Oregon to Ushuaia on an XR650L

[DZIK]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... only 2-3 days? Each or one or the other? That's tough cuz I would suggest 7 days for the whold Paine circuit and 4 days around Monte Fitz Roy hehe. You won't regret this but if I would have to choose...

Torres del Paine - Glaciar Grey is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! It seriously paralized me. If you decide to see it DON'T stop at Refugio Grey. You ain't seen nothing yet. I believe you have to trek for about 2 to 3 hours further to get half way between Campamento Guardas and Campamento Paso. The trail will open up and right before it will start going kinda down on a kinda cliff. You have to get to at least that point!
Valle Francesa is pretty spectacular as well and worth your while. Torres can be covered in the clouds so then it's not worth going there but that's always unknown. It's hard to tell you 2-3 days there. Look at a map and estimate how long do you think it will take you. Ok, so if the weather is good power up to see the Torres and then go to spend the night at Campamento Italiano. Next day early go up Valle de Frnacesa and then power hike to campamento Paso and soak in Glaciar Grey at sunset. I was just staring at it for about 3 hours and did not get borred sipping on my mate (yep, I got addicted to it). Then you're stuck going back for two days or pushing further for next 2/3 days to finish the whole Paine Trek hehe. Or skip Grey but you will regret it. Hard decicion before you.
Here is my bit around the circuit with pix and a bit more info:
http://dziktravels.blogspot.com/2011...le-part-3.html

Fitz Roy - I favor treks there a bit more. You can even do one day treks and come back to town everynight. I did a 4 day trek. I'll give you a 3 day option:
Push through Valle Electrico to Refugio Los Troncos. Make camp there and take a stroll down Lago electrico. In the morning you can leave your things there in a tent and with light load hike up to Cerro Electrico. It'll be strenious but you'll be able to have a glimpse at Campo Hielo Sur which is ... (no words). Then hike down and go back to Campamento Poincenot. Stay the night and in the morning go to Laguna de los Tres. You can do a stupid thing there as I did and do a side trail to Cerro Madsen. Not a safe one at all but the veiws... You can be back that evening in town. If you'll allocate 4th day there you can do Laguna Torre as well but I would leave it out if you have only 3 days.
If you want to take a look at few pix from this trek and find out why the side trail is unsafe and a stupid idea if one can't control onself read a piece of my blog here:
http://dziktravels.blogspot.com/2011...na-part-2.html

DUDE, the mountains there are breathtaking so soak up some of it in. I'm getting the feeling you'd enjoy it very much. Just don't tell your Marine friends you're taking advice from an ARMY guy HAHA
I can barely sit in my chair thinking of all the places there. I might be firing up the pig in few minutes and start heading south!!! ready or not hehe.

RIDE ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Manolito]

Originally Posted by DZIK

Fitz Roy - I favor treks there a bit more. You can even do one day treks and come back to town everynight. I did a 4 day trek. I'll give you a 3 day option:

Last year

[Kyron]

Look at those "plastic" cutting boards, cut it and drill holes to make a chain slider


Rock Crawlers use that stuff as skid plates

[bwalsh]

Originally Posted by Ulyses

Man, I'm tired of having to deal with bike issues...

First off, Congratulations on making it all the way!!!
I think you jinxed yourself when you said you hoped you didn't have any more bike problems before you made the final push to Ushuaia a couple weeks back.

Originally Posted by Brown Falcon

A lot of people don't even use the fuel tank mounts under the "wings". As long as the rear mounting bolt is secure and the front is secure on the frame mounts I wouldn't worry about the tank.

The Acerbis 5.8 doesn't slide into the frame mounts. It just rests on either side of them. The three mounting points are just enough as is. I wouldn't ride mine without both front mounting bolts attached. Any get off could potentially rip the tank open and or off the bike and cause serious problems...even if it didn't catch on fire!

EDIT: I just saw the pics of the rear mounting tab! Did you check the one and only other mounting point up from to make sure it wasn't cracking too?

Good luck of getting the bike sorted.

[Ulyses]

Day 133 (February 26, 2013)
Punta Arenas, Chile
Day's Ride: 0 Miles

It seems that every time I get to major city or large town now, I spend the whole time working on my bike. Today was no different. I hadn't been able to fix my chain slider the day before and the only thing holding it together at this point was some ducktape.



The bottom side, which I had moved to the top in Rio Gallegos, was now worn through as well and the chain was contacting the metal of the swingarm again.



It's so frustrating how such a little, inconsequential piece can cause so many problems. It's also amazing how difficult it is to find one down here.

I made a last ditch effort and ran by the Honda shop to see if they had anything, but they were still closed.

I swung by Alejandro's shop and asked him how to say "flat piece of Teflon" in Spanish. He told me that getting a piece of Teflon would nearly impossible here; however, I might be able to find a piece of hard nylon. "Lamina de tecnil" was the set of words I was looking for. I went to a nearby hardware store and asked them if they had what I needed. The told me that they didn't have any "laminas" but that they did have "rondas":



I briefly considered buying it and having it cut down the middle length wise like a log being cut for lumber until they told me that I would have to buy the whole thing and that it cost 74,000 pesos ($148 dollars). Fortunately, the owner came out then, looked at the little drawings I had made of what I wanted, and went in the back and came out with some flat pieces.



I took my new chain slider pieces over to a moto shop near my hostel. They had agreed to let me use their tools and shop space. I got down to work right away and drilled another set of holes in my swing arm.



If things keep going like they are, my swing arm is going to look like swiss cheese.

I then got to work shaping my new chain sliders with my precision cutting instruments:



I had originally planned on using long bolts that would go all the way through the swing arm to hold everything in place. Unfortunately, after spending a couple of hours running around town in a taxi and not finding anything long enough, I realized that that was out of the question. The second option was to find a tap, thread all of the holes, and use short screws. Unfortunately, I had botched the new holes a little and they weren't quite round enough to be threaded. This left me with option three:



Pop rivets. This is the easier and slightly more permanent solution. Whenever I end up having to take this thing off, I'm going to have some some pop rivets bouncing around in my swing arm alongside that drill bit.

I finally got everything together and took it for a ride. It felt really smooth; more smooth than the original chain slider.



The owner of the shop, Braulio, and his mechanic Fernando, were extremely helpful all day as I was working. Fernando even ran across the street and borrowed a pop rivet gun for me from his friend. I had them sign my tank and then we took a picture together:



After finishing up I went back to the Hostel and Dylan, the two French Canadians, myself, and a couple of other riders all went out to dinner.



Today Dylan and I are going to ride north to Puerto Notales and look at setting up a little trek into Torres del Paine National Park. I hear that there are "pinguinos" along the way somewhere too, so maybe I'll get to take a few pictures for alvincullumyork. I'm just crossing my fingers right now and hoping that my new chain slider holds up and that I don't develop any new problems...

[Diggerled]

I really love this thread. It could be used as a textbook in adventure riding school.

[ONandOFF]

Originally Posted by Ulyses

...
.
... I'm just crossing my fingers right now and hoping that my new chain slider holds up and that I don't develop any new problems...

Way to use you ingenuity, Bryce! Latino style

I'd keep a close eye on that top slab though. It looks like it's poking the chain up a good bit off a straight line between sprockets, at least in this picture. Maybe not once you get weight on the bike, though. But any pull of a straight line along the top will get strained by the torque of the engine pulling the chain, so it could dig a hole in it, break it, or pry it off. If it looks problematic, you might consider trimming it shorter there.

Pero Dios mediante, no more problems!

[crashmaster]

Penguinos! On your way north to BsAs, Puerto Tombo is where that huge penguin colony is located. They let me camp for the night at the entrance of the park for free. Those little buggers will keep you awake most of the night with all the squawking. Its worth a visit for sure though. I'm not sure, but I think they only go there to hatch the eggs for the summer so I'm not sure if they are there full time or not. Puerto Tombo is about 160 km south of Puerto Madryn.

[Manolito]

I'm glad you found a solution! Yesterday I sent you an email about that

[JWhitmore44]

Originally Posted by Ulyses

First there were Spud rollers, now there are Ulyses sliders

Looks good to me

[Ulyses]

I was just reading back through some of the older posts on the thread when I noticed that the pictures weren't showing up. Instead, I'm getting this:



Anyone know what the deal is with that? Have I just uploaded to many pictures?

[Rob.G]

Originally Posted by Ulyses

I was just reading back through some of the older posts on the thread when I noticed that the pictures weren't showing up. Instead, I'm getting this:



Anyone know what the deal is with that? Have I just uploaded to many pictures?

Yep... they want more money before they'll start showing your pix again. That or you have to wait a certain amount of time before they open up more bandwidth.

Rob

[Ulyses]

Originally Posted by Rob.G

Yep... they want more money before they'll start showing your pix again. That or you have to wait a certain amount of time before they open up more bandwidth.

Rob

Damn. Well, I just purchased a subscription. Hope that works.

[ONandOFF]

Originally Posted by Ulyses

Damn. Well, I just purchased a subscription. Hope that works.

Should work! Could'a gotten another free service. I bet it's more about how much data is transferred (your uploading and everybody's viewing) than how many pictures are stored.

[Smithee]

Originally Posted by Ulyses

Damn. Well, I just purchased a subscription. Hope that works.

I use Smugmug. $38/year or thereabouts with unlimited storage and linking.

It's been well worth it.