Monday morning. Was told to expect the Goan market's salutations to the dawn between 10 am and noon. Waited at 10.30 outside the Royal Enfield repair shop near Calangute-Baga chowk to swoop on the mechanic soon as he opened the shutters. Being early bird paid off as he jerry-rigged a workable clutch cabling which served me the rest of the trip, but only after much headless-chickenly roadrunning. Cables for the Bullet Lightning were not available anywhere in a 5 mile radius. Found a piece for the high-handlebar Bullet Thunderbird but it was discarded as being too short (designed for left-sided gearboxes) and exchanged for the low-handle, right-side-gearboxed Bullet Std 350 cable. The macgyverism was in bypassing the wireguide on the front fork and thus shortcircuitting length demands placed by the high 'bars - flying right off the handle into the gearbox.
Moved from Mapusa to Panaji in search of the elusive chain-sprocket.
No luck with the chain assembly anywhere in Goa, even as far as Madgaon. Headed southward to Karwar at a restrained pace - some mechanics had sounded a warning that the worn sprocket teeth could cause the chain to break at higher speed (found later to be alarmist baloney - engine 'slippage' on climbs was the only problem)
A lagoon laps the roadside as you enter Karwar.
Subhash, the guy who finally installed a new chain sprocket, says a lot of bikers stop by his workshop before heading south.
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