the high dunes to attempt to connect with me on UHF radio , to my relief we finally connected .
By the time Scooter arrived , I ’ d stripped back the motorbike to an engine and frame . I was leaving no stone unturned , I wanted badly to keep riding this track .
The issue diagnosed as a faulty fuel pump , it wasn ’ t priming and even after replacing all fuses with new ones and an extraordinary amount of wire jiggling , I couldn ’ t resolve the issue .
Scooter and I decided to remove the fuel pump from the petrol tank requiring us to transfer fuel into his spare fuel sack . With the fuel pump removed we couldn ’ t see any external issues , all wires were connected and after giving the pump a little “ please go ” tap with no success , we reassembled the bike and decided we had no alternative but to tow my bike .
We had two tow straps , I had one and Scooter the other . Mine at this point was being used to tie down my saddle bags after I ’ d worn through the original strap the day before .
Two hours after the problem occurred we started the towing process with Scooters tow rope , a strong strap made from black webbing which had performed this task many times before .
My preferred towing technique , thoroughly assessed by myself , both as the tower and the towee . I like the tow strap to be wrapped around the tower ’ s right foot peg , preferably that end of the tow strap has a loop so you can simply put the foot peg through the loop . The strap then runs back to the towees bike and wraps one and a half times around the left foot peg . This allows control for the towee if in the event of a crash they can easily lift their left foot off the peg and the tow strap unravels without incident .
At first the strap was long enough to allow Scooter to ride in the left wheel rut and me in the right wheel rut , until it broke , six times , and was no longer long enough .
Did I mention this track has whoops ? No , well it does , and this is what was causing the strap to break . We were severely testing its strength .
It became hard for Scooter to tow me from the centre of the track as I found it too difficult to keep my front wheel straight in the centre . It left me needing to remove my tow strap from the saddle bag , I tied what was left of Scooters to mine and we were ready to roll again .
We reached the first tall sand dune , many of these tall sand dunes have a left and right track to avoid head on accidents . The left-hand track was the normal legal route , so we did the right thing and took to the left .
About halfway up the dune we came to a standstill , Scooter had dug a hole Dale Kerrigan would been proud of ( refer to the movie , The Castle . Ed .)
At this point we tried another towing technique , I got off my bike and with Scooter pulling , I began pushing .
It was arduous work , by the time we moved 20 metres , I needed to have a break . Removing my jacket , my t-shirt beneath was completely sweat soaked .
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