South America on knock off Chinese bikes and no $$$

Way to go. Yeah ruta 40 is not terribly enjoyable riding-wise. It was windy as shit when I was there too - about the same time of year. Try to log some quality time next to the abundant wood stoves down there. It helps cure a case of the "cold-n-shitties." Carry on, gentlemen.

This thread just cracks me up. Y'all are nuckin' futs. Great job.

Agreed!! This ride is fun to read about! Kind of wish i were tagging along!

I love the transition from the flashy intro to the grim dirty reality of shoestring travel. What an adventure, I hope an unexpected windfall keeps it going for all of you!

Hi. I am one of the three bikers this thread is about, and I´ve writen about some of our adventures on a couple of my more recent blog posts.

http://www.thesouthamericandream.blogspot.com/

More posts to come, including the Carettera Austral in Southern Chile and Route 40 in Argentina to Ushuaia.

Been a while since we've heard from these boys. I hope they made it.

Hi all, I´m the third member of the trio. After the last update we spent some time trekking in the Torres del Paine national park, an amazing place and definitely worth a visit. My chain had been in very bad shape for 1000kms or so and I was hanging on until Punta Arenas for a new one. Unfortunately, during the ride back from Torres del Paine the chain came off at around 70km on a dirt road, a fairly normal occurrence but this time it mangled the adjustment brackets and forced the axle out of the swing arm. It fortunately got wedged in by the guard, the chain and my rear brakes and I controlled a pretty intense lock up with no ill effects. It was a little sketchy to get back on the bike and ride another couple of hundred k´s without being able to fix the actual problem! From here we headed down with almost no incidents. My chain was so bad it would fall off every 500m on the road to Punta Arenas so I sat by the side of the road and within 1 hour my bike was in the back of a very friendly man´s pick-up. Finally got some parts in Punta Arenas and we were on the road to Tierra Del Fuego!

We didn´t hit the road on TdF until quite late, due to a late afternoon ferry but we decided to ride on until Rio Grande. Nick had no headlight so we rode with him in the middle wearing his headlamp. a few k´s out of town Nick managed to get a flat front tire. His financial situation meant that Ushuaia would be the end for him and he had a flight to B.A. that we had to get there for. It was quite late so we just rode in to town on the flat and found a place to crash. Instead of searching around and trying to get the tire fixed, Nick decided to sell the bike as is in Rio Grande. A sign on the tank and the bike on a busy corner and we had it sold in 2 hours with 200 bucks in the pocket!

Well the trip is over for me, I am back home in Canada. Tom's engine gave out about 3,000km north of Ushuaia, and I believe Zack is still going strong, but I haven't heard from him for 5 days. I am working on mapping our route on google maps and putting some stats together.

As a rough estimate we camped for about 50 days,
I spent $930 to buy the bike and roughly $1,800 on gas, food, liquor and the odd accommodation.
We drove from Sucre, Bolivia to Ushuaia, Argentina down the Cartel de Austral and route 40 after Chile Chico.
My bike had 10,283km on it when I sold it for $900 Pesos in Argentina.

Here are some pleasant photos from my real camera.


Uyuni Salt Flats


Uyuni Salt Flats


Some highlands near Sucre


Camping near Potosi


The route from Tupiza to Ollague


Christmas eve, ran out of food, gas, money and water. Squatted at a salt mining camp while Zack borrowed money from a miner to hitch hike into Calama for supplies.


The most lifeless place on Earth.


My fav shot from Dakar, Tom and I back tracked 800km to see it.


Wind break!


Caves near Constitucion we drove through.


Epic meal time! If we had a fire we went all out and cooked nice sauces as well as boiled our pasta at the same time. Living in the lap.


Squatting in the abandoned airport hanger in Chaiten.


Tom found these kids boxing gloves at the abandoned airport, which quickly became his new riding gloves.


The road to Chile Chico!

I have a bunch more if people want to see em. It was a great trip! Thanks for everyone's support and all the amazing people we met along the way!

Nick

Friggn' awesome man. Thanks for the story and the pics. I'm betting you miss it and if you don't, you will soon.

Good show boys! I'm sure Austin Vince (of Mondo Enduro, Terra Circa fame) would give a tip of the hat and buy you a pint! I do hope someday ya' all get a chance to return and take more time, drink more Beer and enjoy Argentina a bit more.

Cheers!

In case anyone was wondering I (one of the three riders) made it back to Bolivia on my bike. After 16,309.8 kms, I think I have proven that shitty chinese 150CC bikes are certainly adequate for some crazy adventures.

Is that what was proven? LOL. I was thinking there was now proof of something else, but if you say so...

Great job man. Y'all are nuckin' futz and I salute you for it.

It's possible on a bicycle, a scooter, an R1, a BMW or a moped, anything really. As long as you can get the paperwork done it just depends on your budget and how much time you'd rather spend on the road vs your destination. Some people even walk all over the globe.

In the end it only matters that you had a good time and have some good stories to tell :)

Zack... you guys just prove that is not the tool, but the person that's the main ingredient for the adventure.

I'm proud of being at least a little helper on the trip

Hache

If you want to heart about just a handfull of our adventures, check out the recent posts on my blog: www.thesouthamericandream.blogspot.com

wow. that's crazy.
i'd sell the bikes and get a ticket to a place i could work or atleast find work asap where you are. you don't have enough fuel $.
are you looking for donations from here? others have done it but you need some good writting and great pics plus a paypal button.

Enjoyed the last bunch of photos. Pleasure to meet and hang with you guys. Zach, come see me in Ecuador. Take care dudes!

Dan

Bump!

I think the most incredible thing in this thread is that tan Honda jacket.

Any chance I could get one?

Also good on you guys for havin' an adventure and etc.