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2003-04-23 - New Delhi (Day 8)

I guess the hotel is starting to get worried about my internet bills as the first thing this morning was a call asking for me to increase the room deposit, which for some reason I found annoying especially as they were not offering a very good rate of exchange and I was starting to run a little low on Rupees.

To get on with the morning it was a catchup day. I knew the bike was still being worked on so it was time to catch up on three days of journals that I was behind on as well as updating my budget. Easy to whine and complain here as this is the first time I've taken on keeping a daily journal or record of every expense and I still haven't settled into a pattern on. Nothing too exciting to tell but that was all of the morning and afternoon.

Going into the shop unfortunately I found that little overall progress had been made. As with any busy business, when you look at the individual progress of a single customer's work in the midst of many things going on at once, sometimes the progress seems kind of slow. On the other hand, I really am surprised that these guys can get anything at all done with a customer sitting right behind them watching every move

A German guy came in to check his bike which was being fitted out for return shipping back home. His bike looked lovely and I'm especially jealous of the black leather saddlebags which he'd had done up. The leather is exceptionally thick and tough and the bags look wonderful. I'd love to have a pair myself just for the looks but Lalli is telling me its just not practical for the trip I'm planning and I've outfitted with rather ugly metal boxes which will certainly take the rocks and rain better as well as being less prone to theft, but these logical things still can't silence that yearning for the cool beauty of those bags. Hopefully all will turnout and I'll be shipping this bike somewhere else for a less strenuous trip and I'll grab a pair before I leave.

The bike is being put through the last paces now. The mechanics start tearing everything apart - front wheel assembly, front shocks, rear wheel and distributor and I start wondering what the heck is going on! I thought I was almost done here. However a little bit of sitting and watching tells me that this is just the process that this group goes through before sending any bike out. They are going through all of the major subsystems one last time to make sure it meets their standards. While I would have assumed, that new from the factory would mean its ready to go, watching them I find that's not the case with the Enfield at all. An example being the distributor system which new from the factory has no lubrication in it, which doesn't seem to make much sense but is clearly the case. My guys pack a whollop of grease in there and then do one last adjustment of the timing and I really get a feel for the legendary Enfield "thump" that is the trademark sound of these bike. They also readjust the back break leaver moving it in a bit but rebending the brake rod. Looking at the rod it makes perfect sense as originally it was far too close to the passenger foot rest and buy bending it up its much less likely to be rubbing or caught on the rest. Again I'm left with the feeling these guys really do know what they are doing.

Just a few more minor modifications to go and I should be done. I've got my beloved GPS set up on the handlebar, changed to the shorter exhaust on Lalli's recommendation both for more power and since the shorter exhaust is less likely to hit the bumps of the Himalayan roads, and lastly the front number plate with the "www.onwalkabout.com" gets put on which reminds me that the site is still not up!

One last bit of amusement is that Lalli has somehow picked up what I do for a living though I haven't mentioned it and I'd already had a few questions on minor computer trouble from him. Today it gets serious though when he asks for advice on his e-mail marketing and customer communications plan. While I'm aghast that I really must have a "tech geek" sign stamped to my forehead, I'm even more stunned that here in India, the bike shops not only have such a plan but are implementing it! Lalli had two tech consultants there and they were discussing planned web site updates and a new e-mail campaign. Hey, come on, this is a bike dealer in India, but he's got customers all over the world getting his e-mail updates! If companies don't see that people like this will just walk away with their business if they don't make use of technology, the customers will probably be long gone before anyone realizes what has happened!

You can visit Lalli's IndraMotors web site at http://www.lallisigh.com

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