Have bike, will travel

Brausch is a happy bunny now: he has got his Tigerbike back.

The speedy TGV dropped us at Gare Montparnasse in Paris at midday and our plane was leaving for Phuket at midnight so we had a few hours to pass in Paris. The bus fare from Gare Montparnasse to Charles de Gaulle airport is 17.50 euros, and from Gare Opera only 11.50. There are 5kms between the two stations, from where the airport bus departs. To save a bit of money and to pass the time, and it was a glorious day, I persuaded B that the walk would be good for us. Hence the pained look on the photo outside the Louvre. After resting intermittently on Parisian park benches to watch the passing crowds and consuming the delicious packed lunch of sandwiches and cold pork chops, our load was a bit lighter and we made it to the busstop by 4pm. Luckily there was a bus waiting for us, already revving up to go, so we hopped on smartly clutching our 23 euros; only to be informed that as there was a strike on that day all buses were FREE. The walk to save some bucks had been in vain.

The flight to Shanghai took '4EVUH' and then a 3 hour wait, then another 6 hours to Phuket, then 2 hours to get through customs, then a taxi, and at last we arrived and woke up our friend at 4.30 AM ; We had left home in France at 9am on Tuesday and got to Phuket at 4.30 on Thursday morning. Really, really ready for some rest and recuperation now.

Apart from the near spelling similarities, what else do mosque and mosquito have in common? Well for a start they have an annoying habit of waking you up at 5.30am with an irritating noise. Mosquitos can be silenced.

Tiger bike had been stripped, sprayed with silicon spray, wrapped in clingfilm and been tucked under our friend's house for the last two years. Conveniently, the Thai mechanic lived next door, so we had pre-arranged that he would gather the parts and re-assemble Tigerbike in preparation for our visit. Now that the local foghorns had woken us, B was all abuzz to get reacquainted with Tigerbike. And there it was, rusty, tatty, held together with ductape and cable ties, and started first time.The gem of a mechanic had put it all back together beautifully and he offered a few solutions to make it pot-hole proof. One of the weak spots in our Tigerbike is the rear hub assembly because of the load we carry and the pot-holes. The rear wheel has been replaced twice before. We had left the bike inThailand after a different mechanic had done a temporary repair by cutting a shim out of a beer can and that had lasted a few 100 kms to get us back to base.

Our neighbour mechanic, named PONG, suggested we replace the spoked wheel and aluminium hub with a steel wheel (in thailand known as real iron). There are 10 metal half-pressings , welded to a steel hub and rim that form the wheel. Similar to the Honda Constar wheel. It is much heavier than an aluminiumcast wheel and is opposite to the normal practice. Normally the unsprung weight should be as light as possible, but for pot-holes? the steel wheel may be the answer. Headlamps are still a problem as the manufacturing of Tigerbike stopped a long time ago and we are using Honda parts to fix and modify. Spots are on the shopping list.

For some reason we took the backbox home to France and definitely need some sort of carrier on the back, firstly for luggage and secondly for me to lean against. We rode past a teak wood place and for a mere 2 euros got three teak batons, cut to length and planed on a re-sizer, to make a luggage rack on the back.

The aim is to get to the HorizonsUnlimited mini-meeting in ChangMai by the weekend of 6/7 January where we will celebrate B's 78th birthday.