I love the highway system in Europe. You can cover so much ground in very little time. We are closing in on the Hungary/Croatia border and we stop for another gas/food break. When we climb back on the motorcycles after lunch for the final push to the border, Neda's bike fails to start.

Uh oh.

She pushes the ignition button. All we hear is click-click-click. This is a very familiar sound to us... The dreaded flat battery has struck yet again on this trip (admittedly, most of the time because of our own neglect). I think back to when we first bought this battery in Zagreb a couple of years ago. They only had one Yuasa (BMW OEM battery) in stock, so I put that one in my bike. We bought Neda a cheaper Italian battery, and the store that sold it to us warned us that it was not as good as the Yuasa...

Edit: So I took a look back at the blog entry from when we first bought Neda's battery:

So this is that future blog entry... I hate it when I can predict the future.

We spent several minutes trying to bumpstart Neda's bike. We have to take off all the luggage because it's too heavy for me to push around the parking lot. No use, the bike is just not catching. So we have to resort to drastic measures:


Jump-start cables between the bikes like an electrical transfusion

BRRUUUUUUM!!!!

We have ignition! It's a healthy start, which means that it's definitely just a dead battery. I told Neda to keep it running for a while to give the stator some time to charge the battery up a bit before we head out. But before I could finish my sentence the bike dies again.

Whut?

Another jumpstart, then cables disconnected. This time I leave the throttle half-cocked for a minute or two to try to get some higher voltage flowing into the battery. Keeping the revs up, I tell Neda to jump on and do some laps in the parking lot just to keep the bike running above idle. We need to make sure her bike won't die on the highway.

I watch her do a couple of circles around the lot and then the bike cuts out. The battery is just not holding a charge.

Crap! This is our second bike breakdown in less than four days. At least we're not at the top of a mountain range in the middle of nowhere. We need to be in Pula soon. So what are our options right now...?

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/340.html



So Neda's got a dead battery that won't hold a charge anymore and we're stuck in a gas station parking lot, exactly halfway between Budapest and the Croatian border. What are our options?

We definitely need a new battery. Our first inclination is to just make it to Croatia somehow. We don't speak Hungarian, we don't know where anything is. We're feeling really helpless in this foreign place. If we can just make it across the border, then Neda can speak her native tongue, make calls, arrange stuff... We just need to get across the border.

Neda calls the dealership in Zagreb. They tell her they can't send any tow trucks across the border. So we're stuck in Hungary. Maybe call the dealership in Budapest? But that's going backwards and we need to be in Pula soon. We're not thinking clearly. Why the laser focus on getting to Croatia?!? Surely there must be a place somewhere around here that sells motorcycle batteries?

Bit by bit, our senses return to us. I hop on the Internet and sure enough there is a motorcycle store just a few kms off the highway. Okay. We'll pick up a new battery there and then back on the road!

I call them. And they speak no English. Argh. I'm going to need some assistance... Thankfully a girl behind the counter at the gas station speaks fluent English and helps us with the motorcycle store. They have a battery in stock, but they'll have to charge it first - it can't be used immediately. And it'll take several hours to charge. And the store is closing soon... So the earliest we could have it would be in the morning.

Fine. That's the best we can do. At least we don't have to pay for an expensive tow. But where to sleep tonight? And what about Neda's bike and all her luggage? I guess we could strip all the softbags and stick it in a taxi? Have it follow us to wherever we're staying for the night...

The very helpful girl at the gas station was listening to us fret and worry in front of her and she interrupted us: "We have a store-room in the back of the station. You can keep all your bags here and if you leave your motorcycle right in front, then it'll be in view of our security camera".

Brilliant! OMG, this girl was such a lifesaver! She even told us about a small town just a few kms away where we could find some accommodations. Throughout this trip, we've been blessed to meet so many people that have helped us out. We were beyond grateful and couldn't stop thanking her enough!

With the luggage safely stored and Neda's bike parked in front of the gas station, we two-upped to the town the girl told us about. It was less than 15 kms away.


Balatonberény turned out to be a very pretty lakeside resort community! Great suggestion!

We managed to find a room in a guesthouse run by a very stern German woman. But at least Neda could speak what little German she knew to her. Despite being the cheapest place in town, it really wasn't cheap at all and it ruined our string of €20 accommodations. But this was an emergency...


And the reason why it was so expensive is that Balatonberény is Hungary's cottage country
where everyone from Budapest heads to for the weekends or their vacation...

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

It's set on Lake Balaton and there's lots of families here enjoying the school vacation. Yes, we're here during high season as well...

We spent the entire evening walking aroung the very pretty beaches in Balatonberény. After the last couple of weeks of rushing to get to Croatia, it was actually quite therapeutic to have things taken out of our hands and be forced to slow all the way down. We hadn't realized just how frazzled and weary we've become. We've been traveling non-stop not just after arriving to Europe, but really ever since we left Chiang Mai five months ago.

We are due for a very, very, very long break.


We find out later that Balatonberény is famous for its nude beaches. Just for clarification, these people aren't nude...


These ducks look so peaceful. We need a bit of that right now.

I can't believe we found this oasis of serenity through a combination of bad and good luck. It's not somewhere we normally would have stopped, but we're glad we stumbled upon it!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

A good sunset is always good for the soul


....and there it is... Thank you, Balatonberény!

After the sun sets, my new-found calm starts to get eaten away by the ghosts that haunt my thoughts at night. I don't normally fall asleep till around 3-4AM, so after Neda is out, I have a lot of time to dwell on things. With all these problems we're experiencing, how much of it is our own neglect...?

We've never been particularly pro-active about bike maintenance. We're the kind of people that don't carry a lot of spares, only change our tires out when the cords begin to show, keep adjusting that chain out until it snaps... We are reactive, and it's costing us time, money and peace of mind. And then I can't help but think about my shaft drive... about how the mechanic in Zagreb recommended that I fix it sooner, rather than later. That was over two months and several thousand kms ago...

Sleep doesn't come easy for me that night.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

In the morning, we two-up to the motorcycle store. It's about 35 kms away (past the gas station,
where we left Neda's bike) but right off the highway so we're there in 20 minutes


Then back to the gas station to install the new battery

We pull out Neda's bags from storage. Unfortunately the girl from yesterday is not working this morning. I would have liked to show her our appreciation somehow, buy her some chocolates or something. As for the new battery... I've never heard of Varta before... Hopefully it's better than that Italian one we picked up a couple of years ago!

And then, the moment of truth... Neda hits the starter and the bike fires up good as new!

Not bad, less than 24 hours delay and we're back on the road to Pula!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

On the highway, we motor right through the Croatian border and although no words are exchanged over the intercom, I sense that Neda is slightly relieved to be back on familiar soil. I had entered the Zagreb BMW dealership on my GPS and I stare at the waypoint as we pass right by it on the highway. If we didn't have to make to Pula, I would have liked to have gotten both our bikes checked out... Neda's battery, my front brake light switch. And that damn shaft drive. Is it me, or has my rear tire been wobbling more and more the last couple of weeks...?

And then, as if I could predict the future:


At a gas station stop between Zagreb and Pula, Neda's bike fails to fire up again

I know *EXACTLY* what the problem is now.

It wasn't the battery. It was the dreaded burnt stator within the charging system. It's a well-known problem with the F800GS bikes. I've read about so many people experiencing it, but I always assumed since Neda got a later model and a F650GS that she would be immune to it.

Not the case.

I can't believe we just threw out a good battery and bought a brand new one when we didn't have to. I feel sorry for cursing out that Italian-made battery... It did its job well.

All of these unnecessary costs sting a lot. And to top it off, we do own a battery charger, so we could have given her new battery one more charge to get us to Pula. But we left the charger... in Pula - thinking we'd be back soon enough. %$^$^! I talked to everyone at the gas station to see if they had a charger or would sell me one. No luck.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

We are both feeling very low right now. It seems that in the past week there's been an unseen, yet palpable force trying to stop us from reaching the Istrian peninsula. The closer we get, the more problems seem to crop up. It really feels like a giant invisible hand swatting us down every time we get back up. It doesn't help that we are both travel fatigued on top of things.

Neda is particularly despondent. She just wants to throw up her hands and forget about getting to Pula. Just get towed to Zagreb and get all of our issues fixed right now. But I talked her out of it. We just spent the last couple of weeks rushing through our trip to get back to her hometown, we were *NOT* going to give up within the last 200 kms.


So we're towing her bike to Pula. We'll worry about getting everything fixed later.

We're all limping home now. Both us and our bikes are in rough shape. All four of us need some fixing up, but at least we'll be in familiar surroundings and amongst family and friends.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/341.html



So why the big rush to get to Pula?


It's this young lady's 13th birthday! Neda's niece is officially a teenager now!


The whole family comes out to celebrate Tea's birthday. Four generations!

We showed Neda's grandmother all the pictures we took while we were in Montenegro. She was tearing up at some of the photos of her childhood home and she marveled at how much Tivat had changed. But she still recognized the boardwalk where she first met Neda's grandfather. She was so delighted that we got a chance to meet her side of her family and wanted to hear all about them. We felt very honoured to be able to provide these picture and stories from her youth!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Tea showed an interest in Neda's cross-stitching

It really meant a lot to Neda when Tea asked her to show her how to cross-stitch. The two of them huddled over the cloth and pattern as Neda guided her through her first stitches. Quality aunt/niece bonding time! She's a pretty special kid, she knows how to engage adults and draw them out. While most young people her age seem to be self-absorbed, she'll show an interest in what the adults are doing. I know I felt pretty special when Tea asked me to teach her how to play the guitar last summer.

For her birthday present, Aunt Neda gave Tea the red rocks that she collected from the beaches in Santorini. The two of them like collecting things like leaves, coins, rocks. Thankfully Tea hasn't gotten around to collecting small animals yet. We might need to get her her own tankbag for her next birthday...


My birthday present to Tea: a ride around the block! Note to Neda: My gift was totally better than yours!

Tea was born while we were living in Canada and Neda has always regretted not being as present during her childhood. Now that we are regularly on the continent, we want to make sure that we're a part of her life and that we're there for her special occasions as much as possible.


These sunflowers were probably planted shortly before we left Pula! Now, on our return they're taller than Neda!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Once again, Iva has graciously invited us to stay at her apartment in Medulin, while she temporarily moves in with her mom in Pula. We've returned to Istria at the peak of high season, and even if we could afford the exorbitant cost of rentals here, we'd be hard-pressed to find any vacancy anyway.

The sleepy town of Medulin has transformed into a bustling metropolis overnight, bars and restaurants that were shuttered a few months ago are now packed, patrons on their patios spilling out onto the sidewalk. Even on our bikes, it's almost impossible to squeeze out of the little laneway in front of Iva's apartment, foreign-plated cars are parked haphazardly everywhere. It's been only a couple of months since we left Istria but it's such a completely different place now.


Getting away from the crowds and relaxing at Iva's place

Medulin is a little resort town about 7 kms away from Pula. People come here for one reason only, to enjoy the pebbly beaches and soak up the sunny weather on the Adriatic coast. Although it doesn't see as many visitors as Pula, I'm still surprised at the droves of tourists that have descended from all over Europe. I've spent a lot of time in Istria over the last couple of years, and now I really get a sense of the duality of a seasonal resort town - a long hibernation, then a brief flurry of intense activity, then another long hibernation...

But since we're now here at the best time to be in Istria:


We ride out to the nearby beach at Kašteja Park quite often to enjoy the beautiful weather


Cooling down by taking a dip in the Adriatic Sea

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Such a nice break from our trip. Exactly what we needed!


It's a Pula Girls reunion! Hanging out with Iva and Tajana


Sometimes my wife makes me laugh...

Neda is going out to Pula to hang out with her friends and she wants to wear her dress out. But she needs to get into town by bike... so this is her solution.

So, while Neda takes my R1200GS into town to catch up with her girlfriends, I go to work on her motorcycle.

First things first. I pull out Neda's battery and stick it on a charger. Then run some diagnostics to confirm that it is the stator that's fried. Then I check online for prices for a replacement stator. The BMW owners who have experienced this problem all recommend an aftermarket stator made by ElectroSport. It's a lot cheaper than the OEM BMW part. I contacted ElectroSport and unfortunately there's nowhere local to pick one up. I'd have to ship one in from the US. The shipping and import duty would be costly, and we would have to wait a few weeks for the part to arrive. It would be almost the same price to just get the BMW version. I called the dealership and they said they can get one within a day.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Neda comes home:


"Look what my friends gave me for my (belated) birthday, Startas shoes!!!"

Startas is a Croatian brand that was very popular with young people before the war destroyed their factory in Vukovar. Back in the 90s, it was a cultural phenomenon that swept the country. Everyone had to have a pair of these high-quality, hand-made shoes. To Neda and her friends, Startas shoes represented all the fun times they had together when they were back in school. The company just Startad up again, so Neda's friends thought it would be the perfect gift!

Hmmm... looks like there are a few shadows on that design on her shoes. About fore of them...

Speaking of which, we need to get a move on. Although Iva has been so great about letting us stay here the past few days, we feel really bad about kicking her out of her own apartment and we don't want to overstay our welcome. Pula during high-season is too expensive for us, plus we need to fix our bikes and the closest BMW service is in Zagreb.

After discussing the options with Neda, we decide to install the BMW OEM stator and save ourselves a few weeks' wait. There's supposedly an updated stator that solves the known problem. We just have to make sure to check that the part number we get is the newer version.

Now we just need to get her bike to Zagreb. From my calculations on our last ride from Hungary to Croatia, we know that the charge on the battery is good for about 200 kms (two hours on the highway) before it completely dies. Pula to Zagreb is 270kms. The bike will die again 70km away from the dealership. No good.

If we start disabling some of the electrical components on her bike, we should get her range up so that we can make it. Or at least get a little closer...

I do a bit of math: the draw from a 55w headlight @12V = 4.58A. The battery is rated at 14Ah. I'm going to estimate the total draw from the bike's electrics is roughly 7A since the brand-new, fully-charged battery died within two hours. So theoretically, if we pull the fuse on the headlight, we can get 14 / (7 - 4.58) = at least 5 hours (500kms on the highway) of riding time. Should be more than enough leeway to get to Zagreb. Unless we hit a serious traffic jam...

Is my math right? We'll find out tomorrow.


We'll need 1.21 jiggawatts to power the flux capaStator! Great Scott! 1.21 jiggawatts?!?

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/342.html



We are trying to lessen the electrical load on Neda's motorcycle so we can get it from Pula to Zagreb without a tow. The battery will take an unmolested bike about 200kms before dying. Zagreb is 270kms away. So obviously, we have to molest her bike a little. Every component is scrutinized to determine if we can unplug or disable it and still remain safe on the road. Headlight? Gone. ECU? Yeah, need that. Brake light...? Uh.... have to think a bit about that one...

This whole exercise reminds me of that Top Gear episode when Sabine Schmitz bet Jeremy Clarkson that she could pilot a Ford transit van around the Nurburgring in under 10 minutes. The team was pulling out seats, drilling holes in body panels, she was drafting behind a pace car, etc...

Okay. So, here's what we've come up with:

- Battery fully charged which gives us 14Ah to get us there
- Pulled the fuse on the headlamp, saving us 4.5A
- Unplugged GPS as well - that's 500 precious μA of draw right there!
- Neda won't use her turn signals. She'll basically pretend that she's a Toronto driver.
- No horn either and she'll downshift to slow down to minimize tripping the brake light
- Topped up the fuel. So we don't have to stop for gas and waste time and cold-cranking amps to start up again

That last point reminds me that we also have to factor into our calculations a single cold crank in the morning to get started.

I'm talking about me, BTW. Not the starter motor on the motorcycle...

Neda is not amused. In fact she is very nervous about the trip to Zagreb, afraid that her bike will just cut out on her on the highway. Before we set off, we hit the grocery store and clean out the shelves, stocking up for the road as if we're heading off to ride into the Apocolypse. It's 270 kms...

Spoiler: Sabine Schmitz never did get that van around the 'Ring in under 10 minutes.

And on that note... I lead the way to Zagreb since I've got the one operating GPS. Which cuts out intermittently. Ugh. Gotta get that checked out when we get to our destination. Fortunately it's mostly all highway to the capital city. I glance at my mirrors every 5 seconds to make sure my wife's bike is still behind me.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Made it to the BMW dealership! We park her bike amongst all the BMW police motorcycles where it will be safe

Neda got her bike checked in at the service department while I walked around. The guys at BMW Zagreb are very friendly. They were all ooohing and ahhhing over the mileage on our motorcycles. When it was my turn to write up the service order for my bike, the advisor made some small-talk:

"Ah I just spoke with Neda. She is your girlfriend?"
"No, she's my wife."
"Oh, then you are practically Croatian!", he gave me the I-Just-Made-A-Funny smile.
"Yeah. You could say I'm... Cro-Asian!", I returned the I-Just-Made-A-Funny-Too smile...

But then his smile wavered a bit, and he had this look on his face like maybe I didn't speak English very well: "Yes, that is what I just said. You are practically Croatian"

And then it was my smile's turn to waver. Do I explain the pun, or let him think I'm a bit daft?

"Yes, you're right. I am practically Croatian! Haha!"

Smiles all round again!

Things I learned today: I am not funny in Croatia.


Me, at the BMW dealership in Zagreb


While waiting to pick up Neda's bike from service, I fell in love with one of the cars upstairs... i8, so sweet!

The BMW i8 is their hybrid supercar. It goes stupidly fast and sips gas like an Englishman sips tea. Me likey!

Gene: "Hey if BMW gave us this car, would you continue our trip in one?"
Neda: "Sure, but only if I get to drive."
Gene: "..."

Note to BMW: We would be grateful if you could provide RideDOT.com with two 2016 BMW i8s. Thank you.


Looks like a spaceship from the back!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

This is Neda's old track bike: S1000RR. I know she'd love to have one again

We're no strangers to touring on sportbikes. We've done multi-day trips with a backpack stuffed only with underwear and toothbrush. Oh, the places we could explore with these bikes... Maranello, Assen, Aragon, Sepang.

Note to BMW: We would be grateful if you could provide RideDOT.com with two 2016 BMW S1000RRs. Thank you.


When we pick Neda's bike up, the mechanic shows us the fried stator

The old design had cooling issues, supposedly they've updated the part so that the stator doesn't overheat. Hopefully we don't have this problem again. We swap Neda's bike for mine at the service department and they go to work on my shaft drive while we two-up back to our apartment.

We are staying in a suburb of Zagreb about 10 kms away from the city core. Oddly enough, at this time of year, it's actually cheaper to stay in the capital city than in Pula because all the urbanites in the interior flee to the sunny Istrian coast for their holidays. So there are a lot of vacancies in the city and the reverse seasonally-discounted-rent aligns with our budget.

And best of all, we're here for two glorious weeks! Two weeks of doing nothing but sleeping, eating and watching TV. Oh and catching up on the blog.

Maybe.

So behind...

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com