Rodriguez, the Brazilian arrived with his broken Yamaha 250 on the back of a Vlad Moto truck. He was riding with a friend from Portugal to New York but had bike problems. We later discovered all the problems were caused by his arrogance. No tools, no maintenance and no idea meant his big end bearings had gone, the chain had snapped, his frame was snapped, and not before Mikail's patience also snapped. Rodriguez did nothing to help and expected everything to be done for him. He had a personal fixer who planned the whole trip ahead for him. Mikail asked him to remove the plastics and battery to ensure the bike was welded quickly. The Brazilian just left it all to them. Next morning Mikail arrived and let his frustration show.
"How can this guy ride around the world with no tools? He rode four days with a noisy engine until someone at a fuel station told him to put some oil in. He never lubed the chain and when I asked him to remove the battery and he said 'Bike has battery?!! I don't want to help this guy!" Well, we all laughed....
The next four days were spent trying to find a cheaper way to the USA. Problems with fumigated wood for the crates not being available in Russia, long shipping routes to Anchorage, crazy flight prices and crate sizes too small for the bikes and general uncertainty of extra charges. Japan was too complicated, needing the bikes to be registered and not having a Carnet meant Korea was the cheapest option. Mikail drew me a map of the ferry route from Vladivostok to Slavyenko, and road to Zarubino, where we could get a ferry to Sok Cho in South Korea. This meant we would also miss 200km of bad road. Sounds good to me.
Andrei, the club secretary, told me about the best day of the year in Vladivostok tomorrow, speedway! We had to go.
We changed our chains and sprockets, Geoff showing me how to split a chain and break the splitter, but one of the mechanics had one and removed my chain for me. Geoff fixed the new rivet link on for me doing a top job.
That evening Andrei chauffeured us and his wife Ulia to the stadium to watch Commander (team) Vostok against the Ukraine. A walkover, 60-30 to Vostok. An exiting night and Andrei was in his element, a huge fan.
A great day to end our stay in Russia, as tomorrow was our last day. Or so we thought....
"How can this guy ride around the world with no tools? He rode four days with a noisy engine until someone at a fuel station told him to put some oil in. He never lubed the chain and when I asked him to remove the battery and he said 'Bike has battery?!! I don't want to help this guy!" Well, we all laughed....
The next four days were spent trying to find a cheaper way to the USA. Problems with fumigated wood for the crates not being available in Russia, long shipping routes to Anchorage, crazy flight prices and crate sizes too small for the bikes and general uncertainty of extra charges. Japan was too complicated, needing the bikes to be registered and not having a Carnet meant Korea was the cheapest option. Mikail drew me a map of the ferry route from Vladivostok to Slavyenko, and road to Zarubino, where we could get a ferry to Sok Cho in South Korea. This meant we would also miss 200km of bad road. Sounds good to me.
Andrei, the club secretary, told me about the best day of the year in Vladivostok tomorrow, speedway! We had to go.
We changed our chains and sprockets, Geoff showing me how to split a chain and break the splitter, but one of the mechanics had one and removed my chain for me. Geoff fixed the new rivet link on for me doing a top job.
That evening Andrei chauffeured us and his wife Ulia to the stadium to watch Commander (team) Vostok against the Ukraine. A walkover, 60-30 to Vostok. An exiting night and Andrei was in his element, a huge fan.
A great day to end our stay in Russia, as tomorrow was our last day. Or so we thought....
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