I have some wheels at last!

This is a life defining moment for me! I finally parted with some cash in return for a pair of wheels. After teaching myself to ride on a friend's bike a while back I really wanted my own, so, at last I am now the proud owner of a Yamaha/Escorts RX100.



More info if you click through:



So, I knew I wanted a bike, but what I didn't know was where the hell to look for one, the obvious stop for many in Pokhara is to head down to the Busy Bee and ask local motorbike lover and NGO hater Rick for some advice or contacts, but he is away in Kathmandu for a couple of months.

Needed some new inspiration...

A friend had lent me a scooter to get around while I looked for a bike. So, when I had a moment of free time I grabbed the chance go for a drive, and drove past the one place I haven't stopped before, the Western-managed biker bar Bullet Base Camp, just down the road from where I live on Lake Way (I'll make a post about my new home soon), thinking, there should at least be one person in there that knows something about bikes.

So, I parked my scooter walking distance from the bar (wasn't cool enough to park in view naturally), and walked to the bar. Minutes later I was standing, cup of tea in hand, in front of a well cared for RX100. After a bit of time checking it over, and having the barman point out the work on it that needs doing, I was ready to take it for a test drive; I did, and I loved it.

Yes it has faults, yes it's old, yes it's a two-stroke, but it's also very light and being a two-stroke it's very powerful for a 100cc, so once you get over the lawn-mower sound, it's a bloody strong little bike, and more than anything, it's mine all mine!



HUGE thanks to all of those who helped me, either in person or by email/facebook, especially all at Bullet Base Camp, and Dave and Aled who were a much better Internet resource than Google.

I'll get some better pics up soon, compositionally everything is wrong with this photo, I stopped to take the shot, then within seconds of taking the lens cap off my camera a group of young teenage lads appeared and started saying hassling me and being generally irritating and asking if they could ride and the usual barrage of questions like "which country are you from?" "how old are you?" etc which can totally destroy the peaceful meditation that is photography. So after one quick shot I gave up and rode away.

And yes, I have been mocked a little for how big those mirrors are- I'm sure they're not the original ones, but I like them, they're comical, but they're also very easy to see what's behind me through, which, in a country where no-one seems to look where they're going, is a very useful thing to have. I was offered smaller mirrors but turned them down for that reason, I couldn't see with them.