Today, “adventure” is a product category that includes purpose-built Jeeplike bikes that can get a determined rider to Tierra del Fuego. And back. Or it can be last year’s underselling street model that has been perked up with suspension lifts, all-purpose tires, a headlamp stone-guard, and boxes with metal corners. Adventure used to mean being unstoppable. Long ago, a BMW rider enroute from Europe to the Far East found himself somewhere in Afghanistan with essential parts bent beyond use. Satellite or cell phones were far in the future, and there was no chase helicopter full of sandwiches, mechanics, and cold drinks. By dint of expressive cross-cultural studies carried out over a period of days, this rider learned that in a nearby village there was said to be an ancient man who could make things work. With heat from a fire and leverage from a small tree-trunk, this wizard enabled our man to continue. Metal doesn’t care whether the heat comes from a thermo-regulated shop furnace or from burning sticks, encouraged by a small boy working a bellows. Physics works for those who apply it—whether their degree was awarded by Oxford or by life. 
Another traveler used his modest tool kit to reveal that the mystery of his non-running engine was a ruptured fuel pump diaphragm. Scissors of the Swiss Army knife variety transformed the rubberized fabric of a food pouch into a get-you-there replacement. Yes, the jury-rigged diaphragm wasn’t everything-resisting epichlorohydrin rubber, but as the gasoline gradually caused it to swell and begin to disintegrate, it pumped fuel long enough to retrieve the situation. Before alternators came generators. Generator brushes wear as the segmented copper bars of the commutator spin under them. Eventually the brushes became so short that the springs holding them in good contact hit their stops. With continued brush wear, current ceased to flow. Again, the traveler had basic tools, including a file with which to shorten the stops so the brush springs again pressed the essential black carbon blocks into contact. Back in motion. Sometimes failure occurs when parts are at hand, but tools are not. Don’t let that happen—carry the basics. One spring afternoon, I found myself sitting cross-legged at the roadside with the piston of my single-cylinder bike in one hand and a bit of sandpaper in the other, clearing a seizure. I wasn’t hurrying because I was enjoying the moment. I knew that in a few minutes I’d be wiping the parts clean, reassembling, starting up, and riding on. It was a pretty small adventure, but I haven’t forgotten it. When there is no alternative, there’s no telling how inventive any of us may have to become. That’s an adventure.Gadget Reviews: mamaktalk.com
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