1-23-05
It was not a very good day today.
We stopped to take a leak and have Jim take a smoke break when he noticed that his muffler was starting to come apart. It is some sort of hot shot loud muffler and it was spitting its guts out. He had to unpack and get out his tools and remove the muffler. After he got it out we could see that it needed to be pounded on and needed something soft to work on it with. I told him I would go find a board to pound in on and took off. I know he thought I would walk fifty miles out here in the desert before finally giving up and walking back. Well, I didn’t go but thirty yards when I found a really nice two foot board that looked like it was a swing seat in a past life before it gave itself up to me from the side of the road for motorcycle repair. Jim was sure surprised when I came back packing that board. It worked perfect and we got the guts back were they were supposed to be. the next problem was that he needed something to go through a hole in the side of the muffler and hold the guts in place. I told him I would go find something and took off. No problem, I found a really nice foot long piece of ¼ inch soft iron wire. He was double surprised when I came back with that. Sometimes I wonder about having those kinds of finding it skills……
Muffler X
We stopped at a nice little restaurant and had some lunch. When we came out there was this cute little Suzuki van parked out front.
Suzuki Van X
We also saw this cool little Chevy-Opal delivery van. We talked with the two guys driving it and found it was a 1.7 liter diesel and it gets 20kilometers per liter.
Chevy-Opal X
We were headed down a really nice freeway (well more a pay-way actually) road when Jim after going around a nice sweeping turn coasted to the side of the road. He found he had spit a chain off the sprocket. He coasted his bike on down the highway to a nice level gravel place off the road. The chain was one he got in central America and was not fitted with the o rings like the new better chains are. He had been using chain lube on it at regular intervals but it was not able to take it. The sprockets are very worn and that is pretty tough on chain too. The chain was very stiff and Jim decided to replace it with the old chain he had along with him that he had taken off. The wheel sprocket is very worn and the cogs are sharp as hell. He had to shorten up the chain a link and greased the hell out of it and on the road we went again.
Chain X
We flogged it on down the highway and finally pulled off and found a campground on the beach. Dang thing cost twenty bucks to camp the night in our own tents. I found the toilets clean in the morning but no frigging paper, as usual. You would think that ten bucks would get you a yard of ass wipe, but no way Hose-zaa……….
1-24-06
We rolled fast and got into Santiago in the afternoon. We just blasted on in to the heart of this big city and Jim asked a truck driver where the motorcycle shops were. He lead us around town in his dump truck and finally told Jim to go down a road and look on the right. We went down that way and found a bike shop where Jim went in and asked for a Kawasaki dealer. He got some complicated directions and came over to see what I had come up with at a BMW car parts place. It wasn’t a dealership but a parts house. the guys were really nice in there and when Jim asked for directions to the Kawasaki dealer one of the guys said follow him and he jumped in a Sabaru and took off in high gear. It was touch and go following him but finally he stopped at the dealer. He was so nice and wouldn’t take anything for gas even if it was a fast long ride.
Jim went in and found that they have no parts and they said it would take about two weeks for them to order parts from Florida and get them delivered. Wow….
We left there and tried to find the BMW motorcycle dealership. We were going down a busy road when I spotted a guy on a BMW GS 1150. I waved at him and motioned for him to follow me and I pulled over and I asked him where the dealer was. He offered to show me and took off at a high rate of speed. Yikes, he was a fast town rider. He zipped in and out of traffic and blasted between lanes. It was really hard to keep up but finally after one hell of a scary ride he pulled over and told us to go down the main road another five minutes and we would find it on the right. We made a much more calm ride up the road and did find it finally. I needed a little plug that goes over the timing hole that had been missing for some miles. It isn’t absolutely necessary but I noticed when I set the valves last time that the flywheel was getting dirty and that plug will help keep it cleaner. I then tried to ask about having them do some maintenance like grease the clutch splines. I didn’t get very far with that, they may be able to do it but not sure how I could get them to understand what I want. I was thinking I would have them do it on the way back from the tip of S America, but not sure now. I may have to ride it home the way it is and have Bob yell at me for mistreating my bike. Life is tough at times.
We left the BMW place and tried to follow directions to a big bike area. We finally found a couple of dealers and pulled into one that looked like they knew bikes. It turns out that they are a really upscale bike shop and have some of the top of the line fast bikes anywhere. Jim was talking with the salesman and they have one of 11 bikes that is all handmade and cost $45,000.00. Most of the bikes are ones you could jump on and race or at least kill yourself quickly.
Bimota X
One of the guys took me in the back rooms and showed me the shop and all the collector cars they had. There were Ferrias and Cobras as well as some other cool race type cars. The shop area was clean and very neat and they seem to have all the good tools. It couldn’t be any more different than the Honda shop I went into before.
One of the mechanics told Jim that he was able to talk with a friend who told him that he was able to cross reference the sprockets and would be able to get him fixed up tomorrow.
I got into a discussion with one of the guys here and he turns out he is in waste management and other environmental things. These people down here are so friendly and nice. He speaks very good English and when he got out his computer to find us a camping place in the mountains near here, I turned him on to my blog site. He really liked that. He found us a campsite about 20 clicks from here and up in the hills. He said it was located at curve 15. We had no trouble finding the way and when we finally went up this canyon we found the first number one curve marked. It was paved road and wow, were they hairpin curves. It was much similar to the road we went over the Andes but paved. When we finally made it to curve 15 we were quite high up there. When we pulled in the kid said that they were closed!! I explained that we needed a place to camp and the motorcycle guy had found this as a camping place. I had him talked into letting us camp about four clicks up the road but then Jim found out that they wouldn’t open the gate until 9. we needed to get down to town before that. I then asked if we could just camp out front of the gate and the kid said OK. It was a very nice place to camp over looking a rushing stream and snowcapped mountains in the distance. One of the best things about the camp was it was free.
Camp-view X
After Jim went to bed I was sitting out enjoying the evening when the kid came out and practiced his English. We did really well and we had a good time visiting back and forth. These people down here are so very friendly and nice.
1-25-06
Off the mountain we went in the morning and found an internet site not far from the motorcycle shop where I checked my email. I didn’t take much time to write back those that emailed me but hope to be able to later. I wanted to get back to the motorcycle shop and give Jim all the moral support I can give. He is having a tough time with this.
I found a chair and plug in for the computer charger and have been able to write this dog log. I am not too sure about the project that Jim has going other than they have his bike torn down and the sprocket off and are waiting for the new sprockets. Supposedly there are two sets of sprockets and two chains coming. That will be great……. He will need to have another change of sprockets and chain before he gets home to Canada.
I took some more photos of some of these bikes here. I really like this..
Moto-Guzzi California model X
Cagiva X
Bimota X
At another dealer down the street were these.
African Twins X
They also had a sidecar outfit on the street.
Hack X
It was not a very good day today.
We stopped to take a leak and have Jim take a smoke break when he noticed that his muffler was starting to come apart. It is some sort of hot shot loud muffler and it was spitting its guts out. He had to unpack and get out his tools and remove the muffler. After he got it out we could see that it needed to be pounded on and needed something soft to work on it with. I told him I would go find a board to pound in on and took off. I know he thought I would walk fifty miles out here in the desert before finally giving up and walking back. Well, I didn’t go but thirty yards when I found a really nice two foot board that looked like it was a swing seat in a past life before it gave itself up to me from the side of the road for motorcycle repair. Jim was sure surprised when I came back packing that board. It worked perfect and we got the guts back were they were supposed to be. the next problem was that he needed something to go through a hole in the side of the muffler and hold the guts in place. I told him I would go find something and took off. No problem, I found a really nice foot long piece of ¼ inch soft iron wire. He was double surprised when I came back with that. Sometimes I wonder about having those kinds of finding it skills……
Muffler X
We stopped at a nice little restaurant and had some lunch. When we came out there was this cute little Suzuki van parked out front.
Suzuki Van X
We also saw this cool little Chevy-Opal delivery van. We talked with the two guys driving it and found it was a 1.7 liter diesel and it gets 20kilometers per liter.
Chevy-Opal X
We were headed down a really nice freeway (well more a pay-way actually) road when Jim after going around a nice sweeping turn coasted to the side of the road. He found he had spit a chain off the sprocket. He coasted his bike on down the highway to a nice level gravel place off the road. The chain was one he got in central America and was not fitted with the o rings like the new better chains are. He had been using chain lube on it at regular intervals but it was not able to take it. The sprockets are very worn and that is pretty tough on chain too. The chain was very stiff and Jim decided to replace it with the old chain he had along with him that he had taken off. The wheel sprocket is very worn and the cogs are sharp as hell. He had to shorten up the chain a link and greased the hell out of it and on the road we went again.
Chain X
We flogged it on down the highway and finally pulled off and found a campground on the beach. Dang thing cost twenty bucks to camp the night in our own tents. I found the toilets clean in the morning but no frigging paper, as usual. You would think that ten bucks would get you a yard of ass wipe, but no way Hose-zaa……….
1-24-06
We rolled fast and got into Santiago in the afternoon. We just blasted on in to the heart of this big city and Jim asked a truck driver where the motorcycle shops were. He lead us around town in his dump truck and finally told Jim to go down a road and look on the right. We went down that way and found a bike shop where Jim went in and asked for a Kawasaki dealer. He got some complicated directions and came over to see what I had come up with at a BMW car parts place. It wasn’t a dealership but a parts house. the guys were really nice in there and when Jim asked for directions to the Kawasaki dealer one of the guys said follow him and he jumped in a Sabaru and took off in high gear. It was touch and go following him but finally he stopped at the dealer. He was so nice and wouldn’t take anything for gas even if it was a fast long ride.
Jim went in and found that they have no parts and they said it would take about two weeks for them to order parts from Florida and get them delivered. Wow….
We left there and tried to find the BMW motorcycle dealership. We were going down a busy road when I spotted a guy on a BMW GS 1150. I waved at him and motioned for him to follow me and I pulled over and I asked him where the dealer was. He offered to show me and took off at a high rate of speed. Yikes, he was a fast town rider. He zipped in and out of traffic and blasted between lanes. It was really hard to keep up but finally after one hell of a scary ride he pulled over and told us to go down the main road another five minutes and we would find it on the right. We made a much more calm ride up the road and did find it finally. I needed a little plug that goes over the timing hole that had been missing for some miles. It isn’t absolutely necessary but I noticed when I set the valves last time that the flywheel was getting dirty and that plug will help keep it cleaner. I then tried to ask about having them do some maintenance like grease the clutch splines. I didn’t get very far with that, they may be able to do it but not sure how I could get them to understand what I want. I was thinking I would have them do it on the way back from the tip of S America, but not sure now. I may have to ride it home the way it is and have Bob yell at me for mistreating my bike. Life is tough at times.
We left the BMW place and tried to follow directions to a big bike area. We finally found a couple of dealers and pulled into one that looked like they knew bikes. It turns out that they are a really upscale bike shop and have some of the top of the line fast bikes anywhere. Jim was talking with the salesman and they have one of 11 bikes that is all handmade and cost $45,000.00. Most of the bikes are ones you could jump on and race or at least kill yourself quickly.
Bimota X
One of the guys took me in the back rooms and showed me the shop and all the collector cars they had. There were Ferrias and Cobras as well as some other cool race type cars. The shop area was clean and very neat and they seem to have all the good tools. It couldn’t be any more different than the Honda shop I went into before.
One of the mechanics told Jim that he was able to talk with a friend who told him that he was able to cross reference the sprockets and would be able to get him fixed up tomorrow.
I got into a discussion with one of the guys here and he turns out he is in waste management and other environmental things. These people down here are so friendly and nice. He speaks very good English and when he got out his computer to find us a camping place in the mountains near here, I turned him on to my blog site. He really liked that. He found us a campsite about 20 clicks from here and up in the hills. He said it was located at curve 15. We had no trouble finding the way and when we finally went up this canyon we found the first number one curve marked. It was paved road and wow, were they hairpin curves. It was much similar to the road we went over the Andes but paved. When we finally made it to curve 15 we were quite high up there. When we pulled in the kid said that they were closed!! I explained that we needed a place to camp and the motorcycle guy had found this as a camping place. I had him talked into letting us camp about four clicks up the road but then Jim found out that they wouldn’t open the gate until 9. we needed to get down to town before that. I then asked if we could just camp out front of the gate and the kid said OK. It was a very nice place to camp over looking a rushing stream and snowcapped mountains in the distance. One of the best things about the camp was it was free.
Camp-view X
After Jim went to bed I was sitting out enjoying the evening when the kid came out and practiced his English. We did really well and we had a good time visiting back and forth. These people down here are so very friendly and nice.
1-25-06
Off the mountain we went in the morning and found an internet site not far from the motorcycle shop where I checked my email. I didn’t take much time to write back those that emailed me but hope to be able to later. I wanted to get back to the motorcycle shop and give Jim all the moral support I can give. He is having a tough time with this.
I found a chair and plug in for the computer charger and have been able to write this dog log. I am not too sure about the project that Jim has going other than they have his bike torn down and the sprocket off and are waiting for the new sprockets. Supposedly there are two sets of sprockets and two chains coming. That will be great……. He will need to have another change of sprockets and chain before he gets home to Canada.
I took some more photos of some of these bikes here. I really like this..
Moto-Guzzi California model X
Cagiva X
Bimota X
At another dealer down the street were these.
African Twins X
They also had a sidecar outfit on the street.
Hack X