted with
the Touratech ceramic clutch 6-years ago. I was
hoping, if memory serves (and i wasn't sure) that
removing the spacers would decrease the plate
distance and give me a working clutch again. 2-hours
later and I'd sorted it. The clutch bit straight
away and we could at last last pick up our speed
and make up some miles. The gale force wind was
to a stop to that idea. Wow, it was strong.
We
crossed back into the USA at a small border to
the west of Brownsville, we'd been worried silly
that we'd have the same problems as last time
and were prepped for a battle. It didn't happen,
no problems, no worries and we didn't even have
to get off the bikes.
We
weren't out of the wood just yet. Pulling into
a lay by to use the toilet we relaxed prematurely.
As we pulled out on the on-ramp, lisa's bike simply
ran out of steam and stopped. Behind her, her
recently purchased chain lay broken and split
on the ground. an Hour later and there was no
sign of the split-link. Shit, shit...shit!!!
OK,
deep breath! I ended up riding another 70-miles
into a small town, found friends with a pick-up
and joined them on a drive back out to Lisa, who
we them loaded onto the flatbed. Back in town
our new friends called the sheriff who pitched
up a few hours later with friends and each of
them had a split pin and we ended up with two
used chains.
What's
the expression."bikers help bikers'. Four
days later and we'd made it all the way across
the country and were back with Amie and Issa,
in Oakland. We were exhausted but glad to be back.
The
next few months were manic to say the least. We'd
dropped off the bikes with Calmoto in Mountain
view. 2 weeks later and with the bikes stripped
we had our diagnosis. Both bikes were in need
of a ton of work,
3-weeks
later again, and we had a plan and it was going
to take some work. With the estimated cost of
repair it was going to be cheaper and faster to
purchase some donor bikes and use the parts for
the repair.
BMW
Motorrad USA were true to their word and with
their generous support we found and bought two
bikes. I'd found a 2002' 1150 GSA in Missouri
with 54 k on the motor and Lisa a 2005 twin spark
F650GS with only 12K, practically a new bike.
Time was against us, we'd already booked and paid
for the visa, and shipping for Russia, Mongolia
and the Stans'. I'd flown to Missouri on the Friday,
picked up the bike on Saturday morning from 'Grass
Roots BMW' and ridden 2,300 miles back to San
Fran' in 2 1/2 days. It's been a while since I'd
done stupid miles. On day two of the ride back,
I'd managed 1,300 miles in 17-hours.
Issa,
had flown out to Phoenix on the Saturday on Lisa's
behalf, picked up the 650 and ridden it back.
We'd arrived back within 5-minutes of each.
Over
the next few weeks, Calmoto swapped parts from
Machine to machine. We, had other commitments.
were we now over a month behind and without bikes.
We'd agreed to run 5 last presentation from LA
up to Seattle, we'd originally thought we'd have
the bikes and would be passing these dealers so
why not. Now, we had to hire a car which set us
back $600 and drive to the lot. Our last show
was in Fife with Brendan at South Sound BMW on
the 30th May. It seemed crazy that we now had
to drive all the way back to San Francisco, hope
the bikes were ready and ride all the way back
up through 3 states.
Back
at Calmoto we spent the next 2 weeks working with
Brad, Tod and Shaun to get the bikes in running
order. Mid June and we could do no more, we'd
hope to get some paint on them, but we couldn't
leave heading North any longer. It was tough to
say goodbye to Amie and Issa, who put up with
us for so looooonnngggg! It'll be years before
we see them again. That is unless we can talk
Issa into getting off his ass and meeting us in
the Far East with his bike :-) Hint, hint!
In
Seattle we settled into a schedule, staying again
with Greg and Mare. We'd start on the fiddly silly
jobs on the bikes at 7:00am and finish at 1, 2
or 3 the following morning. Work, modifications
and alterations that had taken us 7-years, now
had to be replicated in just weeks. You know how
it goes, change 'one 'little' thing and you have
to change half a dozen others, just because. It
went on and on.
On
Brendons advice we got in touch with Russ Foy
at Custom Classic Paint Works. Russ had offered
us his expertise and help. We'd spent 4-days stripping,
rubbing, sanding and prepping the bikes it was
now time to spray. Russ did an incredible job
and three layers of lacquer are going to help
fend off whatever the rest of the world can throw
at them.
With
all this we also needed get the bikes sorted and
crated and ready to send to the airport. We'd
have had a tough if it weren't for Brendon and
the help of South Sound BMW. Brendon had offered
his support months back and true to his word he
came through in a big way.
3-days
before our fly out date we rode the bikes up to
Fife. We were of course late. We'd told Brendon
we'd be there by mid-day, it was gone 4:00pm when
we evetually showed up. Without fuss or drama,
Brendon had both bikes up on the ramps and new
tyres being installed. With Lisa's rubber going
on we began to strip the 1100GS ready for crating.
South Sound also supplied us two BMW Motorrad
crates. The front instrument fairing and screen
had to come off along with the recently fitted
Touratech IMO computer. Off came the panniers,
the front beak extender and hand gaurds. Dropping
the hadlebars all the way down was also essential.
By the time we'd finished, the bikes looked a
bit sorry for itself. Brendon pulled out the crates,
nailed them together and brought out the hoist.
The only way these bikes fit, is if you remove
the front wheel and compress the suspension front
and back. Brendon was in full swing, it was all
i could do just to keep up. With the 1100GS sitting
pretty we knew that we were'nt going to get both
bikes crated on the same day.
The
following morning and with Greg again following
us up in his truck we headed back up to SOuth
Sound BMW, and started to tear down Lisa F650,
repeating the procedure as we'd done for the 1100.
We got it crated in the nick of time. The transport
truck that we'd employed to take them to the aiport
tuned up at 2:00pm. We finshed at 1:50pm. Brendon
your a bloody star!!!
So
to Brendon and South Sound BMW we awe a huge debt
of thanks. As much for the laughs and the friendship
as the commercial support. See you again someday.
Thanks guy's!!!
