The plan was simple. Give my old, currently unused, motorcycle to my brother, Adam, ride up to Seoul together, and ride down alone. That sounds simple enough.
My brother had never driven a motorcycle before so I had to teach him to ride. The planned schedule for Saturday was:
- 09:00 - 11:00 - intensive motorcycle training
- 11:00 - 14:30 - ride from Pusan to Taegu
- 14:30 - 18:30 - ride fromTaegu to Daejeon
- 18:30 - 20:00 - ride from Daejeon to Seoul
Of course, nothing ever goes exactly as planned. I was expecting this, so I made some preparations. Early start time, rain gear, extra time, and other preparations. I thought I had contingency plans for just about everything. How wrong I was.
I had to work Saturday morning. I went in early, but wasn’t able to leave the office until after 10:00 am. I began training my brother to drive a motorcycle at 11:00 am. We go off to a fairly rocky start. At first, the training was progressing more slowly than I had hoped. However, after getting the hang of being gentle on the clutch while simultaneously opening the throttle, and becoming familiar with using the clutch in the braking process, he mastered first gear fairly quickly. Thankfully, he knew how how to ride a bicycle and drive a standard transmission car, two big assets when learning to ride a motorcycle. The remainder of the gears came without a problem.
We hit the road under gray rain clouds at 1:15 pm, more than two hours behind schedule. We drove 10 minutes to a restaurant where we ate a late lunch. We were on the road again at 2:00 pm. The rain started at 2:05 pm. From there, things went downhill very quickly.
We parked under a bridge to put on our rain gear while the rain poured down around us. It was hot and humid, the bikes’ engines were getting warm, and we pulled our heavy rain gear over leather jackets and jeans. We got back on the road around 2:30 pm, just as the rain stopped. The rain gear designed to keep us dry becoming personal saunas, and the sweat was soaking us inside our rain clothes.
About 20 minutes later, as we were worked our way through Pusan toward the open roads to Kimhae, it started raining again, cooling us off a bit. That is when it happened.
I caught a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head in time to see my brother rolling across the asphalt into the next lane and his bike laying on the road just behind mine. He quickly got to his feet, which was a good sign. He was over to his bike and picking it up before I could get my kickstand down to help him. We got the bike upright and to the side of the road.
The damage was limited to one bruised ego, a dirty rain coat and pants, a broken mirror, and a scratched clutch cable cover. I was ready to call the whole trip off at that point. However, my brother insisted that it was a fluke and that it wouldn’t happen again. They say there are two kinds of bikers, those who have laid it down and those who are going to lay it down. My brother quickly joined the ranks of the former. After some heavy questioning, I was convinced that he wasn’t too shaken up. So, we climbed aboard the bikes and set off once again.
Our trip proceeded normally into Kimhae. The rain stopped just before we got to the park that was to be our first scheduled rest stop. It was 5:15pm. We were 5 hours behind schedule. As we took off our rain gear and packed it away, I proposed that we give up the ride. The rain had stopped, so I suggested that we continue on another 45 minutes or so into Miryang, have dinner, turn around, and head back to Pusan. We could chalk the whole thing up to a good introductory ride and plan for a future trek to Seoul.
My brother, who had just been bitten by the biker bug, was noticeably disappointed. After a significant discussion, he insisted that we go on to Taegu and decide what to do at that point. I decided that we would proceed to Miryang and decide whether to continue on to Taegu or not.
The trip to Miryang was uneventful. The weather was nice, and we paused to take a couple of pictures.
Adam near Miryang
Me near Miryang
Everything was going smoothly when we arrived in Miryang, so I agreed to continue on to Taegu.
During the next hour or so as we pushed on toward Taegu, my spirits were lifting. I began to think that it was possible for us to continue on to Daejeon, stay there for the night, and move on up into Seoul early Sunday morning. Of course, just as things were starting to look very good, things again began to go very badly very quickly.
We were on the final approach to Taegu. Normally, it would only have taken us another 30 minutes to get into Taegu. but the rain started. It was the kind of rain the is not there one second and pouring the next second. In a matter of within a minute, we went from dry to very wet.
Up ahead, the expressway passed over the road we were on. I decided to make a run for the overpass to take shelter there and put on our rain clothes. Very quickly, it became clear to me that we would be totally and completely soaked well before we got to the overpass. Instead, I made for a small gas station that I noticed was nearer to us.
We pulled up next to the restrooms and began stripping off our wet clothes and putting on our rain gear. As before, it stopped raining just before we finished putting on our rain gear.
Bikes in the rain near Taegu
We were just about to mount up and start moving again, but the rain started to pick up once more. We decided that we had no choice but to press on to Taegu. As I fueled up at the station, the station attendant asked where we were going. When I said “Seoul,” he looked at me like I was crazy. He said that everything North of us was very, very bad and several roads and bridges were out around the country.
My brother, Adam looking disgruntled
We pressed on. With each passing minute it rained harder and harder. As we reached the outskirts of Taegu, the lightning started.
It was 8:00 pm. The skies were pitch black. We were nearly 6 hours behind schedule. The lightning was getting closer and more frequent. The puddles were getting deeper and deeper.
At one point, the water in the road came up almost to the top of the tires. The water flooded into my horn and silenced it. The idea of being knee deep in water sitting on 700 pounds (300+ kilograms) of steel in the middle of a lightning storm was not very appealing to me.
At that point, I made a command decision and pulled the plug on the entire adventure. I said we were going to hole up in a motel in Taegu for the night and then head back to Pusan as soon as we were able to do so the next morning. I was actually surprised that my brother put up no resistance and supported my decision. Apparently, it was the big puddle that broke his spirit.
We pulled into a motel near the Dong-Taegu train station. After changing into dry clothes and laying out our wet clothes, we ordered some chicken for dinner and went to sleep.
Sleeping was not that easy. The room was stifling hot. We turned the air conditioner on, but within minutes, the room was too cold for comfort. We both woke up several times during the night to either turn the airconditioner on or off.
After that fitful night, we woke up Sunday morning to cloudy skies, but dry roads. We ate a quick breakfast of cookies, onion ring snacks, and pepsi, packed our gear, and headed back to Pusan.
Our room in Taegu
Prior to leaving, we checked the weather report and learned that the storm was intensifying and moving South toward us. We decided that we needed to move as quickly as possible to get back to Pusan before the weather become too bad for travel.
Me on the road out of Taegu to Pusan at 100km/h
While this would be a perfectly acceptable place to end the story of a rotten weekend ruined by accidents, weather, time, and other problems and mishaps, unforuntately, this story continues, and it continues to get worse
As my brother and I continued our run to Miryang, the skies darkened and the wind began to pick up.
Me and my brother on the road to Miryang at 105km/h
Exactly 12 kilometers outside of Miryang, the clounds opened and the rain began to pour. Within 30 seconds, we were soaked. We had gotten so wet so quickly that it was basically pointless to put on rain clothes. We both threw on our rain coats just for comfort. Predictably, the rain stopped the second we restarted our bikes.
We made it into Miryang under awful conditions. No rain, but muddy, puddly roads and the front tires kicking up dirt and spray. Each approaching car misted us with wet and dirt.
My plan was to grab a quick bite to eat at McDonald’s then drive the final two hours into Pusan. However, I missed the turn to McDonald’s. Rather than doubling back, I decided to pull into a convenience store next to the Miryang train station for a quick snack, then make the run to Pusan and eat dinner at home.
While enjoying food and conversation, I looked out the window saw something that made me do a double-take. My bike’s rear tire was flat. I ran out of the convenience store and checked it. It was scompletely flat. I rolled the bike forward to see if there was anything sticking in the tire.
My brother noticed that a tiny rock had embedded itself in my tire. Upon extracting it with my fingers, I discovered that it was a very sharp, pointy rock that has apparently pierced mytire as I drove up and parked in front of the convenience store.
The rock that brought our disastrous weekend ride to an end.
I quickly called the Harley dealership in Taegu and asked if they new a place in Miryang where I could get a temporary patch and some sealant to seal up the puncture until I got back to Pusan. That is when I got a surprise. The dealership’s reply was, “nowhere.”
I asked what he meant by “nowhere.” He said it was impossible because the tire has a tube, and the tube was punctured. That thought had never occurred to me. I had no idea that anyone still made tires with tubes. Tubless tires can be quickly and easily repaired - basically anywhere - with a temporary patch and sealant. However, in order to repair a tire with a tube, you must remove the entire rear wheel from the motorcycle, take the tire off of the wheel, put the new tube on and then reverse the process. Replacing the tube on a Harley is not something that can be done just anywhere. Apart from the technical aspect of it, there is the problem of not having the proper tube. The weekend ride was over. This was absolutely the end of the line, one way or another.
I asked what my options were. The Harley-Davidson dealership advised me that one option was to send a truck From Taegu to Miryang, take the bike back to Taegu, fix it, and I could pick it up later. That was not an option because of my brother’s bike. I could not go back to Pusan on the back of my brother’s bike because the bike wouldn’t make it, and I couldn’t go by myself and let my brother come on the bike because of his lack of experience riding alone on the roads in that area.
I asked for another option. I was told that the other option was to have someone from Changwon come and pick up the bike and go through the same process in Changwon. As Changwon is only 30 minutes from Pusan, I called the guy in Changwon.
After discussing the matter with the Changwon repair shop and my brother, we all agreed that the guy from Changwon would come and pick up both my bike and my brother’s bike, take them both to Changwon. My brother and I would then take the train from Miryang to Pusan. Because the Changwon shop didn’t have the tube in stock, they would have to order it, and the bike would be ready by Wednesday night. I would go to Changwon and pick it up on Wednesday night.
As my brother was leaving for Seoul on Monday morning, that still didn’t solve the problem of how the old Daelim 125cc bike would get from Changwon to Pusan. It seemed that I would have to make a special trip just to pick up the horrible little motorcycle. As I thought about this for a while, I came to the conclusion that I could not, in good faith and conscience allow my brother to ride that motorcycle. It had about 12,000 kilometers on it, it needed repairs due to my brother’s accident, and within the past severl hours had developed a serious rattle in the engine that was only worsening over time. I really didn’t have a solution other than taking my bike back to Pusan on Wednesday and then going to to get the little bike at some point in the future.
We waited approximately an hour for the guy from Changwon to arrive. While helping him load the bikes into his truck, I made the offhanded remark that I hated that old, broken down 125cc bike and wanted to throw it away. He looked at me and said, “I can help you with that.” We agreed that he would take it to a place in Changwon and see how much money he could get out of it. I told him that my target was around 100,000 Won (about US$ 100), but he was authorized to get whatever he could for it.
It just so happened that I had the 125cc bikes registration documents with me at that time. I turned the bike’s title over to him on the spot. The old bike was now his problem, not mine. I would never have to see it again.
The repair guy drove away with the bikes in the back of his truck. Then, dressed in our leather gear, carrying our helmets and our bags, we walked to the train station and purchased two tickets to Pusan on the Mugunghwa train, the lowest class train currently in service in Korea.
We then proceeded over to the tracks and waited dejectedly for the train to come and bring our disaster of a weekend to a very ignoble conclusion.
Waiting for the train to take us back to Pusan.
