Ride: The fall

WARNING: Contains content which mothers may find disturbing...

In hindsight it was inevitable. Bigger bike (compared to what I've previously ridden off-road), heavily laden and enthusiasm exceeding skill and experience. If it hadn't happened on that corner it would have happened on another and in many respects I'm lucky it wasn't worse. Not that this means I'm glad it happened.

Friday 5th March, 2014

It had been an awesome day. Lots of penguins at Punto Tombo and I was getting (over) confident on the gravel roads that I was travelling on. But I was having a lot of fun. [4].

I had actually been thinking that even though it was a Friday at 6pm, there wasn't anywhere I would rather be (i.e. a pub). Half an hour later that would all change. I went over a slight rise, the road went down and then bent to the right and split. I thought that the track on the left wasn't a track and tried to keep right (and on my side of the road) but didn't make the corner and went into some rough ground in between the two tracks. The front wheel hit a boulder, throwing me off and sending the bike end-over-end down the track, coming to rest on its side.

Not a view you ever want to see

I got up (good first start), lifted the bike up and then went about collecting the bits of bike that had come off (screen, mirror) and the contents of my tank bag which had exploded, scattering books and cables across the trail.

Then it was a case of assessing the immediate damage:

• Leaking oil, not sure about other fluids (i.e. primarily worried about petrol, but also water). It looked to be out of the bottom of the engine case but the skid plate (now very buckled) was in the way, so I'd have to take that off before I can work out what's happened.
• Right foot-peg bent.
• Various "cosmetic" damage (screen, wing mirror etc).
• Left pannier mechanism not working.

So I take off the skid plate and find that the crash protection on the right hand side had bent such that it had deformed the cover plate of the crank case, breaking through the seal and letting oil leak out. The question was whether to glue it and hope to stem the flow of oil, or whether this would make it impossible to do a longer term repair. However, if I didn't glue it, how would I get it to a garage to make a longer term repair? I also didn't know what internal damage might have been caused as a result of the deformation of the crank casing, or could be caused if I tried riding the bike with it in its current condition. And I didn't know whether the bike would start if I managed to fix the leaks.

Put the tent up (I'm definitely here for the night and it's getting dark), move everything off the road and get into my sleeping bag to have a think about what to do in the morning, in the full awareness that the adrenaline would have worn off by then and I'd likely feel rubbish. No food. I'm not sure if any fuel has leaked out and getting to Camarones (where the next petrol station is) was going to be tight as it was, so don't want to siphon any out of the tank, and also don't want to use more water than I need to, not knowing how long it's going to take to get the bike going, or if not, when the next vehicle is going to come down the road (there hasn't been a car since I came off). Get the sat phone out and check it works.

I'm relatively unscathed. My right wrist hurts but I don't think I've broken anything [1], and although weaker is usable (I take some ibuprofen to take the edge off and to help me sleep) and have some small grazes. I'm glad I'm wearing the kit I am [2].

Try and sleep (the wind picks up making this difficult) and mull over my options for the next day - keeping my fingers crossed that the bike (now having become a "she") will be going come tomorrow night. The thing that haunts me is that although I have a plan, if it doesn't work, and I can't start the bike, then the whole adventure may have come to an ignoble and expensive end on an anonymous stretch of road, less than a week after I started. Even El Poderoso 2 lasted longer than that...


Saturday 6th March 2014

Alarm goes off at 6 but only really get going at 7. Decide against calling anyone in the UK. They wouldn't be able to do anything to help and all I'd be doing would be worrying people, potentially unnecessarily. Overnight I've resolved to glue the gap using the liquid metal Araldite that Fabrice recommended I take [3]. I lay the bike on its side and clean the area as best I can and then try and fill the gaps around the bolt that's been pushed into the casing. It takes an hour to set and four to set hard, so after an hour I put the bike upright (I'm still concerned about losing fuel) and after three hours try putting some oil in (using a plastic bag as an improvised funnel) and check for leaks. It looks okay. After four hours top up and try the engine. It starts (hurray!) but there's a slight leak, so stop the engine and use more glue to try and stop where I think the leak is coming from. Two hours later try again and, although there seems to be a very slight weeping of oil, it seems to be holding.

How to top up the oil with no funnel. Surprisingly effective! 

In the intervening time I've had a go at some of the other bits. Bending the foot-peg back into place as best I can, gaffer taping the wing mirror back on and dismantling the left hand pannier to get the unlocking mechanism to work again (one of the metal levers had been bent out of place).

Then load the bike up (now with the skid plate and screen strapped on top of the tail bag) at which point she promptly falls over (my fault for not loading her up on level ground). Unpack, lift up and load again and tentatively head on to Camarones 60km away, all on ripio.

It's about 3pm by now. In the 21 hours between coming off the bike and heading on I've seen three vehicles, the first being at 1030 this morning.

Arrive at Camarones, refuel the bike, check for oil leaks (none - phew) and refuel myself (three litres of fluids and food). The bike seems to be be holding together, although the front fairing of the bike has been bent back which is throwing the headlight up significantly. Night riding won't be possible for a while. Tarmac now back to Ruta 3 and then south through Comodoro Rivadavia where I happen to pass a Yamaha service centre. The only thing is tomorrow is a Sunday and I don't want to hang around for another day to see if they can help, so carry on to Rata Tilly and check into a motel for the night.

Rio Gallegos is the next decent sized town on the way down and the bike holds up until then, although as I pull into the city the gearbox starts to stick. I take it in to be fixed at SM Motos and I think probably just in time.

And the experience has made me a less exuberant rider but also gave me more confident that I could cope with most things that the trip was likely to throw at me.


NOTES:
1. I've broken the scaphoid in my left wrist twice, the second time I didn't realise it was broken for about seven months, at which point it needed surgery to be rejoined. I'd rather not have a matching scar on my right wrist!
2. Some people have likened me to an astronaut with my kit, I think it's primarily because of the Leatt neck brace that I've got. However, I'm glad I've got it. I was in a car park on Peninsula Valdes when a guy pulled up in a car next to me. He pointed at the neck brace, which was hanging off a wing mirror at the time and said that they were a good bit of kit and had saved his life. I thought that it was just a saying until he pointed out that he was parked in the disabled spot, told me he'd had a motocross accident and had broken his back in three places, and proceeded to get a wheelchair out from where the passenger seat would be to join his son in the museum.
3. Memo to self - drop off multiple cases of beer to Fabrice next time you're in London.
4. This video doesn't actually have the crash in it. Sorry to disappoint those wanting a bit of "You've been framed" style entertainment. I do have it on video, I'm just not ready to share it...

Ride: Day 3 - "Adventure Motorcycle school for beginners"

.. Days 1 and 2 passed without incident, in that I didn't get too lost, found somewhere to sleep and although I went off road for the first time (police diversion around an accident), I managed to stay upright although at some points the was some swearing going on inside the helmet (largely down to the fact that I was sandwiched between a trick and a car and couldn't really see where the road was).

But people generally aren't interested in when things go to plan, which brings me to Monday. The day started badly with a cold shower, worsened when I realised I needed to unpack the bike to get the GPS coordinates for the day just after I'd finished securing everything and then on the road realised that I needed to turn around because the closest petrol station was behind me and I didn't have enough fuel to get to the next one.

It was on the way back that the first thing happened. I stopped to plug the remote for my helmet camera in to charge -  it runs off the bike's battery - as I wasn't going to need it any more. It took longer than anticipated and at some point I must have switched on my fog lamps as when I came to switch on the engine there wasn't enough battery power [1]. Step off the bike,  slip and drop the bike into the road. A small amount of swearing (given the circumstances) and then lift the bike upright again [2].

When it's up I notice the left pannier has popped out of the mount on the bottom and won't open. So take off the top bags and take out my breaker bar (2) and use this to lever it back on, which it did with a satisfying pop. Then open up a pannier and take out the solar charger I have [2] and connected it to the battery. Then packed everything else up and loaded it back onto the bike again and waited. Fortunately it was a sunny day [3] and it charged quickly and, with fingers crossed) the engine started and got me back to the petrol station.

By that stage it was getting on in the day and my plan of getting to Trelew was out of the window. Las Grutas was the next stop, which wasn't far and so gave me the opportunity to take some of the (unsurfaced coast road). First attempt to get to it ended in a locked gate and a water crossing so headed back to the 3. Second attempt got me on my way and after about 45 minutes realised I'd gone a couple of hundred meters past the turn I needed.  Came to do a U-turn and the bike went into soft sand/dust on the side of the road. Front wheel got out but the back wheel got stuck and then bogged in. So get of the bike (it stays upright without the side stand), unload everything and then lift the back wheel out but end up having to lower the bike to get the wheel out, then have to lift the bike with my feet slipping in the sand to get it upright again [1]. Check everything's working then load everything up again and head off.

And then have the most amazing ride on gravel and sand along the most spectacular coastline you can imagine, culminating in arriving in Las Grutas (a coastal resort) as the last embers of the day are fading in the sky.

The mileage wasn't massive [4] but I feel I earned them, and the cold beer and paella when I arrived.

In hindsight, it was all very tame. The first incident happened on a tarmac road, and although there wasn't much traffic I think you'd only need to wait 10 minutes for a car to come along and I wasn't more than 15-20km away from somewhere. The second would have been more slightly more challenging but the bike was always fine. The problems I faced at the end of the week had the much more potential to be terminal, but at this stage I was blissfully unaware of that.

BTW -  first proper [5] beer since arriving. Given its brewed about 50km north of Buenos Aires I've seen it more here - obviously a good sales guy...

Notes:

1. It has occurred to me subsequently that the battery was fine and it was the ignition switching (depending on how you shut the engine off  - i.e. with the key or the shut-off switch - the requirement for it to be in neutral is different) but I'm pretty sure I'd worked though all the combinations before getting (falling) off the bike.

2. See Acknowledgements.

3. Although it meant the battery charged quicker, it made me realise that my camel back is relatively small and that I hadn't refilled it (or the litre of water in the tail bag), which was seeming increasingly foolish.

4. 380km, compared to 378km on day 1 and 699km on day 2. See route maps / log for more.

5. Isenbeck, brewed by Cerveceria Argentina, just south of the border with Uruguay and part of SABMiller. It's an all malt brew (Quilmes, the leading local brand is also brewed with an adjunct, I think Maize) and, unbiased as I am, prefer it to Quilmes!