One afternoon in Baños I violated the A#1 rule of traveling in Central – South America with your bike: I left the bike for someone to work on while I went off and did something else.

The bike needed it!!!

Being the consummate multi-tasker, I had this brilliant idea to drop my bike off for a wash while I got some lunch. Hey, it’s not service, right? It’s just a bike wash. I told him to be very careful with the Twisted Throttle graphics, and off I went.

!

I had a very nice lunch, and when I walked back to the bike, he was just finishing up. he was attaching something to the spray hose and was approaching my bike. “What’s That”? I asked.

I was pretty sure he said “diesel”.

“DIESEL!?!?!?!”

“Yes, diesel”.

“No. No diesel!”

He could not explain to me *why* they put diesel on the bikes — dry, washed bikes, mind you — but they did it out of habit and he was going to do it to mine!

Thanks goodness I got there in time.

This ought a make the sponsors happy:

Bike Wash with or without diesel: $3.00