Reunited...

MikeO

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Dereham, Norfolk, today...
14th October

I wake early – 0400 – and doze fitfully for a few hours afterwards. The room I’m in has a window at ground level with stunning views of a busy urban junction. I do not feel well rested. Rob rings me just after 1000 to say he’ll be with me in an hour or so. I decimate the doughnut section of the breakfast bar, top up with strong coffee and, with my heart racing and the sound of my arteries hardening ringing in my ears, I pack my bag.

Rob arrives at about 1140 and we decide to follow the plan we’d hatched for my arrival last night – we’ll take the bike east towards Rob’s placed and drop me and the adv at an hotel nearby. We drive out of the JFK area, through apparently unending series of strip malls and light industrial units. The traffic is heavy, the weather overcast with an occasional smattering of rain. Rob tells me what he’s done with the bike. New tyres, fitted, balanced, inflated with nitrogen, no less; oil & filter; gearbox oil; injectors cleaned; shocks swapped (no sign of the Öhlins coming back from Oregon City yet); horn fixed (bad connection). Rob over-nighted the shocks to Oregon City – this alone cost $75. Rob won’t accept a penny from me. He believes in the philosophy of ‘paying it forward’ – that a good deed needs no reward and will eventually come back to you.

I don’t know what to say.

After a couple of false starts (hotels are not cheap in this area), we stop at the EconoLodge at Ronkonkoma. I unload the luggage as Rob uses his Gucci electric lift to drop the Adv directly outside the door to my room. Rob departs for work (only ¼ mile away) and arranges to ring me later. Almost straight after I’ve unpacked, the phone rings – my Öhlins were waiting for Rob on his return. He tells me he’ll ring later, around 1700, when I can bring the Adv round and he can swap the shocks again.

After receiving the call, I arrive at Rob’s workshop at about 1730. I meet up with Greg (left) and Mike, who’ve been helping Rob with the work on the bike over the last week or so. In no time, they’ve got the rear wheel off and are attacking the shocks – within an hour they’re both replaced. The Öhlins have arrived with no paperwork and, happily, no invoice, meaning that GP Suspension have treated this as a warranty repair, as I’d hoped.

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Rob has the best toolkit I’ve ever seen. Pride of place is afforded to this electronic torque wrench, which ‘beeps’ rather than ‘clicks’ when it reaches the desired torque setting. Made by Snap On, it’s probably more expensive than my bike…:yelrotflm

I arrange to come back the following lunchtime to see Greg’s pictures of New England, taken during a family holiday this summer, and, hopefully, pick up Rob to do the first bit of my onward ride with him…

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