Diamantina Done And Dusted, Itaobim Here We Come

Completing Diamantina we headed to Itaobim, the road in various states of repair, disrepair and dirt compete with few sandpits.

P1190640 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

P1190646 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The day was Foooookin hot and the temperature around 45 deg C, Maya was sitting at 5 bars out of 7 most of the day, Ellen and I also feeling it and drinking 90% of our 4 liters on board.

P1190649 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Arriving at Itaobim we found a hostel straight away which was easy, as we seem to be in fix everything mode at present we spotted a small moto shop, needing some brake hose copper washers we had tried many places but nothing, these guys, yeap!!!

We established they were all part of the hostel, restaurant, moto parts and moto repair shop family. Fabio was very keen to help us given we were staying at his families hostel so we set too, changed the washers and bleed the brake successfully which was cool.

On completion my day was undone as I realized we had a back flat, 99040 km without a flat wasn’t bad, it had to happen some time, because all the air was at the top I just turned it around but all the air went back to the top, it was clear we needed to buy a tin of heavier air.

I pulled the wheel out then using a vice we broke the bead and proceeded to remove the tire and found the offender, a small nail through the top of the tire and a corresponding hole in the tube.

This is my not impressed look

P1190650 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Let the wrestling match begin

P1190652 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The little bastid which ruined my day

P1190654 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Fabio quick as a flash prepped the tire and tub, patched the tube and we stuck it all back together, 15 minutes and we had her done, no need to buy a tin of heavier air.

Came to pay the bill, they said no charge, we had paid for the washers and oil etc prior and I think they felt sorry for us so gratis was the word, the following morning we bought a 2.5 liter cold Coca Cola and gave it to the lads, they were very appreciative of that as the place is foookin hot, hand shakes and well wishes we headed to Barra Da Estiva just short of the national park.

Now for the upside of getting a flatty .. yes it is true it was a good thing.

When I removed the wheel I found the seal had chopped out and the right hand side bearing was pretty unhappy, as it turned out the bearing cage was just coming apart so we caught it at the 11th hour and 59th minute, we still had 60 seconds left so plenty !!!

With no bearings in this town we stuffed it full of grease and rode quietly on, only 12 km up the road there was an auto shop and bingo, we changed it there and then.

This is the difference ... not much as you can see

P1190661 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Good luck or bad luck, for me both, we found a potential issue before it held us up ... good luck, we did 99040 without a flat ....bad luck ....would have been nice to have cracked 100k