The fuel filter

Good morning!

I hope to be able to upload my routes still on Monday. They are on my laptop which is still without internet at the moment.

I left Flensburg at seven the morning. No motorcycle dealer replied on my emails regarding a fuel filter. It was a cloudy and rainy day and I knew it was going to be a long day in rain at 4000 rpm if the KLR still managed to keep going. As a last resort I knew I could remove the fuel filter, try and clean it and then replace it. That wasn’t the ideal solution as these filters are to be used only once.

I crawled in heavy rain past Hamburg, turned southwest on the A1 towards Bremen and then I took a smaller road leading to some small towns. On the internet I found a possible Kawasaki dealer in one of those towns.

It was beautiful riding, a real rural area with farms and long tree-lined alleys. Then I came to a t-junction where I had to turn right. The name of the town was Tostedt. As I turned right I saw a garage, open, which was unusual as it was a weekend, and it front of the garage was a BMW bike parked

On the spur of the moment I decided to stop and asked for a filter. What could I lose?

The wife of the owner, Mrs Soujon, immediately offered me a cup of coffee, my first coffee of the day, and then even a second cup. It tasted so well. And then her husband came, had a look at the filter and smiled, confirming he had such filters in stock.

Then things happened fast. Within minutes the dirty filter was replaced, and when I asked for the bill he just smiled. No charges. It was for free, even the two cups of coffee.

Good people are everywhere. Thank you so much Mrs and Mr Soujon. You were very kind to me.

As I rode away I could feel the difference. The KLR was running smoothly again.

And at home the spare filter that I was supposed to bring with, is still lying. Had I bring it with I would have missed out on the chance of meeting these two beautiful people. Careless, lucky me.

Mrs Soujon with my second mug of coffee.

Mr Soujon on the right, and his mechanic whose name I unfortunately haven’t asked.