Problems, problems, problems….

After our off road fiasco (well mostly my fiasco of course…) we decided to take the small roads to Kiev and to skip the off road for now. The first few hours were super, we stopped at some remote shop to get a drink when a young guy came up to us and started to ask us a lot of questions about the bikes. Of course we don’t understand Ukranian and he didn’t speak a word of English, but we managed to ‘talk’ for an hour and he even drove with us to the edge of his town on his own brandnew, one day old, bike.

When it was time to look for a place to sleep, I saw that Seb had a flat rear tire, so we pulled into the first hotel we saw, a big fancy super expensive hotel. In the parkinglot Seb started fixing the tire…. Taking off the rear wheel, the tyre and the tube. Patching up the tube and putting everything back into place. As soon as he put air in it, it made a big popping sound and it deflated again. So Seb started all over again but putting the spare tube instead of patching the first one for the third time (it was already patched before this one). By the time I had taken everything up to the room and sorted everything out, Seb had put the wheel back under the bike and realised that even this one had gone flat again… So he started again to take all off, patching the new tire in two places, putting everything back into place, just to discover that yet once again by the time the bike was ready to ride again, the tire had gone flat… again! By that time it was pitchblack outside, the mosquitos had eaten Seb alive and there was steam coming out of his ears. He mumbled something about a shower and bed, so I wisely left him alone and didn’t speak to him until the next day…

Early in the morning Seb’s mood had changed for the better, and he started changing the tire again (now for the fourth time…) when he was finished and was putting air in it, you never guess what happened… it went flat again. Seb realised it was time to call our super road assistance as this meant that there was another problem (the rim probably) and they would send someone over to pick up the bike and drive it to the nearest town that was 15 km’s away.

Nine hours, a lot of phone calls and a whole bottle of Ice Tea later there was a guy with a van who came to pick us up. Nine bloody hot hours! The guy was called Oleg and turned out to be a very big Ukranian motorcross champion. His son was also a big freestyle talent! Oleg took us to his place were his son fixed the tire (it turned out that some spokes and the rim were damaged). In his wonderfull house, Oleg showed us all of his medals that he had won with motorcross.

Outside he had some puppy’s and of course I had to pet them because I love puppy’s…

There was a 40 year old Ural lookalike bike with sidecar which turned out to be fixed so that the sidecar could lift up in the air while driving… We got in, tested it, and loved it, even though I was screaming my head off!!! Seb even got to drive the Ural and it was a natural fit… 😉

We went for some super tasty steak and I got to ride on the back of Olegs KTM Supermoto while he was pulling wheelies (Seb was filming the whole time, but it turned out that our trustworthy Contour camera went dead and so we don’t have any pictures – which is a huge bummer!). In the evening Oleg brought us to a real Sovjet Hotel were we had to pay 12 euro for a room…. well room, it was bigger than our apartment in Belgium and we even got complimentary tea. But you don’t have to be picky for 12€…

Goes to show how a bad day can turn out like a dreamday when you least expect it!

In the meantime we arrived in kiev and tomorrow we’ll make some time to walk the whole day for some sightseeing and finding a few things Seb needs for the bikes before continuing our journey, back off road this time (weather permitting!)

Jun 8 2013

2 COMMENTS
  1. Slechte dag is geen slecht jaar! Dit hoort bij de charmes van zulk een onderneming toch? Eeenmaal terug thuis zie je enkel het toffe er van! Warre

    06-09-2013, 5:56 am Reply
  2. mum

    vous étiez plus propre ou plus sale en sortant du bain?
    Oleg a l’air drôlement sympa!

    06-09-2013, 2:14 pm Reply
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