Buenos Aires 3 - Troy

I am having a very bad day!!!

I awoke this morning and went through the laborious task of packing the bike and gearing up in my multiple layers (10 on my top half). I had planned my route out of the city towards Iguazu, and was looking forward to a few days of riding and camping.

As I was about to ride off, I left the bike for a second, and cos it was on a slight slope, it fell over. Luckily I caught it before it did a domino on the bikes next to it, and some guy helped me to right it, though I managed to knock one of the revision mirrors off in the process. I thus climbed on quite flustered and started her up, and rode off.

I felt the bike jerk a bit, so I pulled up straight away to check what was wrong. Unfortunately the jerking was the bike lock I had put on the front wheel (mainly as a deterrant) snapping. I had forgoten to remove it!!!!!!!!

Fortunately I hadn't gone far (and it's a pretty weak lock), so there is no major damage, though the cable wrapped around the axle and twisted the speedo cable housing out of position, thus I have probably stripped the sprocket.

I tried to fix it enough to ride it to a dealer, but I am going to have to remove the wheel to check the sprocket, or whatever damage I've done could get worse. So I then had to unpack everything and re-check into the hotel.

I am presuming that I will have to replace the whole speedo unit (hopefully that is all the damage), and that probably means waiting for the part to be shipped here. Thus I will be staying for a while longer in Buenos Aires. The fortunate thing is that I did it here and not in the middle of no-where or some tiny town out in the woop woop.

I'm pretty angry at myself for not remembering the lock, though I hadn't used it to lock the bike before (and after Neals story I was being extra cautious), so it wasn't a part of my start up check list... No excusing it though, it was really stupid!!!

I'm calming my frazzled nerves in the hotel at the moment and delaying the inevitable, removing the front wheel and surveying the damage...

Oh well... that's life on the road...

UPDATE

I removed the front wheel and it seems like there is minimal damage. The actual interior of the speedo unit was free of any shredded sprockets and seems to still turn freely. I checked it thoroughly and am hoping that it wont have to be replaced, since it only rotated about 10 degrees out of it's seating.

I re-installed the wheel, and though the speedo housing rotates a couple of degrees more than it used to ((I think this is due to the teeth of the connector being a little stressed) and that's nothing a bit of gaffer tape can't fix), it seems to still be in good nick.

The cable on the other hand is toast, cos when I spun the wheel there was no register on the speedo itself. I've decided that I will try to get a replacement cable tomorrow, though if it will take a week or more to ship, then I'll order it, disconnect the cable, and replace it when I return to Buenos Aires. I know the dingo so well now that I don't need a speedo anyway, I can tell what speed she's doing from the rev meter.

I think I am very lucky because I pulled up quickly (within 3 or 4 meters), so that meant that after the lock snapped, it only managed to get itself wrapped around the axle and upset the speedo unit a little. Also as Tim pointed out, I have checked the spokes, and they are fine, because the lock itself was pretty weak (it is (sorry "was") a light bicycle combo lock that I used to chain my helmet and jacket to the bike).

So I may have been spared a major disaster! To replace the whole speedo unit would have cost me a lot of time and money. I still have to pull the dash apart and inspect the meter and replace the cable (and that is a pretty major task so I decided to tackle it tomorrow when I can confirm getting a replacement).

Thus I am feeling much better now, though still can't excuse my stupidity (and I still have to replace the broken rear vision mirror).

Oh the joys of motorbike travel...