I managed to hole the sump by careering into a boulder on the side of the trail. Looking at what happened, the bashplate did an OK job and the rock glanced off it, but then it caught the engine bars which effectively jammed it into the gap between the two components. I reckon if I hadn't had engine bars I might have got away with it.

Recovery was difficult, I was north west of El Kelaa M'Gouna in Morocco and there was no mobile signal. So I walked 18km to where I could get a signal. Couldn't get the recovery pickup nearer than 2km from the bike so with five blisters I had to walk another 2km then ride the bike back to the pickup. Fortunately the hole didn't allow too much oil to escape. I eventually got back to Ouarzazate with the bike at 4am the next day, leaving the bike on the pickup bed until first light. Unfortunately in that two hour gap some lowlife nicked all my spares, tools and compressor off the back of the bike--I hadn't been thinking clearly enough to take them off.

I've mended the hole with magic metal and it's holding fine. But looking at the design, it's well crap. There shouldn't be a gap between the bash plate and the bars. A child could have designed something better.

So I'm out of pocket �300 for the recovery, another �150+ for tools, plus probably �80 for a new engine cover. All because of poor design. Not a happy bunny.

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

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