There is a book of this name by Robert Preslig ( spelling Wilson ?) which is a lovely juxtaposition of Zen and general philosophy intermingled with the practical details of keeping a motorbike on the road. Well we have had Yen rather than Zen to contend with but philosophy in general went out the window as I worked out how to fix a motorbike tyre on a Sunday in Japan. Anyway the very helpful people at the hotel front desk went to work and we located a workshop that worked on a Sunday. However the tyre was leaking fast so I was reluctant to ride 20 km to a workshop. We located a workshop that agreed to pick the bike up from the hotel.
So it was an ignominious start this morning and no real way to treat a lady!
Then we got delivered not to the workshop that we had contacted but rather to a little Mom and Pop workshop servicing mainly scooters. Oh the indignity to the Redhead !
And we find the problem! It was a leaking valve stem which had not been tightened properly by the workshop in Auckland. I had checked the valve itself with good old fashioned Hubbard spittle but this was the old fashioned soap and water test. We checked the whole of where the tyre meets the rim to look for leaking bead set but the problem was just with the valve seat. All fixed !
So now we are back at the hotel and rock to roll tomorrow morning. But first we pack down the bike again
Then tomorrow morning we are off to Nozawa-Onsen which is in the mountains north west of Tokyo. We are staying on the north of Tokyo so this route avoids having to cross Tokyo which would not be much fun on a motorbike
Comments
Not much time to sit back with such a major breakdown , even if it was only a leaky valve.
Glad you sought it out so fast during the weekend . From now on happy biking and enjoying the ride.
Cheers
Arie