Monday, April 1, 2013

In Search of Rear Brake Pads

I met four Colombian riders, three of them in Quito, Ecuador and the fourth the next day.

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Thomas, Diego, Andres and Valancia

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The group got bigger as we saw friends along the way.

Andres convinced me to skip Cali and ride with them to Armenia - Antioquia, Colombia. The winning offer was that they would show me the town and take a ride in the country side. How could I say no?

Thomas drove me around Armenia looking for generic rear brake pads. We went to the motorcycle parts zone, which was incredibly intense. I have never seen so many motorcycles in one area and so many people working on their bikes. Oddly, we couldn’t find the brake pads that I needed.

Part I
Part II

We gave up looking for the brake pads and went to his house for lunch.

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Then we went a ride in the Colombian hills…

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Columbia---Armeni---mountai

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We rounded a corner and encountered a herd of cows…classic.

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Thomas led us to Salento, Quindio were we had a traditional cup of rice pudding.

On the way to pick up his son from school, we stopped for a snack. Thomas had blood sausage and had the pork sausage.

The following day I rode to Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia, where Diego lives. I found his office building and we took off for the motorcycle parts zone. First stop and I got the brake pads. Diego paid ~$95.00 USD for new brake pads in Quito at the BMW dealer. I paid ~42.00 USD for pads made by a Spanish company.

We went back to his office build and I installed the new pads in the parking garage while Diego attended to business. An hour later we went for lunch at a restaurant on a hill over looking Pereira. Diego gave me a 2013 date book and insisted on paying for lunch. Colombians are great! In fact, every meal I had with Colombian riders was picked up by them. I felt a little embarrassed, but understood that they are generous people and proud to extend hospitality to a traveler. 

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