I’ve been planning this little getaway to Baja California for quite some while. All the gear was ordered in time, the bike was serviced and ready to go, I even prepared the stuff I was going to load on the bike. We were to leave tonight. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned.

Yesterday night when I was still at the shop making last preparations to the bike, a friend of mine shows up. He is a professional mechanic, and very overconfident at that. He is also extremely stubborn, thinking that he knows everything and it’s impossible to prove him otherwise. So he looks at my bike and determines that my spokes need to be tightened, they produce different sound when you hit them with the wrench. While I could agree with him I absolutely know that you don’t do things like this right before you’re about to leave on a trip, after all it worked for 17K miles and it will work for a couple thousand more. Keep in mind that I know that Caponords are known for having rusty spoke nipples. I fight with him for a little bit but throw my gloves off when he tells me that he is a “doctor” and knows better. OK, tighten the spokes.

Right away it didn’t go as it was supposed to, the nipple would spin together with the spoke. “Let’s hold the spoke with the pliers” he tells me. Since I gave up on arguing a while ago, I pull the pliers out. He is a doctor after all. The nipple still wouldn’t spin. “Dude, you are going to break a spoke right now”: I pronounce. “If I break it I will buy you new one” replies the Doctor. Snap……. I start laughing hysterically.

So what now, you are going to call Aprilia dealer and buy one? The Doctor doesn’t suspect that Aprilia dealers don’t even have air filters in stock, let alone rear spokes for 2003 Caponord (hell, a lot of Aprilia dealers ASK you what Caponord is) He picks up the phone and starts calling all local dealers. I’m still laughing. Not surprisingly the dealers do not have the spoke in stock and it will take a couple of weeks to get it. I win, but I also lose because I don’t want to take chances with the hot desert. The trip has been cancelled.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 10:23 am and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Travels, Riding, Life, Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.