Buenos Aires means maintenance so I head to Dakar Motos in Florida Oeste where I will spend a few weeks working on the bike and easing back into civilization after the long ride through Patagonia. Negrita is the shop cat and she likes the mornings.
I go about sorting my bike and travel plans and meet a lot of other riders doing the same. The days are marked by trips to the Chino market (your Espanol better be good if you want to buy produce there) and hanging out at the shop. I enjoy my time with a great cast of folks from all over the world and I thank Javier and Sandra for their hospitality.
25K miles of punishing Latin American riding and I am very pleased with the bike’s performance. No roadside events related to bike failure and the SE performed true to form no matter where the route took us. The last 10K miles through northern Peru, Salar de Uyuni and the Altiplano, the Austral, Patagonia, and days on end of rain and mud were especially demanding for the bike.
With that in mind it is time to add back to the well. I renew all filters and fluids for the engine, brakes, clutch, and cooling system then perform a long list of checks that include valve clearances. The intakes all tightened so we loosen .05 to get just under the max. All exhaust gaps are on the min and we leave them thinking (hoping) the exhaust will loosen in the future, the unavailability of proper shims helps with this decision. A couple wear items (fuel pump and clutch slave O ring) fail while I am at Dakar Motos and I don’t mind the timing. We pop in the spare fuel pump that I carried for the last 25K miles and I add a fuel pump to the parts I plan to ship just in case.
The SE is reborn with all new fluids, filters, parts, tweaks, and some new bling from Dakar Motos Design and Fabrication. From Dakar Motos I move into the city to be closer to the school where I will take classes for Espanol. I will spend the next couple months living in Recoleta and hanging out in Palermo as I get recharged for the next leg of the trip taking me to Brasil. But not before taking the SE out for some coffee.
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