Bike

KLR650 gains wings, tango, and Buenos Aires

KLR650 gains wings, tango, and Buenos Aires

I managed to get lost in Buenos Aires (two train stations named Florida on two different lines and no one at the stations having system maps didn’t help) for two hours this morning on the day on which I was to bring the bike to the airport for packing for air shipment to Los Angeles.   [...]

How to air-freight ship a motorcycle from Buenos Aires

How to air-freight ship a motorcycle from Buenos Aires

To ship the bike dealing directly with the brokers (saves $100 USD).  I was shipping to Los Angeles, USA and so the broker (Navicon) used Continental, they also have other arrangements for shipping to other countries. Contact the following person at the agents (Navicon) in order to be given a time/date to show up at [...]

Miners as KLR650 mechanics in Ollague, Chile

Miners as KLR650 mechanics in Ollague, Chile

I awoke to the sound of rain falling on the fiberglass roof. Stiff from yesterday’s marathon ride from Uyuni I entered the hotel’s dining room already full of miners sitting in the half-darkness.   Electricity apparently is only available from dusk until sometime in the early morning.  Grumpily I accepted the offered breakfast of stale bread, [...]

Failing in the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) and crossing to Ollague, Chile

Failing in the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) and crossing to Ollague, Chile

After leaving La Paz mid-morning I arrived at a hot-springs hotel that had been suggested to me by Phillip (a German driving a Land Cruiser around S.A.) as a way to avoid staying in Oruro (a “shithole” in his words).   I didn’t spend the extra $25 to have a room with a private hotspring so [...]

Finding Tires in Cuenca, Vilcabamba, Dog Bites Man, and $1 For All The Children of Peru

Finding Tires in Cuenca, Vilcabamba, Dog Bites Man, and $1 For All The Children of Peru

The Pirelli MT-21 front tire that I’ve had on the KLR650 since Houston had warn down so that it was no longer a ‘knobby’ but more a road tire.  So with the best intentions I set out in Cuenca today to find replacement tires (the Pirelli MT90 put on in Medellin doesn’t do very well [...]

Review: First Gear Kilimanjaro Jacket (4th Edition)

Review: First Gear Kilimanjaro Jacket (4th Edition)

I’ve now driven (20,000 kms) wearing this jacket from December in Toronto to April in Ecuador (and all countries in between) and feel like I can write something about it. Meltingly Hot  (Temperature) It’s too hot for 20 degrees celcius or more.  It’s comfortable any temperature below that.  If you open the front pockets to [...]

An ode to the mechanics of Mexico

An ode to the mechanics of Mexico

I took the bike to a second mechanic – an authorized Kawasaki one to be sure about the state of the engine after running out of oil upon arrival in Puerto Vallarta.  He revved the engine for a few minutes and then told me it would require adjusting the valve clearance which would stop the [...]

Feeling much  better in Puerto Vallarta

Feeling much better in Puerto Vallarta

Update: Rolled the bike without starting it down the steep hill to the mechanic a few blocks away.  He turned it on, revved it, asked me how often I drive it and then said that the bike’s engine was likely fine but that the engine valves needed to be replaced which is causing the ticking [...]

Dash and 12-volt Socket

Dash and 12-volt Socket

Leftover aircraft aluminum, bent, drill-pressed, dremmelled, and sprayed with auto underbody rubberized coating.   Towtronics (ebay UK) waterproof marine socket.  Mounted on the three windscreen bolts. Garmin and Ram Mount