At least, nothing has moved. Now, out of this!
After one last deflected try from the freight people to extract some more money out of me, I got the confirmation around 10 am this morning, the bike is ready to be picked up! Finally. Even though we are staying another night, just having her back makes all the difference for me, mentally.
Thus started a frantic afternoon of activity: First, a taxi ride down to the docks. I had to bring the two new panniers to be sure to be able to bring everything back. So there I was, tiny me with my two boxes in hand at the gate of ACFS port logistic. Left and right the massive lorries and their road hardened drivers. Quite out of place.
I had to be escorted to the bike, since normally only lorries and maybe the odd courier come on premise. All properly equipped with my loaned high-vis vest of course.
Waiting for my escort across the yard. Safety first, people!
The guys there were actually pretty all right to me. They helped with taking apart the crate and then the foreman hung around the entire time while the civilian that is me was busy:
- Unloading the bike.
- Installing the mounting clips for the new Zega Pro2 cases.
- Hurting myself using the wrong tool (thanks Touratech, who on earth uses torx? Probably BMW …).
- Empty the 5l jerry can into the tank.
- Packing everything back onto the bike.
Clearly a bit out of place.
- Tying down the big bag on the back.
- Notice that I forgot to hook the battery up again.
- Unload the bike again to get to the tool and battery.
- Reload the bike.
- Drive off the lot!
Disposal for the $600 crate was luckily only $35. I have heard horror stories from other travelers where the warehouse guys asked for 100’s of dollars for the privilege.
Mandatory minor injury for me working on the bike.
After I have properly refueled and dropped all gear off at our base, it was time to finally sort out the rear tire. The Shinko was getting quite balled – or in other words, I have made the 80/20 tire into a racing slick …
Unfortunately, there is no combination of shop that sells the tire and shop that will touch my Transalp to install it. So I ended up riding 35km out of town to pick up the tire and then back into town to drop the bike with the workshop that will fit it for me. Yes, I could do it myself, but I rather prefer to save the sweat and pain for when I really need it and have the wheel properly balanced at the same time.
So, tram ride home and packing … time to get on the road again!
The bike is “home”, finally.
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