Durban
I promised some words, at least halfway, so as your faithful entertainer here´s a small piece about the heroes and villains in this port town.
Durban is a fortress town, like most other South African smog holes. Not a fortress town because the Brits or Boers had fortresses there, but because of the Zimbabwization they´re working on in the country. The zimbawization-program includes boosting of corruption and incompetence, and with a richness of poverty and culture for violent crime it has had fantastic effects for the fencing and security industries. Everybody that can afford it fence themselves in, living in fortresses with at least barbed wire. A status symbol is electric fences on the top.
The incompetence and corruption is very well implemented in the port system as well. Even crime they´ve been able to bring in. A key success factor to achieve this might been to employ people after race and gender rather the skills, but it´s so masterly done that I don´t feel qualified to make anymore speculations about this.
Anyhow, to get out my bike took a week, which of each day cost 100 dollars in storage. Though we had very good help from Ken Sink, our local host that knew the port it took this much time and efforts. It seemed to be no lack in rules they didn´t know quite how worked, except from that the rule made it hard to get out the cargo. When we finally could roll out the bike and check it we had spent 1500 dollars. A quick count up showed that they broken into the box and stolen tools and driving gear for another 1000 dollar. Fair enough, I can understand the stealing of tools, but to steal fairly worn out leathers is another thing. One of the pants stolen was from the sixties, and I had used it for the last 12 years, probably put on 150k kilometers on them so you can imagine the conditions.
It doesn´t stop the world from spinning though, even if you could very well live without this extra expence at the end of the trip when funds are getting exhausted. Furthermore, Klaus bike got out of the port after just five days, and only half of the cost of mine.
This was not the only highlight, Ken was also a very lovable man. Both skillful and knowledgeable about mechanics, as well as full of jokes and anecdotes. On top of this, the crate of parts from Denmark arrived in time and contained exactly what we´d asked for.
This package contained the spirit of the ever helping Danish community of motorcyclists and others that care for what we do. Parts was gathered by the Mr “No doesn´t exist”-John Carlsen at JC Nimbus and Fin Ohlendorff . Soeren Groenbech and Claus Sibbesen got it sent as ship spares for a decent amount, and a lot others contributed financially due to Fin’s enthusiasm. Again it showed that you can always count on the goodwill of a handful of good friends rather than organizations.
If you mix in the local help we got from Raybell Automotive Machining and a welder, and not to mention Ken Sink, the rebuild became fairly easy affair. For the engines Terry at Raybell did the heads, including guides on mine, and deglazed the blocks. On mine engine I had a dead main bearing, and a dying con rod, which we had all in stock. The clutch was also replaced as it had taken some hits by doing the Andes without a first gear.
Both sidecar boxes were welded up again for hopefully the last time, as well as Klaus sidecar chassis that had started to dissolve. After almost a month with mostly waiting we could finally hit the road again the 4th of December.
Tormod

Huset der tilhørte den lokale klub for klassiker motorcykler. Ken styrede klubben og var god til at hjælpe medlemmerne.
Indian, ca. 1915. Gravet ned i 1935 efter en dødsulykke. Bragt tilbage midt i firserne.
Bemærk hvordan al aluminium er væk.
Motoren til Ken's Triumph.


Kassen med vores reservedele ankommer fra Danmark. 1000 tak til alle involverede. Det var en stor indsats fra en masse folk, både da det gjaldt indsamling af stumper, betaling for dem og at få dem sendt. Alt sammen klaret af enkeltpersoner uden hjælp fra nogen organisationer man kunne forvente ville have hjulpet.
De følgende fotos er dedikeret til alle Nimbuseksperter og hermed vist til offentligheden, så folk (censureret) over dem. Bare husk at dække tastaturet og ellers god fornøjelse med at finde 8 fejl (svar længere nede).
Svar: Snehvide og de syv dværge er ikke på værkstedet.
Tjekning af blokken efter alle onder ånder er blevet honet ud af den.


Laser og pjalter, i form af en mishandlet motor fra en forældet motorcykel der snart skal pensioneres.

Hvis du vælger den rigtige Nimbusforhandler, får du ikke bare gode Nimbusstumper og god service, men også Nimbus slik. Og hvem står dér til venstre? Den eneste ene John Carlsen fra JC Nimbus. Han svigtede mig aldrig og støttede hele vejen fra før jeg selv vidste hvad jeg havde gang i.

Forhjulet bliver opegret for fjerde gang eller så. Denne gang var hele navet klar til at blive kremeet, og blev derfor udskiftet. Heldigvis var dækkene sponsoreret af Intercontact (forbindelse via ordet i den engelske tekst), så der var i det mindste noget positivt forbundet med hjulet denne gang.

Men altså, den gentagne opegring og de tæv fælgen har taget fik den til at slå revner. Mange tak til Clive der svejsede den – og mange andre tilng - så den forhåbentlig kan klare resten af turen hjem. En meget dygtig mand og en interessant type, som gjorde arbejdet som hjælp til os Nordmænd I Nød. Mange tak for indsatsen!

Jeg blev ramt af et vildt sydafrikansk søjlebor og fik en flænge der fik det at bløde helt i stil med den der historie fra biblen. Det blev så syet sammen med de løse stykker og stumper ansigt der lå rundt omkring på værkstedet. Her har jeg fundet lidt fortynder til at afhjælpe de smerter og traumer jeg har pådraget mig.
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