Trip Map + Details

This is about a trip on a KLR650 motorcycle leaving in November and heading south from Toronto, Canada to Mexico Central South America.  I’ve reached Buenos Aires and am flying the bike to Los Angeles (May 25th) and am going to drive to Vancouver and then across the northern US to Ontario.  Any suggestions or GPS routes for the western and northern US or interesting places to see would be very well received.

This is a latest map of the route that I’ve taken. It may take a minute or so for the Google map to plot all the points…

Trip Down KML/GPS

Distance: ~40,845 kms

Countries: 13

Police fines: 1 Nicaragua (but then unbribed – story here)

Police and Army Stops: 1 in the US, 4 in Mexico, 2 Costa Rica, 10 in Colombia, 1 Ecuador, 3 Peru (1st demanded insurance and threatened a large fine – apparently insurance is only available from SOAT offices for 1 year at 500 soles, 2nd told me I was speeding on the radar – wanted a $20 voluntary payment for gas for their police 4×4), 8 Argentina (documents requested once, otherwise saw I’m a tourist and waved me through).

Accidents: 1 (in the Copper Canyons in Chihuahua, Mexico – crashed in the loose earth)

Broken parts: Gear shift lever cracked, faring bent, GPS mount snapped, two rear tire flats, fusebox under seat melted and replaced with blade fuses, top  broke off spark plug and went through the engine (and hopefully out of the exhaust), rubber/plastic front shock guards fallen apart – currently duck-taped, front turn signal shorted after filling with water on river crossings in Costa Rica.

Trip Log Google Earth/GPS KML File: http://tripdown.regioncoding.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Trip-Down-10036.kml

Mechanical problems:

December 7th, 2009 – Houston Texas

After driving over the median and unknowingly running over a nail I had my tire repaired in Houston and I drove on the interstate 10 out of Houston in the dark and rain the tire deflated at 110kms/hour and I skidded down the off-ramp. Story here.

December 16th, 2009 – Batopilas

Blog post here. Drove over a mountain of rock on a road under construction in the Mexican Copper Canyons and cracked the gearshift level so I couldn’t use anything but neutral and third while high up in the canyons two hours from Urique the next town.

Jan. 15 – 2010 Santa Elena, Oaxaca, Mexico

Spark plug blew in Santa Elena leading me to think bike wouldn’t start because of destoyed cam shaft lobe. More poor diagnostics skills on my part.

Jan. 28 – 2010 Tonala, Chiapas, Mexico:

I broke down twice today. blew the main fuse which seemed to melt the other instrument and lights fuse, replace the first one and drove to another town and then ended up completely replacing the fuse box with more modern blade-type fuses… $4 and two hours of messing around in the heat. Each time taking off both side cases to get under the seat to do the job.

Feb 24 – 2010 Santa Marta, Colombia

The suspension started behaving strangely as each speedbump produced an excrutiating (to my ears) scrape of the wheel against the rear fender.  Fixed in San Gil by a good suspension mechanic who replaced the fluid in the front forks, lubricated the rear one and tuned it to a higher setting (something I neglected to do).

March 2nd 2010 – La Vega, Colombia

GPS wasn’t getting power. Blade fusebox installed in Mexico had melted.   Replaced with better quality fuse box in friendly La Vega. Discovered the hole in the exhaust was melting the bottom of the seat and the side panel and fouling up the back end of the bike.

March 4nd 2010 – Medellín, Colombia

Bike started lugging (losing power and regaining it) and making noise. Turned out my chain had shorn-off all the teeth on my rear sprocket.

March 26th  2010 – San Agustin, Colombia

Side – luggage bolt and rear luggage rack bolt sheared off during a ride to the waterfalls outside of town.   Soldering shop got broken bolt out and bought me a new bolt.   12,000 pesos.

April 30th  2010 – Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia

Speedometer stopped working – cog ring inside speedometer hub became sheared somehow and stopped measuring the speed or recording on the odometer.   Sidestand kill switch mechanism stopped shutting off when the kickstand was up – disabled it, then later lubricated the cable and it seems to have fixed it.  Front fender fell off and is re-attached with some stiff wire in place of the four bolts normally holding it in place.  Water got in the carburetor stopping fuel from reaching the engine – drained it with the small screw after dissembling all other possible parts.

Final KLR650 motorcycle trip route