meandering thoughtland

2008-05-27T09:54:00.003+02:00

New Today

Not much to say, really. Recently took up martial arts, running, rock-climbing, drinking and drunken dancing as hobbies, along with learning to play the guitar and meeting new people.

Even took up reading kick-ass books again. Learning Italian. Singing opera.

Aah, the wonders of single life. So much time, and so many things you fill it with to distract from all the time you have to fill.

My gomoto is still treating me really well. I had it in for it's 4000km service the other day, got a part changed under warranty (Thank you gomoto and Scooterworld Somerset-West, excellent friendly service all-round), and drove back to Stellenbosch. Sounds excellent, drives smoothly.

I still think that I made the right decision in buying my gomoto freedom. Only thing is, now I want to upgrade to a bigger bike with more pulling potential. And stomething that I can drive to Egypt and Back with. Which is the medium-term dream for me right now.

-Louis

-Louis

2007-11-27T11:04:00.000+02:00

Gomoto Surprise!

Underneath the battery there is a compartment with a sachet containing tools in it. Who would have guessed? It's certainly no-where in the manual that comes with the bike, and no-one has mentioned it to me before. But hey, there you go. This thanks to my brother the engineer's ever curious nature... "I wonder what that does..."

It contains a couple a wrenches, a screw-driver and a spark plug tool. Strangely, though, the biggest wrench still doesn't fit the right rear axle nut, but hey, free tools!

To get to it, just pull off the black gomoto cover over the battery (it just slides in and out), *pop!*, and open the lid of the compartment underneath the battery.

-Louis

UPDATE 02/12/2007 Looking at the tools again, I'm not so conviced anymore. They look like they are cast-iron, and they do not fit well. The 17 is more like a 17.6 wrench, the 10 slips on what it should not, and I could not get the star point of the screwdriver to undo the screw that holds my battery, because it kept slipping (too small). I'm a strong guy, but badly made tools defeated me. I will be buying my own tools to put in the handy container.

2007-11-26T10:13:00.000+02:00

What to expect from a Gomoto Freedom 125cc - maintenance.

Maintenance in both the older and newer models

Expect your chain to lose tension, and need to be adjusted after a a while. It needed to be done at 1500km for my brother, and at 2500km for mine. A knocking noise (that of your chain against the chain guard) will be the hint.
Expect your chain to need oil (spray on chain wax, etc) at some points. Mine needed it, my brother's not. I think that me riding in rain more often was the difference.
Expect your headlight to die - my bright bulb died on me at 250km.
Expect some lose bolts and things, so keep checking everything is tight. My ignition cover actually fell off one me, luckily it was when I stopped at the garage, and I could just attach it again, firmly. NOTE: Do NOTover tighten nuts and bolts, the ones on the chain guard, for instance, strips VERY easily. NOT JOKING HERE. If the split-washer is flat, stop tightening.
Know that if you use it for predominately short journeys, your oil will have to be changed well before 4000 service time (this is just my opinion, of course, but clean oil does make a difference). Your bike will most likely not lose oil at all (both our bikes have only needed oil changes, never a top-up).
Expect to tighten your brakes at some point, they do tend to loosen quite a bit. I needed to tighten mine at 800km and at 2800km.
The rubber cover over your clutch handle will split in the middle. This will happen.
Expect your exhaust needing to be replaced at some point. Mine needs to be replaced at 2800km, 6 months. The intense tin-rattling noise will be the hint. Rust does this to an exhaust, apparently.
Take care of little rust spots, easily done, and the bike stays pretty.
Do not fill your petrol tank to the brim, and then leave it in the sun. Some petrol will come through the seal, and make a reddish/yellow/brown gunk on your tank. Nothing to be afraid of, just something interesting.

Maintenance in the older model

Expect your indicator lights to blow every now and again, until you either have custom indicators, or have the new rubber indicators (and mountings) of the newer model.
Expect your spokes to break. This will happen, and they will need to be replaced. I suggest getting the new solid rims installed, although my brother have not replaced his, and he hasn't had a spoke break on him in quite a few months.
The battery died after a year and a half.

That's it for now. My advice is buy it, love it, and learn to take care of it. It's the best and coolest buy in the price category, in my biased opinion. Of course, I like bikes, not scooters. And the gomoto freedom is a small bike, but a bike.

-Louis

Ps. If anyone has any comments or experiences, please tell me.

2007-11-26T09:23:00.000+02:00

What to expect from a New Gomoto 125cc Freedom
General

This is what I have learned by looking at the experiences that me and my brother had. He has the older model, and I have the newer model Freedom.

The Good

Expect reliability, comfort and style. People love their Freedoms, and drive them very strange and exciting places.
Expect 80hm/h being your top cruising speed.
Expect 35km on a litre of petrol, more if you drive further distances, less if you are lifting someone everywhere.
Bigger wheels = safer than a scooter, in my opinion.

The Strange

My brother's gearbox on the older model is "normal", with one being down, and then 2-5 being up with neutral being between 1 and 2. My gearbox is 1-5 down, with neutral at the top. Strange but true, apparently this is the more Chinese way. I phoned gomoto, and they told me that some have the normal, and some have the upside down gearboxes, they have no way of knowing before the crate arrives in SA. My advice is get the normal gearbox one, teach your foot to behave the right way before you get a bigger bike one day. If I remember correctly, the guy actually said that the normal gearbox is the better one. He did sound confused as to which one I owned, though, so maybe he was trying to butter me up and got... confused.

The Noteworthy

Your bike does not have a stop distance as much as it has a slide distance, especially in rain. This is normal because the bike is so small and light. Be VERY careful, wear the right gear, keep your follow distances large, rather follow more to the side than in the middle. Know how to power-slide to a stop, or if you can do it better/faster somehow, please tell me how. You may laugh now, but doing this instinctively has saved my bacon many times.
Know that cars do not look for bikes, they look for cars. Be aware of what everyone is doing, make this your responsibility. For more safety tips, check out Flames on my Tank.
Popping the clutch with a passenger on the back of the bike will lead to a wheelie. Luckily you only need to do this once, and my passenger just slid off and stood on the side of the road laughing at me while I was capturing the beast, and subduing it to my will. And yes, wheelies are possible, my brother does them. Not the best bike for that, though. :-)

Now on to the maintenance post.

-Louis

2007-11-22T10:32:00.001+02:00

Just some Gomoto 125cc Freedom Links

Here are some links that I have found very useful in my gomoto freedom travels and experience.

Honda CG125 Motorcycle
Still searching for an online Gomoto Freedom 125cc Service Manual, or Workshop Manual, I talked to some people, who all agree that the Gomoto Freedom is very much based on the old Honda CG 125, and I found this site that tells you exactly how to service and look after Honda CG 125's. I'm not saying this IS the manual for the bike, only that it should be useful as a guideline.

Die Afrika Roadtrip (Dart)
This is the link to four guys that are going to ride 7000-8000 km on Gomoto Freedoms, starting 1 December 2007. They went and asked Gomoto to sponsor them (I have often wondered about doing the same, but just never did, and now they beat me to it :P ). Full marks, high fives, and I am watching the space in anticipation, guys.

Gomoto Diaries
This is the link to a guy (Weiers) that owns a red one (the older model with the spokes, luckily they now only make the solid rims, which is a very good upgrade, as well as indicator lights fitted onto rubber, and not metal, which decreased the vibration-blow-out effect). He has some interesting stories, and ideas for places to go. UPDATE 23/11/2007: He says to put some holes in the cover of the air-filter box, but I'm not quite convinced this is a good idea, yet. Will follow it up.

Flames on my Tank

Awesome South African site about motorcycles, riding them, what to buy, what gear, how to be safer etc etc etc. Very highly recommend you visit this site.

Dan's Online
Motorcycle Repair Course
Here is a link to a motorcycle maintenance and repair site, that starts off assuming you know nothing at all. Useful for me because I know nothing at all about bikes. For now ;)

Horizon's Unlimited

And this, just because I can, is a site about people that travel all over the world on bikes, not necessarily any make or type, and their experiences and ideas. This is something I plan to do as well.

Hope this helps some people out there looking for information on the gomoto freedom 125cc, just like me. Good luck, happy traveling, and enjoy!

-Louis

2007-11-20T03:27:00.000+02:00

The living dream

Many times in life I have felt that either fate, or my own suppressed desires, point me in a certain direction, and secretly paint the path that dapper and stapper (my two shoes, always competing to get ahead, hence perpetually propelling me forward, involuntarily at times, it seems :) then follow. The road-map to my own enlightenment is etched on the map of my inner longing, so to speak. But to get down to business.

I love the idea of traveling, yet have not done much of it. When looking after a friend's house, I was addicted to the Travel Channel on DSTV for a while. I love long way round and long way down. I cannot resist looking at maps dreaming. I speak two languages well, three very badly, and I can't wait to turn that into two well, three competently, and three more badly. I love the study of ancient cultures, different cultures, beliefs, thought-patterns. I love strange tastes and smells. Yet, I lack the experience of living out my longing. And this is about to change.

I recently bought a Gomoto Freedom 125cc. I loved the name, the reputation, my brother owned one first and loves it, and I love my own too. It was bought impulsively for me on my 25th birthday after I was a part in a mugging, and my parents decided to assist their ever student in the dream he has had for many year of buying this bike. And this is the best present they could ever have given me, helped me give myself. Thank you.

Plus, I have been riding it to work/varsity and back since then. (since May 2007) I have lifted someone all over Stellenbosch, and I have been on one legendary ride to Simonstown. Which brought me to the question that I asked myself over and over. Why wait to earn more to buy a bigger bike to start my travels when I have a perfectly wonderful bike that will get me everywhere I need and want to go at a wonderful, relaxed 80hm/h. And yes. This I will do now. I thought I would, agonized over it, dreamed about it, and just needed to get the last nudge, and today I found it. Thank you Weiers (http://gomotodiaries.blogspot.com). I share many of your thoughts an ideas, many of your feelings of wanting to travel. I am sure I will meet you one day.

But first I must start my own journey, and now I am sure It will be.

Life is for the living, and it is very exciting indeed. I am no longer the prisoner of my own mind.

-Louis

2007-11-20T03:24:00.000+02:00

This is a copy of a post that I had on my other blog at zaadz (www.bearman.zaadz.com, a wonderful inspirational group of people I choose to support. That said, I think it's time to revive my very own blog, here for the sake of me.)

Awakenings

Posted on Mar 31st, 2007 by Bearman

Whilst moving along in life someone asked me why I dumb myself down. And the answer was quick, to fit in better. That started it. Francois giving me Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance fit it with a jet engine. I have learned so much in such a little time. I feel… inspired, excited, and for the first time in a long time I am thinking again, being a certain part of myself that I buried.

So. Some things that I realized.

Insanity is true freedom. But is true freedom necessarily a good thing? Only thought is real, for one can not think that you are not thinking. So thinking thoughts that have no filters, no borders, are truly thinking free. And true free thoughts lead to insanity. For all analysis is destructive, and only by destroying everything will your really understand. So I'm wondering if understanding is a good thing. And if god is insane.

Another one is this. Human beings are mobile processing units, we filter all the time, everything. We ignore some parts of all the detail around us to be able to cope with the lesser amount of detail that we choose for ourselves. But children filter less, they still have to learn this. And the insane filter even less than children. So many people have called me childlike in my life, but this is incorrect. Saying “You filter less than usual” would have been more correct. Maybe we grow up and have children to learn something from them about reality and life? I am embracing my inner lesser filtering self.

Another thing. Someone close to me called me weird today, and this puzzled me. To my own thought I am not weird at all, I understand myself, my actions. So saying I am weird is born out of a lack of understanding. As is the case for all othering.

If I had thought that I was weird, I would have had to distance myself from myself, and this disassociation would be weird indeed, I think.

Oh, I walked around today trying to filter as little as possible. It was… exhilarating.

-Louis

2007-07-30T11:33:00.000+02:00

Just a few random funny things.

2006-03-23T09:33:00.000+02:00

Meri's comment on Affirmative Action...

...was so valid, I decided to answer it in a blog-entry. Here the comment is, for those of you who haven't read it yet.

"Much as I can understand how you dislike affirmative action because of the personal impact it may have on you, how else do you think it should have been handled?Imagine if the mandates hadn't been made -- do you think the male- & white-dominated companies would EVER have chosen a black candidate over a white one? There are a lot of historical advantages that white people, in particular white Afrikaners have and have had for a helluva long time. Even as a white English-speaking girl growing up at the same time as you, Louis, it was pretty damn obvious that the language and gender discrimination was going to make getting a job difficult for me. Can you imagine how the black and coloured and asian kids we were at school with must have felt?"

And my answer: I was quite happy how they handled it, and I really do not want to complain too much about that. In hindsight I can wonder if government incentives would not have worked better than passing laws, but that is hindsight. The companies probably would not have chosen black people to work for them then. But that brings me to the point now.

Affirmative action has been running for 12 years. And that's a long time. I have gone from being 11 years old to 23 years old. So I am just saying that the historical disadvantages that did exist, well, are probably always going to be there. The sad fact of the matter is that the majority of the poor in SA are black. Then again, they are just the majority, period. There now exists a big black middle class, growing every year, and there is also the ever-present black elite.

The black kids today have such better chance of getting education and jobs. This is a fact and will remain so - because of BEE, because of AA, and because of the politics of the whole thing. I am convinced, were they to scrap AA, this would remain so.

What worries me is that the black majority is not campaigning for the end of Affirmative Action. They are quite happy to continue discriminating ad infinitum against the white people. The ANC does not ask for the end of Affirmative Action. The struggling opposition party does not ask for the end - I am convinced out of fear for the backlash politically of appearing SO evil as to ask for discrimination against white people to stop. Not only that, there is no TIME LIMIT for the duration of Affirmative Action. No "5 years from now we will end it", nothing. Which really really worries me. Will my kids one day have to sit with this same problem? What a nice incentive for me to stay in my own country, just to be discriminated against, and if I stay long enough, to have my kids discriminated against.

I have to wonder. Is it need that keeps it from ending, is it politics, the bad sort, is it the fear of supporting white people in SA, or is it greed on the part of the masses. When will SA stop discriminating against ability? Because that is what it is when you reject able people in favour of better, more suitably coloured, people.

2006-03-18T16:07:00.000+02:00

The highs and lows of SA's Economy

As promised...

South Africa is a country of milk, honey, academy award winning movies and actresses (sorry, actors, you suck, apparently), friendly people, open fields (I am infinitely more familiar with the veld in my own country, than the sub-tropical or even the bosveld), rampant crime statistics, positive people (who caught the pun there), brilliant food, beautiful women, glorious mountains... And with all these combined good and bad, it is still the biggest economy in Africa and the best hope of regional (and Africa-wide) economic stability and growth. So this is why you are reading this post. Its important for those who want to know about Africa.

South Africa does not have the culture of investment and saving that propelled the Asian Tigers out of obscurity. We have weird things like lebola and too many children. Arg. Luckily, to make up for that, we have bountiful natural resources, entrepreneurs (human resource) and the eye of the world. I think that Mr Mandela achieved more for our economy with all that he did, than anyone else ever. I salute you, Madiba. We also have is a stable political system.

(It's such and amazing tragedy what happened in Zimbabwe. Dude - Mugabe- powers the country to heights unbeknownst, then goes crazy, becomes a dictator and human rights violator on a grand scale, and flushes his - then stronger than SA's economy - down the drain. Fuck. I would wiki this, but the Article quotes him being voted popular by New African magazine. Glorious. Who wants to bet on what would have happened if Zim had oil? ;)

So apart from that, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique makes this a VERY good part of Africa. On the one hand I might wonder about how amazingly many thousands of women and children were killed horribly by the british in the Anglo-Boer war concentration camps (wonderful how everybody forgets that. Like they forget that the USA were, and is, more racist than SA could ever have hoped to be. And we reformed. And we gave our weapons of mass destruction up. No mess, no fuss.), but on the other hand the british did leave us a legacy of good governance and stability. Nice. Thanks, guys.

So. To the details. Over the past 30 years South Africa has shown growth of about 3.3 percent average. It's OK, not brilliant. Than last year we reach 4.9% at the end of the year. Very good for us. Then people start talking about 6% economic growth per year by 2010 which would really put us on the map. But can we achieve it? This is the question. The forecast for growth this year, and it's got my vote, still remains in the 4's. And then the recent energy issue. We are operating at 34MW of our 35MW capacity. Mismanagement at Koeberg recently fucked over our main source of energy, caused AMAZING power outages and cost the economy billions. (Whether those are SA billions, which has three more 0's than US billions, or not, I am not sure.) And the energy forecast is that we are going to run out of power by 2007. But even before we get to 2007, if Koeberg doesn't get replacement parts, then we are going to be dark most of the day for 40 days straight. Sometime soon. Yum. 6%. Dream, people. I will. Cause that's what the dark will drive me to.

That's the energy forecast. Koeberg got more money on Wednesday, and is going to refurbish, and perhaps build another plant. By 2010 (or wait, this IS Africa, 2013) we should be fine.

The politics also make me smile. Like every else in the world, it IS exciting. Our vice-president got fired for corruption, and accused of rape. Aitog. Then a women gets appointed in his place, which my Zulu friend tells me is an insult to the male-dominated Zulu culture, done by our Xhosa president. Wow. Who would have thought that politics could get SO strange. Tribal politics in today's age. But we're past past that. I think. Ok, I'm reasonably sure. She did also ask me how I felt about having a black president, and I said: "I really do not care about colour. I care if he does a good job, which would include being loved by the people and not being corrupt." She seemed surprised. Who would have thought. Most young white people in South Africa today are liberal and seriously multi-culturally inclined. But the world never bothered to ask, so they don't know. Those that do, on the other hand, appoint us in sensitive positions all over the world, because we grew up respecting at least eleven different cultures. Fun.

We have the resources, the people, the inclination to prosper. I just wish we could get our act together, and keep it together. When will the new generation take over? I believe in them.

Just the last thought in my by now mini-essay. As a white South African male, my chances of employment are seriously small, because of what our bill of rights call legitemate discrimination. (It says "no unfair discrimination", actually.) Wow. What an amazing oxy-moron. Affirmative Action by any other name is STILL discrimination. Wake up, people. Smell the hypocricy. Like I had anything at all to do with Apartheid, at my tender age of 11 in 1994. Yes, punish me for the sins of the fathers. And mothers. And their cousins, and uncles, and all the rest of the family. AA is what keeps the masses happy, who keeps the ANC in power, whilst the highly-educated black minority who controls the country just keep on liveing their lives. Screw the white monirity. Sigh.

Rather scrap AA and focus on Black Economic Empowerment, which gives preference in goverment contract appoinments to companies with a large black employment corps. And stop the bullshit. Try 6 non-executive directors for a joke. What the hell is that. Notice they are all black. Yes, according to the SA constitution, Chinese, Indian and Coloured poeple are also "black". Affirmative Action comedy...

Ok, rant, infomercial and economic indicators done for the day. Now to hand that essay in on monday... hehehehehehehe

-Louis

2006-03-17T22:41:00.000+02:00

Karma, VOIP, news and my Second Life

Just now I was talking to a friend over the, well, VOIP (Google Talk), when the bad connection, which I am assuming was telkom's fault, made the sound come through choppy. Oh, well, I DO live in Africa, and having a bad connection over peak times just seem to be one of the things one has to live with. I like to talk crap about Karma, and maybe this is one of those things. Bad internet, sunshine and friendly people. I like the trade-off.

And oh, do I love talking to people using VOIP technology. For the first time in years I get to stay in touch with people I haven't seen in years. And pay next to nothing for it. It is making my very chilled out student job much more interesting. Oh. Yes. My job. A story for another day. Anyway. I get to talk to people.

Also, I get to follow the news and that was very exciting, until I realised that the people at google, smart as they are, update their stories all the time, and then the timer for the story gets reset as well. So, what I at first thought was real time journalism, internet-style (which would have been oh-so-cool and VERY exciting), turned out to be still cool (it IS news) and not-so-exciting. I want the timer to be set to two time-stamps. One for the original time it broke, so to speak, and one with the update's. Yes. Everybody mail them, tell them. Make the virtual world a better place.

And the last thing I want to say now, seeing that my shift ended prematurely and I have to groet tot more, is that I have started to look at Second Life. It looks so cool, to an old addicted gamer like me (Yes, you are an Old Gamer at age 23), that I am fearing for my academic marks. But not to fear. Tomorrow I will be telling you about the economic impact of power-cuts and bad infrastructure on the GDP growth forecast of South Africa. It's going to be riveting stuff.

Cheers vir eers

-Louis

Ps. I now have my own domain, courtesy of my friend in UK. She really does believe in gifts that keep on giving. Thanks, Meri.