91 Days until departure, Shipping and riding.

Things are heating up with shippers.  We have found one reasonable rate to get the bikes to Chile.  We are waiting for a couple other quotes before we pull the trigger.  Getting the bikes back may take a bit more effort, but that direction is not time sensitive since we can give power-of-attorney to our friend in Santiago if all else fails.

Jim and I finally got to go on something like a substantial ride.  Last Saturday we rode 450 miles from the Seattle area to Pendleton, Or.  On Sunday we split up and he headed home to Boise and I returned to Redmond.  A great time was had by all.

View to the north of Washington & northern Oregon.

I had tracking from the Spot on the entire ride.  The waypoints stay on the FindMe page for two weeks.  Click through to see any current check-ins.


Note to self: Be more conservative about getting gas, even if that means some back riding.  I pulled into Desert Aire, WA, with 197 miles on the tank.

101 days - Missed connections

Jim and I have been trying to get together for a shake down ride.  Our schedules never seem to work out.

Jim has been doing a lot of long distance riding related to work.  I've been doing a lot of commuting on the 990.  It is a great commuting ride, feels like playing in traffic on a hooked up powerful dirt bike.

One of my early concerns was being skilled enough on the bike to be able to handle riding in heavy traffic while lost and confused in a foreign city.  I figured there was time to learn since I'd have the bike for 1-1/2 years before departure.  I was right.  It has been a great bike to ride but not the most forgiving.  On my very first commute in  June of '10, it was raining (it was Seattle after all).  I was on I-5 in light traffic.  All of a sudden traffic came to hard stop in front of.  No sweat, I have lots of room, easy rear brake and we'll shut her down.  PROBLEM, it locked the the rear brake faster than instantly!  No sweat, let off the rear brake. PROBLEM, the engine braking was enough to prevent the rear from hooking back up.  Seemed like forever to get the clutch pulled (was probably just a fraction of a second).  Ok, note to self, it is a tall bike, it wants to lift the rear on braking and the rear is best used like a dirt bike for steering, not for any substantial slowing, and be ready with the clutch if you do.

Now that I have all the gear I intend to bring to South America now I've got to sort out packing.  I've had all but the new cot on the bike and there is plenty of room.  The bike still rides well all loaded up, which is exactly why we went with larger bikes rather than smaller bikes.

We are stilling up in the air on shipping.  We found a great shipper to get the bikes to Santiago for $637 per bike.  But we haven't been able to find a return shipper.  We are looking for help.