We spent that night in Winnipeg. A few hors of filming with Joe and Flora, had s exploringj the city, old churches and bridges. Over the last two days we covered nearly 1000 miles, its felt longer though, maybe because we have been on the road for nearly three months. That night we stopped in Kapuskassing, Taz's tire needed replacing with the spare we were carrying and as it was late we set out to do it ourselves.
We had never changed the motorcycle tire ourselves even though we had changed thousands of mountain bike tires, how hard could be?
Well we had the tire off and the bead broken with the side stand of the 1200. A local guy with some knowledge came out to help. in next to no time we had the new tire on and we took it to the garage to use the inflator, we pushed the bead back on no problem, bu there was a leak, we could hear it. doh.
We fixed the slight pinch we had made during putting on the tire, probably with the tire iron. After three attempts we did it. the tire stayed up and we went to bed happy.
oh no ! the tire went flat over night.We pumped it up and limped to a garage to see if we can get a professional to solve our issues. After some messing we talked a Yamaha dealer in to fixing it, success. We unfortunately had to let Joe and Flora leave without us, due to there filming commitments. The plan to catch them up later that day.
Plans of mice and men: After being fixed by Yamaha we got twenty Km down the road and it went flat again! pumped up; flat again. We limped into the nearest town, once again the professionals repaired it, even before we left it had deflated. They said it was just air left between the tube and the tire???? enough to flatten it? So we took the tire off again and still no sign of a leak.. WHATS GOING ON? After refitting the tire again we headed off into the void between these towns. Within ten Km the tire was flat, the rains came. Flat tires, rain and no help. The tire wouldn't stay up long enough to get 100 yards. We left the bike and rode two up into the local town to try and get a new inner tube. No chance. Eventually we stumbled upon a Susuki dealer and they offered to collect the bike as they were going that way to pick up a lawn mower. After getting Taz settled into a motel. I headed off in a truck to retrieve the broken down BMW with a Susuki dealer, ironic.. Once back in the town with the stricken bike and left in the capable hands of the dealer. Taz and I settled down to a Chinese meal, After 14 hours and on 38 miles covered we were shattered.
We communicated our delays to Joe and Flora and arranged a further rendezvous. After the long mileage and the brake downs today this was starting to feel like hard work.
Sleep, oh to dream!
With luck the tire will be fixed in the morning.....
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