Ishrub
That's my name ....built like a truck
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2016
- Messages
- 8,857
- Location
- Duffy, Canberra, ACT, AUSTRALIA
- Ride
- 2x2010 ABS Roadsters, Sprint ST 1050 ABS, 3x250s
I was heading to the bike shop to pick up a couple of non-urgent spares (oil plug washers and fender badge) having just done a oil and filter change last week before @HansO dropped a new tune in my R3R.
I had just started up a steep hill on the 6 lane Hindmarsh Drive freeway with no turn-offs for kilometres when the throttle died and I was left rolling along idling with a truck or ten bearing down on me. Pulled off onto the verge and immediately diagnosed a broken throttle cable. Me being me I had two new spares (push and pull, the outers have different fittings at the twist grip) in the saddlebags (as well as a clutch cable, regulator rectifier, front & rear wheel and headstem bearing kits BUT I left the kitchen sink at home)
edit: forgot the extra fuel pump in there too!
Immediately confirmed the underseat tools are useless and pulled out my 1/4" socket set and 2+ BMW tool kits with extras (I am me afterall). Before you get too impressed I am a CRAP mechanic and it takes me hours to undo a few screws and bolts and try to get them back together again.
I started pulling my throttle apart and rang @CanberraR3 at the bike shop for guidance and moral support as it was about an hour from dark. He was suitably impressed that I had the new ones with me (that he had ordered for me a month earlier) and started providing sage advice when a car pulled up and two South Pacific Islanders came up offering to assist.
Unbelievably the Samoan was a mechanic and had worked on Rockets in Western Samoa (God loves me!) and the other was a Fiji army officer who was also finishing his Political Science and Law degree at the Australian National University here in Canberra on a scholarship. It turned out they were Mormons on their Missionary year and had just finished servicing a fellow church member's car and were on their way home. Further discussions ensued as I had lived in Fiji as a teenager, nearly married a Samoan at 21 and had been to school and then University with other Fijians and Pacific Islanders one of whom, Tevita Vuibau, a geologist and ex army officer became my best mate at the time before he went on to become the Fiji Foreign Minister many years later after we lost contact. The last time I saw him was 1982 after I went to Fiji on holiday from Darwin and worked with him plotting charts for a week on a tiny hydralogical survey vessel crewed by the Fiji Navy before staying in his village for another week.
It turned out that 4 or 5 people I knew well and lived with for a few years had all come from prominent political families in Fiji including an ex boyfirend of my sister Charlie Baba. The young 24yr old student Missionary Elder knew them all well and was amazed to meet an old biker on the side of the road who knew them as well especially his hero my mate. Turns out my mate had also become a Mormon and his grand daughter was currently studying Political Science at our old alma mater and was baptised in the Mormon Church here in Canberra last week. Charlie a forestry expert, had become the only non-Mormon ever employed by the Mormon Church as a genealogist.
Yes we did get the replacement cable fitted just on dark and I left with a blessing given, taken and returned in all sincerity!
I had just started up a steep hill on the 6 lane Hindmarsh Drive freeway with no turn-offs for kilometres when the throttle died and I was left rolling along idling with a truck or ten bearing down on me. Pulled off onto the verge and immediately diagnosed a broken throttle cable. Me being me I had two new spares (push and pull, the outers have different fittings at the twist grip) in the saddlebags (as well as a clutch cable, regulator rectifier, front & rear wheel and headstem bearing kits BUT I left the kitchen sink at home)
edit: forgot the extra fuel pump in there too!Immediately confirmed the underseat tools are useless and pulled out my 1/4" socket set and 2+ BMW tool kits with extras (I am me afterall
). Before you get too impressed I am a CRAP mechanic and it takes me hours to undo a few screws and bolts and try to get them back together again.I started pulling my throttle apart and rang @CanberraR3 at the bike shop for guidance and moral support as it was about an hour from dark. He was suitably impressed that I had the new ones with me (that he had ordered for me a month earlier) and started providing sage advice when a car pulled up and two South Pacific Islanders came up offering to assist.
Unbelievably the Samoan was a mechanic and had worked on Rockets in Western Samoa (God loves me!) and the other was a Fiji army officer who was also finishing his Political Science and Law degree at the Australian National University here in Canberra on a scholarship. It turned out they were Mormons on their Missionary year and had just finished servicing a fellow church member's car and were on their way home. Further discussions ensued as I had lived in Fiji as a teenager, nearly married a Samoan at 21 and had been to school and then University with other Fijians and Pacific Islanders one of whom, Tevita Vuibau, a geologist and ex army officer became my best mate at the time before he went on to become the Fiji Foreign Minister many years later after we lost contact. The last time I saw him was 1982 after I went to Fiji on holiday from Darwin and worked with him plotting charts for a week on a tiny hydralogical survey vessel crewed by the Fiji Navy before staying in his village for another week.
It turned out that 4 or 5 people I knew well and lived with for a few years had all come from prominent political families in Fiji including an ex boyfirend of my sister Charlie Baba. The young 24yr old student Missionary Elder knew them all well and was amazed to meet an old biker on the side of the road who knew them as well especially his hero my mate. Turns out my mate had also become a Mormon and his grand daughter was currently studying Political Science at our old alma mater and was baptised in the Mormon Church here in Canberra last week. Charlie a forestry expert, had become the only non-Mormon ever employed by the Mormon Church as a genealogist.
Yes we did get the replacement cable fitted just on dark and I left with a blessing given, taken and returned in all sincerity!
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