What Next

 

What next can happen to me, after yesterday? Well this morning as I left for work, I felt that my rare tyre was flat, so I limped to the nearest service station and found that a small piece of metal had caused a slow leak.

I am starting to wonder if the Baroness, the name I call my Vespa is trying to tell me something because since that day I told her that I am thinking of selling her, she started getting all uppity with me. And now this!

I won't let this little piece of metal get me down. I don't want an repeat of yesterday. Today is going to be a better day.

Nailed Again

This is getting a bit much, the whole of last year I had only 2 punctures with my Vespa, the last one being mid December, and now this. Two punctures in 1 month. February this must stop. This is the nail that was pulled out of my tyre from yesterday's puncture. At least it is the weekend.

Green and Yellow Stripes

The tyre people tried to patch my rear tyre which was about a month and a half old with not much use until a piece of wire the size of a industrial staple cause the tyre to spring a leak. The patching attempts and 2 blowouts later, I came to the conclusion that these cheap tyres cannot be repaired easily. Oh well, I had to buy another tyre.

On these new tyres there are 2 thin green and yellow stripes. At first I thought they were some manufacturing code but it turns out to there just to facilitate with production.

Flat Monday

Who would have thought that this tiny metal shard the size of a industrial staple would ruin my day. Leaving for work this morning I noticed that my rear tyre was flat, so I stopped at the garage to repair the leak. 

On the way home, the repair job failed and I found myself on the side of the highway in the fast lane in rush hour. It wasn't a pretty sight. Another biker stopped and offered some tyre weld by the hole was too large to seal, so I put another seal in and used the remainder of the tyre weld to inflate it a bit, just enough to start limping, and cross to to safer side of the highway. I then arranged for Dael to meet me with my pickup along the route. Thankfully I did as I only made about 5km before this seal also failed.  

Tired Tyre

On Friday, I discovered my rear tyre of my Vespa flat and I had to leave it at work due to it being a long weekend. Yesterday I finally got round to replacing the tired old tyre. Strange my Vespa has been very heavy on rear brakes and tyres. I have never replaced my front tyre or front break pads since I got the Vespa about 5 years ago, not once BUT I have changed my back tyres and break pads about twice a year, that is a lot. 

This is the first morning that I am riding on this rear tyre. I'm not sure about this brand from China but it was at a good price and I got good reviews from it. Well lets see how long this tyre lasts.

Nailed It

Arriving at work this morning, I noticed that I had nailed it, well not quite. I saw that my rear tyre of my Vespa had an 2 inch nail through the side wall. Eish, really!

By lunch time the tyre was still inflated, so I decided to slip out and see if I can get it repaired. The first place I found was a tyre place and just one look they turned me away stating that because it was through the side wall, they can't fix it. I finally ended up at a bike shop, and priced their tyres. Okay reasonable so I gave the go ahead.

The repair technician, came up and simply pulled the nail out and the tyre did not deflate. He said that the nail didn't go through the tyre and is safe the still use.

Well that saved me some money but I still have to take it easy riding home just to be sure.

Battle of the Bulge

Eish what more can happen? I needed to go up to Pretoria to fetch Matthew for the weekend with my Vespa since my pickup was still at the panel beaters, I got a SMS stating that my pickup was was now in the striping department after it was moved to this panel beater in Florida from my insurance company's yard.

Firstly I needed fuel and rode to the neareat petrol station but on the way I heard this doff doff sound which I wasn't too sure about. After fulling up I put the bike up on the centre stand and was revving up the engine trying to see where the sound was coming from, it was then that I saw the bulge in the rear tyre.

Oh no, just why me? well I can be ever so thankful that I heard the sound, investigated, and found what could be the problem before I hit the highway. Having a rear wheel blow out on a bike at speed is like riding a wild fish. Not as deadly as having the front tyre go but it shakes so much that all you can do is hold on and somehow slow down while avoiding any obstacles like cars. This has happened a few times to me while riding my Vespa but thank the Lord, that it didn't happen again. Now to somehow get money for a new rear tyre.

Give me strength to say "It is well with my soul".

Guardian Angel

Today my guardian angel worked overtime. To start my story let me start 2 weeks back when I first drove my pickup. I left after work on that Friday 2 weeks ago and rushed over to Benoni to pick up Matthew. As a surprise to Matthew, I had arranged to pick up his cousin Jean-Jurie in Pretoria and drove the long road home late in the evening with 2 boys in the back unbeknown to me that my guardian angel was protecting me in overtime mode.

I arrived home quite late and parked my pickup only to get back in it this morning 2 weeks later as I had to pick up Matthew for my birthday weekend and father’s day. On my usual pre-inspection before setting out to work, I noticed that the pickup’s left front tyre was flat. Expecting that I must have picked up a nail or something those 2 weeks earlier and now have a leak I slowly drove my pickup to the nearest service station and pumped up the tyre. It was on 0.4 bar of pressure but worse was that my brakes were spongy, I must have somehow gotten air into the brake system which was very strange. I carefully drove to work in rush hour traffic.

The first gap I got, I decided to take it in to the closest tyre place to where I was working. The tyre was taken off and checked for any leaks but, this is the next strange park, no leak was found. No nail or leaking valve, nada, nothing. Someone must have let my tyre down. Not thinking that it could have been my guardian angel, as my first obvious person would be the plumber contractor that I had working on my property but things between us had soured. When the tyre was put back, the fitter discovered that my entire hub was lose, hanging on by the last thread of the centre wheel nut, the brake line, and the CV joint.

Oh my word, I was in shock. The entire wheel was about to come off. If I was driving on the highway to fetch Matthew, I could have had a serious accident. Or even worse it could have come off that night when I had the 2 boys in my pickup. Who could have loosened the centre nut? It dawned on me that my guardian angel must have let my tyre down this morning to warn me of the impending danger.

In conclusion to this story is that after the centre nut was retightened and locked into place, the tyre was put back and strangely the brakes were back to normal. My guardian angel must be working overtime protecting me and my family, thank you.

Marvellous 3 Inch Nails

Yes 3 nails caused Lynda to be stranded on the side of the road yesterday evening on the way back from work. Let me start from the beginning, Lynda left work but did not get very far as she discovered that she had a flat tyre. Firstly it was getting dark which is not funny, plus the jack of her car had become stuck and difficult to remove from its storage place to be used so after phoning me, I called the Discovery Insure’s Roadside assistance to come to her aid, isn’t that what we pay insurance for.

About an hour later a person called Marvellous from TMA Towing & Recovery arrived representing Discovery Insure in a clapped out Volkswagen Golf. He had to pop the bonnet to switch the car off, and later to start the car with a whine of a loose fan belt in a way the only VWs can do.

Anyway Marvellous was very courteous and helped Lynda change her tyre, thank you Marvellous.

So now today, I had to take Lynda’s car in to get her tyre fixed. I didn’t want to go nowhere near Tiger Wheel and Tyre Woodmead which was just down the road, since the petrol incident and are now known by their acronym TWAT. Instead I decided to take it to the Rivonia branch of Tiger Wheel and Tyre. The guys fixing the tyre discover 2 large nails about a inch long in the tyre and they informed me that another tyre also looked suspicious as it was half flat. Behold a third nail was found. Uhmmm.

Marvellous 2 new tyres later and a rather lighter pocket, Lynda’s car is back in action.

Pothole Luck

It has been a bad day and I want to eat worms. Jade shown above tries her best to console me.

Johannesburg has been overtaken by Cape Town as crime capitals but surely Johannesburg must still be the capital of potholes? Driving on the streets of Gangster’s Paradise you are caught between eToll thieves on one side, highjackers on another, smash and grabbers posing as beggars or window washers on another, and now not to forget potholes everywhere. There was a time when weaving on the road meant that you were drunk but now it means you are avoiding potholes and the ones driving straight are drunk.

Trust my luck, I went through a mother of a pothole and damaged both my left hand side tyres. With only one spare wheel, two flat tyres, and two damaged rims, I now just sits my head in my hands, this is not good.

Bad Hair Day

It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day which started yesterday when I made supper. Somehow I melted the food steamer but these things happen and my chicken curry was a success. It started raining sometime in the evening and by the time I went to bed, the rain on the tin roof quickly put me to sleep. Little did I know that it would get even worse in a few hours.

About half past one in the morning I woke, and looking at the CPAP machine I had been sleeping for four hours with 3.2 apneas per hour. So an apnoea must have woken me up and now my mouth was dry and my nose blocked. These are some of the side affects of a CPAP machine even with a humidifier hocked up. I battled to go to sleep so I made a cup of rooibos tea and settled on m y bed with my tablet waiting for sleep to near but it stayed away. I then remembered my medicine for my nose which should unblock it but when reaching for it I knocked over the nearly full cup of tea.

Place profanities here. I jump out of bed to try rescue everything on my side table including the CPAP machine. After unplugging the machine, I can only hope that it is okay. Now after all this I couldn’t go back to sleep.

It can only get better. With more rain expected this afternoon I decided to use the pickup today only to find that it had a flat tyre. Sigh. Although I don’t have hair, a bad day is like a bad hair day, tomorrow it will be better. I just have to get there.

Thumbs Up

Eish on the way home today, I got a puncture in my rear tyre of my Vespa. Oh no, what to do? Wait on the side of the road for help or pull out my trusty Thumbs Up Tyre Repair Kit.

This will be the third time, I had to pull out this tyre repair kit but in the previous two times, I didn’t get to use it because the first time there was a 2cm slash in the tyre which made the kit useless and the second time, I stopped to help someone else with a flat tyre but found out that their tyre wasn’t tubeless.

So third time lucky. Thank goodness the Thumbs Up Tyre Repair Kit worked flawlessly. It normally takes me 35 mins from work to home but with the flat tyre it took me 50 mins. Not bad for a 15 mins tyre repair plus stop at service station for an air pressure top up. Thumbs Up!

Bikers 911

Sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of nowhere; and sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself. Late last night while riding home from our church’s small home group meeting on Scarlet my red Vespa GTS300 Super, a black cat ran across the road just in front of me. I stopped and watched it in the headlights while it sat at the side of the road for a while before it darted into the veld. Now I am not a superstitious person at all and actually enjoyed our encounter but it raises questions when this morning while commuting to work on my trusty steed, Scarlet, I felt my rear tyre suddenly become unstable so I safely pulled over to the emergency shoulder and discovered that I had a cut about a centimetre in the rear tyre. The cut was way too big to use the repair kit that I carry in my cubbyhole. I found myself stranded, black cats or not.

I was stranded just as you enter Krugersdorp on the R28 next to the suburb of Noordheuwel. I could get someone to come all the way from Randburg but it would have to fit into their schedules and in rush hour traffic this exercise would ruin my entire morning. My best bet was to find a motorcycle place in Krugersdorp or Roodepoort. I spent the next hour on the side of the road searching the web, phoning numbers, and emailing, but it was way too early for the West Rand shops to open. It was after eight that I finally got hold of a bike shop, Big Boy West Rand. They only had 120/70-12 tyres and not 130/70-20 tyres that I needed but I was stranded and had to make a quick call on the thinner tyre. Big Boy West Rand promptly sent out a driver to pick my Vespa and me up.

While I was on the phone with Big Boy West Rand, a car pulled up and out jumped a young man wearing a denim waist-coat covered in biker club badges. Obvious a biker who saw another biker in need, stopped and offered to help. I was blown away when he stated that their code is come hell or high water, they never leave a brother or sister on the side of the road. Respect man, respect!

He could have just driven past like many did that morning, but he saw a biker in need, and stopped immediately to offer assistance. He went on to tell me about Bikers 911 where the Bikers are helping Bikers wherever they find themselves in a pickle. These brothers and sisters make a pledge to stop and offer any help they can, be it a skill, a trailer, a bottle of water, a phone call, or even a little moral support, but they won’t just ride by and wave. They have a Bikers 911 Facebook site but I only wish I got his name or the club that he belonged to so that I can thank him for support that he gave me long side the road this morning, respect!

Since I am safe and sound, and to make sure that there is nothing linking black cats to my ordeal because black cats always get a raw deal, I hope that the black cat from last night is all safe and snug, as the veld where it disappeared into is jackal territory. So the life lesson for today is, if a black cat crosses your path, pet it.

Tyre Replacement

Before going on any long trip with your vehicle, you would need to do a thorough safety check. Frome Brakes to windscreen wipers all need to be checked. Here is Lynda’s car spending the morning at Tiger Wheel and Tyre, getting a new set of front tyres on and wheel alignment adjusted.

Tiger Wheel & Tyre

Well it is about time I replaced the pot hole damaged tyre on Sassette, my Ford Bantam pickup. At first I went to Supa Quick in Krugersdorp and HiQ in Roodepoort but sadly they didn't have the Michelin tyres I wanted and both wanted to flog me a South Korean brand called Kumho.

I eventually found the Michelin Energy XM2 at Tiger Wheel & Tyre in Roodepoort. Although this tyre is more expensive, the reason I rather have this tyre over others is because I've already used this tyre for over 3 years and am very happy with the tread usage. On the down side, the sales blurb on Michelin websites they state that this tyre have proven themselves in pothole tests nevertheless I have already written off 2 of these tyres in the last 3 years due to potholes. Goes to show, never believe the sales pitch.

Potholes beware! This time I have registered on Michelin.co.za for their 12 month Pothole Guarantee. And that’s not all! Michelin is also giving me a 70,000km Mileage Warranty valid for 5 years. Plus a 24hr Roadside Assistance. Well let’s see if Michelin would hold up to their side of this agreement as I have already in the pass burnt my fingers with warranties and guarantees when I first bought these tyres from Tiger Wheel & Tyre. They pushed their X-Sure, Tyre Insurance 3 years ago and I purchased. Humph, it expired last month.

Can I sue Ballito?

I have just come back from a wonderful holiday at Ballito but three things really irked me down there and that was...

1. The town of Ballito running out of water over the Christmas holidays, their busiest season due to bad planning. The holiday seaside town taps ran dry for a week at their most busiest. There were even reports of holiday makers packing up and cancelling their accommodation.

2. The amount of chicken bones and beer bottles all over the beach. I was so concerned for my dogs as it was a handful restraining them. Who is going to pay for the vet bills if a bone does them any harm? And the broken glass, heaven forbid. I can vouch that it was one of the worst beaches I've ever been too.

3. The potholes. Yes the potholes, one in particular cost me a new tyre, thank you very much. Does anyone actually repair the roads in Ballito. I mean some of the seafront properties cost in the region of R10 million rand. How much rates do all those multi-millionaires pay for their holiday homes? Can some of that money go into fixing the infrastructure instead of building more malls.

Other than my three bug bears, I had a wonderful time only because I spent most of it north of Ballito at pristine beaches that was safe for my dogs and me.

As you must notice from my tone that I am back at work, day one and in need of a holiday to recover from my holiday and a new tyre.