Wheels of woe... At least I have my wine.

The biker boy emerges

It's been a while since I last posted. So my wheels were on their way last time I posted. Here the update.

Yup, I got the bike, and it's great! I've been all over the place and managed to rack up over 1000 km in the 3 weeks that I had access to the bike. Fuel consumptions is amazing! I get about 35 km/l (hey, the world operates in metric metric - get with the times), in the heaviest of traffic, which is about 3 times better than my car on a good day. And of course, it turns heads. No matter where I go people stop to have a look at my bike.

Of course, the bike is a cheap Chinese import. Yeah, you guessed it. I lost a headlight (one of the three), my brake light, the electronics failed, and my clutch level failed. Best of all, one day I cruised to the local Suzuki dealer (the most convenient spares - yeah, I need spares already), and was informed by one of the onlookers (coincidentally a Suzuki reseller and previous Vista owner) that one of my engine mountings is gone. Lo and behold, there it was, dangling from a piece of rubber on the other side.

Fortunately warranty covers it, so no worries there. Here the woes start though...

No one can be a small time biker without company, so my buddy also acquired a set of wheels. It so happens that his car was in for repairs and was driving around with a rental. He asked me to take his bike in for a service. Traffic was not too heavy and it was moving along steadily when the BMW in front of me decided to make an emergency stop. I wasn't cruising along very fast, as the traffic wasn't moving very quickly, but I did manage a good following distance. Unfortunately, Vista vs ABS brakes - no contest. A speed bike may have callipers and disks up for the challenge, but not this bike. Straight into the back of the Beamer I went. Fortunately the bike wasn't damaged much as I broke its fall. Remarkably I walked away unscathed, albeit, somewhat shaken. I still have no idea why the other driver stopped so suddenly. There were no cars ahead and the light (still quite far away) was green. wtf???

My lovely car - Ice bitch

Remember a couple of posts back (never mind)... A couple of months ago I experienced the common Golf 4 window crashing into the door (due to a disgrace to man kind let alone engineering window mechanism) problem. It happened again in November, except this time the left front windows. This time though one of the little plastic clips that hold the window onto the rail shattered completely. The dangling cables were then pulled into the motor, and were subsequently chewed up by the gears. The cheapest replacement I could find was a R 1000 replacement panel with rails and aluminium clips. Unfortunately no one seemed to have the panel for the left door. Go figure. Fortunately the motor and gears weren't seriously damaged. I had some cables made up and bought a set of clips and repaired the whole thing. What a mission.

I want a new car, something that doesn't break if you look at it the wrong way. I swear, it is like a high strung female. In hindsight, Ice bitch is a very appropriate name for her...

Online dating

I know, I know... I'm just as shallow as the rest of them, but I couldn't resist. I saw the datingsite (one of the most popular in SA) open on a friends PC. A vision of beauty was staring shyly at me. That was that. Now the site is starting to annoy me. It is taking so much time, and of course as soon as I make headway with a girl I get bored and end it. What's wrong with me, don't I want a relationship? Don't I want to experience all that being in love has to offer? Apparently not... Maybe a girl friend (or as a friend of mine calls them, friend girl, meaning a girl that is only a friend) with benefits would better suit me. I don't know - then I'd probably get attached and ruin my whole bachelor existence. It's just so great to be single, I don't know how to give it up. What's so great about relationships?

At the moment I'm entertaining four ladies online and they seem to have taken a liking to me. Yup, only four. I couldn't handle so many anymore, so I pruned the list a bit. Actually, I think the only reason we're conversing is because they mailed me first. Initially when I started on the site I was very active chatting with so many ladies that I started forgetting their names and getting mixed up with who does what. Now, only four, and I have to admit, I'm not really putting much effort into it.

I give up. Where is the girl who will break though my inpenetrable barrier? Does she exists? I have no idea. At least I'm safe for another day... Bring on the wine.