hero of the day | Chaos roaming the world

Blogging at the breakfast table

We almost got fooled by the utterly unfounded confidence of our mechanic yesterday. Where to go? Would we believe in his words and go on towards Cambodia? Once again, a WhatsApp exchanged with Jonathan came with bad news that nonetheless saved our bacon. He checked the specifications on the regulator / rectifier that was put in yesterday and confirmed. Too weak. Rocinante produces about 400W of electricity, the r/r could only “neutralise” a maximum of 300W. That means even with all lights constantly going, it would be at maximum capacity at all time. Maybe ok at 15°C, but not at 36°C as we had yesterday.

All this considered, we decided to go back to the nearest Honda “BigWing” dealer in Pattaya and try our luck. All bikes over 300cc are part of the BigWing section, which are marketed as luxury items with only a handful of showrooms in the country. And so we parted from our lovely and extremely helpful hosts. If you ever find yourself in Chanthaburi, I recommend staying at Banchan 9 Homestay.

Right away, it proved to be the right decision. The rear ABS sensor was playing up with intermittent faults, which also meant that we had neither speed- nor odometer for the first couple of kilometers. But with the lights on high beam and every device plugged in to charge, it settled down after 10 minutes or so. Still the fear of permanent damage of the CDI or ABS computer crept into our minds.

At least they were helpful in referring us on. Honda was just utterly useless

Arriving at the Honda dealer turned out to be the first big bust of the day in the end. After giving us the barest minimum of courtesy by checking the original parts number in their system (I already knew it is not in it, the Transalp was never sold in Thailand) they pretty much ignored us from here on. Thus began a bit of a goose chase through Pattaya – the Kawasaki shop sent us to their workshop who sent us to an independent workshop further on. The last one looked extremely promising, with both an old Transalp as well as an Africa Twin right there.

It got even better when the owner produced a R/R he claimed was from a 900cc Kawasaki cruiser – I briefly checked and the one from that bike would indeed have been enough to get us going for good. Just to be 100% certain, we consulted our WhatsApp oracle while the part was being installed. Once again, once all was said and done we were left disappointed and devastated. The temporary fix from Chanthaburi had blown up already on the last 150km, so we had to use the new one, payed $180 for it and still had no permanent solution. Later that day it turned out that the owner was wrong or may have lied to me regarding the part he sold. Rather than the big 900cc bike he mentioned, the part was from a 650 Ninja … with a far less powerful alternator …

Hasty lunch at 4pm before tackling the road back to Bangkok

The few hours we have been in Pattaya made it clear that we did not want to stick around. The city is still known as a go-to destination for sex-tourists and the number of fat old white men we saw swaggering about with scantily clad young girls and women was plenty to trigger our gag and flight reflexes.

The saving grace was that we got one more contact for a parts and big bike shop, back in Bangkok out of it. However, it was written in Thai script so we had no idea where it was or how it was called. It was late already, very late, but we wanted to make use of the cooler evening time to get at least close to BKK again. We aimed for the hotel near the airport we stayed in a couple of days ago – east of the city and a good place to sort out where to go tomorrow.

We arrived after dark, but at least without any further issues regarding the electronics. Checking in took a moment due to a particularly obnoxious duo of German tourists taking forever with their petty requests uttered in even pettier English. But after that, when we were about to retreat to our room to fully deflate, came the glimmer of hope that would rob me of almost all my sleep that night. We asked the hotel staff to translate the address we got in Pattaya and it turned out that it was for the local branch of the Red Baron chain. They are great in NZ, so I really got my hopes up this time …

: Blogging at the breakfast table

: At least they were helpful in referring us on. Honda was just utterly useless

: The right kind of bikes are around but the reg/rec turned out to be too weak

: We had to take it anyway as the Yamaha reg/rec was fried already. You can see the plastic bubbling up

: Hasty lunch at 4pm before tackling the road back to Bangkok

We are close to Bangkok and the goals for the day are simple. First, get a set of new tyres. Second, finally replace the partly dissolved Touratech Compañero gloves. They were basically gone since Timor-Leste.

The tire is screwed. That puts the nail in the coffin … sorry 🙂

I forgot to call ahead on both accounts, but have been in email contact a week or so back. What could go wrong? So we made our way to Asiana Moto, the licenced Heidenau importer for Thailand to get issue number one sorted.

Having all day to do stuff really helps to ease the stress of urban traffic quite a bit. After a comically bad breakfast at a little coffee shop attached to a petrol station, we started the 50km journey from the west of Bangkok to the shop located in the north-east. Traffic was heavy and slow going, but mostly cars, and those quite orderly. Even though we are about 110 cm wide with the luggage, we probably cut an hour or so out of our trip by lane splitting when possible. All in all, it took us about two hours to get there.

When we were within 1 km of the shop, I though I felt the bike behave oddly, and when we pulled up I was certain there was an issue with the rear tyre. I was right, a decent sized screw has embedded itself in the tyre, but unfortunately something else became evident: The shop seemed to be closed today. Oh … that may be an issue.

Turns out, the zega pro has its uses as a stilt for propping up the bike.

Luckily, I managed to get hold of Waranyu who is managing the store while the owners are out and about. Unfortunately, he was in Pattaya, 3 hours south of where we were. Nonetheless he promised to check the inventory to see if he could help us at all. Things got a bit hectic right then, while I took the wheel off (something needed to be done anyway, new tyre or not) a group of Thai arrived to help us maybe get the tyre fixed and Waranyu called back with news of an available rear in the shop.

I got hauled into a taxi, but the auto tyre shop could not help us with the tubed wheel and sent us off again. I did learn though that the tyre itself also had a tear lengthwise and should not be used even with a fixed tube. Meanwhile, Nina had talked to Waranyu and he agreed to get in the car and meet us at the store in 3 hours. What a hero!

yea, no way … could not even break the bead.

So we settled in. Nina got her book out and I got to work on the wheel, just for practice and to find out if I actually could fix a puncture myself if I needed to. The sobering result of that experiment was that no, with my tools I see no chance I would be able to break the bead on the rear. Not even after a quick lunch.

A bunch more Thai showed up, including a paramedic, eager to help. I was not able to break their enthusiasm and explain that I was just mucking around while waiting for Waranyu to open up the shop. Everyone was eager to try. Bigger tyre leavers were produced, but one by one, they failed (which soothed my hurt pride a bit). The tyre was still happily sitting on the rim unchanged when Waranyu showed up and was able to explain what was going on.

With the proper machinery, a new rear tyre and tube were fixed in no time and my biggest worry was taken care of. Which left the question of how to deal with the front. It was better off, but I doubt it would have another 5000 km in it for the round trip until we returned to Bangkok. There were no 100/90 19″ K60 available, neither the more road-y K76. I knew from NZ that I could squeeze a 110/80 19″ in if need be, but that it would be tight. The K76 fit, but the K60 was about 2 mm to wide when not on the rim.

proper tools handled by someone who knows what he is doing …

Waranyu when upstairs and rummaged around for a while until he emerged with an only half worn K60 from the discard pile. That one fit and we gave it a shot. A little drum roll, but it fitted even when on the rim. The best thing: I got this one for free! Thank you heaps Asiana Moto and Waranyu – that was a life saver.

Unfortunately, I spoiled the victorious mood a bit when I sheered off one of the four bolts securing the mounting plate of the front axle while putting everything back together. My story is that it was nicked before by a rock and I will stick with that … regardless, Waranyu was super helpful once more and gave us the address of a workshop we could go to tomorrow to get it sorted. The issue is not too bad, but nothing you want to go into both Laos and Cambodia if you have the chance to fix it before.

With big smiles and a photo session we took off for the Touratech Thailand premises another 35 km to the southeast, near the international airport. We made it there in time before they closed down and were welcome by Somjin. Sadly, the gloves I was using have been discontinued and the new summer gloves are not yet available in Thailand. Nonetheless, I left my, now utterly ruined, pair here to be send back to Germany for a post mortem.

Whohoo … so far we have interacted with every TT distributor along the way 😉

At least we got a replacement for the broken carrying handle strapping down our tent (yes, we are still carrying a tent …). We concluded our visit with a customary photo-in-front-of-sign session and were off for our resting place for the night.

We made use of being so close to the airport and for a cheap but cool place usually for people awaiting their flight. On our way there we passed a night market and stocked up for dinner. Markets like these are a pretty cool thing in Thailand. People sell single dinners in plastic bags, ready for assembly at home. This seems to be a popular thing among Thai. We each got something for us and then a sweet thing for dessert. All for less than $4 in total. Whohoo!

A final goody that night was that when the hotel staff saw all our gear they upgraded us to a superior room, so that we only had to lug it up two flight of stairs instead of six. Ah, what a day.