Back again… Gargamel…

Back again… Gargamel… The Chalise of Wisdome and the art of getting lost…

Back again… Gargamel.. The Chalise of Wisdome and the art of getting lost…

Well,, long time nothing here from me… Not that I have been hybernating ,, but I have been fighting the demons in my head full time for some time…But that´s not the reason that I logged in again… I logged in to write something, and maybe.. if I´m doing it right bring a smile to the face of the reader….

As some might remember I took Vlad (thats my bike ) over to sunny old England last year.. And , indeed sunny it was… But during this trip i was fighting the fact that my engine oil was trying to put some efforts in to improving its CV… not only lubricating and transfer heat,, it was also extremely good at waterproofing my boots, my leathers, my rear fender .. well basicly everything that was at the side fo or behind my engine….

When I was on my way to England…. well.. you can read all about in previous post… short story… most of the oil.. left side of the engine… rocker cover gasket. replaced in Germany,, Head gasket Holland.(thank you Richard) Rocker cover bolt gasket.. England… ( thank you Trooper/Prez) … but still… when hot at higher revs … Oil all over the place….

So for a year now I have been using about the same amount of oil per ten kilometers as if it was a two stroke Briggs&Stratton between my legs…. Well To be honest a bit moore… around 10% and thats a bit moore than your average two stroke… The rear end of my rig will never rust thats for sure….

But as a cliffhanger I will now change the subject and tell you the story of The Art Of Getting Lost….

I have for years now been bragging that I´m to old to use a GPS..(on dry land) I can get lost the analog way… Eherrmmm… I was wrong… You see , about a month ago in the absence of our big veterans meeting some soldiers decided to hold a smaller gathering at one of lads place… and since this was whitin the recomendations , well under 50 people everything was fine… I was invited, short of cash but old compadres… they let me print som shirts and stickers for the gathering and I was loaded again…. ( yes the paid me to do so)

For you to fully understand this story, I have to tell you that my brother Wedman who intivited me to this gathering is by the graze of god and the king of sweden a panser officer… and yes… he gave me…. amr….(army map reference) sorry to say I had a computer crash… so your old signals Sgt kind of missed that…

So happily I kickstarted Vlad… knowing that Wedman lives to the east of me i drove to nearby Alingsås… picked up som munitions.. and gave him a call…. Hi Bro… I´m on my way… I´m in Alingsås…. And you are?…. ???? We are at XXXXX I told you? Well .. No problem… I got google maps…….

So i happily whent on my way… Destination a bit further south then I thought. But never mind… 170km later I was close.. another phone to my mate… – I´m almost there …where are you exactly??? I´m outside…XXXXXX – What the hell are you saying????????????? you are in Småland?????? We are in Värmland…. ???????

Ooooops….. Wedman then says… look on your phone…. messenger…. and yes… easy enough… just click on the link and google maps did tell me that XXXXX where they where was 240km away… the xxxx I had been aiming for was 2.800 meters away….

Well… a party is a party,,, a party with veterans is something else…. back on vlad and heading north… not a bad ride at all…. until I had about 30 km to my destination…. Then the rain started pouring down…. So Vlad thought it was a good idea to test my skills in finding the reason to why he all of a sudden descided to only run on one cylinder and backfire as soon as I opened the throttle…

So I stopped at a layby…. Checked the spark plugs… both wet… But wait… That rubber thingy that goes on to plug on the left cylinder felt strange…. come to think about… how come that a bike built in soviet union always break down on the left side???

Back to fault finding… yep… the cap over the plug was not ok… It might have been the kids who couldn´t resist to climb on to vlad when I was having a cooffee earlier on that might have kicked it a little… Well,, kids are kids I don´t blame em…

So what to do… no spares for this kind of problem… out with my trusty old leatherman… cut the cap in half… and yes it was broken… so stripped the cord… wrapped it around the spark plug secured it with a nut… Yihaaaa Vlad fired up…. Well sort of….

My McGyver solution got me about 900 meters and then Vlad was back to running one cylinder… But… Running… 28 km to go… pouring rain… sood it. I´m riding on…. Doing 60kmh is not to bad… oh dear… forgot about that hill ahead……… well….. just push it…. 30kmh…. but making progress….. but that RV (husbil/mobilehome) is very close now….. Hmmm ??? Maybe?? if I try nudge my make shift spark plug cap?? Could that help???

Nope… Note to self…. Dont touch sparkplugs, wires or anything connected to an ignition coil in pouring rain with a running engine wearing soaked gloves….

My acrobatics must have been something to see…. never mind… that RV held its distance after this…..

There is moore to tell you about… But to be honest.. almost 3 in the morning… I will continue tomorrow… Stay tuned…

Stefan