Two Moto Kiwis Arctic To Antarctic May 2012...

E&A,

What a nightmare the DR`s saga has become. I hope Suzuki offers an acceptable solution ASAP.

Pulling the plug? only if all other 'reasonable' alternatives are exhausted IMHO. Hope to see you guys rolling soon because the best is yet to come further south.

Everyone in the family up here are pulling for you guys!
Buena suerte!

A.

Yeah, Im pretty much done with Suzuki. When my motor goes, Im going to just get rid of the bike and get something else. I understand the odds are great that my bike will never experience this issue, but the principle of the fact that Suzuki simply hasnt done anything to rectify the lost time and problems youve had proves they dont give a fuck about your vacation- they got your money and now youre on your own- that principle is what causes me to be displeased with my own choice to have a DR. Think ill sell my Bandit too and move on to anything but Suzuki.

I really hope you get something worked out and soon, but surely you wont be able to ever get back all the time youve lost.

Kia ora Andi & Ellen
It's a bugger but it will get better. All respect to you both for the way you are feeling now. But dig deep, love each other and hang in there. You have lots of good friends who are riding this ride with you and all their combined wills and enthusiasms are with you.
Lots of warm hugs and good thoughts from us.
Ken and Shirley.

Hi guys

The dealership rang and said it was ready.... this seemed unusual to me given what we had seen.

They had 5 of them looking at it and trying to sort it out, the tech who did it returned and told them what he had done.

We arrive at the dealership, the service manager took us out the back and explained that they had used Belray grease on the shift lever and gears.

He mixed up some oil and some Belray grease and made it look very similar to the mix in the pan, the tech must have used half a tube of grease as three oil changes later it still looks the same, they asure me it is fine.

The good news is that seems to be the oil/metal problem, the bad news is 3rd gear still screams unnaturally loud but they say it is fine, they did replace the 4 bearings as they were quote gritty, circlips, seals, gaskets etc and the piston rings.

I am hopeful this is the last time the bike is in the shop for repairs, I don't mind bits and pieces but engines out are BANNED.

Up till today Suzuki have spent is excess of the value of the bike just in the motor and kept us off the road for more than 25% of our trip so far.

I still have my reliable DR650 at home which we built our adventure on, will I buy another Suzuki ,well I wanted to buy a DRZ 400 when I return home, I think this will change.

I had my KTM990 which was flawless so I think I will stick with orange.

On our TMK site I have called them Weapons Of Choice, at the moment I would change that to The Pieces Of Shit We Ended Up With, as you can tell I am angry at Suzuki for letting this unfold ridiculously long and it would seem this current round was the result of Lelands misfitting parts.

Anyway, on a positive note we are on our way tomorrow morning, we have reference stuff from Clawson Suzuki showing dates etc so Immigration/Irritation, homeland sec, consulates etc can deal with it as we have gone out of our way to make it right with no help from any departments and if they are still upset with us well there are plenty of other places to ride the world who will want our contribution to their economy.

I will say thank you to Josh from Clawsons, he has pulled the blocks to make it happen as best he can given the time frame, the seem to be te only good guys we have dealt with.

Hey you two, here is hoping like hell your bikes are good for the south. Stay positive, and (hopefully) all will be well. Now, about your take on BMW 800's...

We are running into some bad lucks today, broken G9, bike was back to the dealer ship, but as Andi always says : No one died. We just have to harden the F up, and carry on living.

We were so focused on the bike, haven’t had a chance to thank Doug and Janet from Lodi who took care of us for the last few days. and I know Andi would not have time to check my grammar and spellings today, so please put up with some Chiwi English. Thank you Doug and Janet on behalf of Two Moto Kiwis.



While Hobbit was in Clawson waiting for the parts for the third gear, we received a PM from a fellow ADVer, he wrote: “See you are in Fresno with bike issues.I am 2 hours north in Lodi. Not sure what direction you are headed next but spare room available and willing to assist any way I can.”

This is our wonderful host Doug - Photoed by Dan



We replied him and told him our situation, then he wrote back: “ I offer a couple ideas.
1, I have an 08 DR650 I can loan you, happy to deliver it to Fresno , then you can ride where you want; I can come get you (and the OK bike) and bring you here, then you can borrow my GMC Yukon or the DR650 and go where ever you like. Happy to deliver you back to Fresno when your bike is ready. I'm only a phone call away.” What a nice man.

We jumped on Chiwi (she has been reliable) come down to Lodi to meet Doug. Boy he took us under his wings and make us feel welcome.

The next day, Doug and Janet took us for a tiki tour around his district. There are a few wineries (can’t you believe it?) around that area, with the local knowledge, we went to Ironstone Vineyard which holds the biggest natural Gold nugget in the North America.

The big gold



The Vineyard






We even made the effort to the town called Murphys to whisper him make our trip uneventful in the further, it didn’t seem to work, however, a walk around town and a good dose of ice cream was really nice.

Downtown at Murphys, remind us Arrow Town at home





Ice Cream for girls



Sushi for dinner again, hope Andi isn't sick of it



The day after, we decided just kicking around at his home and relax a bit after visited an other two local vineyards again. Doug’s friend Dan with his third generation Chinese wife Chris turned up. Here we are, me, can’t speak Cantonese, her, can’t speak Mandarin, two Chinese woman talk in English. They are very nice couple, offered to meet us for lunch in Sacramento next day.

More wine testing



Posh place





Party time again



In the afternoon, Doug’s another Dan friend brought another guest - Trevor who we met on the Horizon Unlimited Meeting in Cambria. He is riding a Yamaha Tenere to South America too. We all sit down had a drink and as we do then off to the local pub “Waterloo Saloon” for a good feed of pork ribs.


International traveller's gathering again



Doug took us (me, Andi and Trevor) to Sacramento on Monday. We meet Dan and Chris at a Chinese Supermarket for a roast duck lunch - plus some other goodies. Then we went to immigration to get Andi fired up. (read the B2 Visa saga, you will understand)

Bugger me, three "white boys" using chopsticks better than most of Chinese




After Andi calmed down, we went to Sacramento old town. It was a neat place, lots of gift shop, bar and restaurants. Doug took us a long way round back to Lodi, on the way back, we stopped at a little Chinese town called Locke. Funny they said this is China Town, didn’t see any Chinese except me.

I like this office better



Can you tell me when our bikes are trouble free?



Sacramento Old Town



China Town again





Does it make me look like a Chinese?




Back to home was dark. Trevor has to change oil for his Tenere, he will be on his way to yosemite and we will be back to Fresno. Doug, is waiting for a German ADVer who had a broke down in Death Vally, come and pick up Doug’s DR650 to ride the Big Sir...

Boys with toys

Bummed that you guys are having such a bad run with you DR,s. Hate to rub salt into a wound but ours ran like a Swiis watch the whole time. (Its on its way home now) I had been thinking of taking my bits off mine and selling it and buying a new one, but after your woes with new ones i'm no so sure its a good idea. ! ! I hope things start going better for you. Looks like you are being well looked after while waiting for the bikes to be sorted.
Cheers Phil

Hard luck with bike problems guys....its not often you hear somebody considering a KTM over a DR on the grounds of beter reliabilty

Broken G9? Whats wrong with it now?? Unbelievable..

I didn't fixed it on Andi's helmet properly, while he was riding, it fell on the road, and broke off , dead.

We are trying to become a banana republic as fast as we can, but some organizations are clearly ahead of others in staffing for the new era. In ten years we should have filtered out all of the English speakers and installed more officials like the one that you experienced. Please be patient.

...yeah I can't believe I took it so wrong with him given his authoritative and superior stance

Next border crossing is into Mexico, I expect some sort of fun/issues/back and forths, if they give me too much shit I will threaten to leave my bike there for them to fix.

While yours has been SORELY tested, and understandably escaped for a short period, your sense of humor (and the very generous offers of help and support from other ADV-ers) will go a long way in helping you deal with any further mis-adventure that you so thoroughly DON'T deserve. Sending you lots of positive vibes guys

Heya guys, quick reply here from Ajo, hitting the border tomorrow and on our way, X fingers things have been ok since the repairs.

Thanks to all you guys for your support and props and a special thanks to Jim at Hutchins Motorsort http://www.hutchinsmotorsports.com/ the Yammy shop in Yucca Valley near Joshua Tree for spotting us very healthy lunch money and getting our disc pads sorted out, you rock dude, was hard to hide the tear in our eye with your generosity !!!

Nice work you two! On behalf of all the Wanaka MCC members, we wish you all the very best and safe travels south of the border. You have currently used up all your quota of bad luck for the trip, so you should be sweetaz from here on in!

Heya Richard, yeah I reckon we have too and cheers for the props.

We did go to a town called Murphy and spent some money there, I did look to the sky and asked if he would ride with someone else now ..... not that we don't trust him

Hi Guys- all the best for the next exciting installment of your travails and travels. Hopefully less of the first and more of the second. Totally stoked you could find time for the call. Sadly was at Aramoana communing with the toys. Poor old Tigger sitting forlornly in a pool of fork oil was truly in sympathy with your (t)rusty steeds.
Adventure biking is not your air-conditioned coach trip as you well know, but echoing other devoted followers, very impressed with your fortitude and attitude. As said by a wise man "no-one died", and although the cost increases its apparent you both are already very wealthy in what counts ( evidenced by the fantastic people you have met and befriended). Go well.

Hey! see up in the thread tools, thread rating. Vote with me them guys sure deserve a fifth star.

This trip report is a bit shallow on groovy pictures as it involved big distances in a small time (for us anyway) so you will just have to wade through the words.

We left Fresno Thursday 1st November in the morning, the weather was turning and rain was predicted, as luck would have it we snuck out underneath it with only a few spots on the screen.

Our decision was to stay off the interstate per normal so we took the backs roads through and to be honest we don’t really lose any time because we are not going hell fast anyway.

This route took us down a great winding back road which was beautiful with the trees laden with leaves changing to the colours of autumn.

Lake Isabella soon appeared, this was an area we had missed out on when going to Fresno so it was great to see it.

We carried on down the main drag south to Victorville which was our next destination, we arrived late after packing a big day mileage wise trying to get to the border.

The camp had toilet and showers so a bit of a treat.

Next day we went set off south east towards Joshua Tree, on arrival we sussed out the Yamaha Shop in Yucca Valley. As mentioned earlier we met Jim there at the counter who recognized us and went out of his way to help.

Again Jim thank you for your generosity and time, your blood is worth bottling.



We managed to get front disc pads but they were out of rears, this wasn’t to be a problem as we managed to get some the following day.

Joshua tree was a slight deviation as we were right there and we still had enough time, while in there we met up with Phil Jean, bro and sister heading south too on two KLR 650’s, great to meet them and have chats, we will no doubt cross paths heading south and we look forward to swapping travel stories.







Parker was our destination that night at a BLM site right beside the Colorado river, again we ran late and set up nearly in darkness as we took some time with the parts but getting sorted prior Mexico was the No 1 priority.

At the camp we met Mary, Bob and Chuck who were traveling in vans with their bikes in tow on a trailer, they are traveling from place to place and riding around all over the place, great meeting you guys and cheers for the chats at camp, best for your travels too.

Nice place.





In the morning we set off into town to do some shopping for food, there was another Yammy shop there which we managed to pick up rear disc pads from, again the dude behind the counter went out of his way to help, onya mate .

Ajo was to be our stop point prior leaving the US, it is 30 miles north of the border, so last calls home while we still had use of T Mobile, catch up on some Mexico research etc, we spotted ourselves the one and only motel we have had on our trip so far, play it safe, get washed, wifi’d and a place to fix my headlight which blew the bulb coming out of Fresno, luckily it is a std off the shelf part from Napa.





The motel had all the home comforts including a spa and pool so we made good use of these, truly a spoil night for sure.

Setting off for Mexico we hit the road waiving the US goodbye with mixed emotions, this will be talked about in the US sum up and The Hearts Speaks episode three.

Pipe Organ National Park was last on our list with huge cactuses everywhere, quite impressive to say the least and some quite felic in stance ... still small by Kiwi standards tho.

Next in line was the border, a few questions,

Guard, Where are you going?

Me, Mexico

Guard, Where have you come from?

Me, ...arh... USA! ... is that a trick question?

Guard, no

Me, OK (thinking hear we bloody go again 8-D)

Anyway, all friendly, they were keen to hear about our trip so a good chat was had, our B2 cards taken out of our passports and handed over so uncle sam knows we have gone and away we went to the Mexican side.

We hit teh border with 18560 miles on the clock since leaving Anchorage in Alaska.

So we left the country and went 30 metres (back in metric land now) and parked up, walked over to immigracion and got our 180 day tourist VISA, very simple, very quick and very nice lady to deal with, the only thing that surprised us is the TVIP station is now 140 km south of the border which stuffed plan A, plan B was quickly put into place and we tootled of down road 2 the main drag where semis passed on double yellow lines on the brow of hills, at least we now know the road rules.... there aren’t any!!

We finally arrived at the station, there is no mistaking the place as there is no way through, we thought we had missed it but you simply cannot go through without going there.

The custom officers were very nice, vey helpful and very quick (Note this USA guards) and all the time squeezing in time for a chat about our trip which they were interested in.
Upon finishing with them and them making us $448.00 US each lighter for out TVIP (Temporary Vehicle Import Permit, $400 returnable when we clock out of Mexico), we left back towards Carborca were we got totally lost so decided to quit for the day and stay here the night as it was already 4.30pm.

Trip report time was due, Ellen was spent so I took the quiet time advantage to write this up.

8.14pm now and my eyelids are pushing my knees to the floor, Ellen is already dead to the world dreaming of Mexican hunks and twisty roads.

Good night all.

Great work guys ... glad the crossing and Permiso & TVIP all went as predicted. If you review my earlier post, I mentioned the Aduana was quite distant from the border and immigration office.

I hope you didn't end up at the Hotel Casa Blanca in Caborca ... it's a real Whore House joint. Terrible. Not much good there.

Within 50kms you'll be in the Sonora Desert. I'd recommend turning EAST at Mex 16, at Hermosillo. A great twisty road that leads straight to Copper Canyon. Exit at South end on town off Eastern side highway. (see map) near Griega.

If you leave Hermosillo in early AM and really haul ass, you can make Copper Canyon in one days ride. It's a technical paved road through mountains. Lots of fun. If going at a slower pace stop for the night at either Yecora (kind of a dump) or push on to Basaseachci waterfall. Couple nice small Motels there ... about two hours from Creel. The waterfall is a nice view ... and 'Lover's Leap' place. Good hiking if you're interested.



Mex 16 on the way to Yecora ... miles and miles and miles of this. Watch out for Horses and Burros ... and rock fall on the road.


Dirt road from Creel down to Batopilas. About 50 miles, easy on the DR650. Very scenic and Bato is a nice place to hang for a day or two.

What's your plan for Mexico? How much time do you plan to spend? This is the very BEST time of year to be there. Cool in the mountains but perfect at the beaches. Have fun!