Oregon to Ushuaia on an XR650L

Ulyses,i've been enjoying your RR for some time now, truly amazing and inspiring, actually you are now at the destination of my dream trip I'm planing for 2014, Arequipa! UT to AREQUIPA to be more specific.

I haven't made any comments so far, but here it is my little contribution.

First, If you run into any trouble in Arequipa, just PM me, I have Peruvian cousins living there, they all speak English and I'm sure they will be happy to help my friend.

Also searching a bit online and I found a service manual on PDF for '93 xr650l, I know is not the same year as yours, but I though it may help.
Here is the link
On page 121/210 there is a diagram for the front fork.


http://www.ripperfox.com/manuals/xr650l manual.pdf



Bike bandit has exploited diagrams as well, here is the link for you bike.

http://www.bikebandit.com/houseofmotorcycles/2008-honda-xr650l/o/m17186

Thanks a ton man! I'm going to have to check out that manual and see if I can download it to my phone. All of the XR650L models are essentially the same, so I'm sure it would work.

I just uploaded a better diagram, hit refresh.

Great to follow your trip. The fork should be an easy fix, but you shouldn't need Loktite. Tighten top first then pinch down with the lower nuts and off to the next stop. Ride On!

If you do not have a screw extractor,use the handle end of a small file and hit it in,anything harder than the bolt with a few sharp edges to grab the bolt .

You are correct sir! I knew there was a valve somewhere along the line though.
Either way, sometimes they let the oil seep out of the frame. If you are not aware of this it can be quite disconcerting. :eek1
It's only happend to me a couple times on my bike but on the XRL thread I remember reading of others bikes that do this on a more frequent basis.

I haven't studied these bolts that closely in person but the diagram Spudrider posted shows part of the stud with no threads, and the pic Bryce took looks like there is still enough stud to grip with vise grips.
Hopefully by now he's on the road again!

Just FYI, the torque spec on those axle holder nuts is only 9 ft/lbs

So refrain from using your man-strength on them.

[QUOTE} Just FYI, the torque spec on those axle holder nuts is only 9 ft/lbs

So refrain from using your man-strength on them.[/QUOTE]


Wrong. Sorry man, with a beard like that, just twist them off and get new ones.

Day 94 (January 17, 2013)
Arequipa, Peru
Day's Ride: 5 Miles, more or less....

Just thought I would share a picture of last nights meal:



I don't know why, but McDonald's inspires some huge cravings for me down here. I wouldn't touch the stuff back home. However, after riding all day yesterday and eating only a banana and a few cookies; two Big Macs, a large fry, a large coke, and a slice of chocolate cake really hit the spot.

In any event, moving on to today's food pictures, here's breakfast:



French fries, a fried egg, a sausage wrapped in bacon, a slice of bread, and a couple of black coffees. As you can see, I'm striving to eat as healthily as possible.

After increasing my risk of heart disease, I hunted down an address for Andes Motos, a motorcycle rental shop here in Arequipa which was purported to be renting XR650L's. Goggle maps really doesn't work so hot down here, so eventually I ended up calling the owner, Felipe, on the phone in the Hostel. He didn't speak very good English, but combined with my Spanish it was enough to figure out that he would meet me at a bridge a few miles outside of town and guide me to his shop.

I got on the bike and blasted out to the 'burbs and sure enough, there was Felipe waiting for me on his Yamaha. We headed back to his house, which is also where he runs his business.

I'm just going to throw this out before I continue, Felipe is the freaking man! Right off the bat I told him of my problems with the broken stud, and he immediately went over to one of his XR400's and started tearing a stud out of the front fork to give to me!



We then got to work trying to extract my broken stud. I tried vice grips, no joy. Next, I used a hacksaw to cut a notch for a screwdriver; once again, no joy. Felipe recommended that I take it over to his mechanic Oscar who he claimed would be able to extract it right away.



Felipe and I started talking and somehow the conversation turned to pistols. He showed me his Colt 1902 in .38.



What a beautiful weapon! It has a six inch slide, is well oiled, and looks serviceable. The only reason that this weapon is legal in Peru is that it's over 100 years old and is considered an antique. I asked him if he ever got to shoot it, but he told me that he couldn't get ammo for it. What a shame.



We got back to bike stuff and I told him about needing another front sprocket. He ran back into his garage and came out with a 15 tooth front sprocket. I then told him I needed to find a 21 inch inner tube for my front tire, and he disappeared into his garage again, then reappeared with a brand new Pirrelli tube. I asked him how much he wanted for the stud, the sprocket, and the tube, and he just smiled and told me that it was free! I was blown away!

The best part of this trip has been the people that I've met, and Felipe is definitely one of those people! What a guy!

He took me around and showed me some of the bikes that he rents. He's got a few XR400's:



A 2009 XR650L with the 5.8 gallon Acerbis fuel tank and only 3,500 km on the odometer:



And, the most badass 650 of them all, the XR650R:



He called this bike his girlfriend; it was pristine!

I said my goodbyes and got a picture with Filipe:



We then threw his son up on my bike and got some pictures.


I thanked Filipe profusely for his help, and after much insisting, I finally managed to make him accept 50 Soles as a small token of my gratitude.

After leaving Filipe's house, I navigated across town to Oscar's shop and we got down to the nasty business of removing that broken stud.



Vice grips still weren't working, so we moved on to bigger and better things....



After grinding some flat spots on the stud, we were able to get some purchase and pull it out.

I gave Oscar some Soles and had him sign my tank.



By this time it was about noon and I still had half the day to see Arequipa, so I headed back to the Hostel to stash my bike. On my way, I found that the prep school that I had started up all those years ago was up and running in multiple locations throughout Peru:



I spent the rest of the day exploring downtown Arequipa. It's a beautiful place. They call it the white city due to all of the volcanic stone called "sillar" that is used to construct the buildings. Everywhere you go there are beautiful, colonial style stone buildings.

This is the Balisica Cathedral in the main plaza, "Plaza de Armas":



There are tons of convents, old Churches, and historical buildings interspersed throughout the blocks surrounding the plaza. Here's some shots:







I finished off the day by visiting a local museum, "Museo Sactuarios Andinos", where they display Juanita, the Ice Princess. Juanita was an Incan girl sacrificed to the Incan gods over 500 years ago. What makes her so interesting is that she was sacrificed on top of a 21,000 foot volcano whose glacial coverings have almost perfectly preserved her body and clothing. It's incredible that the Incans could climb that high, much less perform ritual sacrifices at that altitude. Juanita was discovered in 1995 when a nearby eruption caused the glaciers to melt and exposed her tomb as well as several others.

Photography wasn't allowed, but you can google some images if you like. Juanita wasn't on display, but they had another of the sacrificial victims on display in side of a double sealed, refrigerated glass box which is kept at -20 degrees Celsius year round to preserve the mummy. It was incredible and morbidly fascinating. The bodies are so well preserved that you can still see wrinkles in the skin. It's a little bit creepy.

Good day, Bryce!
So where ya heading tomorrow... back toward Cusco, or southbound?

I'm going to backtrack a little bit back to Cusco and see if I can't find a slightly cheaper and rain free way to see Macchu Picchu.

I'm looking forward to how you manage it and your impression of the whole Macchu Picchu scene
Cheers!

That reminds me... If you have the intestinal fortitude to try this, and if the McD's crave sets upon you again, then you should explore.

McDonald's is famous for creating at least one localized product in every country in which they operate. For example, in New Zealand they have what they call a "Kiwi Burger," which is your standard McDonald's burger, topped with a fried egg and a slice of beet. You know, most Kiwis consider beets to be cattle fodder, and they won't touch it. But anywhoo.

Search out the "national dish" at each McDonald's along the way??

Keep it up, you are doing us all proud. (BTW: I really like the bacon-wrapped sausage.)

Well, I just made it to Cusco. I took a wrong turn somewhere today and then couldn't turn back due to gasoline, so I ended up riding 375 miles total. I was freezing my ass of the entire time and I managed to ride through some really crazy storms, but I made it in one piece. I'm exhausted. I'm going to have to take a mulligan on tonight's post. I'll do it in the morning.

Cheers,

Bryce

We'll be waiting...

Bryce,

Just a heads up -- the bridge in Urubamba is currently open to pedestrian traffic only, due to a partial collapse. No signage anywhere until you get there. If you're heading to Ollantaytambo, Google Maps will route you via Hayallabamba -- that's a tiny, muddy dual-track that Hewby and I took yesterday. The locals say there's a dirt road from Maras to Ollantaytambo -- you may have better luck there. The track to Hayallabamba isn't bad, but if you miss a couple of turns you cliff out on single track. DAMHIK

I think we're moving on to Santa Teresa today, crappy rain notwithstanding.

Excellent! Keep me posted. I'm supposed to meet up with a couple of other guys today and head to Santa Theresa.......you wouldn't happen to have a .GPX file or some waypoints that could help with navigation would you?

I have a gpx file, but internet is shit in the hotel we're at, and Hewby doesn't have BaseCamp on her mac, so I'm not sure how I can get that off for you. If you want pavement, I think your best option would be Calca. If you're ok with dirt, Maras is the more travelled option. We saw only a couple of herders on the tract to Hayallabamba. No vehicles. But it is only 8-10 km of dirt.

We're shooting for Santa Teresa today, dutch the bikes, and head to Agua Calientes tonight.

It just stopped raining here in Ollantaytambo, so if you go over dirt, expect lots of puddles and slick clay.

If you do take the Hayallabamba tract, check out a sat image that Google Maps routes you on. You'll see two little lakes. One in the middle of a small unnamed village, the other just outside it. We went around the one outside of town, and that led us to the tract.

Once on it, you'll come across a stone-reinforced curve or embankment. Go past it, but keep an eye out for a track dropping down hard right. If you continue straight, the dual-track becomes narrower and if you see a mud brick structure, you've gone too far.

The good thing is if you look back, you see the correct tract dropping down in switchbacks. I didn't have any major issues with the KLR going through there, but Hewby's GS took a beating.

Day 95 (January 18, 2012)
Arequipa, Peru to Cuzco, Peru
Day's Ride: 376 Miles



Man, I hate riding in the rain, especially above 14,000 feet. And I hate missing turn-offs.

The night before leaving Arequipa, I picked up a late Christmas present to myself, transported to Peru courtesy of bubbletron's boyfriend, Scott.



When I had realized that my front sprocket was bad, I got on the internet and overnighted a new one to him; he was able to bring it with him when he flew into Arequipa to ride with bubbletron. I really lucked out on that; the one that Felipe had given me the day before ended up not working.

As I left Arequipa the clouds finally disappeared and I was treated to a magnificent view of the nearby volcanoes: Misti and Chachani.





The route I had decided to take to Cuzco was only 280 miles according to google maps; I figured that a significant portion of that would be gravel, which made me quite happy. The first part of the route crossed through the Salinas-Aguada Blanca National Reserve which was purportedly replete with hordes of wild Vicuña, a camelid cousin of the Llama.



I soon saw signs for Vicuña crossings:



Before long I came across the actual Vicuña themselves. This little booger totally ignored me and refused to cooperate with my efforts at photography. Despite honking my horn, reving my engine, and screaming at him, he blatantly refused to look at me.



I continued on and eventually came upon a massive traffic jam. Skirting along the shoulder, I soon came to the front of the blockage and found the reason:



Having a motorcycle is a huge blessing in situations like these. Instead of waiting with the other cars, I jumped down into the shoulder and rode past, hardly even bothering to slow down.

The views in the Reserve were spectacular. Riding along in high alpine prairies at 14,000 feet, I was treated to views of the nearby peaks which had been dusted with a light covering of snow by the previous night's storms.







Riding through the reserve I saw a number of dirt roads leading up into the alpine. I figured that I had enough time to spare, so I took a little detour in hopes of riding with some Vicuña, or at least just getting a little bit of dirt riding in.



I had to stop for picture time eventually....





After a while I decided to start heading back to the main road. I decided to follow a different route that I hopped would skirt northeast and reconect with the road, therby saving me the need to backtrack.



Eventually it dumped me out into a series of sandy/muddy washes and I had a fun time skidding around with my slightly worn Pirrelli's until I was able to jump back up onto the pavement.

Back on the main road I found yet another example of why it's not a good idea to ride at night down here: coming around a bend at 50 MPH I was brought to a double wheel skidding stop by this:



The road finally passed out of the Reserve and continued to climb to higher altitudes:



I began to pass through small rain showers and saw herds of domesticated Llamas and Alpacas grazing beside the road.



I kept my eyes peeled for the turn off to Cuzco, but saw nothing. Eventually I pulled over and consulted my GPS, iPhone, and paper map. With a mixture of horror and regret, I realized that I had overshot the turnoff by about 30 miles. I kicked myself for not getting a lat/long the night before and plotting it on the GPS. I figured that the route would be marked by a sign or at least be fairly obvious. I now realized that I wouldn't have enough fuel to backtrack to the turnoff and make it all the way to Cuzco.

This left me with the unenviable prospect of taking an extra day to get to Cuzco, or pushing hard along the alternate route and riding an extra 100 miles at high altitude through crappy weather. I did what most reasonable people in my situation would do: I chose to push.

As I still had about 220 miles to go at this point, I decided to break it up into 110 mile segments and only dismount after having completed a segment. The weather continued to be brisk and wet. Before long I noticed ominous dark clouds on the horizon.



As I got closer, I realized that this was a pretty serious storm. Crooked forks of lightning began stabbing downward out of the clouds and the wind picked up into a gale.



Once again I was presented with two options: pull over and wait for the storm to pass, or speed up, tuck in behind the windshield and blow through. I chose option two. Entering the storm I was immediately pelted by waves of hale and fat droplets of rain. Before long I was soaked to the bone and wondering if I had made the right choice; probably not, but it was too late to turn back now.

Eventually I made to the other side, albeit significantly wetter and significantly colder.

I continued to push hard and stopped only after I had made the 110 mile mark. Pressed for time, lunch consisted of an entire roll of Maria Cookies.



The weather cleared up a little bit and I made the final run down out of the mountains into Cuzco.



I pulled into Cuzco around 6:00 PM, just as it was getting dark, and went to the Kokopelli Hostel where I met up with Clean Watt (Dylan) and three of the other riders that had been in Ecuador for the new years eve gathering at Cayumbe. I was exhausted. After downing a large pizza and a few beers, I went back to the Hostel and crashed hard, despite the obnoxious hipsters pounding away in an impromptu drum-circle.