Ah! The prep for the ride to Tierra del Fuego and back

I met Roger Dabbs in 1988 in Naples Italy where we were both assigned to the NATO staff. Roger had a map of South America posted on his wall and told me one day he was going to ride a motorcycle to South America. Short version is that Roger convinced me to buy a BMW GS in 2001 and start riding with him with the eventually goal of riding to Tierra del Fuego together. Since then we have ridden to Panama and back, to Copper Canyon Mexico and back and each has ridden to Alaska and back - not to mention countless rallies we have attended together.

Roger and I have been planning this trip for several years and have had to delay for one reason or another. First there was my crash in 2004 - broken leg; then Roger inherited the care of his mother while his sister lived in England; then there were other trips and family obligations. We have set a date to start - 8 October 2010.

Which bike do we go on? We both own big BMW R1150GS's and I also have a R1100GS. I also have a KLR650 which I bought with the thought of maybe it would be a better bike for the trip. Roger bought a Vstrom 650 with the same thought. Now the dilemma. Bigger BMW's which are really durable and easy to work on and one heck of a lot better riding, or the lighter bikes which we don't have as much experience with the mechanics. We decided on the lighter bikes.

Now I gotta clean up the KLR.


Since we have previously ridden to the Panama Canal and back, we know the hassles of crossing the borders in Central America and we really wanted to avoid that experience again. We investigated flying the bikes from Miami to Bogota Colombia (riding through Central America requires shipment from Panama to South America - the Darien Gap thing, look it up.) Turns out the shipment from Miami may be as much a hassle as crossing the borders and we have had one of the airlines we were dealing with to declare bankruptcy. Not to mention the added expense of flying from Miami. So we have decided to ride the approximate 20,000 miles.
Gary