HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I am lucky to be in Buenos Aires anytime, but this time I am here for the start of the 2010 Dakar. Here are some photos. I have not posted anything for a long time and I may take this site down soon. However, I do have other stories to tell if people are interested in travel sans motorcycle. I invite you to have a look at my new site Ethoshopper.


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My good friend Mark is now traveling through Africa. I first met him just as he was starting his South America trip and a year later started my South America trip. Could history repeat itself….

Ridefar

I didn’t do much in Manaus. It was hot and humid and there isn’t much to see. It is amazing that such a rapidly growing city is in the middle of the Amazon. Then again I am not really surprised anymore. I did want to get my visa for Venezuela but the Venezuelan consulate told me I didn’t need a visa. So I was soon driving due north for Venezuela.

The ride north takes you through the autonomous region of the Waimiri-Atroari where you are not allowed to stop or take photos. The Waimiri-Atroari are strongly resisting government efforts to develop the region’s nature resources.

The road, BR-174 is mostly paved even through the reserve, and is slated to be widen into a 2-lane highway.


Sure enough it started raining despite clear skies in the morning.

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<And sure enough the rain only lasted a couple of hours before the hot sun returned. The weather was driving me bananas!

It later started raining once again. This time it was so hard I had to pull off the road.

This was the heaviest rain I have ever seen in my life. It actually hurt and I could hardly see the road. So I once again was forced off the road by the rain.

Here is a short video clip of the rain.

Not to worry because the sun soon returned as usual.

And, returned once again later so strong I took shelter in this shack on the road.
I was not happy.



It cleared again and I was still aiming for Boa Vista for the day. However, the road deteriorated badly and, in the middle of nowhere, my chain jumped off the chain and became jammed around the front sprocket.

Not to worry, because soon enough some locals stopped to help.

However, the chain, a BMW original chain, did not have a master link and I did not have a chain breaker. I feared that this would be a big problem. It took a long time to undue the chain from the front sprocket and I still needed to break the chain. My new friends thought a hacksaw would cut the chain but it hardly made a scratch. Fortunately, someone else came along and used a metal wedge and a hammer to pry the side plates off a link and then hammer out the pins with a screw. It took a long time but it worked. Fortunately, I actually had a spare chain, with a master link, because I heard the stock BMW chain is very weak.


Many hours later I was ready to hit the road where I was to buy some beers for my new friends.


I spent the night in Novo Paradaiso, which contrary to its name is anything but a paradise.

It rained all night and the next morning it was still raining hard. I tried to wait it out but could not bare the thought of spending another night in this paradise.

The rain eventually subsided and I headed out. At the gas station I met these two Franciscan monks who I previously met on the boat up the Amazon River. They were traveling without any money or belongings. They looked as bad as I felt but cheered up after I bought them some breakfast.

It was now Friday and if I needed to get a Venezuelan visa in Boa Vista. Otherwise I would be stuck in Boa Vista until Monday. I made the most of the clear weather.

I was in a hurry but couldn’t resist on last drink of Acai.

Then it was straight for Boa Vista.

I continued up the coast from Fortaleza towards Sao Luis rather than staying on the main road to Teresina.


I took a little detour inland to try and see some of the villages along the coast.

There was no other vehicles. I just had to keep alert for animals on the road.

And the weather.







The roads were not too bad but often the roads were washed out at certain spots. There had been a lot of rain in the past few weeks. So, an old man offered me a seat in the shade of his house while I waited for the road crews to finish working.



I was back on the road soon enough. However, I suddenly could not get the bike out of neutral. It turned out the lever on the gear box that moves the clutch cable was stuck. It was at this point that I noticed my clutch was slipping in 4 and 5th gears under heavy acceleration.



I made it to Sao Luis that night where to my surprise some local riders had been waiting for me for several hours on the main road.

Sao Luis has potential but needs a lot of work. The main attraction is the tiled buildings in the old part of town. The city is has a lot of hills so a good breakfast is essential.

Some follow-up on luggage cases.

1. Crashing and Loose Screws
I do not expect luggage racks to survive a crash. They should be repairable in the field, however. Every drop or crash has been documented on this blog. It is something I learned from Grant at my first Horizons Unlimited meeting. The first thing you do when you drop the bike or crash is– take a picture! I have ridden close to 50,000 miles on this trip through some difficult roads. The crash in Baja were with the Jesse bags, which suffered no damage. Otherwise there have been one or two low speed drops. Really only one prior to the major cracking of the Caribou racks. Certainly, that is not the cause of all my problems with these racks.

Screws are bound to come loose, especially using the inadquate mounting points BMW provides. For me, the most problematic screws have been the two M8 screwes at the back. I use loctite and also started using nuts with those two screws. It is fairly obvious when one of those screws come loose because the cases move a lot more. This creates a lot of noise and tells you to check the screws. Furthermore, since I have reinforced the main bars held by the rear M8 screws the cracking has stopped completely. All the other cracking have no possible relation to loose screws. My modifications are documented below.

2. AMC Quality
I have to admit AMC was very helpful when I first purchased the luggage and had problems installing the racks. The racks fit precisely together and I have a hard time installing them. There is a lot of high sprung tension by the time you are inserting the final pieces. You have to be careful and if you bike is not perfectly new the fit may be more difficult because the pieces my not line up precisely. I never considered the u-bolts installed in the wheel well to be positioned to bear any weight, although AMC insisted they do. I have spoke with some other riders who have also had problems making the racks fit properly. I had some modifications done just to make a better fit and later had to remake the tubing because they cracked off. This is documented below.

Caribou would probably work as advertised on pavement only or anything other than a prolonged trip on bad roads. The first break occurred after a day of high speed riding on a road full of holes.

I owe Caribou one of the nicest experiences of the trip, when I looked down the road and saw these two kids carrying my luggage up the road for me. I almost cried. Their family later gave me coffee and home-made cheese as they looked for part of the rack. Caribou luggage – $$$$$; experience in Cauca, Colombia – priceless. But, notice the condition of the road in the foreground. The bike took a serious ponding this day. In fact the next day I notice two BMW subframe bolts had broken off.

3. Modifications
Some simple reinforcements have enabled the racks to be much more durable.
Main cross bars

U-Bolts
I also had a lot of work done on the underside u-bolts. For some reason, the right side cracks a lot whereas the left has few problems. Here are the what the look like as of April 2008.


I just realized one u-bolt in the picture is upside down. The one on the right is the right side u-bolt. However, the top part with all the electrical tape is the bottom part that hooks into the frame of the luggage bracket. Now, look at the left side. Here the bottom is the bottom and is almost original. If you look closely you can see the hook. Sorry, I should have a detailed picture of this. I will add one soon. My point here is that I had the ´hook´enlarged because the luggage bracket never truely fit into this location. From day one, at best it added stability by preventing movement but did not bear any weight.

Now let´s go back to the left u-bolt. Today, it basically does nothing except add a little stability. This is to say not much difference from the original, imho. This incarnation of the u-bolt was done in desperation somewhere on Ruta 40. You can see where the improvised extension was welded to the orgininal. This spot has cracked many times. I have had one custom made exactly like the original when I found the best welder in South America. However, I finally gave up because it is not worth the effort. A brand new u-bolt from AMC would make little difference than this frankenstein piece I have now.

I believe this u-bolt is poorly designed. It does not fit properly into the luggage bracket for one. Second, it merely hooks into the bracket. The fit is very loose. At one point I placed silicon paste in the u-bolt slot to prevent movement of the luggage bracket in the slot.

Luggage Brackets
The luggage brackets are frequently cracking at two spots on each bracket. The spots are where you can see the welding in these pictures.


So, finally I had the brackets reinforced. I only recently had this done. Previously, I would just have the cracks welded. I don´t know why I didn´t do it sooner. Maybe because there is very little space between the bracket and the cases. However, in Recife, Brasil I found the coolest welder in South America. Here is my buddy David.



David welded some metal L-shaped pieces over the spots prone to cracking. I was very happy with this and only wondered why I never thought of this.

4. Miscellaneous
The Jesses really only have two weight bearing spots rather than three as I stated. There are two mounting points across the top, however. But, when the Jesse case fit into the racks they are really tight. Sometimes so tight it is difficult to remove them. This prevents any vibration.

BMW did a bad job providing mounting points for any luggage system.


Remember this bike is really not designed for a trip such as mine. Its is all MARKETING. If you think a BMW bike is inherently better than any other bike, you are officially BRAINWASHED. But then most people today are brainwashed one way or another. (Must stick to motorcycles.)

Minor point- the keys face up and are easily jammed by dirt. My first week upon restarting this trip I had to go to a locksmith in Baja because there was sand in the lock. I simple cap would have prevented this.

I wonder if there is a way to convert the Pelicans back to normal use, and maintain the warranty, if you no longer wanted to use them for a motorcycle.

I have talked to Jesse of Jesse Luggage several times and I can’t say he has the best customer service. He did say the racks I had were old and made of two metal halves fused together whereas the newer one are one solid piece.

This post is a long time coming. People have asked my opinion about luggage cases and I have intended to write a thorough post. This post is not as thorough as I wanted but I am sick again in Brasil and in a bad mood. I need to vent. I could vent about many things, like the guy on Adventure Rider who starts a thread asking ‘how are the roads in Central America‘, a rider who insists on posting every little thing he does no matter how insignificant, or the women who is visiting the U.S. for the first time and plans to ride across the country in one week. Then there are those still asking, ‘is Colombia safe’ or which bike is the best for the trip, the total lack of electrical outlets in South American hotels, 24 ATMs that close at 10pm, banks that do not open till 10am, cab drivers who do not use meters and, well I’ll stop now. And these are just annoyances in totally insignificant motorcycle world. I could rant about any number of world issues or what it is like to eat steak and drink beer while starving children and cripples constantly approach you for money. I mean this whole website is totally irrelevant, I know. But I promised myself I would only discuss motorcycle related topics on this website. Oh wait, the medicine must be kicking in, where was I. Ahh yes, luggage racks.

My first set of hard luggage cases were a used set of Jesse bags. I forget what model year but I bought them in 2004 used. I didn’t any off-road riding with these cases until I took a 2 week trip to Mexico for the 2004 Horizons Unlimited meeting.
Here is the bike with the Jesse bags loaded at the October 2004 Horizons Unlimited Meeting in Creel, Mexico.

Unfortunately, I crashed on my way down to Batopolis. I was headed up this road, btw.

This required straightening the racks and then at Grant’s (HU co-owner) suggestion I had them reinforced at the slots for the cases.

I liked the Jesse because the were strong. However, I didn’t like the flimsy locks, difficult removal/attachment and lack of waterproofing. The most annoying problem for me was that removal and moving the cases was difficult. Removing fully loaded cases, sometimes even when empty, was difficult, and there was no easy way to carry each case in one hand. This made unloading and loading the bike a clumsy and time consuming ordeal. By the time, I broke my leg in August 2006 a new luggage system had been developed called Caribou Luggage, utilizing Pelican cases.

So, I decided to splurge for a new set luggage cases. Here is a picture with the new cases.

Not the best picture of the cases but it brings back a lot of memories. You can see my good friend Jeff as well as his Happy Trials cases compared to the Caribou. (Hi Jeff)
Here is another shot.

Here you can see them along side a set of Happy Trails and Touratech (I think) panniers.

I was fairly happy with the Caribou’s. They are truly waterproof, have a large storage capacity, are easy to remove, and have decent locking system. However, once in South America, I started riding some bad roads and the racks started breaking frequently.

The following is a a history of my experiences with the cases, including crashes and drops. The complete story for each can be found at the individual blog posts.

December 2006 – purchased luggage and racks
May 2007 – drop, left side, while driving approx 20 kph through a construction zone
July 2007 – during a day of riding in San Augustin, Colombia, through a unpaved road full of potholes my right case sudden broke off because the racks cracked. Fortunately the bag fell completely off and I managed to stop without falling. This was the beginning of my welding tour.

September 2007: Trujillo, left side cracking, had this kid do some minor welding

September 2007 Canyon de Pato: Major structural seperation on right side by the end of this day of unpaved roads and rocks.

Welder in Caraz

October 2007: received new set of mounting racks only from AMC after much debate. Had them reinforced by a welder who is a member of the Lima Moto Club

November 2007 Had u-bolt custom manufactured by an excellent welder, unfortunately it only lasted a couple of days on Bolivian roads because the entire u-bolt assembly broke off again two days later. Previously I always had about half of the bolt that was bolted onto the frame. The half reaching out to the case frequently broke off.

November 2007 Villa Mar, Bolivia (south of Uyuni)
Dropped bike in deep sand breaking luggage side mount. This clean break was at a spot frequently welder in the past because of cracking. The next day it was welded again. Fortunately, there is a welder almost every in South America.

December 2007 welding of sidestand and custom u-bolt thingy.

December 2007 Caleta Olivia- several cracks welded

The past few months I have not had any beaks because I now frequently inspect the racks and every time I see cracking I have it welded.

Conclusion I am not an engineer, but this is the way I see it. The Jesse racks are made of sold metal. They will bend and at some point break but are very strong. The Caribou racks are made of metel tubing and therefore are much thinner at any given point. This makes them vulernable to cracking. Also, the Pelican cases used in the Caribous system are heavy. I do not know how heavy or even how the weight compares to a Jesse case. I would like to know the weights if anyone out there knows. I do not think the Caribou racks are strong enough for the weight of the cases fully loaded. This results in cracking and breaking under stress, i.e., unpaved roads. I also do not like the design of the Caribou racks. The weight is really only supported by the main top bar. There are u-bolts attached inside the rear tire well but they only serve to hold the case in place. Even if you could manage to get the u-bolt to bear some of the weight as the manufacturer claims the metal hooks permit a lot of movement. I believe this is why they were constantly breaking. The Jesse system has three solid, tight fitting, weight bearing locations.

If I had to do it again I might take a closer look at Happy Trails or the new Jesse’s with water proof inner bags. I saw a set of Metal Mule cases in Argentina and I really liked them, but I do not believe they are sold in the U.S.

I am not the only one experiencing problems. Have a look at his photos here http://tysonbrust.com/2008/03/16/caribou-luggage-rack-disaster.aspx
This is his first paragraph assessing the Caribou system

Caribou Luggage Rack Disaster
Before setting out on last year’s adventure through the Americas, I did a lot of research on luggage systems. In the end I went for the Caribou luggage system because it looked easy to install and used Pelican 1550 cases which would still be waterproof after a nuclear blast. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that although the Pelican cases held up beyond expectations, the Caribou rack itself continually fell apart. By the end of the trip, almost every weld had been redone. Luckily it is relatively easy to find welders in even the most remote places of the world.

If all this was not enough, the reaction from Adventure Motorcycle Company (AMC) was very hostile. It took many heated emails for me to receive replacement racks (just the motorcyle mounts). They insisted the breaks occurred due to a crash, basically claiming I was lying. Only at the last minute did they agree to send new racks costing me 2 weeks in Lima and I paid for the shipping. This from a company promoting its cases as “World’s Toughest Motorcycle Luggage”, and claiming on its website that “[c]aribou luggage systems are built tough for the adventure touring motorcyclist who needs rugged functionality, high quality, and personal service & support. Every part of the Caribou bracket/rack system is carefully engineered for strength and durability – even in a crash. Every detail from the fasteners to the locks is carefully and painstakingly thought out.”

I have an unconfirmed report that they AMC has decided to use a thicker gauge for the tubing.

I stopped at Azul to visit ‘El Pollo’ at La Posta del Viajero a refuge for travelers, particularly motorcyclists. I didn’t know too much about this place except everyone told me I had to visit it. Jorge is the a unique person. He is by far the nicest person I have met.

The place has a lot of history. Just about every overland motorcyclist in South America has passed through here and every motorcyclist in South America seems to know the place.




Unfortunately, I could not stay too long because I needed to fix my oil leak. It was a short ride to Buenos Aires, but finding Dakar Motos was a challenge. I got within 5 miles and then drove around in circles for two hours trying to find the exact location.

Dakar Motos is another place everyone seems to pass through. I arrived in time to see these two off. Sometimes you gotta wonder what people are thinking.

Trelew is a town with a rich history although today it is a quiet city. I ended up at Hotel Touring which was so nice I decided to stay a couple of days just to hang out in the hotel. Trelew is also a good option from which to visit Peninsula Valdes.



Hotel Touring was one of the hangouts of Butch Cassidy and Sundance while they were trying to live a normal live raising cattle in Patagonia. However, they eventually returned to robbery and eventually fled to Bolivia. The province of Chubut is contains some of the most significant fossil beds in the world and there is a well-respected national history museum in Trelew.



A cross section of those balls that were at Valley de la Luna.


Trelew was also the center of the Welsh community that settled here to avoid persecution by England. There is a small museum and some orginal Welsh buildings in the city, but not much remains of the Welsh community.

For the first time in almost two years my destination was northbound. I left Ushuaia early and head north on Ruta 3.

The pink flamingoes were still there.



As were the Guanaco.

One more time on the long ‘ripio’ roads of Tierra del Fuego before hitting the pavement towards Buenos Aires.


On Ruta 3 I started meeting more travelers because the Horizons Unlimited meeting in Viedma had just ended. Unfortunately, I missed the meeting by a week or so. These guys, however, were riding north two up on a little Chinese made 200cc. A long story behind it.





Patagonia used up my tires faster than I estimated and by the time I was driving on Ruta 3 I really needed tires. Luckily I found a good set of Metzlers in the coastal town Caleta Olivia. A very friendly town with an active rider group. The people at Coyote Motos were great. There is also a good restaurant near the main intersection that is owned by a Africa Twin rider.


And some welding for the luggage racks again.

Then it was back on the road, the long straight road that is Ruta 3.

The road south from Rio Grande is uninspiring, however when the road starts to head west at Tolhuin the ride becomes beautiful as it takes you around Lake Escondido.



Lago Escondido



It was had to find lodging with space for the motorcycle but eventually I found Hostel Freestyle (Gobernador Paz 866, www.ushuaiafreestyle.com).

I had been watching the side stand carefully since the welding done on Ruta 40 and noticed it was leading over more than usual, however, the side stand itself appeared fine..

A closer inspection revealed that the bolts holding the undercarriage frame had broken off. The only thing holding up the frame, to which the side stand assembly is attached, was the engine splash guard. Good thing I had a heavy duty engine guard.
So, there I was, less than 30 minutes away from the end of Ruta 3, and I had to do some repairs. It turned out to be a difficult problem. The subframe was held by very long bolt that had broken off leaving the threaded end in the frame. Even when we got the bolts out I could not find bolts long enough. Someone made new bolts out of threaded steel rods and welded on nuts to form a bolt.


The guys at RectiMotor parts on Tekenika 482 really went out of their way to help me and put it all back together for me and only charged me a small amount for the parts. There is also a Canadian there who can help you if you don’t speak Spanish.

Almost one year ago a rider heading back north told me the most beautiful part of his whole trip was the the Carretera Austral around Lake General. I had it marked in my guidebook ever since. My expectations were high, although I have been disappointed by many times when told a place is ‘the best’. This time there was no disappointment. Do not miss this ride.

As you head to Chile through Futaleufu you can already see that this is a special place, especially when riding a motorcycle. I had to control myself from stopping every five minutes to take a picture, knowing that the southern end was the most dramatic.


The Carreteral Austral as we know it today is a new road. It was not till 1976 when Chillean strongman Augusto Pinochet started building the road where others had failed. Most of the road was initially built without road machinery because of poor access and difficult terrain. The main road was completed only in 1996 and another spur from Puerto Yungay and Villa O’Higgins was completed in 2000. A Chilean rider told me this spur is amazing. However, the road ends at Villa O’Higgins and forces you to backtrack. If they would start a ferry service across Lago San Martin to Argentina there would be an interesting alternative to Route 40. Not that I am complaining.





The Carretera Austral runs along the Yelco and Palena rivers at different section seperated by beautiful rides along the mountainside.










Now you might start riding enjoying this road so much you start to increase your speed. But, if you haven’t noticed, cows in Chile are really big!


Fortunately, they were very polite and let me pass, unlike the Buffalo back in United States that charged me.




The town of La Junta is a nice place to stop and one of the few places to get supplies including gas– if they haven’t run out. There was still a couple of hours of daylight and the riding was good so I continued on to Puyuhuapi.




Puyuhuapi came into sight during the last minutes of dusk. My guidebook billed it as a nice place to stop and relax. I thought it was a rather, well rustic is the best word I could use. Then it started to rain.





The next morning it was raining and the sun was no where to be seen. So, I decided to wait another day for better weather for the ride to Lake General, even though there was nothing to do in Puyuhuapi. It does have some good local seafood and I have the best apple pie of my life at Cafe Rossbach which is run by descendants of the original German settlers of the town. Next door is Alfombras de Puyuhuapi, known around the world for their hand-made carpets.


A horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks, ‘why the long face’.


I was going to go to some hot springs but it was a miserable day. Then this dog comes up to me with a big rock in his mouth. We played fetch for an hour. He would track down the same rock every time and bring it back to me. This may sound ridiculous, but it was nice to do nothing but play fetch with that dog.

It was a quick ride down Route 5 until I turned east towards Lake Villarica. This was the beginning of the famous lakes region in southern Chile and Argentina. Villarica had the feel of a a small Aspen, full of well-heeled tourist sitting around drinking $5 cappuccinos. I continued east to Pucon where I was told there is a hostel run by a avid motorcyclist.

This might be one of the most beautiful single spots of the trip.

I misread my notes and went to the wrong hostel. Actually, the family has two and I went to the wrong one and couldn’t find the guy. Supposedly a hostel called Ruka Rayen is run my the son who is into motorcycles, but I went to Casa de Campo Kila-Leufu run by the parents on a working farm. So, the next morning, I headed back out to Villarica where I turned south for Lake Calafquen and the town of Conaripe. All around you this area you are traveling in the shadows of Volcan Villarica.



Not much was going on in Conaripe, so I decided to checkout the nearby thermal baths. This turned into another misadventure, although it was a beautiful ride.


Throughout Chile I had been seeing billboards against the construction of dams in Chillian Patagonia. I have since read that there is a huge hydroelectric project planned for the region. The plan, called the Aysen Project, would construct five dams in the region and a high voltage transmission line to carry electricity to southern Chile. A group calling itself Patagonia Sin Represas has posted billboards throughout Chile and has published a book.

Was this a protest march?

I can’t believe anyone would consider any major public works project here.

The thermal baths were big private facilities, not very inviting for a motorcyclist. So, I decided to turn around and continue around the lake.

This turned out to be a great ride. A gentle gravel road runs around Lake Calaquen giving you great views of the Villarica volcano and then to Lake Panguipulli.





A great morning of riding ended at the town of Panguipulli where I had some delicious salmon. The town has a heavy European influence including this church containing bells brought from Germany. I enjoyed a huge portion of salmon.


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Happy New Year to everyone. I have tried to send everyone a personal email, but if I missed you, please send me a nasty email. Don’t forget me next year. I promise the best photos are to come, for sure.

Continuing south through La Rioja I turned west at the few building that are Patquia along Route 150.




The storm clouds I had been watching off in the distance the previous day had caused serious flooding.


The next day I rode along with a tour of Valle de la Luna. It is a World Heritage Site and is very significant for its prehistoric fossil beds. Many significant discoveries have been made in this area.




See the fish skeleton. This was all under water some time before I was born.





Do you see a phantom submarine.


Maybe you are high on mushrooms.


I missjudged my gas reserve and no one was selling gas. It took a long time and several tries before this man brought me gas.
Here is a poem for him.

I have been posting a lot lately and there is a problem with the website. If you do not see a navigation bar/link for older posts above then please use the archive month links on the right to view older posts.