lecap
Bachelor Dog
No! I did not convert and still ride my DR650SE.
Also: Please note!!! This thread is fictional. No incident or person is related in any way to incidents or persons I or others have experienced. Everything is fictional. If you feel I'm talking about you you might be right
One of my neighbours used to have a Chinese delivery bike. He recently got a Japanese bike and gave the Chinese set of wheels - let's call it Chopstick to avoid brand bashing - to the delivery boy as private transport.
I have worked on Chopstick before. A chance to dust the tools I had made for servicing Black Bombers and CB250's.
I also have bought parts for Chopstick before. A set of clutch plates. After a number of phone calls through the vast expanses of our beloved beautiful country I had extracted the information that Chopstick's clutch plates were to be identical to those of "a 200cc Honda".
You might have guessed that I did not annoy my Honda parts supplier Dickie with this sparse set of information.
A brief visit at the local and famous aftermarket parts shop (and second hand spares stockpile) armed with a set of worn and oily clutch plates revealed Honda CD200 parts as being a match, in stock, bought, fitted...
...but this time everything was (meant to be) so much easier:
Chopstick's drive train was losing the teeth off the sprockets and the bare steel sprocket gums battled mot only to engage firmly but also to keep the chain where it belonged.
Armed with telephone numbers retrieved during the clutch plate ordeal I phoned the local dealer.
Unless other (Japanese) motorcycle shops the Chopstick dealer is not located in the congested city centre but rather in a peripheral location where cattle and sheep used to graze until urbanisation and development started not so long ago.
The telephone call revealed the needed parts being in stock and awaiting my collection.
Unfortunately an out of season cold front turned the anticipated leisurely ride into the outer periphery of the Mother City into a mildly annoying cage drive.
Walking into the shop I pass bikes with names unheard of. Gaps are filled with a handful of pit bikes. Also a few used Japanese bikes. I wonder if they are staff owned or if someone really trades in a 400 Bandit for a Chopstick. Some monster resembling a twin seated Go-cart with roll cage and balloon tires lurks on a low table in the workshop.
I eventually make out some bikes with Chopstick logos on the tank. They look frighteningly different to my neighbours bike.
I turn towards a quite cute blonde sales assistant behind the counter and voice my desire to purchase a set of drive chain sprockets for a Chopstick Hot and Sour 200.
The blonde passes my request to her not so cute male colleague:
"A Chopstick you say?"
"Yes!"
"Humm"
"?"
"Hummhumm"
:
"Like that one?"
I turn around and try to make out something at least remotely resembling my neighbours bike.
"The black one"
A black bike with a Chopstick tank emblem stands right in front of me. It is a DS and looks frighteningly different to my neighbours bike.
"No! No! It looks more like a Honda CD200! But it's a single A delivery bike! Like in the 1970's. With chromed mudguards and so"
I recite the model name (as if it would help).
"Oh, yah, but isn't that a Chow Mein?"
(You ask me Bozo : ??? ) :clown:
"Chow Mein?" ???
"Yah! A Chow Mein. I can show you one. There outside!"
I try to make out anything that has the slightest similarizies to my neighbours bike in the yard - without success.
"But I phoned on Friday and your colleague said you've got stock?!?"
The salesman walks outside with me without comment. We end up in the remote corner of the grounds.
In front of us two rudimental skeletons of two wheeled motorised transport. No engine. No seat. No tank. Not many other components.
"Hummhumm" (Me this time). "Yah just give me the sprockets for the Chow Mein. If they don't fit I'll bring them back. It looks similar to my customers bike, somehow" (It also has a ridiculous angle grinder disc as a front tyre. Think my mountain bike tyres are as wide)
Back in the shop the salesman disappears to dig for sprockets. The Blonde does not take notice of the universe around her giving me a chance to further peep into the workshop spotting bits and pieces that might originate from the two rudimental skeletons outside?
On return the salesman presents two sprockets. The rear one has a logo stamped in saying "Crocodile" It also looks as if a crocodile bit it out of a sheet of steel.
The cute blonde has come back to life and gets my invoice ready (which numerically resembles what you would expect to receive as invoice for a set of japanese bike sprockets. So much for Chopstick being a cheapo).
I quickly pay while the salesman tries to sell me the chain too. I leave to evade the danger of ending up with a chain made from zinc, Pritt and cardboard.
I still have to find out if it's actually the right sprockets. Will report tomorrow
Wonder if they sell all the Chopsticks and Chow Meins just because of the cute blonde?
Do they have a good looking hunk ready to sell to ladies but maybe he was on leave or busy demonstrating ;D ?
Also: Please note!!! This thread is fictional. No incident or person is related in any way to incidents or persons I or others have experienced. Everything is fictional. If you feel I'm talking about you you might be right
One of my neighbours used to have a Chinese delivery bike. He recently got a Japanese bike and gave the Chinese set of wheels - let's call it Chopstick to avoid brand bashing - to the delivery boy as private transport.
I have worked on Chopstick before. A chance to dust the tools I had made for servicing Black Bombers and CB250's.
I also have bought parts for Chopstick before. A set of clutch plates. After a number of phone calls through the vast expanses of our beloved beautiful country I had extracted the information that Chopstick's clutch plates were to be identical to those of "a 200cc Honda".
You might have guessed that I did not annoy my Honda parts supplier Dickie with this sparse set of information.
A brief visit at the local and famous aftermarket parts shop (and second hand spares stockpile) armed with a set of worn and oily clutch plates revealed Honda CD200 parts as being a match, in stock, bought, fitted...
...but this time everything was (meant to be) so much easier:
Chopstick's drive train was losing the teeth off the sprockets and the bare steel sprocket gums battled mot only to engage firmly but also to keep the chain where it belonged.
Armed with telephone numbers retrieved during the clutch plate ordeal I phoned the local dealer.
Unless other (Japanese) motorcycle shops the Chopstick dealer is not located in the congested city centre but rather in a peripheral location where cattle and sheep used to graze until urbanisation and development started not so long ago.
The telephone call revealed the needed parts being in stock and awaiting my collection.
Unfortunately an out of season cold front turned the anticipated leisurely ride into the outer periphery of the Mother City into a mildly annoying cage drive.
Walking into the shop I pass bikes with names unheard of. Gaps are filled with a handful of pit bikes. Also a few used Japanese bikes. I wonder if they are staff owned or if someone really trades in a 400 Bandit for a Chopstick. Some monster resembling a twin seated Go-cart with roll cage and balloon tires lurks on a low table in the workshop.
I eventually make out some bikes with Chopstick logos on the tank. They look frighteningly different to my neighbours bike.
I turn towards a quite cute blonde sales assistant behind the counter and voice my desire to purchase a set of drive chain sprockets for a Chopstick Hot and Sour 200.
The blonde passes my request to her not so cute male colleague:
"A Chopstick you say?"
"Yes!"
"Humm"
"?"
"Hummhumm"
:
"Like that one?"
I turn around and try to make out something at least remotely resembling my neighbours bike.
"The black one"
A black bike with a Chopstick tank emblem stands right in front of me. It is a DS and looks frighteningly different to my neighbours bike.
"No! No! It looks more like a Honda CD200! But it's a single A delivery bike! Like in the 1970's. With chromed mudguards and so"
I recite the model name (as if it would help).
"Oh, yah, but isn't that a Chow Mein?"
(You ask me Bozo :
??? ) :clown:"Chow Mein?" ???
"Yah! A Chow Mein. I can show you one. There outside!"
I try to make out anything that has the slightest similarizies to my neighbours bike in the yard - without success.
"But I phoned on Friday and your colleague said you've got stock?!?"
The salesman walks outside with me without comment. We end up in the remote corner of the grounds.
In front of us two rudimental skeletons of two wheeled motorised transport. No engine. No seat. No tank. Not many other components.
"Hummhumm" (Me this time). "Yah just give me the sprockets for the Chow Mein. If they don't fit I'll bring them back. It looks similar to my customers bike, somehow" (It also has a ridiculous angle grinder disc as a front tyre. Think my mountain bike tyres are as wide)
Back in the shop the salesman disappears to dig for sprockets. The Blonde does not take notice of the universe around her giving me a chance to further peep into the workshop spotting bits and pieces that might originate from the two rudimental skeletons outside?
On return the salesman presents two sprockets. The rear one has a logo stamped in saying "Crocodile" It also looks as if a crocodile bit it out of a sheet of steel.
The cute blonde has come back to life and gets my invoice ready (which numerically resembles what you would expect to receive as invoice for a set of japanese bike sprockets. So much for Chopstick being a cheapo).
I quickly pay while the salesman tries to sell me the chain too. I leave to evade the danger of ending up with a chain made from zinc, Pritt and cardboard.
I still have to find out if it's actually the right sprockets. Will report tomorrow
Wonder if they sell all the Chopsticks and Chow Meins just because of the cute blonde?
Do they have a good looking hunk ready to sell to ladies but maybe he was on leave or busy demonstrating ;D ?
