Olegeezer riding for Peru from Colombia
 

Hello all you China Riders. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to y'all.
I live in West Virginia, US of A and last year I flew to Medellin and purchased a new 2016 AKT250TT. I rode the bike south as far as Guayaquil and then returned the bike to Medellin for storage until I could return in 2017. I am starting a ride report here and hopefully if I have any trouble with bike or need maintenance advice this forum will provide that support.
The plan is to fly back to Medellin and head south toward Peru. I plan to start sometime in January and I am not sure how long this will take. I will post a pic of the bike later but for now this is just starters for my 2017 ride south.

The bike in Ecuador.

Thanks for the pic Ill keep tuned in. :tup:

Ole g...do you plan to catch the race

http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2017/us/route.html would say a must see since your their.

You should speak with Joe Berk, aka CSC Guy. He has visited the AKT company and ridden the same bike you have, from what I remember him reporting a few months ago or a year back. He has 'connections' down there with that company and their Zongshens, being the CSC guy for the US here.

I don't think so unless its very convenient. I'll have to see how far south I actually get and how the timing works out?


You should speak with Joe Berk, aka CSC Guy. He has visited the AKT company and ridden the same bike you have, from what I remember hodim reporting a few months ago or a year back. He has 'connections' down there with that company and their Zongshens, being the CSC guy for the US here.

Yes Culcune, I believe I read that report. He would be a good contact if he has time to deal with an Olgeezer!

Here's the adv demographic

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...to-motorcycle/

We will have to change the name to Oldgeezers.com

A group of kids that practiced their English on me last year. We were all getting ready to leave a hotel in Pereira, Colombia.

Attachment 8148

That's awesome, OleGeezer! Hope you have a great time, and don't have any trouble keeping the rubber side down! Safe travels!

Did you meet up with them again, or is this a photo from last year? If it is a new photo, how is their English now?

Best of luck on your Journey!

Never saw them again. They were just fun to be around, kids and parents and just fumbling with the language barrier. The photo was from last year, March 2016 I think.

I need navigation advice from the tech savvy members!
 

I will be navigating by using an iphone7. I have ordered a T-Mobile sim card for this unlocked phone. T-Mobile has cell coverage through Telifonica in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, Supposedly? Last year I just bought sim cards in Colombia and Ecuador and they worked but it was a real pain going into the providers office and getting service set up after I got there. Now, assuming I have some cell coverage I would like to enhance my maps with Google offline maps for use in navigating since I will most likely be in areas with little or no cellular data.
Anyone have advice or have used google maps offline for this purpose?
I have a week before I fly to Medellin.
Thanks
Joe (Olegeezer)

Critters in Ecuador
 

These guys were loitering along the side of the road at a higher altitude. I thought they were llamas but I believe they are not. Not sure of the name here but I enjoyed watching them watch me. This was taken in 2016 while on tour south of the border.

Those are alpaca if I'm not mistaken.

That Google maps app is great. Even the Nav part is now good, better I think than my Garmin dedicated gps device. I download the maps off the app for offline use...the trouble is the offline map data expires in 30 days, then you have to re-download again and again. If there is a way to purchase the data to always have it available for the maps app..I would be interested in buying it.:shrug:

Thanks Ben. After a little google research I believe they are "vicuña" .
What ever they're called it was a first for me. Found in the Andean highlands.
I remember getting quite cold on the mountain tops the day I saw them and I am taking a heated jacket for my return. I hope the AKT two fiddy has enough charging capacity to keep up?
I do confess to being a little spoiled back home for heated gear and grips.

You should have sheared one of those suckers and insulated your gear. :lmao:

I live in the foothills of the SC/NC mountains near the state line. I'm spoiled by the weather. If it's cold in the mountains, I head a little south to warmer weather. :tup:All tho, I prefer riding in the cold mountains over riding the flatter warmer south lands. :)

What a great place you have to ride! My daughters family lives in Mt Pleasant and I rode from her place to Gaffney to Asheville last fall. The fall foliage was on and it was great!

Thanks. I enjoy it every chance I get. I really like the GA/TN/NC tristate area. Lots of good gravel roads and forest service areas to ride. The Tail of the Dragon is there, but it's getting to dangerous to ride, because of other riders and drivers being wreckless. :tdown:

-Ben, look me up the next time you want to get on the gravel/dirt in North Georgia. I live about 40 miles west of Atlanta, and I'm just about due for an overnight (or two) camping trip up that way. I'd like to get the chance to meet up and see someone else's stomping grounds.

-Geezer, please keep the updates coming when you fly back. Mrs. Emerikol and I are thinking about making a trip south of the border once she gets some riding experience under her belt. Nothing like the journey you're doing, just a couple days in Mexico to soak up the sights, sounds, and TACOS! :D I hear the border crossings from the states to Mexico are a little sketchy, but the common advice is to pass through with a full tank of gas, and ride as long as you can before you stop again. Any sage advice or personal experience on that?

Will do. It will be April or later before I get out that way. I could go for an overnighter at TWoS.

That sounds great!

I've been to Mexico twice on a bike (Kawi Versys 650) I really liked it. I agree on the border advice above and thats exactly what I did. I never felt unsafe in Mexico but I won't linger in the bigger towns or border towns. Copper Canyon was great but I nearly destroyed (cosmetically) my Versys trying to make a dual sport out of it there. Go for it I say!!

I may get the stink eye from you but I think you and the Mrs should go for a domestic tour for her first big ride before leaving the usa on a first long ride. Jmo.

Sooooo, Interesting development about the Missus doing any riding...

She's been a bit under the weather for the past little bit, and finally she went to see the Dr this morning. Come to find out, she's pregnant! Now this is the sort of thing that happens everyday, but for the past seven or so years, we were under the impression that we couldn't have kids. So needless to say we're both very happy about this development. On the other hand, Mrs. Emerikol is super pissed off right now that we don't even have the title or tags for her new bike that she bought all by herself, and now she can't ride it. No coffee, seafood, or alcohol is also a thing that she's not happy about. We'll just have to push back our trips and adventures a few years now. I'm going to post a new thread letting everyone know the good news.

Congrats!!!

Thanks!

On the Colombian tour finally
 

I arrived in Medellin 16Jan, spent 3nights there while doing some maintenance to the bike. I had a center stand put on, fixed the brake light and had a guy put higher watt head light bulb in. I rode east then south to Honda the first day. Today I continued south to Neiva. I should be in Ecuador in a couple of days. The 250 is doing well. Gettin 52mpg. Gas prices are $2.70/gal. I'm still under warranty but not for long.
Trying to post a few pics. The Hacienda Nogales is Pablo Escobar's place that has been turned into a theme park.
The high bridge goes directly into a tunnel and is North of Neiva on Rita 45.
I like the riding, the scenery and the people. The roads are in good to excellent condition. At the lower elevations it's very hot.

Mudslide or maybe a rock slide?
 

I made it to Puerto Asis, 100 km from the EC border. I was delayed 3 times fora total of 8 hrs due to md slides blocking the road. I have the 250TT in for a maintenance check under warranty. It is idling high when warm . This should've my last opportunity for warranty work as AKT Motos have o shops inthe countries south of Colombia.
The pic is an old slide where the had to construct a bypass.

AKT shop service
 

The local shop serviced the bike. I told them the idle was too high. They took the tank and carb off and found dirt in the system. They installed a new fuel filter, changed the oil, replaced the rear brake pads. They were toast after only 7700 km? They worked on it at least 3 hours at no labor charge due to the warranty was good.
The technician took me to the bank on his bike because they wanted cash. Two up ride to the bank and free labor priceless.

Gringos never have to park on the street!

New a new set of front shoes
 

Can anyone tell me the part number for the front pad set?
The last AKT shop did not have them in stock.
I need to have them shipped to Ecuador.

Ride from Nueva Loja to Puyo Ecuador
 

I left Nueva Loja in a sprinkling rain that steadily got worse. I got soaked and a tad chilled. Around noon I pulled into a nice thatched roof restaurant for a break and a cup of coffee. Soon a young couple on a bike that turned out to be just like mine pulled in. Theirs had fuel injection and he had farkled it up pretty good.
I was amazed at how they had it loaded up, carrying gear for two people ( returning from their honeymoon). They had a small carrier with two Pincher pups stowed between them. They invited me to their table and it was good to join them. They asked if I wanted to follow them to Puyo and stay with an Ecuadorian family that belonged to a network of motorcyclists. The young wife was pretty good with English and I said sure, I'll go. We ended up sleeping in the same room as the house was full with 7 people needing a bed. We rode into town and bought some fresh tilapia and the young man made cerviche. We also had a boiled vegetable called "camote" which I really liked.

Puyo to Santiago de Mendez
 

We loaded up the bikes a bid farewell to the generous Ecuadorian family who took care of us the night before ( The Garcias )
The young couple (Edher and Lourder) were headed home to Piura ,Peru and were riding to Loja, Ecuador. I wanted to go to Cuenca so we said goodbye and I headed for the nearest hotel I could find as I was very tired. I made a 200km day and found a nice place to dry out from the previous days rain. This hotel was nice , even had a pool and hot showers! $20/ night.

Oleg...Looks like your getting along well!

Man, look at that jungle!

Rough ride from Santiago de Mendez to Cuenca
 

It's light rain again as I head for Cuenca. I had to find the turn off from Route 45 about 35 km from the hotel. I followed google maps which said 130km in 3 hours. It started out good until I came upon a mudslide and the mud was just deep enough to slow me down and I nearly dropped the bike when I let it stall.
It continued to rain, the road went up in elevation and it turned cold and windy. Road construction and gravel kept things slow. Alternating patches of gravel and asphalt seems to be mostly gravel. The water was running hard down the steep slopes. There was plenty of vegetation but it's no match for the force of the runoff. The 3 hour ride took 5+ hours.. It was one of the worst riding conditions I've ever dealt with. Things got better when I got to Gualceo. The rain stopped and I had dry hardtop the remainder of the day.

The Cuenca road from E45
 

Sorry about the sygoggle pitchers 😩 If I do this enough I hope to learn how to rotate em !
I stopped for gas ⛽️ and saw some young boys torturing a big Beatle. I wanted a pic of it and they began negotiating for payment. First one said $10. I protested as it was my camera and they came down to $1/kid. I offered them $1 to be split equally amongst the four of them. They accepted my offer and rushed off to spend the money.

Unless the pool was heated, I wouldn't have paid more than $15! Just kidding--great photos and stories!! Keep them coming. I would kill to visit that hotel whether the pool was heated or cold, LOL

Cuenca cathedral
 

Very impressive as was the central square in front where a military band was playing.

Awesome adventure!