Harley Handlebars Broken

OZBIKE—I went on a road trip to SA over the New Year’s weekend. We reached Nelson (Vic), re-fuelled, and after a quick chat with some riders from Mt Gambier, we headed off to Mt Gambier.

Heading out of town, I passed the 100 km sign and gave the Shovel a bit of a squirt when I felt my handlebars pull back. I looked down and noted they had split/cracked between the risers.

I slowed down, pulled over, showed the missus, then jumped on her bike and headed back town to try and catch the local riders but they had left. I made the decision to head for Mt Gambier 30 km away at a reduced speed pushing on the bars to stop them coming away.

We pulled into the first petrol station we came to where I asked the bloke in the shop if he knew anyone who could help us. He had a look in the local phone book and rang some bloke (Jezza) who I spoke too. He said he would ring his mate (Pedro) to see if could help me.

There is no Harley dealership in town. Jezza had the only sort of shop (Bike Bling) that would have Harley bits and he didn’t have any bars for my bike. I said I would meet him at the front of his shop in about 10 minutes.

He turned up with a bike trailer and his engineering mate (Pedro). After some discussion we headed back to Pedro’s place where we managed to fix my bars (three hours later) and get us back on the road.

Pedro and Jezza are two outstanding blokes and Pedro is a master engineer/welder (ACE Engineering). They dropped everything to help two strangers. I would like to say sorry to Jezza’s wife and kids who were waiting for him to get home, also to Pedro who was working on his own bike. Again, all this was done over the New Year’s long weekend.

After many, many thanks we headed back to Portland (Vic) for the night. Pedro’s repair got us home safely the next day. Outstanding people!

JOHN & MARGRIT