Another lazy start, there is somewhat of a trend starting here I think. I was super lethargic again and we both had sore throats. We agreed that this cold was the sick that kept on giving. We drove into town to find a motorbike shop to give us some help with the gudgeon pin of the scooter. The first one I found, suitably named Dan’s Motorcycle Repair, looked pretty much abandoned but was just closed for the Monday. Shame because it looked like a dirt-baggy workshop, the perfect place to get a bit of help. Not too disheartened, I found another shop close by and gave them a call. Dan called me a nerd for having sound come through my speakers when I called them with my Bluetooth. Apparently my Aussie accent got us in the door after they told me that they don’t touch Chinese stuff. After a bit of asking, they said we could bring it around for their mechanic to have a look. Ten minutes later, we were at the door of Epic Motorcycle Repair and they were expecting us.

The mechanic and the boss had a quick look and immediately told us that the gudgeon pin should not take any force to remove since the piston is attached to it with circlips, not a press fit like I’m used to seeing on car engines. They advised us that we should buy a new crank assembly since the labour to remove the pin and repair the conrod would not be worth it. We thanked them for the advice and asked if they could loosen the end crankshaft nut for us, just in case we needed to remove the crankshaft. The mechanic happily obliged and carried the engine back into the workshop. Dan watched as he searched for the right tool for the job and noticed that not only did the guy have a pistol on his hip, he had a revolver in the top drawer of his tool box. Dan was sure he opened the top drawer just to show it off, since there were no other tools in there. Maybe he was telling us not to cause any trouble, or else! No one was robbing that workshop that’s for sure.

Next on the day’s agenda was to find a park to do some work on getting the pin out. I found a suitable spot in Lincoln Park and we were off, me to find a bike shop on the way there to get my wheel fixed. I found “The Bike Shop” and wandered in there with my busted wheel. There were a few mechanics in the workshop, one of which was a girl named Sarah (must be something to do with the name). The head guy helped me straight away, taking the broken nipples off the end of the two broken spokes and replacing them. He had trouble with one but after applying a bit of heat, he cracked it off. He didn’t mind me watching every move he made so I could understand what was going on. He put the wheel on a true stand and corrected the gross wobble that had manifested itself in the wheel. All fixed, Sarah sorted me out with some lube and they didn’t charge me for the wheel repair. Legends!

I found Dan in the park, not a shred of progress had been made on the scooter, much to my surprise. Dan made us both a salad before we decided we were both hanging out for a cold Coke and since there was a Maccas nearby, we delayed bike work to walk over to it. There was a lot of action going on at the track inside Lincoln Park and as we crossed the road to Maccas, we discovered we’d just missed witnessing an accident. There was a car facing backwards on the kerb and a big burly man in tears, his girlfriend consoling him by rubbing his back softly. Obviously his pride and joy had been ruined. Dan stood guard outside Maccas with Cleo while I went in and got us a pair of ice creams and a pair of cokes (oh yeah, the healthy life). We crossed back across the road and sat in the shade to enjoy our treats, feeling like a couple of highschool kids on their first or second date. We switched between watching the action on the athletics track and the drama of the accident’s aftermath.

Back at the park, we still we’re keen to do any work on the scooter so decided to go back to camp for a work session. It was such a nice spot neither of us minded going back for another night. The drive was just as nice the second time around. Dan stopped to buy beer so I had time to scout out the whole camp area only to discover that we’d already found the best spot on offer. During my scout, I came across what looked like a laundry bag full of clothes on the side of the road, as if it had flown off the back of a car. On my way back along the road, I stopped and picked it up, surprised to find that it contained a few men’s shirts that looked to be Dan’s size. One man’s loss is another dirtbag’s treasure? I picked up the bag and when I met Dan back at camp, I pronounced that he should praise me like he should and presented him with the goodies. The shirts were a little tight for his liking, but by my estimation looked perfect on him, especially the Smokey the Bear shirt. Not only did they fit, but they were fancy shirts from REI in nice material. I kept the laundry bag for myself and we ended up using the few pairs of underwear for clean rags to work on the scooter.

We got the scooter off the back of the Presidential Lounge and lodged the conrod against a rock so we could tap the pin out. Sure enough, after a few decent hits with a hammer, the pin came out. In hindsight, we probably should have used something to stop the sandstone going into the oil case, but I gave it a good clean out after the fact instead. We noticed that the tight fit had been caused by a piece of the old pin welding itself to the wall of the conrod and set to work on grinding it off. Using my drill and Dan’s chainsaw file, we worked away trying to file off enough material to get the new pin in. We probably worked at it for a good half an hour before we realised we weren’t making enough progress. We’d already snapped the end of the chainsaw file once and didn’t want to do any more damage so we called it a day. We figured our next best option was to get ourselves a dremmel and grind away the extra material with stone.

Just as we clocked out for the day, a couple of people approached our camp. Justin and Anne were our neighbours that we hadn’t seen and came over just to say hi, offering us a pair of ice cold beers which we graciously accepted. They were rednecky, working full time but living out of their car and while they were friendly enough, they were suspicious. Before extending his hand, Justin asked quite abruptly, “Just you?” looking over our shoulders as if to make sure we didn’t have any kids or friends hiding somewhere. Weird. Maybe they were doing a headcount to make sure they wouldn’t be outnumbered when they attacked us in the middle of the night? I was grateful not to be alone out there after that.

We were admiring the sunset over the top of the canyon when, all of a sudden, the wind picked up and rain started coming down. We packed the chairs away quickly and huddled in Dan’s van while the weather passed. Amazingly, I still had the sleepys and so ended up falling asleep without notice. Dan eventually did the same, with the intention of having a nap. We woke up a few times and contemplated making dinner but before we could get out of bed, I would fall asleep again. In the end, I stayed asleep for the rest of the night, not even noticing when Dan got out of bed to make himself some yoghurt and granola for dinner.