Flats, a chain, and a broken subframe - My MexTrek Adventure

[kennyanc]

Our plan was hatched a while back. Chris Woodward would leave his house on Oct, 10th and pick me up in NC. We would drive to DFW and pickup Redone and then head to the border, crossing on about 12th of October. The Chabochis Rally in Creel on Oct 17-18 and then ride to Galeana for MexTrek the following weekend. But it was just a plan. It got changed when my daughter’s graduation from nursing school was scheduled for Oct 17th. It meant I couldn’t leave NC until the 18th so I couldn’t make the Chabochis rally for the first time in 4 yrs. Some things are more important though so I have no regrets. Creel will still be there next year.

Long story short, Chris picked up Ross and met RedRyder at the border and they made a quick trip down to Creel/Copper Canyon and were headed back home by the time I crossed the border. Looks like I would be riding to the border by my lonesome.

Saturday, Oct 18th and I was ready to hit the road. I had spent the last 3 weeks prepping the bike and had everything back together and ready to roll.

Short list:
Checked valve adjustment
Changed oil & filter
Cleaned and lubed air filter
New tubes and half worn Scorpion A/T mounted on rear
Mefo Explorer strapped to the bike to change at the border.
Inspect brake pads and replace rear
Dielectric grease on all electrical connections
Mounted new tool tubes
Lubed cables
Replace fork seals again. (Don’t use LeakProof seals, they are guarenteed to leak)
Chain and sprockets only had about 7k and looked good. (cleaned, lubed, and reinstalled.)

Loaded up and ready to ride.

Headed down the mountain into SC and hit Hwy 11

Then on to the slab and miles and miles of this.

And this.

Had a little road lunch at a gas stop.

I had crossed into central time zone so I had an extra hour of daylight. It was still tough riding into the setting sun for the last hour or so.

Stopped in Lafayette, LA for the night. Chain hotels suck but I was ready to call it quits for the day.

About 800 miles in 12 hours. It really, REALLY sucked but my vacation doesn’t start for me until I hit the border. I had lubed the chain a couple of times at gas stops and checked the oil each time also. I had to add about ½ pint. KLR’s are known to use a little oil on high speed highway runs.

Tomorrow it's on to the border.






Kenny

 

[kennyanc]

Sunday, Day 2, 10/19/08

Up and ready to ride at about 7am. Oil looked good, tire pressure good, let’s roll.

Stopped at JR’s for a BBQ sandwich in the afternoon. It was ok but it seems as though all the bbq joints in TX like to put onions, peppers, and pickles on the sandwich. What’s up with that? Meat & sauce is all I need.

I got some pretty good Jalepeno and cheddar beef sticks though.

When I stopped for lunch I had been noticing a slight hesitation/surging in the bike. I thought I had gotten some bad gas and made a note to get some fuel treatment to add to the tank when I got to Pharr. I also noticed the chain was a little loose so I adjusted it.

When I slowed for the next town the surging was pronounced now. I stopped the bike to check things out. Checked the oil again and had to add a little less than a pint. The chain also needed adjusting again. What is going on with that?

At this point all sorts of thing were going thru my mind. Had the pint low on oil caused some clutch damage? Was the gas really that bad? Was the chain wear causing the surging? What was going on????

I limped on into Pharr and found Dales (Pharrside’s) house. Dale had graciously offered to put me up for the night and we had planned to cross the border together in the morning. As I said, it was a plan.

After unloading my stuff we headed out for a bite to eat and I picked up some Seafoam for the tank. I also got 3 qts. of oil and planned to change it again. Only had 1400 miles on it but better safe than sorry. I was concerned about the clutch and wanted to drain the oil and inspect it anyway. I didn’t really think that was the problem but was willing to try anything. Added the Seafoam and rode the bike for a few miles and no help. Changed the oil and it looked good. Looks like we wouldn’t be crossing in the morning after all. At least I wouldn’t be….

I knew I was going to need a new chain and sprockets. Apparently I had boogered up the o-ring or master link or something when I had reinstalled them and the master link had ruined the rear sprocket. In turn the sprocket had done a number on the rest of the chain.






Kenny

 

[kennyanc]

Day 3, Monday, 10/20/08
After a great breakfast the next morning…

…Dale took me to a little local bike shop in McAllen If you are ever passing thru McAllen and need a tire, tube, chain, sprockets or anything else give Robert a call at RGV Cycle Stuff. His handle on Advrider is GT-STMC. Check out his site at WWW.RGVCycleStuff.com. He stocks a lot of tires and if you know what you will need ahead of time, he can get it if he doesn’t have it in stock.

Robert is the man.

Robert got on the phone and had my parts shipped overnight to his shop in McAllen. Great price too I might add but as could be expected, the shipping was almost as much as the parts.

We had some time to kill as Pharrside had decided to wait until the next day (Tuesday) to see if the parts actually came in. If not, he would cross on Wednesday morning with the other group from TwoWheeledTexans. After reviewing the replies to a post I made on KLRWorld.com, I was pretty sure that the chain and sprockets would take care of my problem so I headed over to the border to get my tourist visa and vehicle permit. Later, we had another great dinner, and I know, I SUCK but I didn’t get any pics. Back at Dale’s house, I got the KLR on the jack and pulled the chain and sprockets. That’s when I noticed how bad the master link was. It was nearly frozen up and was binding badly on the rear sprocket. All the o-rings were in place but it was shot. I put another master link on it, put it all back together, and took it for a spin. It didn’t get rid of all the surging but what a difference. At this point I was confident the new chain and sprockets would be the fix.

Kenny

 

[kennyanc]

Day 4, Tuesday, 10/21/08

Just as Robert had predicted, the parts showed up at his shop the next morning and Dale ran me over to get them.

Got the chain and sprockets mounted and took it for a little spin. EXCELLENT!!!! No more surging and it ran great. I was good to go baby!! I would never have thought that a bad master link and chain could cause a bike to run like that. Live and learn.

Tomorrow we are riding in Mexico!!








Kenny

 

[Mike in Clear Lake]

 

[The Bruce]

More!

 

[Trail Boss]

Excellent.

 

[bigdon55]

N

 

[Drumboy]

What is this rally in Creel you speak of? I went through there on my KLR last February and I've been looking for a reason to go back.

800 miles in one day on a KLR is impressive! I've done around 500 (first 40 off road and all with a hangover) going from Batopilas to Durango and it was the longest day of my life.

 

[tricepilot]

Keep brewing that coffee and typing this up, amigo!

Bob

PS with all that happened to the KLR on this trip , you've done your part to keep the economy going

 

[kennyanc]

Day 5, Wednesday, 10/22/08

Before I continue, I just want to throw out some kudos for Dale (Pharrside). I held him up for 2 days after our original planned departure waiting on parts for my bike. He put me up and shuttled me all over town looking for parts, took me out to pick them up, and on top of it all, kept me fed, etc. I sure appreciate it. Thanks Dale.

The next morning we loaded up and met the other riders at the Motel 6 in McAllen. What I thought would be maybe 6-8 other rider there turned into about 20. We ended up splitting into 3 groups for the ride to Galeana.

Mark and Rick M waiting on the breakfast bell.

Big A was getting his gear ready.

Milton is quite the photographer and a great guy to boot.

After a good breakfast at Shoney’s we gassed up and headed for the border.

Everyone in our group got pulled over for inspection by the Federales. After they were satisfied that we were clean we blasted thru Reynosa and hit the open road. WooHoo!!

Cotton

Pharrside

A quick break at El Rabaje and we were back on the road.

 

[kennyanc]

Day 5, continued

Milton took us to a little place he knew about in Montemorelos for lunch.

Finally, some good Mexican food. I had the Tacos de Carne Asada

From this

…to this…

…to this…

After lunch, we headed north on Hwy 85 and then turned on Hwy 2 toward Rayones.

Jeez, those are some big mountains.

What a fun road.

We pulled off for a break and saw this guy working in the river below. Apparently all the recent rains had caused the river to cut into the bank below the road where we were standing. He was attempting to divert the river back away from the road. He had a long ways to go.

The entrance to the town of Rayones. Man what a beautiful place.

We left Rayones and headed for Galeana. It’s only about 20 miles but the road has been damaged somewhat from all the recent rains so going was reasonably slow. Rougher and rockier than the previous year according to Richard.

Cotton coming up a loose, rocky section.

We rolled into Galeana and got checked into our rooms. Mine was in the Magdalena.

Galeana is beautiful little town and you can tell they are proud of it. They swept the entire town center at least twice every day.

Tomorrow we ride the Dual-sport Dragon, at least part of it…




Kenny

 

[BIG A]

Kenny really great pictures, and story, can't wait for the rest.
Mark finally made it back out of Mexico yesterday, came by and spent the night and shared some great stories before blasting off toward Denver this morning.Hope he gets home before it starts snowing

 

[kennyanc]

Day 6, Thursday, 10/23/08

The next morning after an excellent buffet breakfast, we split up into small groups and headed out for the days ride.

Back into Rayones.

We gassed up at the local Pemex and headed towards Casillas.

After a little map consultation we were off again.

It really is amazing that the locals can eak out a living here. This corn field is nothing but rocks.

We eased on thru Casillas and headed northwest toward Jame. Pictures don’t do it justice but I have no words.

Somewhere along this stretch of road I ran up on a washed out ditch running across the road. It was in the shadows and I didn’t see it until the last moment. I stood up and gassed it to lighten the front but the back slammed into the 16” deep ditch. The back of the bike flew up and slapped me in the butt. It was a pretty hard hit. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I believe this is where I broke a rear spoke. It would come back to bite me several times later on in the trip.

This little place was for sale, hmmm. Anybody wanna go in a little place in the mountains of Nuevo Leon, MX?

We reached Jame and Roberto asked around for a place to eat. Seems the closest place was in San Antonio so we took the pavement over there. I love these little arches at the town entrances.

Kenny

 

[Rman of 237]

And...........??

 

[kennyanc]

And...........??

I been kinda busy but I will get some more up tonight.




Kenny

 

[kennyanc]

Day 6, Thursday, 10/23/08 - Continued

After lunch we decided to slab it on down a little closer to Galeana before jumping back on the dirt. It was fast approaching 3pm so we needed to make some time if we didn’t want to be riding after dark. It doesn’t seem to bother some folks but I don’t care much for riding after dark in Mexico. Too many animals and vehicles with poor or no lighting on the roads for me. We jumped on the autopista and headed south. At the toll booth I pulled over to a car to buy some apples and the guy pointed at my back tire. I had just been running 70mph down the highway with a flat tire and didn’t even know it. I am really glad I had a hankerin’ for some apples.

We got the bike up on a cement block and the curb and had at it.

Let me tell you this was a great bunch of guys to be riding with. Rick jumped right in there and helped me get the tire off and broke down. I started to get my spare tube out and realized I had taken off in such a hurry that morning that I had left it in the room in Galeana. Rick to the rescue again. He loaned me his spare. We got the tire apart and found this.

Evidently, the spoke had broken at the hub and had made its way into the tire and shredded the tube in addition to the spoke band. Rick to the rescue again with duct tape to cover the spokes. This guy is prepared.

I hated to be holding everybody up so I was rushing to get the tire mounted back up. We put the compressor on it and it wouldn’t hold air. ****… Broke it back down and found I had pinched the tube. Double ****… Got it patched up and it held this time. Back on the road but we lost close to an hour.

This was my first glimpse of 12200’ Cerro El Potosi. You can see the road leading over to it coming in from the left.

We pulled over here to discuss our options. I really wanted to ride the dirt but I wasn’t too keen on riding 30-some odd miles of dirt in the mountains with no spare tube. And since I had Rick’s spare mounted on my bike, he didn’t think much of it either.

Roberto, Scott, and Mark decided to take the dirt and Rick, Arnold, and I opted for the pavement back to Galeana. I am sure they got the better end of the deal.

This stretch was about 10 miles without a turn.

Back into town.

They let us park our bikes in the town square which is normally for foot-traffic only.

We had dinner at La Casona. Jerry, Pharrside, and Mark discussing the days ride.

Rick M really liked his pie.

Tomorrow we planned to do circuitous route north that would eventually take us to the top of 12,200’ Cerro El Potosi. Woohoo!!!!




Kenny

 

[kennyanc]

Day 7, Friday, 10/24/08

The next morning our group gassed up and headed north again. Our ultimate goal for the day was to climb Cerro El Potosi. At the time it seemed like we would have a relatively short day and be back in town in time for some BS’ing and beer drinking in el centro.

We rolled thru Rayones and hit the dirt. Luckily nobody hit this guy.

They have these little roadside memorials all over Mexico but this was the first one I had ever seen place back in a rock wall like this. It even had a window in front to keep out the weather.

We regrouped in Mimbres and then headed on.

We just thought the roads were rough out here until we saw this Coke truck in this little town. He had to pull forward and back up 3-4 times to get pointed down in that little trail.

These roads do take their toll on bikes though. I guess we ride a little faster than the trucks go. At this stop we found a bolt missing from Scott’s chain guard. We found one to fit it in my bolt stash. Rick says hey.
http://kennyanc.smugmug.com/photos/409892521_XPVvh-L.jpg

What have you been doing in those riding pants Rick???

Jarret found his pipe about to fall off. I had a bolt to fit it also and we were soon back on the road.

A few shots from the road.

Git along little doggies.

On towards San Rafael

We were soon out of the mountains and headed down to San Rafael for some grub. Somewhere along thru here Jarrett blew a turn and cleaned out the ditch for a ways before he could get turned back to the road. At least I thought he did….I didn’t get a pic though so it must not have happened.

We had lunch a great little roadside stand.

Rick is a little picky though.

The owner and his lovely daughter.

A little candy for the kids always makes them smile.

later......





Kenny

 

[kennyanc]

Day 7, Friday, 10/24/08 - Continued

We jumped on the pavement and headed south for El Potosi. After finding our way through the town of El Potosi we hit some great mountain roads. It was a blast.

Mark picking a line.

The road we just came up.

What a view.

We topped the ridge and the road opened up into this beautiful little valley.

Another Caballero.

This road was a lot of fun.

It’s getting a little rocky.

Some of the steepest sections were single lane concrete.

Back to Ejido La Laguna.

We took a little break in Dieciocho. We had heard that the road up to the top of Cerro El Potosi was rough but I don’t think any of us were prepared for what we were about to ride. Siberia has the Road of Bones, but Mexico has the Road of Stones. 20 miles up and 20 miles back down of some of the roughest road I have ever been on. Colorado has some rough passes, Scofield comes to mind, but it isn’t 40 miles non-stop. There was just no end to it. It wasn't that technical and there were no large rocks or steep sections. It just went on and on and on.....

A few samples of what we faced.

The views were getting good though.

The back side of the Dual-Sport Dragon.

As we were about to clear the tree line, we began to hit sections where the rocks weren’t so bad. They were much smaller, in fact it was about 4-6 inches deep of loose chat. Worse than riding on sand....and I HATE sand.

I had heard the day before of a guy riding up the mountain and busted the side wall of his tire. He had to have his bike trucked to Monterrey to get a new tire. That was the last thing I needed so I tried to keep my speed down. I just couldn’t find a comfortable speed though. I tried everything up to about 25 mph and just couldn’t get it to smooth our. It was a constant pounding.

I lost track of who was in front of me and who was behind. Arnold was directly in front of me and when he began to blast up the mountain, I thought he was chasing Rick & Mark. Rick was riding the Transalp and if he could go that fast on it, surely I could on the KLR. We rode the last 10 miles up a pretty good pace, a bone-jarring, teeth-rattling pace and when we arrived at the top we were the only ones there. I guess there was nobody in front of us after all. Arnold just wanted to get to the top.

The radar station a.k.a God’s Golfball.

It’s a long ways back down to where we started.

Our Gang. Rick, Roberto, Mark, me, Jarrett, Arnold, and Scott. We made it. WooHoo!!!

Scott takes it all in….and lets a little out.

later....




Kenny

 

[ta2240]

Great Report!

 

[kennyanc]

Great Report!

Thanks ta. I was beginning to wonder if anybody was actually reading this thing. Thought maybe I was wasting my time.




Kenny

 

[n578md]

Thanks ta. I was beginning to wonder if anybody was actually reading this thing. Thought maybe I was wasting my time.




Kenny

Are you kidding? Yeah we're reading this! Great job!

 

[stingray]

Kenny, keep it coming bud! I'm reliving the stories as you tell them, great writing!!!

 

[kennyanc]

Day 7, Friday, 10/24/08 - Continued

I hadn’t taken too many pics on the way up so I told the guys I was going to take off so I could get some pics on the way back down.

Most of the guys passed me pretty quick as I was poking along and taking a few more pics. About the time Arnold passed me, I began to hear something dragging. I slowed and the noise stopped. I started again and the noise started up again. What the **** is that noise. I pulled over about the time Scott yelled at me. The rear struts, topcase and fender had all dropped in the back. The fender was dragging on the tire.

The first thing to come to mind was that I had broken my top shock mount. I had heard of that happening. We soon realized that the rear part of the subframe had broken and allowed the fender to sag into the tire. Scott jumped right in to help me and we soon had the topcase emptied and removed. Scott went to work strapping the case onto his bike while I tied up the rear section of the subframe with straps and bungies so I could ride. It looked like we were having a yard sale.

We got everything sorted and began the long 10 mile trek to the bottom. Now I could only go about 10 mph in order to keep the broken subframe from sagging and getting the fender down on the tire. Scott stayed right behind me to yell if something broke. It was a long ride but somewhere along the way we caught up with a logging truck headed down. I couldn’t believe that I had caught up to him as slow as I was going. He moved over and let us pass. We hit the pavement again in Dieciocho.

I was able to get up a little more speed when we reached the pavement but still had be on alert for topes. I was afraid to hit them too fast and break the bungees and straps holding the rear of the bike up. We made it back into town right about dark.

I had planned to leave the next morning but now I would be staying at least one more night. I asked around, and with the help of Roberto, located a welder about 2 blocks off the plaza. I decided to leave the bike until the next day and have a beer or 3. We walked over to La Casona and had another great meal and told a few tales.
Mark, Arnold, Scott, Rick, and Jarrett.

I had queso fundido...

and this which I don't remember the name of but it was most excellent.

I was beat and soon called it a night. I didn't realize it at the time but I left my camera hanging on the chair. A couple of pranksters recovered it and decided to have a little fun.

They got into this.

And then took a few pics.

I'm not exactly sure what they were trying to do. Anja.

Chuck looked like he had had one too many.

Jarrett even got in on it. Hey, your guess is as good as mine.

I found the pics when they returned my camera the next morning at breakfast.



later....





Kenny

 

[Rman of 237]

Yeah, were reading!! Keep 'em coming!