After breakfast, we walked out in search of a new clutch adjuster bolt. There were a couple of bike repair shops on Lebuh Cintra, so that's where we headed. One of the mechanics at the first shop spoke enough English to understand what we needed, but told us we'd need to go to a used parts store. He gave us the name and address of a parts store and sent us off in the general direction. Stupidly, we had forgotten to bring a map with us this morning, so instead, we relied on directions from strangers. People kept pointing us in one general direction, but after an hour of not finding the street, we walked in to another motorcycle repair shop. We asked for directions to the parts store and were told it was at least a couple of kilometers away. Oh. The shop owner asked what we needed, so I showed him the bolt, and he said that if we wanted to come back around 1:30, he would have one for us. He explained that he could get it from a parts store more easily than we could do it ourselves. I asked how much it would cost, and he smiled and said he wouldn't know until he had it. Not knowing what else to do, and really hoping we wouldn't be overcharged, we left the bolt with him and said we'd be back in about three hours.

Re and I walked around and had lunch to kill time. While we were wandering around, Re did buy a box of hair color so she can remain a “natural” blonde. About 1:30, we returned to the motorcycle shop, and sure enough, they had a bolt for me.



It wasn't an exact match, but all of the critical measurements were the same. I winced in anticipation when I asked how much it cost, and I almost laughed when the guy said it was 5 ringgit (1.66 USD). Another thing I love about Malaysia is that we have rarely run into any kind of farang pricing. I wanted to spend more money with the man since he treated me so fairly, so I bought a liter of oil there as well, even though it was priced about two ringgit higher that at our usual shop.

We got back to the room around 3:00 pm, but decided to wait until after 5:00 to install the bolt since the clinic's awning would be free at that time. Shortly after 5:00, we pushed the bike across the street and got to work. We installed the new adjuster bolt in the side cover, and it was a perfect fit. I then used some gasket shellac that Jacob thoughtfully brought by, on both surfaces, and then carefully installed the gasket. After I installed the last couple parts, on the inside of the side cover, Re carefully helped me slide it over the kick start shaft and dowel pins. With the cover in place, it was just a matter of installing all the bolts, the oil screen and cover, and the kick start lever. After that, we reinstalled the exhaust and leg shields. We refilled the engine with oil, adjusted the clutch, and then, nervously, thumbed the starter button. It started up fine – the clutch seemed to engage and disengage normally, and best of all, there were no oil leaks. I wanted to take it for a quick test ride, so while Re picked up the tools, I ran inside to grab my helmet. I jumped on the bike and began rolling it backwards and noticed that it wasn't rolling very easily. I looked back to see that I had a flat rear tire. So we got the tools back out and grabbed one of the spare tubes and got to work. Twenty minutes later, we had it all put back together and then I went for my test ride. Since it was getting late, I only went around a few blocks, but the bike was shifting normally, and even hitting it hard in second gear didn't produce any slippage. By the time I got back, Re had everything picked up, so we went inside for a shower.

Later, we tried a different place for dinner, called Line Clear. Their specialty is nasi kandar, where you get rice and select from a wide variety of toppings. The toppings include fried chicken, curried beef, chicken, squid, prawns, and you can even get a whole, deep-fried fish head. The food was excellent and cheap too. Dinner for both of us was about five bucks. After dinner, we walked into Little India to do some shopping and get some of our favorite coconut candy.


1 mile. Clutch seems great.

After more roti for breakfast, we jumped on the bus and headed to the beach at Batu Ferringhi.



We spent several hours at the beach, enjoying the sun and the water, and deciding on a date to return to the US. We need to be in North Carolina by July 7, so we decided to fly to LAX sometime between the 5th and the 10th of June. We've been putting off making this decision since it marks the end of the trip, but we need to book our freight and get our airline tickets, so it had to be done. We're both kind of excited about seeing people at home, but we're also kind of bummed about the end of the trip. Late in the afternoon, we took the bus back to town, took a shower, then headed out for dim sum. After dinner, we went to see “Cabin in the Woods” at the theater.

We tried something new for breakfast today. It's a Chinese dish that we don't know the name of, made of cubes of rice cake that is fried in a wok with bean sprouts, scallions, fresh ginger, and chili paste. Two foam trays of it cost 4 ringgit (1.33 USD) and it was tasty. Re had a doctor's appointment this morning, so while she went to that, I did some reading and started looking at shipping options from Malaysia. After she returned, we went out for a lunch of chicken and rice.

Since it is Wednesday afternoon, the clinic's awning is free, so we took the opportunity to finally change my front tire.



I am still running the original front tire that came on the bike, but after 23,400 miles, it's looking a little thin. We installed the front tire that we bought in Namibia and a new tube. Not only did the original tire last more that 23,000 miles, but the tube I took out was also the original tube. I removed this tube in Ooty and replaced it with an Indian tube that failed after 1,400 miles. At that point, I reinstalled the original tube (since it was our spare). I'd say I got my money's worth! While we had the tools out, we also adjusted Re's chain and clutch.

With the bike work done, it was time for a haircut. In danger of turning into some kind of long-haired hippy freak, I had Re give me a quick trim. After getting cleaned up, we walked up to our usual motorcycle parts shop and bought two new rear Dunlops. We shouldn't need to use them before the end the of trip, but the Dunlops here seem to be very similar to the ones we bought in India, and they have been great tires. And it doesn't hurt that they were only 16 bucks each. The rest of the day was basically dinner, a little shopping, then a stop at the Corner.

After breakfast we jumped on the bikes for a combined test drive/temple visit. I was happy to see no drops of oil on the sidewalk beneath my bike when we walked out this morning, I guess the gasket installation was successful. We made our way south and east toward Air Itam, and it was good to be riding again. The ride was mostly urban, with a lot of stop and go traffic. But my clutch seemed to be working great. The only thing of concern is that the exhaust note seems to have changed. It sounds like there might be a slight exhaust leak, so I will need to check the exhaust header nuts.

We followed the road past Kek Lok Si Temple and up to the dam at Air Itam. The road was steep and twisty, and I figured it would be a good test of the new clutch repair. Some of the grades called for second gear, but no matter how hard I twisted the throttle, the clutch held firm. Great! When we reached the parking lot at the dam, we were greeted by a friendly woman who lives between the temple and the dam. She told us a lot about the area, the temple, and the roads around the lake, and she even made Re a cool, little origami creation out of a 1 ringgit note. At her suggestion, we decided to head back down to the temple to tour it first, followed by a ride around the lake afterward.

We rode back to the Kek Lok Si Temple and pulled into the upper area.



We parked next to the 120 ft high, bronze statue of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy.



After walking around the upper level, we took the cable car down to the lower level, where we toured Ban Po Thar, the 10,000 Buddhas Pagoda, and the other temples around it.



This is supposed to be the largest Buddhist Temple in Malaysia, and it certainly is big and impressive. However, it is surprisingly commercial, with tremendous amounts of sacred and secular stuff for sale (we had to laugh at the “Anger Birds” flipflops for sale in the gift shop. I wonder what the Buddha would have to say about counterfeit merchandise?). We hadn't noticed that the sky had begun to darken to the west until we heard the thunder. Well, crap.



We took the cable car back to the upper level, and after stopping to take our pictures with our Chinese zodiac animals, we hopped on the bikes and headed out. The weather had canceled our plans to ride around the lake, so we instead, rode back into town.

We had a late lunch of phenomenal roast duck at Jit Seng once again, and then headed back to the room to work on some writing. Later, we returned to Line Clear for a dinner of nasi kandar. This time, we tried the daging, which is chunks of beef cooked in some dark, delicious gravy, and it was excellent as well. We then headed to the mall to watch “The Avengers” again.


15 miles in about an hour. Bikes are great!

After breakfast, we both worked on some writing and reading until lunch. Over a lunch of curry mee,we decided that it's about time to start looking into shipping options to get our bikes back home. A search of HUBB and ADV only turned up one report of shipping by air from Malaysia. It was a recent report here on HUBB by a couple who shipped their V-Strom from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam on Malaysia Airlines. They did not use an agent and instead, dealt with MASkargo, Malaysia Airlines cargo division, directly. It was apparently an easy and relatively inexpensive procedure. Instead of disassembling and crating the bikes, they were simply strapped to a pallet and wrapped in plastic. Our research has shown that Malaysia Airlines flies from Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles, so it was our hope that we and the bikes could fly together. Re emailed MASkargo with the details of what we wanted to do and soon got an email back, saying that he could not help her and to contact the MASkargo Logistics division instead. We spent the rest of the afternoon researching tomorrow's hike up Penang Hill before heading out to Kapitan for dinner again.

Thank you for this bunch of new installments. Outstanding trip and a scource of inspiration!

Hope you guys find it easy settling in after this beautiful journey.

I remember Colin talking about the perfect small engine travel bike something in the 150 ccm range. Care to share your thoughts?

I will definitely get back to this question when I get a chance to write up my ideas. For now i can leave you with a teaser picture of the type of bike that started me thinking about it!