Such is life I guess

This morning after I answered the door I couldn't keep my excitement to myself. I even send my wife a message on Yahoo to tell her. "My hand guards have arrived". Yes, yesterday I ordered Barkbuster hand guards for my bike from Port Elizabeth. The guy told me two to three working days for delivery. But at nine this morning the door bell rang and I was more than surprised to see the courier services. Man, what a guy needs for a perfect weekend is something good in the post...

So, despite the fact that I had to work, I thought that I would skip my coffee breaks and bit by bit assemble each part. I had everything laid out on the table, got the right tools and started disassembling my current handle bar ends. Because the manual only showed the installation of the left hand side (yes, sometimes men follow the manual), I obvioulsy started on the left hand side guard. It didn't take me long before I had the first hand guard on...and I have to admit, I did a good job. Didn't really need the manual, but nevertheless....

So, during my second coffee break I tackled the right hand side. Obvioulsy by now I couldn't understand why they even write manuals. Men can always figure things out by themselves. We don't read manuals and we don't ask for directions. I started the same way as the previous one and when the last bracket had to be attached, with or without a manual I could see that something was wrong. The bracket didn't fit. No mattter which way I turned it, it was NOT going to work. I then compared it with the other side and realized that the box came with two of the same left side brackets. 

Now, if you could've seen my excitement this morning, you could just image my disappointment this afternoon. I ordered this from PE, I could not get on the bike, go to the shop and tell them to swop it. This meant that I will have to wait at least another day, and it being Friday, probably till Monday. So I called the guys on the other side and explained my problem. They asked for a photo and which side it was that needed to be replaced. So this meant I had to take the first one apart to get the picture, send the email and wait. I waited until 4pm and then decided to phone, the silence from the other side was killing me. And then my nightmare came true. The salesman told me that it was the last stock, that the bracket has to be ordered from Australia and that I will have to wait AT LEAST another month!!!!  C'mon, can this be for real? I was shattered to say the least. Can you give a child a Christmas present and then the next day tell him to put it away until he is a bit older?? You just don't do that!

Anyway, so we discussed other possible solutions, but none of them were going to work. Hitting it with a hammer was NOT an option for me. Especially not if it is hardened aluminium. Heating it up and bending it, neither. So what the salesman suggested was to try the bracket from the KTM. I don't particularly like to put "KTM stuff" on my bike, but hey, this was an emergency. In the meantime I decided to put both on in any case, one with the bracket and the other without the bracket. I just have to make sure that if I fall that it is not on the right hand side. The hand guard will just break off. But apart from the missing bracket it looks good and is tight enough not to fall off. While I was writing this post, I received the following message....

Hi M***

M*** has rushed off to the Post Office and posting your missing items.
Regards
E***

So, hopefully I will have the KTM substitutes soon. Hopefully they will fit and hopefully I will soon be ready to fall on the right hand side. SO WATCH THIS SPACE...!