The camp was genuine with a warm atmosphere and even supplied us with Espresso powder so that we could brew our own on the small Primus kerosene stove, using Mile's espresso maker. We broke camp, had a nice breakfast, gave the crew a link to this page and left. If you are in Levanto, the camping outside town is highly recommended.
We rode in towards town and pulled up at a church where some of the local men were sitting in the shade. Miles got direction for the city center and we were recommended to set of by foot. Lars-Inge volunteered to guard the bikes and Miles and I set off in the pursuit of an internet point to download three days of blog, check mail and try to find a bank. Italy has several internet points or ditto cafes but WiFi access is rare. We walked the streets of Levanto up and down and was turned down by several hotels who either did not have Internet access or claimed that it would be illegal for them to allow us to use the access for the guests. Go figure! However! If you are in Levanto, the team highly recommends PUNTO EXE. This is a new service and it is established in two places down town. One in the form of a bar, that do not have WiFi though, and one in the form of a regular Internet point that DOES have WiFi. The people at PUNTO EXE are highly helpful and friendly and determined to help you out. You find the Internet point at Via D. V iviani 2 in Levanto.
In no time we had uploaded the three days of text but the condition of my lap top battery prevented me from uploading the images. I did not bring the external power supply so we had to leave. The PUNTO EXE guy gave us directions back that were dead simple and we were on our way back to Lars-Inge and the bikes after a rather short time. MAN did we feel efficient. However! We strayed off track and got lost in the countryside. I can not exactly tell what happened but we deviated. We walked, and walked and walked. Asked for directions, got rerouted and suddenly found ourselves on top of a hill. Miles talked with the two men who worked in the garden and they said that they had seen us come and pretty soon realized that we were lost. They gave us water and new directions and we went back all the way we had trudged, in the heat. THAT did hurt. But, at least we got water.. When getting where the men had told us to go, we realized that we had deviated from course less than a hundred meters from the destination. That hurt even more..
But we took off towards La Spezia to fill up. We did not go the same way back as we went out but took the slightly bigger SS1 route that we used before when going up the coast. SS1 is also very curly but it had less traffic than the coast road. When leaving La Spezia, Nimbelle begun to buck more and more. We tried different remedies but nothing worked. Things went worse and worse so we decided to stop for lunch and let the bikes cool a bit. The little restaurant was outstanding. We had pizzas that were baked in a wood fired oven. The little lady was all smiles and sunshine and after lunch, things did not feel as if they were that bad. The restaurants name was> Ristorante Pizzeria *L'INCANTO* and the address (should you ever pass by this excellent watering hole): Via Aurelia SUD 62 in San Benedetto Ricco del Golfo.
So the riding resumed and so did problems. Eventually Nimbelle barely could cough up the hills and then the engine died with a sickening electrical 'pop'. There we were. At the side of the road in the mountains with a dead engine. We tried all the trouble shooting tricks and methods like Occams Razor, Sherlock Holmes method of elimination and successive replacements and all of a sudden, Nimbelle woke back to life, just as three cars came up the access road where we huddled. The men in the cars had a relaxed attitude though and helped us to find our bearing. Off we went and Nimbelle started out well but it soon grew worse. The day was late and we had not made the progress we wanted, but non the less, were were forced to give up and check in on a rather posh hotel where we could have the bikes under lock in a garage. I could finally recharge everything that needed recharging, download the pictures from the camera and get started on the blog of todays ordeals. We had an excellent dinner in the restaurant and went to our room. The others soon fell asleep but I tossed and turned over the problems with Nimbelle. We got to get that machine running tomorrow or have a really REALLY big spanner thrown into the clockwork. Miles and I are convinced that the problem is located in or around the ignition coil or the feed lines to and from the same. Luckily we have a LOT of wire, a spare coil and new points and condensor.
I was stupid enough to leave my multimeter at home. It would have been handy to have that now... Oh well... Comes tomorrow, comes advice..
We rode in towards town and pulled up at a church where some of the local men were sitting in the shade. Miles got direction for the city center and we were recommended to set of by foot. Lars-Inge volunteered to guard the bikes and Miles and I set off in the pursuit of an internet point to download three days of blog, check mail and try to find a bank. Italy has several internet points or ditto cafes but WiFi access is rare. We walked the streets of Levanto up and down and was turned down by several hotels who either did not have Internet access or claimed that it would be illegal for them to allow us to use the access for the guests. Go figure! However! If you are in Levanto, the team highly recommends PUNTO EXE. This is a new service and it is established in two places down town. One in the form of a bar, that do not have WiFi though, and one in the form of a regular Internet point that DOES have WiFi. The people at PUNTO EXE are highly helpful and friendly and determined to help you out. You find the Internet point at Via D. V iviani 2 in Levanto.
In no time we had uploaded the three days of text but the condition of my lap top battery prevented me from uploading the images. I did not bring the external power supply so we had to leave. The PUNTO EXE guy gave us directions back that were dead simple and we were on our way back to Lars-Inge and the bikes after a rather short time. MAN did we feel efficient. However! We strayed off track and got lost in the countryside. I can not exactly tell what happened but we deviated. We walked, and walked and walked. Asked for directions, got rerouted and suddenly found ourselves on top of a hill. Miles talked with the two men who worked in the garden and they said that they had seen us come and pretty soon realized that we were lost. They gave us water and new directions and we went back all the way we had trudged, in the heat. THAT did hurt. But, at least we got water.. When getting where the men had told us to go, we realized that we had deviated from course less than a hundred meters from the destination. That hurt even more..
But we took off towards La Spezia to fill up. We did not go the same way back as we went out but took the slightly bigger SS1 route that we used before when going up the coast. SS1 is also very curly but it had less traffic than the coast road. When leaving La Spezia, Nimbelle begun to buck more and more. We tried different remedies but nothing worked. Things went worse and worse so we decided to stop for lunch and let the bikes cool a bit. The little restaurant was outstanding. We had pizzas that were baked in a wood fired oven. The little lady was all smiles and sunshine and after lunch, things did not feel as if they were that bad. The restaurants name was> Ristorante Pizzeria *L'INCANTO* and the address (should you ever pass by this excellent watering hole): Via Aurelia SUD 62 in San Benedetto Ricco del Golfo.
So the riding resumed and so did problems. Eventually Nimbelle barely could cough up the hills and then the engine died with a sickening electrical 'pop'. There we were. At the side of the road in the mountains with a dead engine. We tried all the trouble shooting tricks and methods like Occams Razor, Sherlock Holmes method of elimination and successive replacements and all of a sudden, Nimbelle woke back to life, just as three cars came up the access road where we huddled. The men in the cars had a relaxed attitude though and helped us to find our bearing. Off we went and Nimbelle started out well but it soon grew worse. The day was late and we had not made the progress we wanted, but non the less, were were forced to give up and check in on a rather posh hotel where we could have the bikes under lock in a garage. I could finally recharge everything that needed recharging, download the pictures from the camera and get started on the blog of todays ordeals. We had an excellent dinner in the restaurant and went to our room. The others soon fell asleep but I tossed and turned over the problems with Nimbelle. We got to get that machine running tomorrow or have a really REALLY big spanner thrown into the clockwork. Miles and I are convinced that the problem is located in or around the ignition coil or the feed lines to and from the same. Luckily we have a LOT of wire, a spare coil and new points and condensor.I was stupid enough to leave my multimeter at home. It would have been handy to have that now... Oh well... Comes tomorrow, comes advice..
1 comment:
S'funny, I stayed a week in Levanto back in '67.
Anyway, great blog, and a serious dent in the claim that Nimbus motorcycles are do f****** reliable. At least you eat Italian food.
Also 10.000 thanks for putting an empty line between paragraphs - it makes reading the blog a whole lot easier. Do even more empty lines.
As for the difficulties of finding WIFI spots, you may want to get a memory stick and just use a regular internet cafe when editing the blog. I know it'll cost, but hey, it's not MY money.
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