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.