Big Fat Flat

Ooooooh, big fat flat tire!

To continue on with our lovely country Sunday drive..

Once we decided to start heading back to Adelaide, only moments after making the turn the bike was out of control.  Back end was all over the place.  Even then I thought, wow this road doesn't look much worse than the rest, I wonder why I am having trouble controlling the bike?  Then I slowed down.. still happening and even slower... seemed like the back end was doing a dance and didn't invite me!!

So I stopped... Sam turned back to find out why I stopped.

Being a brand new bike and brand new tires.... I hadn't got to my safety mode yet to say that I should be carrying spare tubes and fix-it stuff.

So, Sam the Savior rode 36 kms to the next town to track down the fix-a-flat spray.  He came back with 2 cans as he says " just in case one of them didn't work".  Smart man!!  Because the first on didn't work!!!!  Can you believe it?  Have a look at the thing we pulled out of my tire!

But the second one did. I was a bit apprehensive to drive on a tire pumped up by a spray can, but that's what the directions say to do so that it spreads around inside the tire.

I got about 1k down the road and off that bike went into dancing mode again!

This time we pulled over and I called the RAA.  (from the top of a hill, as there was mobile reception there..)  The lady couldn't work out where we were, she wasn't getting the streets names in their system. So she determined I was a special needs case - Ha!!  Fair enough!  And she had me contact a towing company direct.  So gave him directions and he called back "Can't find it!  Road is not on my map!"  Urgh!

No worries - Sam the Savior went into town and drove the truck and crew back to me.

Felt very very guilty to have Sam running around to take care of these things.. In the meantime,  and since there was nothing more I could do, I got to hang out and enjoyed a most wonderful summer breeze through the bush.  Many many kangaroos all around.  I laid on the dirt and got some much needed knee exercises done required from my surgery last Tuesday... watched the clouds pass by, played with the ants, emailed the tax accountant in America from my iphone.. you know the important things!!

Eventually I got towed back to town... and then back home to Hallett Cove around 8:30 Sunday night.  (Drama started around 11:30 AM)

Great great experience for me.. Haven't had a flat tire of any sort for many years and never had one on a motorcycle.  I learned a lot, and can see how important it is to be prepared with water, tools and credit card.....  ;-)

Onto The Dirt Roads

Nice day for Sunday country drive...

Training day with the help of a very experienced rider Sam.  And what a great teacher he is!!!  Intention was to learn how to handle the bike better on dirt roads, since I will be facing a fair few of them over the year or so..

Learning how to correct the bike as it swings around on the slippery gravel.. and how best to balance and distribute my weight.

I enjoyed it more than I expected and have to say that after yesterday I think I like riding on gravel roads better than bitumen!

Probably shouldn't say that too quickly.  But more training to come with Sam, and more intense next time..  so - stay tuned!!

p.s.  Sam rides a BMW 650 Dakar.

Body Repair Shop

Went to the Knee Repair Shop yesterday... had surgery on my left knee to repair a torn medial miniscus..!

I suppose I better get used to repair shops!  Hopefully only for my motorcycle from here on in... As my Dad says, old age is a bitch! Well I'm not old, but I felt like it when I was hobbling around with wobbly knee!  But thanks to the good Doctor Cundy in North Adelaide, I should be all fixed up shortly.  He knows of my plans to get on the road soon, so he got me into the theatre in only a week!

In April last year I did a 21km run..without stopping!!  That was a miracle and a surprise in my book!! Then my own theory is that I weakened it from the run and then properly damaged the knee last May in the gym doing sprints.  I have basically been toughing it out since then. Sort of hoping it would heal itself.  Not the case..since an x-ray and MRI showed the miniscus to be torn both vertically and horizontally, I now understand it would have never repaired itself without the 'tidy up' at the repair shop.

I do have to say that I dig anesthesia!!!  That is good stuff!!

And I feel better knowing that I took care of this before I leave on the bike.  I would hate for it to have gotten worse in the forest of Russia and difficult to explain the problem in a local village doctor surgery... or even scarier, not have been able to run from a BEAR when I pull over for a pit stop!