SAIGONNEZUMIMy Poor Wet Yamaha Nouvo
Well, this morning I got up early and Mr. Ut, my neighbor, took me to The Manor on his motorbike. I thought I could start up my Yamaha Nouvo after letting it dry overnight. Nope, Mr. Ut had to push my motorbike from behind all the way to the Yamaha Service Center on Vo Thi Sau street in District 1. I gave him 100,000 VND for his efforts (he helps me out a lot at my house so I finally had an excuse to pay him for it since Vietnamese normally refuse money for helping you).
After waiting one hour, Monday mornings are always busy at the Yamaha Service Centers in Saigon, a mechanic serviced my motorbike. He knew instantly what was wrong. He opened up my motorbike and called me over. About one litter of water poured out of my motorbike. He had to replace my soaked air filter and spark plug (spark plug is bugi in Vietnamese). After that, he checked my oil. Yep, lots of water in there :-) It had to be replaced as well (next weekend I will need to replace it again).
After he finished replacing the spark plug and air filter, he then checked the gear box. It was nice and dry but he found a lot of damage in there. Turns out that over 3 years of wear and tear took its toll on the gear box. He had to take it apart and rebuild it. Everything happens for a reason, if I had not flooded my motorbike, the gearbox would have been heavily damaged within a month costing me more money (it was black inside, not from the oil or dust).
After two hours, he finally finished repairing my motorbike. Wow, I was amazed, I got back the power that I felt was missing the last 6 months. I expect to get better gas mileage again with the rebuilt gearbox. Well, I hope. 20 km/litter does not cut it in Saigon when I used to get about 26 km/litter.
(My motorbike being repaired)
(Yes, that's water 'pouring' down)
(Gearbox was removed and rebuilt)
Total Costs for Flooded Motorbike:
70,000 VND - Taxi back to my house 100,000 VND - Mr. Ut - Xe Om and Tow 350,000 Total - Parts, Labor, Tip - Yamaha Service Center 520,000 VND - Total (~$35 US)
How much would this have cost in the US?