Weeks on my knees
My little euro trip came to a sudden spontaneous end when the ‘snatching’ chain grabbed my attention … in deepest Bosnia. In desperation I found some chainsaw oil but it was too little too late.
I slept on the problem in Sarajevo and in the morning, upon another inspection, decided the chain needed replacing… last winter. It was Friday May 1st the beginning of a 3-day weekend. Nothing was open. I really didn’t feel confident in going forward towards Slovenia with this timebomb driving the back wheel. Plus the Balkans were having an uncharacteristic cold snap, I’d already ridden through snow in Montenegro. So I rode the 800 kms back home, slowly, which was frustrating, and coldly as I’d decide against bringing my heated jacket. At the halfway point in Serbia I considered stopping for the night but still after over a decade living in a country I can access independently (no ferry, plane or channel tunnel) I went on, and 12 hours later the chain had held together and got me home. It took me two days to warm up, even mowing produced a sweat but failed to heat my cold inner core.
Incidentally I’d been riding with a mate whose bike (a 955 Sprint) had been stored at mine for the last 7 years, I’d changed the tyres and battery, but was still concerned for its mechanical ability after such a long period of neglect. He did 2000 miles back to the UK and sold it. I said ‘Do you know how lucky you were: you took a bike that had been stored for 7 years, 2000 miles across 10 countries, with incorrect documentation, didn’t get stopped, the bike didn’t miss a beat, you got an MOT on it with no work needed, not even an advisory, and then looking through the documentation saw he paid £1500 for it and put on FB market place for the same price, a guy walked round to see it, carrying a lid, didn’t haggle, paid cash and rode off, no tyre kicking time wasters, not even eBay fees and he sold his jacket for a tenner too. I didn’t fare quite so well.
So I ordered new tyres, oil, filter, chain and sprockets for my Scrambler, the bike needed a bit of love. Annoying the big posh gold X ring chain was two links too short and so finally, 3 weeks after the return and on another holiday weekend it’s ready to resume the journey.
However, those 3 weeks were not spent twiddling thumbs, oh to have time for a twiddle. Oh no, in between winning the Eurovision Song contest, hosting the Giro d’Italia and having 7.6% inflation last month alone, Bulgarian had something else in store for me.
There was a bit of a house crisis. Long story short we have a tiled terrace which is the roof of the walkout basement. It’s been a problem for a while, should have delt with it last year but instead I rode off on my bike to Tajikistan, (more about that later).
All the tiles had lifted and it turned out when I investigated the reason was, they were laid on roofing felt! This is the standard WTF reaction to anything and everything in this house when it comes to maintenance: electrics, plumbing, drainage, heating, every aspect of construction and repair. When we bought it, the sanctimonious seller said ‘it’s not a house it’s a lifestyle’ and that lifestyle has been three and a half years of fixing the fucked up and bodged. This felt surface has expanded and contracted with the brutal heat and intense winters, the grout had cracked and water had penetrated right through. As the felt was pulled off more atrocities were uncovered, and the concrete was compromised. So, and this is the short version, I had to put down a new membrane, (very expensive) and clean 30 square metres of tiles before relaying, plus lots broke and a pattern had to be devised as there was no way to match them. This has been 3 weeks of intense work.
Trying to apply some kind of zen to the process it was, if not a pleasurable experience, at least a somewhat rewarding one. Its one of those house improvements that ,once complete doesn’t look much difference to, so there’ll be no compliments of awe from visitors who knew how it was before.
Now you know how a smell can evoke a memory? Well, while I was cutting tiles and cementing with the sun on me, I kept thinking of Mexico. I used to winter in a little surfer cove on the west coast, you may have read about it in Different Natures or heard about it on the free audio book from this site. Anyway as a regular resident there, I helped out a bit, they had a little outside shower block by the pool, and in it was a wash basin, I don’t recall it issue, the point is I offered to tile around it. So there I was cutting tiles, cementing and grouting in the Pacific sunshine and that smell of the tile dust as I cut on the terrace in Bulgaria took me right back there, so it wasn’t all bad.
I’ve done an OK job and as my increasingly lap top orientated body regained some forma stamina, the 6 hours days on my knees turned to 10 hours days but man do I ache now. Anyway we have a very wet weekend forecast so that’s the end of that.
Annoyingly today (Sunday) is the Sofia custom show, the deadline of the winter rebuild of the Harley. The bike is all done, and has been for a month. There have been a couple of shake down runs, the first to the fuel station. As I pulled into the forecourt, I went for the back brake lever and it wasn’t there, well it was but the bolt holding it to the master cylinder plunger had come out, annoying at it was a beautifully polished brass dome nut. Anyway I didn’t stop, the lever was dangling, lucky I hadn’t lent around right hander.
The next test ride was a 50 km circuit of back road Bulgarian villages and about half way through I blew out a baffle, so it was coughing, back firing and generally being an obnoxious noisy bastard. The push rod seals leaked a little and the clutch is a bit stiff but that’s normal, other than that it’s ready to ride. Now I’m not opposed to riding in the rain but after 4 months of aluminium polishing I’m buggered if my first proper ride is going to be 3 hours of highway in pissing rain to display it, no way. I want to shine a little longer.
Incidentally one of the modifications I wanted to do this rebuild was to relocate the oil pressure gauge from its obscured location by the oil pump behind the exhaust and make it clearly visible on the dash. This meant making a new dash, there were a lot of cardboard stencils made but I now have a heart shaped dash. My rationale being, the oil pump is the heart of the engine distributing the life blood (oil) around the engine, the gauge is the indicator the heart is beating so in the centre of the heart the gauge now sits.
I had a grand plan, go to the show, stay in the city and see Iron Maiden on Tuesday, but just like living in the UK the weather has put a dampener on outside shows and concerts. So right now the bike is little more that the subject of my photo shoots and wall paper on my lap top.
I’m not that worried, this has been happening for the last 30 years: every time I rebuild it, as the bike becomes a thing of beauty I find myself thinking, I’m gonna contact all the custom mags, I’m gonna take it to the shows, then upon completion something happens and my mindset changes to, this is personal, this is for me, I don’t want to share it. It’s not a competition, it’s just completion and the satisfaction is mine alone, not be to judged. To some degree that is the reason for the recent silence, I just felt like being private for a while, no need to share my dinner, tiling chores, or even my cut short euro trip…that is ‘til now.
