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Monday, February 18, 2008

Why is there a GS1200 mudguard in the shower?


Not How You Want to See Your Motorcycle!

So we came back through the "worlds best physical example of corruption" yesterday, otherwise known as 92.3 miles of dirt road, gravel road, potholed road, 8 miles of wonderful pavement, and 3 villages with roads pockmarked by what it appears to be an A-10 Warthog canon firing exercise. 3 hours of bumps bruises and dust. The other roads in Cambodia are fine, but the airlines are paying off the government not to finish the road. So the majority suffers so a few elites can skim.

At the border I accidentally walked into Thailand looking to make copies of my vehicle docs, and I was forced to wait in the line to "leave" Thailand and then explain why I didn't have permission to be there in the first place!!!

When we got to the Thai border I checked the bike over and sure enough the rear mudguard screw had sheared (yes the one the dealers were working on a week ago to rebuild the oil seal). The same bolt that sheared on similar roads in Bolivia.

Then I turned the bike on to proceed to the next station and my front headlight warning light was on. Yes, the same headlight they just replaced a week ago.

This set me off. I started cursing at the bike and BMW, threatening never to buy another one again, and maybe even leaving this one here. If a bike designed to allegedly travel the world can't go 100 miles on rough roads, what good is it?

The bike must have feared for its life a bit and became a bit penitent. After making it through the final checkpoint, the headlight miraculously started working again. (Leaving me, again, full of confidence). It didn't figure out how to regenerate a steel bolt however, so I had to take the mudflap off at the next service station, then bring it to the bathroom at our $7 hotel for cleaning.

It hasn't rained the entire time we have been in Southeast Asia. If you don't think that it is raining this morning now that we don't have a mudflap, then you just don't understand how the world works in mysterious ways!