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It is mid August and my planned motorcycle trip to South America is only a couple months away. This is a trip I've been dreaming of for several years but the reality of my emminent departure is now having a major impact on me. I'm stressed out knowing I still have many things to accomplish before I am ready to go and time is running out.
Physical preparation began when I purchased my 2007 Suzuki DR650se motorcycle in February 2015. I really wanted a BMW f650GS but those are too expensive so the Kawasaki KLR 650 seemed the next logical choice. While scouring the internet for just the right bike I was surprise when this Suzuki popped up for sale in Taos. I didn't know much about this model since it gets less attention than the others but having put nearly 5000 miles on it now I'm convinced it is the perfect bike for the trip. It is a simple single cylinder machine, carberated and air cooled. "Thumpers" is a term many describe big single cylinder bikes and if you've ever riden one you know why. It is lighter than the KLR with plenty of power and torque. Instrumentation is limited to a basic speedometer (mph only), odometer and trip odometer which acts as a fuel gage. There are 3 lights to let you know if you are in nuetral, if your headlight is on bright and if your turn signal is flashing. That is it. Having raced cars, I like to know my RPM and oil temperature and pressure so at first I felt like I was missing something essential. I now appreciate the fact that light and simple has its advantages. There is a little window on the side of the engine case to view your oil level (when the bike is held straight up and down on level terrain) and you can also tell how dirty it is. RPM becomes seat of the pants and for everything else you just have to have faith in the Japanese engineers who created this machine. You must have faith that everything is running fine and that if there is a problem you will somehow notice it. Initially, every little sound would worry me just like soloing a fighter jet at night for the first time. You notice every little noise that was totally overlooked when someone else was with you during the day. But now, after my 7 day trip through the Colorado mountains under some extremely challenging conditions, I have a lot of faith in this wonderful machine and wear earplugs to muffle the thump, thump, thump of the engine and wind noise of my helmet. Will any signal of trouble also be muffled out? Hopefully I won't have to find that out.
This is the largest motorcycle I've ever owned and it has been decades since my last one, a Suzuki 185 two stroke dirt bike that I could easily throw around. The DR is like a beast in comparison but I know I will need the extra power with all the weight I'll be carrying so I took my time riding the DR on and off road to get comfortable with it and become familiar with its strengths and weaknesses. I needed to know how to improve the bike to be able to handle this trip and I needed to train myself how to ride it effectively. The previous owner made some nice improvements, lowered it an inch to a 34 inch seat height (I have a 31 inch inseam) added an upgraded handle bar, hand protectors, grip heaters, wider foot pegs and a larger 4.5 gallan fuel tank. (I tested it and made it 195 miles before having to switch to reserve. Mileage varies though so I begin to get nervous around the 150 mile point.) I have since added a small windscreen to make speeds over 65 mph more tolerable, a Sargents seat (the stock one is way too hard) and most importantly 2" Rox adjustable rotating handlebar risers that allowed me to not only raise the handle bars but bring them aft. This gives me a much more comfortable upright seating position. My back and shoulders appreciate the tremendous difference this makes. For those long stretches of highway where you don't have to move the throttle much and your right hand gets sore I bought a universal throttle lock that was supposed to fit most any motorcycle. Well it doesn't fit mine with the current upgrades so it is for sale. I found what I think is a better and cheaper alternative though. It is a little rubber device called a cramp buster that wraps around the end of the throttle grip and has a wide area that you can press on with the heal of your hand to rotate the throttle. This allows you to release your fingers and give them a break from continuously clutching the spring loaded grip. Fortunately, when mounted at the end of the grip this little rubber device squeezes the grip enough to prevent the throttle from returning to the spring loaded idle position when released. It is so nice to be able to rest my hand without decelerating now but I do have to consciously rotate the grip to close the throttle. I can live with that for the benefit provided. I may have to buy a spare one in case this one breaks over the long miles of this trip.
Naturally I also needed riding gear; jacket, pants, boots, and gloves were all acquired over time. I found my auto racing helmet was not very suitable for motorcycling so bought a new helmet too. Hours were spent online researching every available product out there to find the best equipment within my budget. I splurged on boots after the first pair I tried was too stiff and uncomfortable. Since I will be living in these boots for six months they need to perfect and the waterproof Gaerne G-Force boots were comfortable right out of the box making them well worth the extra money.
After much research I selected hard side cases (panniers) from Givi which I like and that fit the existing luggage rack left by the previous owner. Although we (me and my fellow riders) plan to stay in inexpensive hotels along the way I felt it essential to have minimal camping equipment in case we get stuck in the middle of nowhere someplace. I found a tent, sleeping bag, inflatable pad and Jet Boil stove system that are light weight and take up relatively minimal space. I hate to give half of my right side 33 liter side case to something I may rarely use but I'm sure that when I do need it, the camping equipment will be well worth having. By the way, you may notice in pictures I have different size panniers, 33 liters on the right and 46 on the left. But you will also notice the huge exhaust pipe that sticks out on the right. This takes a lot of room away from right side luggage and even though it may look odd the width on the left is only about an inch greater than the right and the bags are much closer to being centered. This is one thing I don't like about the DR, the exhaust is too big and not tucked under the fender as much as some other bikes. If you look closely you may also see a 3" diameter cylinder tucked in on the left side of the rear wheel. That is my self manufactured tool kit made from PVC pipe. It mounts where the tiny factory kit was but holds more than double the tools. Couldn't Suzuki fit an exhaust under there like that too?
I've been keeping a log of all I've done and need to do and there are still many spare parts to purchase and places to fing for them. I have a large yellow dry duffle bag I bought long ago for sailing and rafting I have been using on the tail rack so far but hopefully I can afford a better one made specifically for motorcycles before I leave. I need to utilize that additional luggage space and since mine opens from the end it isn't easy to pack and retrief stuff without making a true mess of the contents. More prioity items still need to be aquired first such as a GoPro camera and a small tablet computer so I can record the journey.
There are a couple great websites that are tremendous resources for preparing for this type of motorcycle trip and it is amazing to find out how many people are doing this and where they are going. I like HorizonsUnlimited.com the best but ADVrider.com is also great. Check them out if you ever contemplate doing some adventure motorcycle riding. On Horizons Unlimted (HU) I met some riding partners who are planning the same thing at the same time. Two are Canadians (one from Vancouver and the other from Alberta) one from El Paso and another guy, (the younster) from Grand Rapids, Michigan who just joined our group. Three of us are retired and plan to devote 6 months to this trip, one is limited to about 3 months and I don't know about our newbie yet. More about them later since I've only met Richard Newton in person so far. He lives in El Paso and is a retired Customs and Border Patrol pilot so we have something in common. I won't meet the others in person until they all come south to join up here at the beginning of out trip together. I hope we all get along well since we will be spending a lot of time together. The dynamics of our group will also be an adventure I'm sure.
Ride or ship the bikes down? That is the big question. Until I joined up with my partners I was planing to ship my bike to Santiago and start from there. There are some dangerous places between here and there I didn't want to take on alone. Now that we are a sizable group, security is less of an issue however, riding through Central America still poses a logistical problem we have to deal with - the Darien Gap! Until about 10 years ago I didn't realize you can't drive or ride all the way to South America. There is a gap of about 50-60 miles from Panama to Columbia where there are no roads at all. The jungles and swamps are so bad they never completed the Pan American highway through it. Some have tried and failed, some made it but it took months or years. Learn more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darin_Gap. So even if we ride all the way down we have to ship our bike from Panama to Columbia which costs about as much as from the US to South America.
There are many shipping options from the US and I've looked at most of them. We could share a 20 foot cargo container and ship from Los Angeles by sea which is probably cheapest but it would take about a month with no guaranteed arrival date. Air Canada has a great deal where they will ship your bike by air for $1000 from Toronto or Montreal ($600 more from Vancouver) but unfortunately this deal ends September 30th. None of us will be ready by then and I would need a week to ride to Vancouver too.
There used to be a ferry from Panama City to Cartegena but it ceased operation late last year and is not expected to come back. Other options are limited to a couple sail boats that take about a week, air freight which is expensive and perhaps shareable cargo containers. We are still exploring the options available but not knowing when we will arrive in Panama we can't make reservations for anything. We don't even have an exact departure date yet. So it appears we will be riding down and taking our chances trying to find transportation across the gap. This is why it is called "Adventure Riding"! It is unpredictable and you can't always plan for everything continguency. Sometimes you just have to wing it. This is one of the things that makes it exciting.
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