Since China, the front forks were leaking oil.
It could temporarily be fixed in Luang Prabang, Laos. But as they didn’t have new seals it started to leak again a few weeks later. No chance to find a descent motorbike mechanic with the right parts in Laos or Cambodia, as they only sell bikes up to 250ccm!
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- fork oil leaking
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- bike repair in Laos
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- mechanic in Laos
I was looking forward to Thailand to do proper maintenance, replacing some parts and finally fix the leaking. So I went to the Honda Dealer ‘BigWing’ in Pattaya.
It was the worst Honda service ever!
I had to tell them exactly what to do! They did not have a list of what is to do at the official Honda service intervals! Basically they just replaced the oil. But didn’t check the brakes or the condition of the bike in general. They didn’t even know the official Honda service booklet!
I then requested that they also clean the airfilters, fix the parking brake and the leaking front forks.
So they took apart the front fender to only realize that they don’t have new seals! And they were not able to put it correctly back together, I had to show them how to do it!
And they didn’t have any spare parts at all, although they sell one AfricaTwin a week! No seals, no chains or sprockets, no brake pads, nothing!
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- Honda BigWing
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- worst Honda service ever!
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Fortunately the JP Rider shop nearby could organize a chain and sprockets and Oleg knew a tyre dealer in Bangkok (29tire.com).
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- JP Rider Pattaya
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- new chain too short!
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- added another chain piece
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- replacing tyres
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- replacing tyres
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- replacing tyres
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- new Mitas E-07
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- new Mitas E-07
But I still needed to get the forks fixed! So I got in contact with another Honda BigWing dealer in south of Thailand in Phuket, which ordered the parts and said they will arrive in a week. It took finally two weeks for them to arrive! (they are not shipping from Japan but are produced in Thailand!)
When I finally arrived at BigWing Phuket, they didn’t want to fix the fork that day! I guess it’s too much work for a Saturday… I should come back next week. But they are closed until Thursday because of holidays!
Again I was lucky and found a very good shop nearby called ‘StreetBiker’ which did it right away in two hours. He worked really professionally, had all the proper tools and cleaned every part he got in his hands!
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- StreetBiker Shop
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- front forks apart
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- front forks apart
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- after cleaning
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- put together
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- StreetBiker Shop