Buenos Aires with Alejandro

After the sand dunes, I decided to try and get to Buenos Aires as soon as possible. When I was ready to leave in the morning, I noticed once again that the tire was down. It wasn’t losing air too fast though so I decided to try and fix it with a spray I had purchased. It actually worked well, although you have to be careful as the spray will inflate the tire to about 50 psi. The liquid inside will also become like glue pretty fast and will get your valve to stick. Either way, it seemed to work. I made it like that for about 60km and then started losing air really fast again.

I stopped on the side of the road by a bus station to hide a bit from the super heat. Lifted the bike on one of the side cases and did the same thing I had done for the past few weeks… fix it.

In the bus station, there was poo in the corners. Not the best sight at all… but still better than doing the work in the sun. What kind of a person takes a dump in a bus station when there’s a whole forest behind it?!

Later that day, I stopped in another beach town. I was actually looking for a tire as mine had cracked and that was causing the flats this time. I did get a great deal on the tire down south, but I have a feeling it might have been from a batch that didn’t pass inspection. The crack in the tire was pinching the tube. I couldn’t find a good tire but I did find a nice old man with a tire fixing shop.

The gentleman was 84 years old and had been working with tires for about 70 years. He couldn’t hear a word of what I was saying, even when screaming really loud but when it came to tires, he had hands of gold.

He patched the tire from the inside and I was able to get a couple more thousand km out of it.

Then I rode up the coast to Buenos Aires. As I was getting close to the capital, the beach towns were getting more and more crowded.

Finally in Buenos Aires. As I rode into the city, the bike started hiccuping. The valves were on their last breath. With the help of the GPS, I was able to find Alejandro’s place pretty easy. Not sure if you remember, but I had met Alejandro many months before in Costa Rica. He had invited me to stay at his place once I’d reach Buenos Aires.

A couple of days later, I was able to get the bike into a shop. It wasn’t the Kawasaki shop as they were over loaded but they had suggested a mechanic who knew kawis even better than them. I was also able to find all the parts. New valves, valve seals, had the head machined, changed the distribution chain, new gasket… all for about 1100$ parts and labour…. OUCH! Meanwhile, Alejandro showed me around the city.

Alejandro, thanks again for the great times in Buenos Aires and for the hospitality! I had a great time. A true brother!

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