What wrinkles could be left after all the work I did in Guatemala I hear you ask?
Well, there were several things...
First issue was to get the salt out of the electrical bits and pieces on the handlebars. - Easy fixed.
Another thing that I wanted to fix was the rear suspension... again :)
Yep, I did a full service in Guate, but I also decided in Guate that I wanted to change the seat height on the bike again!
Id raised it by 50mm back in Vancouver... But after riding it for a long way, I have found that I went too far... I need to lower it by about 20mm.
This requires making some simple metal bars with a couple of precisely spaced holes in them for bolts. Back in Guate, Indy didnt want to touch the problem. He felt the forces involved were too great and the geometry was very sensitive and Id be setting myself up for trouble... And hes a very good motorbike mechanic, so I should listen to him... and I do about the forces, but Im not so worried about the geometry issues.
So I changed it anyway :)
I took the old linkage plates off and measured carefully how much longer I wanted them.
Then I wandered around town looking in windows of workshops till I found one with big metal lathes and machine tools
Then I told them what I wanted and negotiated a price and one hour later I had the replacement parts in hand :) I had them made out of steel instead of 6060 Aluminium so that they would be good and strong though.
Then I bolted it back together and "voilla" the bike is 20mm lower at the seat :)))
And, last on the list was to deal with a couple of deeper/'harder to get at' electrical connectors for the same "salt ingress" problem. I knew I had to service this from the big "tear down" in Guate' when Indy had noted a bit of a problem with my brake light (not turning on when the front brake was engaged...not good!). But since then, the bike had also developed another problem with the fuel gauge no longer working. This happened as a result of the tear-down in Guate' and since we (Indy and I) could not solve it at the time, Id assumed that it was something to do with the bike computer reset (or something like that) and that it would probably "come good" after a day or two of riding... But it didnt... Ive been using mileage to decide when to fuel up since I left Guate'
So at my hotel in Cartegena I did another tear-down of the electrical... I serviced those connectors and cleaned it all up OK, but the fuel gauge still wouldnt work. Now Indy and I had both looked at this problem in Guate', and I could swear to you that we used a multimeter and checked the wire connectivity in each section (there are four plugs in the line) and of the whole circuit as well... And we were sure it was connected! ... so we figured it was an issue in the dashboard and was "too hard' to deal with.
But, now that the bike was apart, I decided to have another look at it all.
Again I checked things with the multimeter... and what I found was that one of those connectors was not working... Not just connected badly, but not connected at all!... I took it apart and looked closer and you know what I found...
The wire on each side of the connector were in different slots (the connector has places for about 20-30 wires but not all are used... there are some gaps in places) ...
This can only possibly have happened when I serviced the connector last time (Indy didnt do the connector service)... But I swear that I was very careful when I serviced each wire , And, that both Indy and I checked the circuit after I did the service!
Clearly that can not have been the case in reality!!!
Clearly one of two things happened... I either remember the service sequence incorrectly, or Indy and I somehow managed to check a different wire...
Whatever the case, when I put the wire in the right slot, the fuel gauge worked perfectly...
It remindes me of one of my favourite quotes (I believe its form Oliver Cromwell)
"By the bowels of Christ, I beseech you, consider the possibility that you could be mistaken!"
For me at least, it really seems to make you stop and think :)))
Which is of course the point.
Ive made these sorts of mistakes before of course (My friend Janine has a REALLY good story about my own memories fallibility that is always good to "re-live :)) ) and so these days its easier to accept my own limitations :)
And actually I believe that most people have this same sort of problem (to a greater or lesser extent), but that very few people have the "acceptance" part at all (I of course also still have a long way to go) :))
Ive worked in Hi-Tech engineering for a living for more than 20 years and its a very rigorous environment... And you get very good at setting up "self checking" procedures to catch these sorts of "bugs"... But things still manage to get through for most people (just attend any of the regular "what went wrong and cost us lots of time and money" meetings at a Hi-Tech engineering company!)...
In fact, I can safely say that I have only met two or three people in my life so far (in work or otherwise) who I truly didnt ever see make this sort of mistake - Where they swear that something is "so" because they looked it up or they did it or some such... And when it comes down to it, it turns out not to be "so"... Then there are excuses and sometimes acknowledgement but they almost always swear that they dont make those sorts of mistakes, and that this is a unique experience etc.... But I dont think it is... I think we deceive our selves as to the reliability of our own memories!
And Im guessing that even for those one or two people (Jason T for one :) ) that they too make these mistakes (though at a lower rate than most people) and I have just not been there to witness it.
Occasionally I come across situations (in general life) where I meet people who are "oh so sure" of something that I think is "not so". When it happens, I usually try to suggest that I think its otherwise but I usually dont push the point these days. Some times thats because Im not sure of my own position, but its also quite often because I dont actually mind them being sure of them selves... But I remember, and sometimes, the issue will clear its self up when Im around the person in question, and I will get to know the fact of who was right and who was wrong (though I think its usually counter productive to confront the person with the new fact... seriously threatens egos!)....
But, thats how I know that most people do this "denial" thing over the unreliability of our memories :))
