The Golden Triangle Rider

ray23 · Posted: 18.03.2007, 20:36 Post subject: Nong Bhua Lamphu Bike Week

Well I may or not make it to Ubon next weekend, ran into a spot of trouble yesterday as the Brits say.

We went to the Nung Bua Lamphu bike week. Which was probably in excess of a 100 bikes, not bad for the first try. Not exactly spectacular but there were certainly friendly and cordial. They met at the park at first, we got there about 1:00 P.M. then came the torture over a 100 degrees and we had to sit and wait for the last group to show up at 4:00 P.M.

We finally left and took a short tour of the town with a Poliice Escort, in mass, then back to the dinosur place towards Udon. We stopped there and had a bull session, I noticed my back tire slipped a little bit on the final turn to that location. Didn't really think much of it, since there was a bit of sand in the roadway.

The next location they were going to go to would be where the party was planned. As it turns out it was a communist base camp during Vietnam close enough at least on clear days they could track the flight activity at the base in Udon. That was something I would have enjoyed seeing. The idea I think was to have the party there and camp overnight.

When I got back to the bike I noticed oil on the tire and dripping oil from the rear differential. I made an attempt to follow the guys to the loaction about 10Klms away, but the road started getting curvey and I was getting to much slippage. So I dropped off and returned to Udon about 40 Klms, stopping once to refill the rear gear box. I would hate to have to replace that instead of a seal.

This being Sunday, I don't know of any shops available, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. If it gets fixed in time and I feel like I can trust it, I will go, if not I will pass. When I got home with this thing in that short distance the rear tire wa coated in oil, not something I want to try on a long distance.

I still have the Phantom and it would cruise up to 130 which should be enough speed to make the trip. Frankly the little guy just kills my back, so I think I will have to pass on that one. So I might or might not make it to Ubon next weekend.

Ray.