Day 280 Wed 10 August Hotel to Storage to KTM Workshop & Bac to Hotel 64km

Sadly Dog will not be joining us on this Leg, he could not get leave, so he will collect his bike and ride it to Houston later in the year. He will be missed, it was comforting to have an American Cop riding with us through the this current Continent, (he also drove our Back-up Vehicle through Mongolia, China and into Loa.

On the last trip Rocky’s one son Danny-boy joined us, and on this trip, his other son, Andy-boy has joined the group, him and his uncle, Bob rented a car and will spend some time following us on the same route we are taking,

Andy-Boy, (wearing a very old shirt of his dad when we only had done 22 000km through 20 countries.)

The gathering continues, and then there were 4 bikes ready, Milsy looking very happy that he has finally made it t the hotel

I have to open-up to you all, share with you, that way you will experience the emotion I am forced to live through, so here goes.: We have been doing this “Gathering” and riding for 17 Legs, we have traveled 85 000km through 29 countries, we should be getting better at this. But we dont seem to get better, we are getting worse!!!! Lets blame it on old age setting in, but surely we should make less silly mistakes. This trip has not really started and already one cell phone was left in an Airport Lounge on its charger, a father was already sitting in his seat in the plane holding  his son’s passport who was refused to Board the bus that was to take him to the plane, I had forgotten how to get the photos from my phone onto my Lap-Top to Post them on the Blog, (nothing a video on YouTube could not fix,) another bought 2 bottles of whisky to bring with only to find he left two bottles of whisky on his bike at the end of the last trip, I arrived here with more socks and underpants only to find I left 8 pairs of each last time before I flew back, BUT, the worst of all was the “blunder” made by Pie and Milsy who missed their connecting flight from London to Denver yesterday. You might remember they took the train in to London to visit Pie’s daughter, but they miss calculated the Security Que at Heathrow airport and missed the flight. Luckily I stayed at the airport and did not venture out.

But they made their name “Tottie” and will therefore be buying us a few beers later tonight.

I can hear Tex’s bike just pulled up outside the hotel, and Pie’s flight is landing in 15 minutes, so then it is only Peens I have not reported on.

Actually I don’t know what to say about Peens’s “situation.” I am speechless with the drama he has had with his bike after the chain snapped (his own fault) and damaged the motor, the chain whipped the motor badly and KTM in Seattle had to open the bike’s motor up and do major repairs, the bike spent the entire Covid period with them, so they had enough time to do a proper job, but the bike broke 200km after he collected it on the last trip, so it went back to KTM and Peens was given a loan bike which he used for the last Leg. This morning he flew back to Seattle to collect the bike that was “fixed” again. So he is 2000km behind our little KTM -Train and we will meet-up on-route in a day or two. I will rather not say anything at this stage about this issue, lets see if the bike, after a very very expensive engine re-build is finally fixed after a 2nd bite at the cherry. It  is not every mechanic that can do such a repair,  it is almost like surgery when the motor is opened-up as the smallest piece of dirt can block an oil-jet and cause bigger damage. It was specialized work, hence the price. Lets see, watch this space.

The biggest problem I think with Dealerships in the USA is that they don’t specialize on one Brand or even one line, for example, the KTM Dealer that we took our bikes to today here in Denver also works on Honda Motorbikes, they also deal in Polaris and its a whole range of products, not just bikes, but Jet Skis, Quads, Side By Sides, so their staff in the workshop must know how to work on many different makes and models and Ranges of Products. In South Africa our KTM Dealers only work on KTM Bikes, that is why our friends of KTM in JHB are so good, they are experts in 1 field  rather than a “Jack of all trades.”

Look at these Side By Side’s being serviced at the Dealership we were at today.

They are nice, I think I must put one on my Bucket List.

Tomorrow we start, the stories and photos of the past two posts can only improve, byt vas, enjoy the ride with me.

Fleisch