- Joined
- Oct 10, 2004
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I met Tim Skilton from Loco for Motos last May when I was visiting Peter Grey of Wilderness Wheels in Ouarzazate. Tim's the splitten image of a younger Phil Collins in both looks and mannerisms (that's meant to be a compliment) and we exchanged contact details.
Locoformotos has a bike tour and hire operation in Marrakech and I promised to visit when next around. I was on my way from Agadir with his waypoint in my GPS when I had a rear puncture on the motorway. One of the motorway support vehicles stopped to assist but in true Moroccan style the van didn't have basic equipment such as an air compressor, and the driver had to use his mobile phone as a torch as apparently they don't have those either. In other words about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
The slime in the rear tube had gone absolutely everywhere. I didn't have a spare 17-in rear tube so stuck my 21-in front tube in and pumped it up as best I could with a hand pump (my beautiful tool roll and compressor had been stolen earlier that week) and wobbled off at 60kph which was the slowest I dare go on the motorway.
40km further on the rear tube had a catastrophic failure and I was well up the swanee without a paddle. No more tubes. By now it was about 11pm and freezing cold so I pitched my tent by the side of the motorway and settled down to sleep. Although I didn't have mobile reception, my 3G dongle on the laptop got a connection and I fired an email off to Tim to explain the situation. Unfortunately he'd had an early night but I wasn't expecting any response.
The drivers of the first two motorway assistance vehicles that stopped said it was too dangerous to camp, warning about snakes and scorpions, but had no suggestions as to what else I could do. The driver of the third vehicle (by now it's 2am) phoned for a recovery vehicle and I got into Marrakech at 4:30am. Hotel Ali was wonderful and didn't even charge me for that night's accommodation.
Tim phoned in the morning and came round to the hotel with !!!! a spare heavy duty rear tube, a spare front tube, plus a portable tyre changing apparatus and proceeded to fix everything for me. What a star!
I still haven't visited Tim's operation but he and his Moroccan partner, Réda Jabri, are setting up a operation with BMW Germany to provide BMW R1200GS, F800GS, F650GS twin and F650GS single bikes in Morocco. More details to follow.
Tim
PS: what did I learn?
1. Slime doesn't work
2. Ignore the advice that a front tube can be used in the rear tyre--carry spare tubes for both tyres.
Locoformotos has a bike tour and hire operation in Marrakech and I promised to visit when next around. I was on my way from Agadir with his waypoint in my GPS when I had a rear puncture on the motorway. One of the motorway support vehicles stopped to assist but in true Moroccan style the van didn't have basic equipment such as an air compressor, and the driver had to use his mobile phone as a torch as apparently they don't have those either. In other words about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
The slime in the rear tube had gone absolutely everywhere. I didn't have a spare 17-in rear tube so stuck my 21-in front tube in and pumped it up as best I could with a hand pump (my beautiful tool roll and compressor had been stolen earlier that week) and wobbled off at 60kph which was the slowest I dare go on the motorway.
40km further on the rear tube had a catastrophic failure and I was well up the swanee without a paddle. No more tubes. By now it was about 11pm and freezing cold so I pitched my tent by the side of the motorway and settled down to sleep. Although I didn't have mobile reception, my 3G dongle on the laptop got a connection and I fired an email off to Tim to explain the situation. Unfortunately he'd had an early night but I wasn't expecting any response.
The drivers of the first two motorway assistance vehicles that stopped said it was too dangerous to camp, warning about snakes and scorpions, but had no suggestions as to what else I could do. The driver of the third vehicle (by now it's 2am) phoned for a recovery vehicle and I got into Marrakech at 4:30am. Hotel Ali was wonderful and didn't even charge me for that night's accommodation.
Tim phoned in the morning and came round to the hotel with !!!! a spare heavy duty rear tube, a spare front tube, plus a portable tyre changing apparatus and proceeded to fix everything for me. What a star!
I still haven't visited Tim's operation but he and his Moroccan partner, Réda Jabri, are setting up a operation with BMW Germany to provide BMW R1200GS, F800GS, F650GS twin and F650GS single bikes in Morocco. More details to follow.
Tim
PS: what did I learn?
1. Slime doesn't work
2. Ignore the advice that a front tube can be used in the rear tyre--carry spare tubes for both tyres.
