Online versions are available but I’d much prefer to buy something physical. Can’t find one online anywhere, does anyone know where I can find one or would you be willing to part with yours? Don’t mind the condition as long as there are not many pages missing!
Rode from London down to the south of France, via a football tournament in Valence - where it rained quite a lot. I jump on the GS today and ride a couple of hours through even worse rain to an airbnb to dry off for 24hrs before heading on to Spain.
When I arrived, after riding down a few km of boggy country lanes (pic 2), I noticed my dash was not displaying gear numbers. I turned off the bike and went through the usual process of switching on the ignition, clutch in, fire her up - to see if it kicked the screen into life but no luck…. and also the engine didn’t turn over.
I’m in rural France, I speak only English except for the normal pleasantries you pickup out here, and the dude who runs the airbnb speaks no English and is two hours away. I am also 30 minute drive from the nearest village with a petrol station and on top of that it’s a bank holiday, so everything is shut. FML
I typed the symptoms into chatgpt and diagnosed a faulty/wet/muddy gear sensor. Nearby was a stables, so I wandered over to find some WD40 or anything to help clean up the connections. Obviously contact cleaner would be great but try finding that in these mountains. I did find a can of rust remover which I sprayed onto the outside of the sensor casing. Maybe it helped who knows.
Then it started raining again.
I’ve been outside in the sun, rain, sun, rain, sun with my Wera toolkit trying to access this fucking sensor and keep everything dry. I took the clutch electric connector out, cleaned that up, put it back in, no luck there.
Basically the bike didn’t know if it was in gear or not and wasn’t starting. I guess it’s a safety thing but fuck me it’s frustrating when you suspect the problem is electrical.
Either way, after some sun, the soggy little fucker dried out and is now running sweet. I’ve parked it in the stables to keep it dry overnight and tomorrow i’m going to head in to the Pyrenees.
8 days left, zero plans except to go wherever I decide in the morning. I have a tent with me so hoping to wild camp at least a couple of the nights. Too many work emails and calls still coming in but feeling like it’s ok to ignore them for a few days.
TLDR: i’m on an adventure