Morocco 2015, a lesson in changing plans

[Pedro]

So, let me provide you with a little background to this trip. The previous year me and Maria had gotten back home with a bike that was leaking oil onto the clutch, still completely rideable though.

The bike was ridden straight to the dealership where I had bought it, I left it there for a couple of weeks while they looked it over and had parts ordered. Output shaft had started leaking and contaminated the dry clutch. They were super nice about it and I completely understood that there was no rush in finishing it overnight. The dude who did it was happy to work on an older bike as they are probably Portugal's biggest BMW Motorrad dealer and he gets swamped with new bikes.

They replaced the seals, clutch, and a few gearbox seals as well, I only paid for an oil change and was quite happy with it all. Until...

A week after bringing the bike home I get on it to go to Lisbon and meet Maria for lunch on a cold friday morning. It was so cold that I stopped for coffee and to tighten my scarf 15 minutes into the ride before the motorway, to find out it was gushing fuel. Fuel lines were all loose. That was fixed by my mechanic, and rode it off.

Then, before this 2015 trip I had the usual maintenance done, diff bearing and seals, throttle bodies balanced, etc, and it was running great when we took it to the Algarve in the summer, here arriving at Sagres and looking hella cool!

This brings us to the first of October 2015, a happy couple leaving home on an sunny saturday morning after sleeping late.

 

Fuel up and go, and go have a drink in the Algarve.

 

Most clouds we saw that day

 

I enjoyed starting it easy, as I usually do

 

Next day, we're off to Spain

 

 

We miss our boat and are forced to wait for a couple of hours in Tarifa, we tried to make the best of it with some calamari

 

I strike a pose, this impressed the harbor people so much they let us by in an instant.

 

 

Back in Tangier!

 

The previous year I learned that most of the places we stayed in had a great swimming pool, and this year I made it a point to bring some shorts, so we got a hotel right in Tangier, and as soon as we noticed they had an inside swimming pool we made use of it. It's great to go for a dip after a day's riding. One size fits all robe was a little big:

 

Came back to our room and what I thought was a wooden sculpture turned out to be a real life @Grasshopper's Ride

 

 

Sunset in Tangier made going out to dinner even more special

 

If you've got a sweet tooth, you´ll love this place, this is the Cappuccino in Tangier

 

 

 

We had a nice dinner of some sandwiches, and turned in to watch some TV in bed, and rest. The plan was to visit a few of the places we didn't go on the previous year, including the Cannabis region, and Marrakesh. 

In the morning, as I get to the bike and load it, as soon as I turn the key I notice the fuel pump doesn't prime and as such it doesn't start even though the engine spins. I take the seat off and go for a wiggle on the fuses, one of them clicks and apparently it solved it because the bike started right away on the first try. This makes me feel proper manly by being capable of fixing shit.

We ride off, into the hills and away from posh cafes.

 

Passing Chefchaouen where we stop for a tea:

 

And we turn away from the main road into smaller ones, this improves the quality of riding. Thing is, you have to be careful on these roads, diesel spills, slippery tarmac, potholes, gravel, fast taxis, no lane control, fast trucks, no lanes, donkeys, etc

 

 

We're glad to be out and enjoying it, and this time it feels way less intimidating. Thing is, sometimes I think I can feel the bike having a hiccup, but that is usually through a patch of dirt or a pothole, and I assume I am imagining things. I can a be a bit hypochondriac when it comes to bikes and cars, so force myself to carry on. I do stop at a couple of mechanic shops to buy some fuses but all they want to sell to me is hashish 

Not long after lunchtime, we're happily riding along and as we go though a very slight bump the engine simply dies. It makes no fuss, like if I just switch the ignition off.

We come to a stop and I start taking the seat off :

First, mess with the fuses, it does nothing.

Then, change fuses around, it does nothing.

Change relays around, it does nothing. 

Look at the sidestand switch, it looks ok but I bypass it anyway. It does nothing.

So I call my friendly mechanic, he's an expert bmw dude and he tells me that if indeed all that I checked is ok then it could be the fuel pump.

In the meantime, we are handling this with coolness, we've got a battery pack for the phone, it's early and light out, it's an adventure. Couple of people stop by and offer assistance, this is good because it means we're not exactly in the middle of nowhere. Getting back to it...

This is Aboukassim, and he's a star:

 

 

Aboukassim lives in Casablanca and is here visiting his family for a celebration. He rode a Yamaha R6 at the time, and this is him showing us films of him blasting past traffic on his R6 in Casablanca

He doesn't know how to help, and we appreciate his effort, he tells us he'll be back in a while...

In the meantime, I'm scrounging some electrical wire off a tractor parked nearby, to make a live connection between the battery and the fuel pump. I do it and it does nothing except some tractor loosing use of it's turn signals.

above you'll see me calling Allianz's roadside assistance in Portugal. They "oh wow" when I told them where I was 

In the meantime, Aboukassim came back with a couple of his cousins, and food. They set a table right there in the middle of road with fresh hot tea and some sort of bread cooked while stuffed with vegetables inside. Good stuff but I didn´t really have an appetite. I should have eaten, though 

 

They left eventually, promising to check on us later. Allianz had already arranged for a fixer in Fez to get a taxi and a truck and pick up up. I understand it takes longer for a truck than for a bike to do the distance over bad roads, but it takes even longer if you get lost ...  which is what happened 

Every time the fixer called he'd talk to Maria because she was a lot better at french than me, but it didn't really help because he didn't know french. He kept asking where we were and saying he was on his way 

so we waited

had some tasty cashews

and waited 

 

and waited

 

and waited 

 

[Pedro]

And now you'll know why Aboukassim is a star, because there were a truck and a taxi going up and down the road on the other side of the village his family lives in, and he got on their car and told them where we were.

Eventually they arrived

 

And after a lot of missed comunication we load the bike, onto a tilted metal sheet covered in oil, and used to metal cable on the tow hook to old it down, there was nothing else to use.

 

The yellow rope is just there to make them feel better, in case the engine protection bars fall off 

 

Complete with "D" sticker from it's origin

 

We had the taxi ride from hell, the taxi itself wasn't too bad. There were to shocks left so it was pretty smooth, but we must have driven in first and second gear for two or three hours, I kept picturing the bike falling off so told them to stay behind. On second thought that wasn't very clever.

Eventually we made it to Fez, and all was going ok up until they decide to load the bike onto a different truck, which I do.

 

They then proceed to ask me for the bike papers, which I deny. 

Thing is, I didn't really care about them stealing the bike because if they stole it Allianz would have to pay for it dearly. What I couldn't do was let go of the papers until my passport had been "disconnected" from the bike. To prevent illegal imports I can't get into the country with a vehicle and then leave without, I would be in burocratic deep shit.

A long argument ensued, between the tow truck guy, the second tow truck guy, the recovery company employee, the fixer, and myself. This carried on for a while with one of them trying to act tough, until Maria shouted at him. He clearly wasn't used to being shouted by a woman, so he was a little out of his depth.

Eventually we left the bike to be taken to the depot, and went to the hotel, not to get there until we searched the whole of Fez for it, driven by a taxi driver that didn't understand roundabout or traffic lights. It would have been great fun had we been in the correct state of mind.

 

 

 

 

[Pedro]

Arriving at the hotel, I think we collapsed from exhaustion.

The next day we tried to get the ball rolling as to where to go, how to fix the fuel pump, options, etc, except it was a sunday and there were nothing to do even though we had a busniss center at our disposal:

 

The bike wasn't accessible for us to visit. We had two choices, have it sent home, collect it, or have it delivered somewhere in Morocco. All of these were final options.

 

 

 

 

[Pedro]

So we took to the swimming pool, which was pretty nice. We ended up staying almost a week there, never really being able to stray a long way from the hotel because I kept waiting for people to arrive with documents.

We talked to the BMW dealer in Casablanca, who told us they only carry parts for the 1200 which is when they started with bikes, and as such any other part could take a few weeks to clear customs coming from Europe. I wasn't at all confident that I could fix it, so we sent it home.

In the meantime, we changed plans and decided to make the best of it.

 

 

 

 

We spent a few days in Fez, and then arranged to catch a flight from Marrakesh instead of Fez, to give us a chance to go there as well and get to see the place. A few days later, got on a train and went to Marrakesh

 

 

 

 

And enjoyed Marrakesh as well

 

We ended up having a great time as well

to be continued...

 

 

[Pedro]

A few days after we arrived, the bike arrived as well.

I went to help unload it from the trailer to my mechanic's shop, and I was quite angry to see that what was wrong with it was that the fuel pump plug hadn't been completely plugged, meaning the clicky thing that hold the plug didn't click, this had been fitted a year previous by the dealership that fixed it upon the last return from Morocco, and it just took a year to loosen enough to not make contact, but not enough that it fell off either. I was so annoyed at that.

We tested the electrical wire that I stole off the tractor to make it run straight from the battery, and it was broken inside, making no contact even though it looked fine.

 

 

 

[XTreme]

My god.......that is a nightmare Pedro!

How didn't it put you off Beemers?

[Pedro]

15 minutes ago, XTreme said:

My god.......that is a nightmare Pedro!

How didn't it put you off Beemers?

An electrical plug not being connected by a mechanic can happen on any brand. It did put me off that dealer's workshop.

And to be honest, I am inept, shouldn't have jumped to the conclusion and instead should have tried a lot more. That's the lesson learned there regarding bikes. 

[Pedro]

It also didn't ruin my holidays, and simply turned them into the kind of holiday I probably wouldn't have had. I enjoy those memories.

[XTreme]

And those memories will always stay with you Pedro.

Glad that you shared all of it with us.

[Pedro]

39 minutes ago, XTreme said:

And those memories will always stay with you Pedro.

Glad that you shared all of it with us.

You're welcome, Pete.

But there are two more trips, with better riding, more fun, better pictures, and no mechanical drama 

[XTreme]

9 hours ago, Pedro said:

You're welcome, Pete.

But there are two more trips, with better riding, more fun, better pictures, and no mechanical drama 

The mechanical drama gives it a bit of mystery though! 

[Pedro]

57 minutes ago, XTreme said:

The mechanical drama gives it a bit of mystery though! 

I, for one, could have done without it 

[boboneleg]

 

 

[MooN]

Thanks pedro, I enjoyed that though I would have been less zen about the whole breakdown thing I reckon. 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Great pic of a Grasshopper, you’re right it doesn’t look real!

Hope Cappuccino is still there for a visit when I get there although I’m guessing Morocco food labelling laws are non existent and it’s a Coeliacs nightmare

Looks like you had a blast regardless