The biking saga continues

Now that I'm officially off the market, romantic as it were, I don't seem to get the time to post in my blog. Even more important is that I don't really worry about it as much. There is a different outlet for most emotions.

I digress. The reason for this post is my biking experience (See My new wheels are on the way.

I can't beleive that anyone in their right mind would start selling this junk. It's like a 4 year old monkey with the skakes put it together. Sure, it's fun to ride and really looks good, but hell. Problems so far, in no particular order:

• Starter solenoid dead


• Indicator relay dead


• Battery charger dead


• Break light switch snapped in half


• Fuel leak at carburettor


• Dead battery


• Failure of the 4 bolts that hold the sprocket to the rear wheel (not fun when trying to overtake - whoops, no power to the wheels)


• Ignition failure - it just fell apart


• Exhaust pipe weld failure (pretty sparks at 90 km/h)


• Pushrod failure (hey, at 2700 km?)


• 3rd neck bearing failure (not fun in traffic when the stearing locks because of a smashed bearing


• For some reason all the light bulbs in the bike have also failed. Main headlamp and sidelamps are inoperative at the moment.

Admittedly, the importers are quite friendly and have extended every curtesy, however, no amount of friendliness and willingness to please will make up for this amount of aggrevation. In the first 6 months that I owned the bike I had the bike in a working condition for maybe 2 months - most of that time it was in the shop.

Because of this bike I narrowly escaped 3 accidents. Maybe more since the tail light and main lamp went out a number of times for no apparent reason. The first two almost occurred when I had to wrestle for control when the steering locked in peak hour traffic. The first time I could literaly hear one of the bearing crack when I yanked the steering to the center.

My lovely Ice-bitch

On another front, the only real problem with my gorgeous car is the left front central locking unit. It's been somewhat erratic for a while now, but I just couldn't get myself to fork out two and a half grand for a new one. The best price I found recently for a new unit is R 1500. Not too bad. Second hand from the scrap yard is bout R 800.

Still, aside from that she is a pleasure. We recently spent a weekend hiking at Kaapsehoop neer Nelspruit. The first day was a 14.5 km hike from Barrets coaches to Kaapsehoop hut. We ended up leaving camp at 12 because two of our companions could not get themselves out of bed. A rushed hike it was, but spectacular nonetheless. Of course the Ice-bitch was there two escourt us to the pub in comfort afterwards. Only one complaint... Apparently the previous owner dropped the suspension slightly so the poor girl made seriously unpleasant contact with the ground on more than one occation.

Anyway, back to work...