Wagga Wagga

Well, the day started well enough; hot and sunny. Even Nadine conceded that her thermals were  and consigned them to her bag. That’s the first time since the Kazakh desert  I think. 

We were up and out early, went into Albury, met Rob the postie who took our pics, but then on after, things started to go a bit pear shaped. 

My clutch started mucking about again. It was OK for a few miles but then fourth gear and third gear made no difference. I adjusted it again at Culcairn, by the roadside, and that repair was good for a few more kms, but it was obvious that it wasn’t going to last, and it didn’t, dumping oil instead.

By the time we reached Wagga Wagga, I was limping badly with the engine stuck in one gear  and had to assist it along with my feet each time I stopped at lights. And fully loaded, in full motorcycle kit in 37 degrees celcius, that was not fun.

But like they always do, things turned out OK. There was a Honda motorcycle dealer in Wagga who was happy to take a look, despite already having a full workload, and the nice people in the plant nursery next door let us use their tables and chairs ( which were for sale) to eat our lunch on. 

But after a few hours, it was good to go. The metal clutch plates were glazed, which is what we suspected and why the adjustments made no lasting difference ( eg they’d worn smooth and so would not grip the fibre discs) so the mechanic roughed them up so they could grip, and I was good to go.  But rather than risk being marooned in the middle of nowhere at the end of the day, we stayed in Wagga for the night - in a suburb called Gumly Gumly. What a great name.

I think I will get some replacement plates and carry them as its bound to happen again again, and at least it means that all I need is a mechanic to change them, and wont have to wait for parts. That’s what Nadine and I did on our trip to Mongolia, and buying a new clutch unit in Turkey proved to be a wise decision as going eastwards from there meant we were moving towards terra no spare partica. And we did need them.

In general, the bikes are running fine, although its quite obvious that the pre trip service that the mechanic allegedly did on all of them, wasn’t done properly, and that clearly wasn’t checked when the bikes were returned. Unfortunately,  there was no time for any of us to go over them either, but that is just the way things go sometimes. Evenso, I doubt  that we would have picked up clutch problems because evenso, on the short rides that we managed, we were riding unladen which of course would not have replicated the conditions we are riding in now.

Were I to allow somebody else to spec a bike for me again, there would be a couple of things that I would make sure they checked; the clutch, the electrics and the wiring, the latter more for chafing and break points, which are mush easier to protect before leaving, than fix on the road. To be fair, so far, the electrics have worked fine but the wiring is a bit of a state. The cables are very tight, having been replaced or re routed by somebody and have been cut quite short, which makes things a bit awkward and doesn’t allow much flexibility. But as mentioned before, I will be stripping it all down over Christmas anyway, so that is now on the job list.