Friday, September 01, 2006

3708km: Electrical Woes

My Gomoto takes me everywhere. Yesterday it took me to the dentist to have my tooth extracted. I've never experienced so much physical violence directed towards me in my whole life! But my Gomoto provided me with a comforting ride back home (despite the fact that my whole body was shaking from shock). The Gomoto could do nothing for me however, when the anesthetic worked itself out of my system. Not even my wife could do anything for me. She was getting really frustrated with me tossing and turning and eating Myprodals like Smarties.

This morning (still with a throbbing pain in my mouth), I put my daughter on the seat behind me on the daily creche' routine. It is spring day and she had to take flowers to school. I don't have any flowers growing in my flat, so I stopped at about three places to help myself to some flowers. About 500metres into the journey, my Gomoto decided to just switch itself off. I let out an expletive and reached for the remote control in my pocket to switch it back on again. But nothing happened. So I stuck the key into the ignition and turned it. The familiar blue light came on, and went off immediately. Nothing could pursuade my Gomoto 125 cc motorbike to start. So I left it on the side of the road, walked my daughter to school, and returned to try to switch it on again. It seems the Gomoto is quite a stubborn creature, and I ended up pushing it up the hill back to my flat.

In the garage I found a size 10 and a size 14 spanner and removed the seat. I found a 15w fuse. It is definitely blown. I happen to have another 15w fuse lying around and stuck it in, but still to no avail. I pushed and pulled on some of the wires. Checked the batery, looked at all the connections I could see. But still nothing.

So I called Scooter World in the Strand, and the verdict is that I need to bring my motorbike in to them. They are too busy today to come fetch it themselves. I'm not quite sure if I am going to be able to do that. I don't have many friends with bakkies. (One friend recently bought a Landrover, but I don't think it is up to carrying this kind of load :-). I'll wait until Monday and ask Scooter world if they could please come and fetch it. (At a cost of R30. VERY REASONABLE).

In the mean time, without my Gomoto Freedom, I'll sit at home and feel sorry for myself with my throbbing mouth and jaw.

I hope Scooter World will provide promt service and help me get back to my usual freedom as soon as possible.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Weiers,Kyk na die swart boksie onder die sitplek, bo op die Air-Intake.Sny dit versigtig los met 'n mes.Maak die vier skroefies los en kyk of daar 'n los plaaitjie aan 'n veer rondlĂȘ.As dit los is beteken dit dat dit weer vas gesoldeer moet word, dit het ook te doen met die alarm stelsel.My een het veroorsaak dat my Rooi Gomoto net vrek terwyl ek ry.Groete en laat weet of jy reggekom het, en of wat die fout was.

Weiers said...

Francois, wat dink jy van die idee om net die alarmstelsel te bypass (te verwyder).

Ek sien nog die nut daarvan, maar ek het nou al soveel moeilikheid gehad omdat ek die ding nie reg gebruik nie.

As jy kans sien daarvoor moet jy asb. vir my 'n e-pos adres stuur: coetserw (at) hbc (dot) ac (dot) za.

Anonymous said...

open the alarm box. on the bottom of the circuit you will probably find a dry joint or 2. solder it if you can, if you can't, take it to a electronic repair man. don't let them over-charge you! tell them about the dry joint so that they can think that you know what you're talking about so that they don't take you for a ride. i read somewhere that a new box costs about R350. make the choice.

ps. make sure the box is weather sealed again.

regards
jp mercier