An afternoon storm thundered down upon us, the lightning striking close by and cutting electricity to our area. Water filled up any available hole or depression and quickly turned our dirt roads into strips of mud and holes of muddy water. It did not look like I would be able to go and pick up my motorbike today.
When heading out to town this was the state of the roads after the storm.
It was much later that the rain stopped and the heavy storm clouds started to lighten up. Eager to go and get my motorbike, I quickly jumped on a bus and headed out to old Mr Verdun's place to see how it was. It took too buses to get there, but when I arrived my bike was fully assembled, sitting there waiting for me to pick it up.
Chatting with Mr Verdun I learn that everything has been sorted out and the bike runs very well. We fire it up and it sounds like a drag-racing bike. The idling is a little rough but it started easily. I am told that the idling gets better once the bike is warm and that this has something to do with the cylinder being re-sleeved. The noise of the bike is due to a bad muffler - another item that will need to be replaced at some point.
The bad muffler that causes the bike to sound super loud and crackly.
I climb on the bike and take it around the block for a test ride. Everything is working well and the thing has a lot more power than it did before, wanting to jump forward in every gear. The gears no longer jump out or cause any problems either, and when I try the brakes, the bike stops rapidly even to the point of locking up the back wheel.
Everything looks great and I am ready to leave. Before I do however, we wait a little while to prove that the bike also does not flood anymore as it used to do. This takes us into the twilight of evening as we talk about the right mix ratios for the two-stroke oil and petrol and how my carburetor now has a main jet of 80 in place of the 90 that was there. For two old mechanics it all made sense.
One part of Mr Verdun's garage with all of his Siambretta parts.
We try the bike again and it works fine, so I pay the man, grab my helmet and jump on the bike. Ready to go and with the bike idling, I switch over to turn on my headlight and see no light at all. Checking again and moving the levers, switches and key to be sure that all are in the right place, it becomes obvious that there are no lights.
Mr Verdun, who is standing right next to me, is very surprised and tells me that he checked the horn earlier today and it was working fine. Both the lights and the horn work on the same system. No matter what we both do, there are no lights, and by now it is getting dark, so we wheel the bike back to his yard and under the glow of an incandescent light Mr Verdun checks for the problem with a test lamp.
Mr Verdun trying to identify the problem of the missing lights.
It is something on the inside of the bike. It will need to be disassembled again to fix. Poor old Mr Verdun is now starting to mutter various Spanish words to himself relating to his embarrassment for what has just occurred. When we discover that the problem is something on the inside he looks up to me from his work position with a resigned look on his face and informs me that I will have to come back for the bike tomorrow.
Having been in his place in a very similar situation before, I simply smile and tell him that there is no problems with that at all. He tells me that I can come early in the morning to pick it up if I like as we shake hands. I head back to the city center for my bus stop, some 15 blocks away, leaving poor old Mr Verdun illuminated by the dull orange glow of his work light. He is crouched down by my bike, probably thinking through all of the possible causes that may have caused the problem.
Something under that wheel is causing the problem.
So now it is Friday that I will pick up my bike. I have already tried it and it rides well. There is a very noticeable difference in the way the bike behaves, and it will be great to get it out and about on the roads to see just how much difference there really is. But for now, I am on buses until tomorrow.