Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

I slept very well for the first time in ages, the ride yesterday seemingly having cleared my head of the cold that has been bunging me up. It was with slight trepidation that I went upstairs to breakfast, wondering if the complaints from last night had left them wanting blood, but I needn't have been concerned, as breakfast was good, and the service fine. After breakfast I tried to get my bike suit washed, phoning the hotel laundry service and then handing it over stressing that it as “muy important” that it got back today. Whilst I was busy updating the blog I got a phone call, a woman gabbling on in Spanish at 100 mph, but I managed to catch a couple of words and worked out it was the laundry and that they couldn't get my suit back today, it being impossible... As we're leaving first thing in the morning, I protested but got nowhere, so asked them to return the suit, which they did, 2 more women coming to the door and gabbling on in Spanish about how they could only do it for tomorrow. They insisted on calling someone to explain, as they didn't speak English (but found it hilarious that I didn't speak Spanish). The woman on the phone then went on to explain that they couldn't do my suit today and it would be tomorrow afternoon before it was ready. At which point I just said ok, no problem and grabbed my suit before they could take it away again. Looks like I'll have a few more days of riding in a dirty, sweaty jacket and trousers...

After that saga was over, I called Tracy and we had a lovely chat, catching up on things since we last spoke a few days ago. It was nice to hear that my daughter, Laura, had been round to see her, and that she's now enormous. Not in a bad way, as she's expecting twins... When we'd finished chatting I wandered back to Ruta 40 to see how they were getting on changing the tyres on the bikes and hopefully fitting my final-drive seal. That turned into another saga, as the seals I'd had shipped from the UK were still in Bogotá and not due to arrive until tomorrow (see a theme developing?) but they had some in stock and I was repeatedly told not to worry. Whilst I was there I decided to have a look at some of the minor niggles I've been having with the bike, starting with the fog lights. When I first had problems with them it was due to one of the earth contacts breaking and the lights shorting out, and our running repair had been a little rushed, so I took the offending light off the bike and made sure things were done properly, the lights now working again. Then I turned my attention to my brake light, which had also been playing up, the bulb seemingly moving in the holder slightly and breaking contact. Closer and more thorough investigations revealed that the bulb had in fact blown, and the only reason the brake light worked at all was because the tail light filament was performing both duties when the bulb was in a certain position. With a new bulb installed everything worked as it should. With the mechanics working on other bikes to try and clear them out of the workshop, Nick, Al, Gerald and I left them to it and headed into town to get some money and lunch.

Having robbed the ATM of several thousand pesos (about $100 each) we asked a young girl sitting outside if she knew where there was a barbers, as by now I'm starting to resemble a shaggy dog, and she pointed up the road. So off we wandered, and quickly found a likely looking place underneath some shops, and in we went. With Al abstaining the 3 of us took our seats and were attended to well, my Spanish phrase-book helping out with the Spanish for “just a trim please”. Gerald went the whole hog and had his bead trimmed, which also seemed to trim about 20 years off him. Feeling fresh and tidy again we wandered round downtown Medellin for a little while, the city absolutely buzzing with people, like Manchester at Christmas, and this was a Monday lunchtime... We ate a light lunch, knowing that later we'd be eating in one of the best meat restaurants in the area, then bundled Gerald in a taxi so he wouldn't have to walk with the rest of us. Then we made our way via a small park with some statues by the Columbian artist Botero, famous for his paintings and statues of people looking as thought they've been inflated... the “reclining nude” a good example of his work...





Our wanderings took us all the way across town back towards Ruta 40, through the craftman's area where there were countless workshops turning out wooden cabinets and chairs, and the metalworker's area, where there were the same workshops with guys hammering bits of metal into various complex shapes, and the mechanic's area, where the same workshops were full of guys working on cars and small motorcycles, and finally to Ruta 40, where the mechanics were still busy changing tyres. Soon they were almost done and started working on my drive-shaft, initially having real problems getting the bolt that holds it all together undone, it having seized in the housing. The judicious application of heat from a heat-gun and with the help of 3 guys including me, they finally got it undone and split the drive-shaft to reveal the offending seal (still behind it's retaining collar), the oil clearly visible where it shouldn't be, on the outside of the housing...








With the seal replaced and my bike back together, I paid the bill (which they very kindly took the labour costs for replacing the seal off as a discount) and rode back to the hotel via the petrol station. With my bike now fully fixed and loaded with fuel, I was a very happy bunny indeed...

Before dinner we had a quick meeting to run through the route for the next couple of days, Kevin and Moriceau working out a plan for us, so now we can ride in smaller groups which should be much better. Then it was time for the Prat Hat ceremony, the first involving the Bogotá Boys... Nominations were few but very good, first, Chris being nominated by almost everyone for missing the 2nd Banana Bridge and taking the new one as a result of his haste at the border; then Simon for his tardy start, still being in his underwear and not packed when he should have been on his bike riding out of the hotel. There were a couple of others, but these 2 were the shortlist and voting concluded quickly with Chris winning the hat...





Only after he had been photographed did we come clean and reveal that there was no 2nd banana bridge... and so, this week's Prat Hat recipient is... Simon...





After that, we jumped in a couple of minibuses and drove up the hill out of Medellin to the restaurant where Kevin and Julia were due to give their presentation to some bikers that the guys here had managed to get together at just 24 hours notice. On the way up the very steep hill, one of the minibuses burnt out its clutch, so we all climbed into the remaining one for the rest of the journey. The restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived, and we discovered we had almost the whole of the 2nd floor to ourselves, so we grabbed a table and ordered some steak. The restaurant had been chosen by Moriceau as it is the best meat restaurant around, serving meat from its own farms in the area, and it was damned good too. While we were eating the place filled up, over 100 bikers arriving and filling the place with an excited buzz. Kevin then gave his presentation, one of the young girls that had been with us in the minibus acting as translator as he rattled off stories of their Guinness World Records before talking about the Trans-Am and showing pictures of us riding and standing beside downed bikes. It seemed to go down well and no sooner was it over than we were accosted for photos, the local bikers all wanting their pictures taken with these travelling gringos...





To say they were friendly would be an understatement, they were simply brilliant, chatting in broken English or 50mph Spanish, shaking our hands and smiling for the cameras. We were even dragged outside for photos by their bikes, as eclectic a mix as you'd see in the UK, with an R1, several GS's, some v-stroms (like Jim's only looking much newer and less laden), a TDM and other smaller bikes. Great people, and a great evening... and one of the guys looked like Richard's long-lost twin brother too!