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Don't think twice it's alright. Vancouver-Argentina on a CX500

46K views 404 replies 50 participants last post by  purplecx500 
#1 ·
I've started this new thread since the other one was getting confused with tons of posts going on for ages before I left.

You can see that at Running Away





My dad called and told me not to ride at night to visit them. Spray paint can in hand, I was just about finished painting the racks, so I was really just about ready to go. Didn't want to hang around past the day I'd said I'd go yet again.

I rode out and was the only bike on the 9pm Ferry from Vancouver to the town I grew up in Victoria, BC. The ferry takes 90 minutes so I pulled in around 10:30 at night. After a series of mix ups and dead cell phones I sat at a gas station in Victoria with no friend's place to crash at. I decided to camp since I'll be doing that for months to come it should be good practice to start in a place I know.

As it turned out the place I thought I knew well had changed a fair bit, all the parks and beaches had new gates, and have signs advertising all the fines and penalties for daring to exist there between the hours of 11pm and 6am.

I tried several beaches, and two local hills, Mt Doug and Mt Tolmie. Victoria is a no fun place now, I remember driving around all of those places watching stars, now it's a fine for stopping there. I wonder what the high school kids will do now, sit and make out in cars at the walmart parking lot?

Finally risked sleeping up on Mt Doug, rode my capable offroad machine up the foot path and back onto the road past the gates, then rolled out a sleeping bag after a nice long ride up. beautiful but cold night so I wasn't sleeping much. I relocated to the lee of a nice warm stone wall to sleep, just as I drifted off, I heard a radio acknowledgment and somebody with a light having a good look around. High tailed it out of there, I didn't know I could pack so fast. By this point it was 3am, I was tired, frustrated and getting sloppy. I rode back out the Pat bay highway to try out a trick I read on ADVrider about sleeping up beside the exits/overpasses since that no one ever looks.

I took the first one that looked good, ignoring the foot high wet grass's effect on the traction of my old Spitfire street tires. Found a perfect bowl to sleep in, so I rode down into it, intending to park the bike on the far side and sleep there. For some reason I still can't figure out I stopped sideways on the slope and turned the bike off, dropping my damn keys in the process. Reaching around uphill for them, I started to slip, and leaned out to keep the bike upright, forgetting the downhill side wasn't going to have any footing. We fell over into the bush. No amount of cursing and heaving would convince Aurora to budge, I couldn't get traction for my feet on the wet grass, and the bush was preventing the bike from getting clear even if I could have lifted her more than a few inches. I realized later she'd dug in so well that the kick stand, mirror, and left cylinder were all pretty well stuck, and the tires were right up in the air.

After a few failed attempts to drag the back end around so I would at least be lifting from one side, rather than trying to lift uphill I was about ready to throw in the towel call my parents and get a car jack to push the bike up. I pulled off all the bags, unbolted the gas tank and seat, and just dug in and lifted, dropped her on the uphill side, bolted back on the gas tank, reattached all my bags and only dropped her once more getting out. Took about three hours, I was so tired I just parked on the top of the hill and went to sleep as the sun came up.

Lost almost all my gas before I took the tank off, and burned blue from all the oil in the cylinders later that morning.



looking down the hill, gas tank already off.





Finally over lying on the uphill side so I can clean off the dirt and load my bags again.







It was about a half an hour before I got Aurora to budge that I realized that this trip is where I belong. I wasn't miserable, I was frustrated with myself, but I found that same peace kneeling in the mud in that bush trying to move a bike that got me hooked in the first place while riding an out of oil GS400 with a slipping clutch from SK to BC. I would rather be here than living in quiet desperation in my comfortable suite at home.
 
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#59 ·
Nice pictures Jeremy. So many that it makes it hard figure out which one to use as my wallpaper.

Here I thought you were out there traveling alone all this time. It's good to see you got to hook up with your friends. I know you thought you were going to miss them until you got to SA. Keep up the good work on the story and pictures. I can tell it's going to be fun to follow along.

Ride safe.
 
#60 ·
I rode out of LA around 11am, on I-10 after picking up some more Halva, olives and Nom bread. I have no idea what Nom bread is actually called, but that's what I call it in my head. It comes in an enormous sheet in a plastic bag, the taste reminds me a bit of Naam bread, and I can Nom on it all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqL6T8YHRs

I rode fast the rest of the day, having some serious issues about 75mph, bike wants to go into a tank slapper, this is where the handlebars go back and forth more violently until they are hitting the stops, the only way I've found to keep up to speed and avoid it is to use my body like a sail, and lean back, this mimics the action of a steering damper, instead of trying to counteract it and make it worse. Doesn't happen much with a full tank, but when I'm getting close to empty it's a bit dicey. Beautiful country, just looks marvellous, and I could ride across it to the base of the mountains to camp in peace and pretend I was riding with the Sundance Kid.







but as I found on the PCH anywhere I could pull of to camp or explore up to the base of some beautiful mountains it's all blocked by barbed wire fences. They've Fenced the world in. Beautiful looking mountains to camp at the base of. Too bad everything down to the goddamn overpasses around here is fenced off. I have yet to see even the tiniest sliver of land beside the interstate that I wasn't cut off from with barbed wire. Who fences off an overpass anyways?





Maybe it's wire that's the problem, wire keep me out of where I want to be, wire carries problems from back home I can do little about, wire brings bad news from all around the world to my fingertips if I want it.







I stopped to shoot the above pictures of the mountains I wanted to ride to, after about 5 minutes a highway patrol car pulled up, I expected to get an earful for pulling off and stopping, but got a pleasant surprise. The officer was just stopping to make sure I was OK, asking about traffic conditions on the bike, and how the ride was going, with advice about navigating the trucks. Talk about a nice thing to do, it really made my day.





I found an Oregon License plate, and strapped it to my bike, I wasn't sure why at the time, later it made perfect sense, as I was making camp later on in the evening it hit me, it was the perfect material for a windscreen for my stove, I curved it as best I could trying to emulate Larry's smooth techniques, not as pretty as he'd make, but serviceable nonetheless.

Riding up off the road, and as I later found out through a ditch I barely felt when I was getting ready to camp was a bit surreal with a circus song playing in my headphones "River Deep" by Devil makes three. I ended up setting up on a high bank above the interstate, hidden by some shrubs, with a lone cactus. Not an idea site, but much better than being down low, no way I want Aurora to end up like Alex Supertramp's car.



A long cold night, I was in bed by about 6pm, didn't get to sleep till about 3am, slept till the sun came up and rode on. I was over the day 3 hump of sleeping on the ground, at which point your body stops complaining all night and decides the ground is actually comfortable.

Took a few night pictures experimenting with my tripod,

View from my camp.





The day before I tried taking videos from the bike, riding out some canyon roads outside of LA to get to someone's house to buy some batteries for my Miox pen. I ended up at the Rock cafe by accident but a couple riders on fast bikes offered to lead me back to the highway, watching their lines in the corners taught me a fair bit. Tons of police cars all along the canyon roads. The batteries are about 8$ each at the drug store, or 15$ for 12 high end cells with better capacity and reliability bought in bulk.

The tripod is so flimsy it shakes in any wind. only a couple of the night shots turned out, and the videos hurt to look at! The capture rate isn't fast enough and it shakes so much that there are weird distortions that run down the screen. The funniest part though is that without a camera everyone waves to me. When it's mounted up, I mounted it from the left crash bar and strapped the tripod in at the tank bag height as well, nobody will wave at all! Everyone is busy looking cool for the camera or doesn't want to be caught waving to a Honda I guess.



 
#61 ·
Jeremy, I'm really enjoying this adventure you're experiencing. Thank you for taking us along.



I share Panther's concern about the steering instability. This one could really end badly, especially if something shifts and it unexpectedly turns into a full-blown tank slapper. Even more so if it happens in some obscure location where the hospitals are crap and cash bribes are needed for even the most basic care.



It would be great if you could get to a forum member's home and have the steering head bearings replaced with tapered roller bearings. This could even be set up in advance here on the forum so your down time would be minimized. Just something to consider.



Carry on. You'll be reliving this adventure for years to come.
 
#62 ·
It would be great if you could get to a forum member's home and have the steering head bearings replaced with tapered roller bearings. This could even be set up in advance here on the forum so your down time would be minimized. Just something to consider.
Jeremy,



Check this list, and see if there's someone near your intended route.



R
 
#64 ·
A little politeness goes a long way, or how I (almost) got kicked out of a hotel.



I woke up pretty late and groggy this morning, after working very late into the night to get the travel report up to date, I slept in, and when I woke up I was still sick, although definitely on the mend. I decided to hop in for a quick shower but kept thinking I was hearing someone knock, I'd turn off the water, get out of the bathroom and call out through the door, to no answer. Get back in the shower, turn the water on and keep going. It seems that the housekeeping lady stopped by, and didn't get an answer the second time she asked if I needed service(because I was in the shower) So she called the mananager, who must have been having a bad day. He knocked on the door again, I turned off the water, thinking I'd heard a knock and repeated the process, only this time I stuck my head out too. Nobody there.

He then knocked a third time, and I finally managed to catch him, An older, rather angry fellow with an eyepatch, he tore a strip off me about not answering, to which I was polite but firm, as I had certainly answered, despite being unsure if there even was anyone knocking, and he could clearly have heard the shower running.

I didn't realize that I was approaching checkout time so the start of it was probably my fault.

He asked me if I was staying or leaving, since I'm still pretty sick and dizzy, I said I was good and would stay since I was so close to checkout time, at which point he yelled that he didn't have time to play silly games and told me to get out of his hotel, then stormed off to get back to his office. It was a very impressive angry stride I must admit, I don't know if he's practiced in a mirror but it was really well done.



I decided while packing that I really just wasn't safe to ride, so I went downstairs to have a discussion, I apologized for any miscommunication, and explained that I had answered a second time, and that as I was past the checkout time I would really prefer to honor the policy of paying for another night. He apologized as well, and we talked about the bike for a bit, certainly a better result than sulking and parading out of here in a bad mood, although I was really looking forward to finally getting to write a scathing post about somebody being a jerk on my trip, I guess I'll have to wait.



 
#65 ·
Jeremy,



Reading the past few days at once I am not surprised that you aren't feeling well. Look at all the weird foods you have eaten since you left Larry's.



Stick to the basic foods and make sure whatever you eat is prepared well, especially after you cross the border into Mexico ...
 
#66 ·
Halva and olives is great food.


I used to take it backpacking, high density calories, decent mix of protein carbs and sugar, packs well, long shelf life. Everything I've eaten has been bought at clean, decent quality supermarkets.

I'm eating fantastically compared to how I normally eat at home, often I'll forget to eat for a day or two, and usually live off pop(soda), beans and cigarettes.



As for food prepared by other people, I eat mcdonalds or subway or something once a day to get internet and either vegetables(subway) or meatish substance(mcdonalds)



The sickness is a chest/sinus infection of some kind, picked up from the Carnegie kids, who were sick and coughing all over me while we were in LA. A night without a tent below 0 after that got it settled in pretty well.
 
#67 ·
Jeremy,



I've been following along both here and on ADVrider. Great stuff...I'm jealous. If it wasn't for Ford Motor Credit, Chase bank, and my landlord I'd seriously consider taking a LOA from work and doing something similar. Hats off to you...



John
 
#68 ·
Heading east from Odessa, I wasn't stopping for many photo's just pushing to make some miles.



The first mountains in miles





First time I've ever seen cotton, I had to stop and pick some, and shoot some pictures.











For about an hour, a lifted Toyota truck and I were running about the same pace, in and out of traffic trading up positions, I spotted Wyoming to Panama on the back, as the sun was starting to set, I decided I'd pull up to say hello, I waved to the guy in the cab, he made the universal sign for drinking, and we pulled over at the next exit. The driver was Ian, a off-roader from Wyoming driving his supercharged V6 Tacoma down to Panama. Turned out we were both trying to get to the Ft Worth/Dallas area, he was stopping in to meet someone from Expedition Portal in Dallas for their birthday. He invited me along, and since I figured it was a bit late for showing up in Ft Worth and so I went along. It turned out to be one of my better decisions, as everyone in the house that night was into off-road driving and motorbikes. The birthday guy, Scott has ridden tons in Mexico, and is planning to start a tour company, which I'm sure is going to rock. He gave me a sweet plan for a route, involving some sweet tracks. He even hooked me up with maps of the area, and everyone gave me tons of advice and help, we worked on my bike a bit, adding washers to the exhaust to try and increase the back pressure to improve my fuel economy closer to stock again, and messed about with the wiring a bit to fix the heated grips without success.





Tom, friend of the birthday boy.





Nina, Kacy+Kylie and the birthday boy Scott







Mike, another friend of the birthday boy.



ip_11-2528.jpg[/IMG]
 
#71 ·
#73 ·
Those are exactly what I have to use, they last about a week of tracking.



Has anybody checked the page yet? It's actually kinda cool, it shows where I am whenever I push the ok button, I'm turning the unit on and doing that around once a day, to save battery, that way I should get about a month per set.
 
#74 ·
Jeremy,



The link with spot says you haven't even left the USA and that you have been there for 20 days. Have you moved? If not it sure doesn't sound like an adventure to me. That means since you left Larry you have averaged 62 miles per day. I know people who do more on a bicycle.



The link you have to your other posting is now a month old. How about some updates???



Get rolling and keep this page up to date please. We are all indirectly supporting you.
 
#75 ·
Great read so far supertramp. I wonder if your front end instability could be caused from that off road looking front tire. From your post pic's it appears to not have a continuous center bead. I could see this causing your problem at high speed on pavement.

Keep on living your dream! Oh, and thanks for sharing!
 
#76 ·
Well he is about half way down mexico according to his last spot transmission.
 
#80 ·
Yeah I noticed that too, hopefully he knows to rinse the salt water off.




Looks like he spent Christmas eve just west (200km) or so of Cancun.



Spottracker is a cool idea, I think my boy should use one when he goes to Asia next month for 7 weeks.
 
#82 ·
Fix the bike? Whats up with LRCX? Hope all is going well Jeremy, I am sure you are not having to wear mitts, toque, or



long underwear.
Are you heading down the Gulf Coast through Playa Del Carmen? and then Belize? Just an update for you,



-17C tonight here and the 2 feet of white stuff on the ground here is not sand.




Good luck and take care.
 
#83 ·
#84 ·
Looks like Jeremy is officially off the grid. No movement or update in a while. Hopefully nobody is getting gang raped in a mexican prison.



Unfortunately all I know about Mexico is what I have seen on tv. So maybe he found Salma Hayek and isn't coming back.



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEEzATNsKGE[/media]



Oddly enough I did meet Danny Trejo at the 105th harley anniversary.



 
#86 ·
Where in Hell is he today?
 
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