Wednesday, August 28, 2013

28 August - Stopped by a stick

Took off this morning on the Honda in fine, sunny conditions with the aim of visiting towns along the South Gippsland Highway. Had a great ride as far as Korumburra where trouble struck. As I pulled into Kelly's cafe for lunch and a coffee I noticed a small stick, part of a tree branch, protruding from the bottom of the bike on the left hand side. No recollection of riding over it so I switched the bike off and attempted to remove it but found it was stuck pretty tight. A closer look revealed it had in fact punctured the main cooling hose from the water pump to the engine head and as I finally freed it a steady drip of green coolant began from the damaged hose. Bugger!!
Fortunately the bike is covered by Honda Rider Assist, and a quick phone call resulted in the promise that help would arrive within the hour. I barely had time to finish lunch before my rescuer arrived and we loaded the bike on to his trailer, to be transported to the Honda dealer in nearby Leongatha. He told me he was quite surprised. He had never had to rescue a Honda before, the majority of his calls were for another (US based) brand of bike. So, within an hour of striking trouble, the bike was up on a hoist to confirm that the punctured hose was indeed the culprit. The next hurdle was a replacement hose. No stock and the earliest arrival in the country would be 9 September, and I was now 80 km from home with no transport of any kind. Time to improvise. Frank, my friendly mechanic agreed that a temporary repair would probably get me home, so out with the superglue, a bit of old tyre tube and some cable ties and the bike was as good as new. Well at least the hose wasn't leaking. Rode it all the way back to Traralgon, with a stop every 10 km or so and never lost a drop of coolant. I really appreciated the good service received from Honda Rider Assist, and the persistence and ingenuity of Frank at Knight's Honda in Leongatha. So now the Honda will be stabled for a while awaiting the arrival of a new water pump hose.

Total Distance 186 km.

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