Buggs' Bikeless African Adventure

[Woodman]

Well if you can't get the Honda going, have a go at the jet.

[Monstaman]

Groovy mate .. she will go again as long as it has not been toasted in the stator / voltage reg, follow it through methodically and you will win.

Look forward to the updates

[Night Falcon]

my old XR 2fiddy had problems with the carb after sitting for a few years, the old fuel bunged up the jets. Good luck on the project

[buggsubique]

So yesterday I frigged around with the electrics from the starter solenoid right through to ignition barrel. And we have power throughout! Guess there was just a lot of oxidisation stopping the show.

Managed to get almost a litre of gas into the tank by blowing it up through the fuel tap. Drained the carb of the remaining old shit and gave her a few good goes at turning over. She's real low on oil so I will pick some up down the road today - they have these motorbike shacks "downtown" that sell fuel in coke bottles and seem to have a few bikes in pieces out the front.

I managed to get the plug out with the gerber (the only tool I have aside from a screwdriver!) and it's not as wet as it should be and is in mediocre shape. Infact, the whole head of the plug lead came away from the lead so I had to screw that back into the lead. We have spark, so it is good to know the electrics are not cooked as initially feared. Have replaced the 15A mainfuse now so its protected.

So now that we have it turning over but not biting (not even a pop) I will rip the carb out carefully (rubber likely to be perished) and strip that puppy and give it a good blow through. No fuel filter fitted so if I come across one it will be a solid investment against the low fuel quality here...

So far it still holds promise! I hate troubleshooting electrics on a bike - Logic tells me it's a science but so often it seems like an art!

Buggs.

[buggsubique]

Fuck, so after all that, someone has flogged it (flogged it back I guess!). Fair enough. Possession is only 9/10ths of the law and I guess I just got hit with that 1/10th bit.

[JATZ]

Bugger But I'm surprised they didn't wait till you had it running properly first

Nevermind.... with a bit of luck you'll find a nice DR or summat

[buggsubique]

Bugger But I'm surprised they didn't wait till you had it running properly first

Nevermind.... with a bit of luck you'll find a nice DR or summat

Nothing like that surprises me here! Logic does not prevail in many nationalities here. If they want the bottom of the ignition barrel they can come find it...

A few DRz around actually but for parts supply I'm prolly best with Chinese.

[Night Falcon]

Fuck, so after all that, someone has flogged it (flogged it back I guess!). Fair enough. Possession is only 9/10ths of the law and I guess I just got hit with that 1/10th bit.

stinky

[buggsubique]

Wishing NZ a peaceful ANZAC day. Please make the effort to support your servicemen and women and attend either a dawn service or mid-morning civic service. It means a lot to those in uniform to have their fellow countrymen come together in the memory of our forefathers, many of whom gave their life and many more who carried the scars for years after. If you can't make a service then a whiskey or rum & coffee in the morning followed by enjoying the company of your friends and family will do just fine too!



We Will Remember Them

[CrazyFrog]

Good turnout at the ANZAC services in Nelson today Kia Kaha boys.

You look after yourself over there too Matt, I dunno how far you are from the trouble spots, but I see on the news today the unrest is building again over in the Sudan. They (locals) are talking of wiping out "parasites" again, sounds like that Rwanda bullshit all over.

Sheesh, I guess TIA after all.

[buggsubique]

Hi all. Well I don’t have a huge amount to write about in terms of massive motorbike adventures, but I did go out the other day with a Finnish guy by the name of Kimmo from Bike-Egypt, on one of his KTM 530 EXCs. When I knew I was coming to Africa I thought “no motorcyclist goes to Africa and doesn’t ride!” so first thing on my list was to find a place that I could get a taste of the African Experience on two wheels. So I found Bike-Egypt online (amongst a few other places – mostly Madagascar and South Africa). Doing a bit of a cost assessment I decided against flying to SA and hiring a BMW for a two week adventure ride. I guess as I saw it, $5-6k goes a long way in NZ to parking another steed in the shed.

So my leave break took me to Egypt where I bunked down at a place called Magawish Swiss Inn. Basically it’s an all inclusive resort on the Red Sea and houses the local kite surfing outfit Colona Watersports. Kitesurfing was something I wanted to try out back in 2004 when I got back from Afghanistan but for various reasons it never happened. So here was my chance to try my hand at something new, and here begins the monologue on adventure philosophy…

I was out in the desert behind Hurghada on this KTM and after an hour of getting used to the bike (ie its power, light weight and small size…awesome suspension…the list goes on!) the art of riding started to come back to me. I hadn’t ridden since the Waiouru Adventure Ride in November – it all got a bit busy after than with the pre-deployment stuff and Christmas etc. So after an hour into the ride I got real comfortable with Katie. The muscle memory came back…the handling and weight / CoG of body vs bike in the sand came back, and I really started to have a good time. The bike was magically levitating over ditches and holes and down banks, pulling up some big dunes…shit it was awesome. The fun and enjoyment of motorcycling was returning to me. As I got towards the 2 hour mark, the deeper side of motorcycling revealed itself once again. I find for some reason, the 2 hour mark is the magic point in any ride. It takes that long to come down from the stress of current issues in life, but when you do, suddenly you’re up and planing along in this crazy euphoric state. Doing weird shit like laughing to yourself as the scenery passes by, or just hiding a big sh*t eating grin under your helmet. Well, that’s how it is for me anyway…leaving daily life behind in the rear view mirror. Then you get to the point where your eyes read the trail ahead, your brain computes it all almost subliminally and the muscles react accordingly. Autopilot to a certain extent. It frees up the mind to think about other stuff – to start solving some of those problems in the rear view mirror…well anyway, getting a bit D&M there…

The ride was amazing. I can’t say that enough. It was truly magical to be out back in the sand lands, looking across at Bedouin camps and imposing mountains that break up an otherwise completely barren land. It was merely a taste of what the legendary Dakar riders contend with, and certainly was a lot slower paced! But still, there I was, a kiwi riding in the deserts of Africa, and it felt f*cken great.

You may (or likely may not) have noticed my signature block before. Take a read of it again if you need to. Today that slogan got me through when I was at the point of failure. Let me explain. I forked out a not insignificant sum of money to get some kitesurfing lessons here – 5 hours in total. So I did the lessons and got to the point where I could safely handle a kite and could get up on the board in the water. Cool. Problem I was finding was I had all these lessons and still couldn’t kitesurf for sh*t! I’m not a board rider (although I am well experienced with power kites and can wakeboard). Today was my first crack alone on this board under 9m2 of wind power…I had high expectations that I would get out there in the water and be up and surfing in no time. The first take off was literally that…I cocked up the power stroke and the kite ripped me from the water and launched me 10m downwind. Wish I coulda seen that from the beach, haha. By the way, the Red Sea is really salty – you shouldn’t drink it! Chin up, I thought; crack on. So after multiple failures and half starts I was getting pretty low about the whole thing and thought I should take my wife’s advice and stick to riding and going out bush with firearms… Seriously, I was at the point where I thought “f*ck this, I’ve had a guts full. Time to pack up”. Then I tried again..and bugger me if I didn’t surf 40-50m! That baby step was my sliver of hope that told me I might actually be able to do this. So again, I spent another hour face planting and ingesting some of the saltiest water I’ve known…and again took myself close to that point of feeling like a failure and that I should give up. But as cheesy as it sounds, those words of Adventure kept ringing in my ears. “To give up is to fail yourself”, I thought. It fits with the philosophy I ride with – what experience am I going to have today?…how will I learn from it, and will I actually seek out true adventure, true challenges, or will I just “go for a ride” and call it an adventure?… for three hours I stuck at it and although I still suck pretty bad, I suck a whole lot less than when I got in the water three hours before! In the end I was sailing upwind in both directions, not consistently, but hey tomorrow’s another day and another adventure lies in wait… One wicked crash at a time I improved today, and no doubt it will be the same tomorrow. But yeah, man hugs aside, my adv riding philosophy got me through today as I seek to diversify the adventure portfolio.

Talking about bikes again, one of the reasons I got the Africa Twin was because of the challenge it presented in trying to ride it the same places the DR’s, XR’s, DR-Z’s and KLR’s go. After riding the KTM I’m pretty sure I’m going to look at either a DR-Z again or a 650R to park alongside the AT. After that ride in the desert I can recall how much fun a smaller bike is off road. The AT is definitely a very capable offroad bike, despite its age (as MarkS would say, I’m living in a time warp! Haha), but it ain’t no trail bike and at just under a quarter tonne with fuel and adv kit it is a lot to handle alone. I don’t class the DR or KLR as trail bikes my book either, and I’m sure some would see the XR as borderline too; not to mention the fact it’s now getting long in the tooth as well...but I still think it’s a contender – and I think either of those two bikes farts all over a KTM for up front cost, engine longevity and maintenance costs; probably the key factors we all look at in a bike as Kiwi Adv Riders right!

I have another three days here in Hurghada before I head to Cairo for a squiz at these big stoney pyramidy looking things. Looking forward to that. Looking a little less forward to catching a plane back to South Sudan I must admit! The wet season is upon us there and even 4wd with front and rear difflock doesn’t always work… hence the Ukranian Mi8s are the vehicle of choice for getting around outside of town… problem is we tend to keep bumping into angry dudes with AK’s who think we’re re-arming the criminals and rebel groups…so my main adventure awaits my return! Till next time, here's a couple of vids from South Sudan and photos from the desert ride.

Regards to all, Buggs

[buggsubique]

for some reason the photos dropped from the post above...

[Woodman]

Thanks fot that Buggs.

Keep up the good work over there, and btw riding that 530 in the desert didn't look like fun at all, no not even remotely cool whatsoever.

[Padmei]

What he said.

[Night Falcon]

great report buggs and glad you had the oppertunity to taste the "orange cool aide"....every adventure rider deserves at least one drink of the orange necter at some point