Yet again …

Friday: all starts well and I realize how fortunate I am to be able to do another bike trip. Saturday: three of us arrive from two directions into Sutherland … all 3 degrees of it. The short leg from Maitjiesfontein for newbie rider Henri a fellow dog and I, with Allen coming in from Britstown. Sunday: Henri heads back to Som. West and day 3 starts for Al and I on a truly wet ‘n snotty but great R354 to Calvinia, it’s 2 degrees at 7am but has by now improved to 8 at 10am. 85k’s later at the Middlepos stop and I smell hydraulic fluid, look around but see no sign of the truck that must have dumped some nearby. 50k‘s further and still the smell persists and still see no truck/bakkie etc but think nothing of it. R63 turn off stop and the realization that the smell originates from my bike and I kid you not but it takes about 4 minutes for my slightly frozen noodle to realize it’s front fork oil … lots of it too from both forks. Bliksem!!
Reality check: it’s 425k’s to CT or 425k’s to Upington. Decide on CT but first an overnight at Piekenierskloof … 530 clicks being enough for me for one oil covered day.
Monday: hit the road at 8am but start by calling the bike dealers from 7.30am onwards, all very helpfull indeed but no OEM seals in stock (and by default front brake pads too) … they can order and have them couriered down from JNB by Tuesday pm and do repairs on Wednesday …. decisions, decisions as we have booked accommodation in Nam for Wednesday. Then Al has a moment of absolute clarity …
Mike Fuchs: put through a call to ‘Superfoxi‘ at 9.45am. Yes, he has everything we need, can do it immediately, has brake pads too, front and rear, and does the job in half the time I would expect a dealer to do it in. By 3.35 we are on our way back to Nam … !
The Gent from George: … with his new just-about-new Red AT (the slow one) who jinxed the ride by talking about the famously shit short life span of the front fork seals on the first edition AT (29600 for me) will be named and shamed later ….