The Longest Friday

Over 40,000 miles of globe trotting abuse and the big BMW finally decided to give a little abuse back at me. Electrical Problem…..  the most feared two words in the average biker’s vocabulary!   Fortunately for me there is  a secret subculture of master mechanics that lurk deep with in the asylum of Advrider.com.  These folks are up day and night, hovering over the computer…..just hoping some fool Yank gets his bike broken in Oz so they can rush to the rescue spewing forth copious amounts of (mostly) sound advice, assistance and comic relief.  The ADVrider community,. (especially the Aussies)  rallied on the forum to assist me. And much to my surprise one of the ADVriders actually showed up in person….in NEWMAN(a tiny mining town in the middle BFN, Western Australia)

Its all posted http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=556537&highlight=yank

But I’ll copy in some of the more entertaining bits from the forum,

posted day 1 in Neman-

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“Hoping for some tech advice,.. made it all the way across Australia running tough dirt tracks with a solid running R1150 GS adventure. However,..while stopped at a gas station in Newman I came out to fire her up….no reaction from starter button. I checked the kill switch,..checked the battery,..bypassed the sidestand switch…no luck…and I’m out of ideas. All my display lights light up,..everything looks/sounds great except there is just no reaction when the starter button is pressed. Please send me your wisdom
Chris”

(I got about 20 pages of replies from all over the world, some of these guys literaly spent hours explaining my wire harness to me. I cant post it all tonight, but the comic relief posts are to classic to pass up  -like this vid posted by Sundowner

And this brialliant poet(Troy Safari Carpente) actually wrote new lyrics to the song “six months in a leaky boat”- by Split Enz

“When I was a young yank, I wanted to ride ’round the world
That’s the life that’s best, ridin’ far ‘n fetched
Spirit of adventure to circumnavigate this land
The lust of a pioneer… not- much mechanical idea…

I remember the glance, then I crapp’ed… in me pants
Headlights dead, tempers flare, “…check the fuse?… fuckin’ where?!”
I just spent six hours at NewmanPark
strugglin’ just to get a spark…

“Where-the-fuck-is-Pil’bra…?” rugged individual… he’s a bloody pearl
At the left end of the world
The tyranny of distance wouldn’t stop a KTM…
So why should it stop you? (a Bee-Em-Double-fuckin’-you)

Ah come on all you lads, let’s chip in and help out
There’s a world’s expertise
on this forum… ”help him please?”
or he’ll spend six days stuck at NewmanPark
six ways just to find no spark…

Outback towns can be cruel
Don’t be fooled down the pub…
Once they say; “it’s your shout…”, poor septic ‘ll ne-ver-get out…
He’ll just spend six months in Warrawanda Creek
also known as… “up-shit creek”…”

Posted day 3 in Newman-

“the exoricism of GS

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ADVriders of OZ,…I’m uber pleased to announce I’m mobile again. Thanks to you guys and especialy local advrider(Pilbara) ..I’m out of the trailer park and back on tour. I realize you guys spent some significant time helping me diagnose the problem…I’m in your debt…this is an I owe you on a napkin… the name’s Chris Barnecut,..and if we link up I owe you a cold one.

So…. I climbed into my tent last night with a heavy heart ..feeling exhausted after a day of tinkering in the sun and swatting at flys while pushing wires around. but as you said I was getting closer to the culprit and I at least knew it wasnt the starter/ starter relay/ clutch switch/ neutral switch or sidestand switch… so the following day I had to find out if it was a break in the wire,…a busted ignition or kill switch

Driven from my tent in the morning by the roaring sun,.. I emerged to find local ADVrider “Pilbara” in my campsite offering assistance and relocation to a real workshop. And he showed up with UTE…with a crane in the back…best rescue ever!

Everything was a lot cooler having a shop to work in and hardcore Australian Safari racer helping me sort out my issues.

long story short…..the problem…drum role please…….. both ignition button and kill button….gone bunk! I know…go ahead and tell me I’m wrong and it was just the kill switch….but we tested each about 10 times with the voltmeter in several different ways…I know it doesnt make sense,…but both were jacked.

Oh..pulling the ignition switch housing was difficult at first,..cus a sticker was covering one of the screws….took us a lot of struggle to figure that one out,..once we lifted that last screw,..she all came apart nicely…its not a closed unit.

Fixing it, – bypassed the kill switch (I’ve never (intentionally) used it anyway,..always reached for the ignition key on getoffs)
- put in a new and very exiting toggle switch to replace the old bunk ignition button…..makes me feel like jet pilot now when I start up the bike.

now she’s running like a dream….thanks for getting me back on the roads guys!….special thanks to ADVrider Pilbara”

parting shot from Newman..

So she’s all worked out,..and I’ve got a new friend in Newman… Kelvin is the only person I’ve ever known that has more dirt miles on his 1200GS than paved miles.  I think his form of riding can best be described as BADDASS!

He’s ever rougher on his bike than I am on mine,..except he writes off bikes with a lot more skill grace.  I look forward to following him in his next Australian Safari Race (Aussie version of the Paris Dakar).  Not to let the cat out of the bag or anything,…but he’s got a race bike coming together …thats never been seen before.  Built around GS1200 engine..its going to turn heads at the next rally.

Pro sideCar Moto Racer and race engineer Paul with Kelvin in the devil’s workshop with project X

So from Newman its a hot mostly paved road

l

to the western edge of the Continent…and the Indian Ocean.

the only way to celebrate crossing a very hot continent is by cerimonial skinny dipping…sorry no lude pics (thats on my “other” website)

Exmouth was a blast! nothing but good times and top notch hospitality from new friends. will continue next week on that