Cartagena

Cartagena Historic City

After arriving in Cartagena a day late due to the accident in Barranquilla, I ended up missing the cut off for the ship departing Cartagena for Miami ,which was our next option to get the bike out of Colombia. The third option is to fly the bike to Miami. The  problem is, the flights do not leave from Cartagena - only Barranquilla on Tuesdays and Saturdays and the end of this week tying to get anything sorted out has proved difficult due to the Barranquilla  Carnival starting on Saturday and finishing next Tuesday night! Both agents that were contacted hadn't come back with prices before the weekend....so getting anything constructive done there before Wednesday probably won't happen.

I managed to get a couple of jobs done on the bike, I went to Dario Marcas Motos - a small moto shop I had read about on the HUBB and talked to Dario and his wife Claudia about getting the front wheel trued up, In their shop is a brand new KTM 950 getting some work done on it and the workshop is small but well organised. Dario takes a look and walks down the street shouts at a guy who was asleep on the sidewalk and calls him over. It turns out the guy is the local 'guru' in the city at straightening wheels and 10 minutes later the wheel is as good as its going to get - I ask him how much he wants for his work - $3 usd! he heads back off for another nap and we take a look at the front fork alignment, one of the 2 main bolts that secure the handlebar mounts is bent -its a fairly beefy bolt, so I just spin it 90 degress and put it back in - not perfect by any means but better, at least the bars are not turned way to  the right when the front wheel is straight.

Dario and another guy loosen and check the front forks - they look OK by eye, a couple of tweeks and everything gets cinched up, should be good.

Historic City and Commercial City

I am in the shop with Dario and the guys for about an hour and so I ask him how much for his time, he waves his had and says 'nothing' - a word that you dont tend to hear when you are in Blackfoot Motorcycles in Calgary!!!
If you need some work done on your bike in Cartagena  go and see Dario  - knows what he is doing and himself and his wife Claudia are genuinely lovely friendly people