Breakdown!

Yesterday I set off on my bike around 2pm to attend a meeting at a school. About half way through my journey the bike's engine just cut out. Luckily at this point of the journey I was on a main road so I pulled over and decided to do the routine checks they tell you about in training.

I'm no mechanic but I realised that something quite serious was wrong when the 'kick start thingy' (told you I was no mechanic) had no resistance when I put my foot on it, it simply dropped down when very little pressure was applied. I also checked the oil and water and pulled the little fuel tube away from the little fuel 'bit' that it's connected to (to make sure that fuel was flowing to the engine) - I saw all this done during training!

Within about 20 seconds I realised that this was too complex a breakdown for me to deal with (basically unless it involves turning the fuel tank setting to ‘reserve’ then I’m stuck  - and sometimes I even find that a bit tricky as the ‘turning thing’ can be difficult to manoeuvre) Anyway I called 'Riders' (they are the NGO that deal with our motorbikes, they did the training in Kanifing in the Kombos and have workshops across The Gambia – fortunately one of those workshops is in Kerewan – apparently before they had a workshop in Kerewan, when you broke down you would have to wait for someone to come from Kanifing in Kombo)!

The guy from Riders asked me what the problem was so I gave him my detailed analysis (as specified above). I sometimes get the impression that the guys from Riders don’t think women are suited to riding motorbikes! I’ve NEVER seen a Gambian woman ride a motorbike and during our motorbike training one of the trainers said that he was going to ‘go through the points slowly because we all know how women’s heads get muddled and they are easily confused’!!!  Following the brief and rather disjointed telephone conversation (during which I confirmed that women were easily confused because I couldn’t actually tell him where I was. I remembered the name of a couple of the villages that I had passed through but not the last on – but at least I was on the main road?!) the guy from Riders told me to hold on and that he would come and find me.

So I was stranded! Luckily I had a bottle of water, reception on one of my phones and a camera!! Yes a camera! Therefore enabling me to take some ‘memorable’ pictures of my first breakdown!!

After about an hour the guy from Riders turned up on his motorbike? (He clearly didn’t think that my breakdown was going to require much attention)! However after a few minutes examining my bike he announced, ‘this is a serious breakdown’. These words filled me with joy! Which seems quite strange because why would anyone want a serious breakdown? This would mean that I would be without the bike for a while? But the truth is that as I was waiting for the mechanic to turn up I started becoming anxious and concerned about how embarrassed I would be if he was able to start the motorbike within a few seconds. (One morning I was unable to start my bike from outside my house so I called Riders and they said that they would come and look at it later. When I returned home from work and before the mechanic from Riders had arrived, I decided to try the bike again and to my surprise it worked!! I then had to ring Riders and tell them not to come out because my bike worked now. Once again confirming the belief that women and motorbikes are not well-matched)!

So a serious breakdown! I knew it!!! There was no vehicle to transport my bike back to Kerewan so the mechanic suggested that we tie a rope between our bikes and that he would tow me back. However there was no rope so after a few unsuccessful attempts with bungee cords he then produced a bandage! (The people here are so resourceful). This was a success and he was able to tow me back – that is until his fuel ran out and we came to a standstill again! After he had transferred fuel from my tank to his (using my water bottle, so now I was out of water!) we continued on our way!!

My bike is currently with Riders and hopefully I will have it back in the next few days. (For anyone interested in bikes apparently the piston is broken?) It was funny though because the day before my breakdown the speedometer on my bike had stopped working and I had been meaning to take it to Riders the following day but I’d just been too busy. Following my breakdown the mechanic asked me how fast I was going and I had to confess that I didn’t know! Women and motorbikes hey?!!!!

Nothing this way!

Nothing that way!

Stranded with my camera!!