I am happy we are at least talking about it. I got pretty serious with the idea a couple years ago, and has kind of faded away. So I am excited to at least revisit the whole thing and try to come up with some reasonable numbers of time and money.
I think crossing the Panama-Colombia gap is a serious problem. I have read quite a lot in forums about it. For some people has been easy, for others a nightmare. The biggest problem is that you can't really plan for it. The ferrys do not operate all the time, and even when they do, they are unreliable. Flying the bikes is an option, but extremely expensive. I have also thought about the idea of riding one way, and flying back leaving the bikes behind. I have close family in both Venezuela and Argentina, so at least I have places where to store it. Selling the bike can be tricky depending where you are at. In principle you need to nationalize it first, which can be a total PITA. Another obstacle is actually getting your money. For example, Venezuela has a strict control over currency exchange. Is really hard to get dollars for the local currency, and you have to go to the black market for that. Argentina is following the same path. But I like your idea about renting a bike in Chile and crossing the Andes. My wife and I were actually planning to do that by car, but then I thought, why not by motorcycle? My grandma lives in Neuquen, which is the beginning of the Patagonia. I like to visit her soon, and flying to Chile is a lot easier and cheaper that going through Buenos Aires. The route of the seven lakes crossing from Chile to Argentina is magical, and would love to do it on a bike. Can you send me the information about the bikes rentals? Javier. On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 2:27 PM, EGrider <[email protected]> wrote: > I actually taught Spanish for years in a previous life, so I'm all about > the "safety in numbers" thing and not about the language thing. I've > reached a stage of life where "I have the time" and "I have the money" are > no longer mutually exclusive. It takes a certain amount of strength to > handle a motorcycle 1-10mph, and I'm also all about the adventure during > the motorcycling years I've got left in me. > > About the time, there are two ways to look at it. One is to base it on how > much vacation time you've got left and then ride down and turn around when > 1/2 of your vacation is up. An alternative to this would be to ride until > you have to catch a flight home and then leave/sell the bike. Otherwise, it > comes down to picking a destination, getting the total mileage, then > breaking it down to how many miles you can do in a day and figuring > tentative stopping points. That gives you the time needed. Oh yeah, and the > Panama to Colombia gap has to be figured in. > > I did somewhere over 6,000 miles in 3 weeks in May with several days that > I didn't ride at all in there. 6,000 miles in a straight line would have > gotten me pretty far down into South America. You know, just Boston to > Brownsville is a nice little ride for Javier, so two weeks would be the > shortest that I would even suit up for. My plan, if I do it alone, is to > ride a bike down, leave it there, and fly back. Actually, I've already got > a couple buyers lined up/in mind. > > Obviously there are no interstates to go 80mph for hours on, but there are > nice paved roads that you can make OK time on. I know a lot of people > choose dual sport bikes for the trip, but I'm not really sure why. I've > been on the roads of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia, > Argentina, and Chile, and they were just fine--no knobby or high clearance > needed--except for Bolivia after about 2 hours south of La Paz. I don't > intend to include Bolivia in the trip this time. > > Wait, there is one more option, a very attractive one for me, but it's > different from the above. I've been in email contact with a motorcycle > rental shop in Santiago, Chile that rents bikes at a reasonable rates. I > actually crossed the Andes on a Honda Falcon two years back, and it was the > experience of a lifetime. This time I would like to ride from Santiago to > Patagonia and back, and if I didn't have to do it alone, that would be > great. > > Would anyone be interested in doing any of the above? Your thoughts? If > you don't want to make this all public, feel free to PM me at the email > address above. > > > On Saturday, June 28, 2014 8:06:16 PM UTC-4, Melissa Hickson wrote: > >> Hi folks, >> >> This summer, I rode my 1986 CB450sc from Knoxville, TN to Yosemite, CA on >> a solo road trip. It was a great time. I saw some amazing sights and met >> some interesting people along the way. I had a myriad of mechanical issues >> during my trip, and learned a great deal about working on my bike. Now that >> I'm safely settled in at the park, I thought I would share a few photos >> from the adventure. >> >> All told, it was a bit over 3050 miles, in about 3 weeks' time. I either >> camped or couchsurfed along the way. >> >> During that: >> carburetors gummed up >> reserve gummed up >> ignition switch and kill switch lost the ability to kill the engine >> tachometer quit working >> headlight went out >> fuel line kept kinking >> front brake light switch broke >> bolts on luggage rack sheared off >> dropped the bike :( and bent the gear shift so far as to be unusable >> exhaust melted holes in saddle bags (and contents) >> >> And a few other minor things that I can't remember right now. >> >> It was quite an experience! >> >> The photos are probably in a crazy order... >> >> Eventually I want to blog about my trip at adventuremel.blogspot.com, >> but I'm really far behind. >> >> Cheers! >> Melissa >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. 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