Skippy had an accident with her bike. Besides some bruises, a small concussion, a few scratches and some post-accident syndromes she is fine.
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| I put umbrella there to cover her from the hot sun. The other pannier is in the right ditch - it flew quite a bit. |
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| Help on its way. |
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| Skippy already high - I know that feeling ;) |
The V-Strom is a DL-650, MY 2004, (color: pink but maybe that is secondary)
Now if you have some old/excess parts which you do not need anymore, we would be very happy to get those rather then buy those new from the dealer.
I did a quick check and here is a first list of what went broken on the bike:
- handlebar: new one needed - does anybody have one extra or can tell me where can I get a decent after-market one from?
- wind screen, wind screen brace, cowling body, right cowling: that seems to be pretty much all trash. Anybody has parts for those? Or a good idea how to ride safely without?
- the front fork has tolerance and I hope this is only in the bearing - more about this tomorrow. If anybody has an idea how to check that the front fork is not bend, please let me know.
- Front support frame: the entire front is bent towards the right side. I need to check if there is a support frame and what is its condition - tomorrow more.
- Two super-long screws which connect the weights at the end of the handlebar: need new ones. Anybody has those extra?
- Mounting frames for the Odyssey II Jesse Luggage panniers: they have been really badly bent this time and I am not sure if we can fix them anymore: Anybody got parts for that?
- Right panniers lid badly dashed: maybe we can hammer it back unless somebody got one extra.
- left foot peg broken - maybe we weld it to the bike unless somebody has a spare.
- top case - lock holder - I think we just screw the top case to the mounting frame
Besides that our video camera looks suffered - I check this tomorrow.
Helmet is trash - Skippy needs to get a new on doctor's order!
We are nearby Kearney, Nebraska and stay right now at some really nice and helpful people. Bob and Peggy even lend us their car today so I could drive Skippy to the ER - imagine that! Bob also has some welding machines with which we can fix some other parts.
This whole repair might take a while. Is there anybody nearby who has some space for us or knows where we could stay (budget-class).
The painkillers do a good job and we go to bed now to get some rest.
If you have anything which we can use or you have some answers to my other questions then please send me an email: sauerkraut.tofuwurst@gmail.com
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| Twisted throttle mirrors twisted nicely - no need for mirror replacement this time :) |
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| And I just fixed that camera last week! |
Skippy is recovering and bike is in repair mode. Some parts are clearly trash and replacement is needed. The closest dealer is 100miles away and this does not make it any easier..
ReplyDeleteUPDATE 9AUG2014
STILL NEEDED:
- handlebar
- left footpeg
- Jesse Luggage mounting kit for Odyssey II panniers
- windscreen
- windscreen brace
- right fairing
- two super-long screws which connect the weights at the end of the handlebar
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DeleteHi Folks, sorry to read about your misery. I can't help with cycle repair or spareparts. Bust as for your budget stay, have you already checked this one:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.westerninnsouth.com/
I know it's not for free, but affordable I hope.
Wishing you all the best, good look and soon recovery!
Thanks for the hint.
DeleteThe motel is far too expensive for us. 50USD/night + 15USD/pet/night = 95USD/night + 8%tax + 6.26% tax (according to booking.com) = 108USD. Even if they charge only one dog it would be 74USD. There is also a Motel 6 for 75USD per night and they do not charge for dogs so in the end its about the same. Camping would be 20USD/night or less.
### UPDATE 11AUG ###
ReplyDeleteA good-hearted biker has send us a handlebar, windscreen and the brace.
The mounting kit has now an interesting outlook (kind of a raisin) but it will work for some time. I will be still interested in those because the old ones have been bent and bent-back several times.
We found a solution for the footpeg.
I will rebuild the bike without the fairings - makes maintenance also easier.
I found some super-long screws which were less damaged.
Skippy will get her helmet soonish and we are soon good to go :)
Thank you all who have helped us in our misery! Special thanks at this moment to Tracy for the parts!
I am just wondering how you want to manage your further trip, if you are that short of money. Have you ever thought about staying at a certain place for a while and look for some work? My lesson ever was: no work - no money.
ReplyDeleteThat's no offense - just my personal reflection.
Take care
100bugs a night for a hotel would be even too much for any of my normal vacation. Maybe we have less money then other World travelers have, maybe we prefer to spent our money on fuel and food instead of overpriced hotels.
DeleteSkippy is walking and there is no real emergency which would required a motel room to recover.
About work: we looked into it. If one of us would go to work we would need a different kind of visa which must be applied before(!) entering the country. Our health insurance clearly does not allow to work during our trip, which means another insurance must be taken. We anyway can only stay up to one year in the US due to the US regulations, which means we work = less time in the US to travel.
In short I believe we learned to spend our money wisely and do not waste it on non-sense.
No offense - just my reflection ;)
We declare the emergency over :D
ReplyDeleteParts are on their way and we should be able to get the Suzi together quickly after we have those.
Thanks you all who helped us. We will write more about the happenings once we catched up with the rest of the blog.
Update 14Aug:
ReplyDeleteSuzi is rolling again. Kirk thanks a lot for the parts! Tomorrow we will continue to ride west :)
... and we got on TV at ABC Nebraska ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nebraska.tv/story/26293771/minden-family-helps-out-a-couple-from-finland