After a day's break, I headed back into town to look for some very needed parts on my newly acquired bike. Three things stood out as needing repair soon:
- The clutch, which was slipping and hard to use.
- The rear shock absorber which was now just a bouncy spring.
- The tyres which were completely bald.
Ideally, these sorts of things would be easy to find, but this is not the case for a Siambretta. After visiting my old friend and getting the udpates on where I should go to buy the parts I need, I headed off full of confidence. I had been told earlier than this that a tyre for my bike would cost only $40 pesos and my old friend told me what I could expect to pay for a new shock absorber. Based on these prices I could afford to replace them.
As I approached the shop, sitting quietly on the corner of a busy intersection, opposite the central post office, its narrow doors offered a glimpse into an old, dark, and rather small space. It did not look as grandeur as I have often encountered in spare parts places in Australia, but this was the place I had been told. So I pulled up my bike and strolled inside.
The pungent odor of grease stained wood filled the air of this old shop, an old fan on the wall pushed around the hot and sweaty smells of the group I had just joined as we all crushed into the tiny entrance space in a desperate yet vain attempt to escape the scorching heat of the sun. Being wise to the systems in Argentina, I had grabbed hold of a number ticket in the doorway and so I waited, ticket in hand, enjoying the new and yet familiar smells of this spare parts shop.
Behind the counters the place was packed full of parts. Stickers and fan belts hung from the ceiling while the counters themselves were stuffed full of every type of spare part known in this area. Huge wooden shelving sat behind the counter area and were filled with boxes labelled for what they contained, their bases covered in sprockets and other shiny parts. From what I could tell, there were spare parts here for virtually every motorbike on the roads in Corrientes if not Argentina. The best part was that there were lots of old parts here too. As I noticed this, my hopes rose high again.
When my number was called I started my inquiries. Tyres came nowhere near the $40 pesos I had been told. Instead they were starting from $67 pesos and heading upward from there. Shock absorbers simply do not exist any more, since the manufacturer of these had long since shut down. As the news of this hit me, my hopes took a head-down dive straight for the floor. I was so discouraged by the news of the first two items, that I never bothered asking about the clutch, but instead headed home.
On my way home, I looked around for other places where I could buy a tyre, perhaps with a price nearing the $40 pesos I had been told about. I stopped at any place that seemed likely to sell me that sort of tyre. Not a single person had one. The best I managed to find was some second hand tyres, already mostly used up, which hovered around the price I was looking for. So I returned without anything.
Aftrer heading off with such expectations that I would be able to find the parts I needed, I returned very deflated. Finding parts for my Siambretta is going to be a lot harder than I ever expected.