A nice little threesome part 2

So the next morning I get up and have breakfast, pack my stuff up, throw it in the sidecar and wait for the garage to return. While I'm waiting I start looking at the bike and realise that my idea of restoration differ somewhat from the bloke I just bought the bike from. Loads of nice shiny new bolts, but most are hugely over length, and when I grab the bike and shake it around I find that the sidecar mounting bolts are all loose. So out comes the toolkit I brought with me and half an hour later at least the sidecar is unlikely to come off on the ride home. By midday I'm on my 5th coffee and second packet of fags so I phone breakdown and they say they will find out what the holdup is. When they phone back they explain the garage didn't have a 6V charger so had to wait till the morning to find a bike shop to charge the battery up. Eventually they turn up around 5pm, the battery is connected and off we go. Except that half an hour later I am at the side of the road again with a dead bike. Same problem, and I realise that the problem is that although the bike is charging, its not putting out as much power as I am drawing. So another call to breakdown, the same garage come out and by 9 I am safely esconced in the same hotel I left that morning! Europ-Assistance phone me at the hotel and tell me what the next move was. So at 10 the next morning, after seeing the bike disappear on the back of a truck I get a taxi to the nearest train station, where I book a ticket to Rotterdam. And then the ferry to Hull, and then a train home. (All receipts sent to the company and reimbursed in a month) And a couple of weeks later I get a phonecall at work saying my bike will be arriving at my home address in an hour. I arrive home just in time to stop a mahoosive lorry trying to get down my street, the Pannonia is unloaded and the bloke even gives me a hand pushing it round to my lockup! So thanks Carol Nash... i certainly got my moneys worth from that policy! Oh and the fault was tracked down to the fact that the bike is equipped with a flywheel charging system producing a whole 45W of 6V electrons! And so a collaboration with MZ-B ended up in the production of a 12v 100W system which will, in the fullness of time allow ALL the lights to glow brightly

A nice little threesome!

I blame eBay... and alcohol. Otherwise how would I have found a bike I had never heard of before, and buy it, and arrange to drive it back from Germany.

A Pannonia 250 single, with a Duna sidecar and a Motokuli sidecar. All apparently restore and ready for me to ride back,,,, or maybe not but more of that later. So having won this on eBay I arranged to get myself over to Germany, hand over the money, sign the paperwork and ride the Pannonia back to the UK. And then I developed a lousy cold... snotty, achy and with a fever to light fags off. But the coach to Germany was booked, so off I set from sunny Bradford Many many hours later I arrived in the nearest city to the bike, grabbed my bag with my helmet, gloves, waterproofs etc in it and jumped off the coach. Only after the coach left to its next destination Didi I realise that I had left my jacket, with the money for the bike safely zipped up in the pocket, on the coach.SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!. So I find the coach office and explain whats happened. They explain that the coach will be returning in 4 hours time and they will contact the next stop to tell the driver to secure my jacket. So I phone the seller of the bike and explain the delay, and he is OK and tells me to phone him when I arrive at the train station nearest his place. Four hours later Im feeling even more like death warmed up and awaiting the coach's return. And eventually it pulls up and there is my jacket and more importantly the money. A one hour train journey and I am waiting for the seller to arrive... and wait... and wait. Just as I am thinking it might all be a huge scam, and I'm going to be left at a station in the middle of Germany, he turns up and we set off to finally do the deal. And the Pannonia looks lovely, All shiny paint, new seat, the sidecar has all new internal panels and seat, all looks good. So I hand over the money , sign some papers and we go out to stick my stuff in the sidecar and set off. Now being some 4 hours later than intended its starting to get dark, so i start the bike, runs great, and turn on the lights.... and the lights are like glow worms. SHIT again!. So we set to removing any bulbs we can do without... pilot bulb, speedo lights, rear lights on the bike ( well it's got lights on the trailer) rear lights on the sidecar ( well it's got lights on the trailer!) and off I set, into the increasing gloom A couple of hours later and the motor is running fine, keeping a steady 80kph, but the lights are fading .....and then it just dies. No lights... nothing. I get my torch and tools out and sit at the side of the autobahn trying to work out whats happened. I then find the battery is the smallest 6V battery I have ever seen in my life, and I accept that I am going no where. But I had insured the bike (on its frame number) with a Carol Nash classic policy ( £20 if i remember rightly) and that gives me European breakdown cover! So I phone the number and an hour or so later aq van turns out and out jumps a german mechanic, who scratches his head, prods a few connectors and then gets on the phone, which he soon hands to me. And a lovely lady at Europ-Assistance explains they are going to take me and the bike to a hotel, and the garage will charge the battery up for me and return it in the morning. So off we go to a hotel, and after a few beers and a Schnitzel and chips I head off to bed, looking forward to a nice ride the next day...... to be continued