Norway- freezing bike washing
Today was a crash-out day, which meant having a lie in, followed by checking the bikers over, charging up the laptop and washing smelly socks, which had begun to show signs of early life!
One of the oddest things we’ve done so far was to wash the bikes down – not strange in itself but when you consider our latitude and longitude it puts the "weirdness" into context. The campsite has a hose specifically for washing vehicles, so we took advantage. We wondered whether we could claim to be at Europe’s highest bike wash facilities?
There was more of a reason than just aesthetics for washing both bikes – there is still such a lot of salt on the roads, that when it rains (which has been most of the time!) all the muck and stickiness from the roads sticks to you and the bike. Good reason to clear it off properly and then to polish and grease (WD40) both bikes so that in future there will be a layer of oil between the ‘crud’ and the bike – the grease will also ensure that the muck stays on the bikes as we want them to start to look as dirty as possible so they don’t attract too much attention for our trip through Russia.
Lisa writes:
Its so freezing cold that I do everything possible to avoid washing my bike, but Simon's hard at it, washing and polishing his. However, when he was finished and it came to start, the drama really began.
His big red R1100GS wouldn’t start. So, he tried again. Nothing! He fiddled with a few things. Still nothing. He started to get angry. I asked him did he need any help? He replied gruffly ‘ why? What do you think you could do that I already haven’t! It’s just not starting!’
So, I waited and watched. He’s getting more and more upset as its still not starting. He thinks he may have got water in ‘somewhere’ and this thought frustrates him further.
Finally not being able to stand it any longer (although it was funny) I say, “perhaps I can help as I have an idea as to why it’s not starting”. He says “OK smart-ass...what do you think you know that I haven’t already tried!?”
I walked over as casually as i could and simply pointed to the vast 42-litre (10 gallon) and normally un-missable fuel tank for the bike that he’d earlier disconnected, but was now still lying on its side on the ground and said “don’t you need this on the bike?”
Simon's moth just dropped, luckily he was able to see the funny side of it, as we both fell about in hysterics. I've not laughed that hard, even at Simon, for year. I love him but sometimes he's as dumb as he is pretty.
OK, so now that's over there are other activities such as sleeping, eating and stopping freezing to death are also a high priority!
Talk to you tomorrow.
