The trip ‘home’ was absolutely uneventful, the old girl (nearly as old as me, don’t forget!) cruised at a steady 70mph all the way (not rebuilt yet, so no need to ‘run-in’), despite all the spares etc that I was also carrying in my luggage! It must have looked good, packed up like a touring-bike with rear carrier and pillion stacked with saddle-bags and luggage, plus tank-rucksack and all the trimmings, because all the way home people were waving and beeping their horns at me, smiling faces of all ages greeted me at every stop, offers of coffee and a chat at every filling-station along the way.
My wife was waiting all day for me, listening for every bike that came close to the house, wondering if she needed to put the kettle on for a coffee… As you can imagine, what with all the chats etc. on the way, the trip did last a bit longer than was expected for the distance and speed and without the luxury of the mobile-phone, it was a waiting-game for her.
She did indeed have a coffee waiting for me at home when I arrived and she was in no doubt at all that it was me coming, when she heard the dub-dub throb of the engine from afar! She hadn’t heard anything in the least bit similar and so she was positive that ‘we’ had arrived. The bike was very tired, too and so was laid to rest for the next few weeks, while I rebuilt the engine and pulled it all apart, to turn it into the bike seen on the last page. I’m afraid that I don’t have any pictures of it before the work started, but it wasn’t a lot better than the Sunbeam in the first blog entry…
©peter gouws 2011