nklr trip report - from istvan (in calgary right now)

[Istvan Sz]

Hello Everybody! I have disappeared for quite a long time, and I'm about to head out for the second - longer - part of my journey. I still owe you guys with a few things worth mentioning about my Yukon-BC trip: If you plan to go up North, there is one road that I highly recommend (assuming you ride a tough DS bike) :: Stewart-Cassiar highway. The ride is spectacular, but there are some construction zones (30-60km sections) that in the rainy weather scared the whatever out of me. There are some bears and some other wild life along the way (like squirels, that chase each other accross the road right in front of your bike! Hwy 6 and 8 BC are also among those I enjoyed tremendously. Lot's of twisties, but please don't get overexcited like I did, and I almost ended up on the grid of a camper. Try to learn from my mistake. The weather: Oh, God, I have never in my whole life got soaked so many times, I have never suffered cold for such an extended period. There was rain, fog, icy passes (but I escaped the snow on one of them 2 days ahead), heavy windgusts, ... you name it, including a ceased(sp?) engine of my girlfriends bike (2000 Yamaha XT350) Most of you already know what happened (since I was asking for your help), so I just outline it again and add the rest of the story: The Yamaha dealership from Smithers, BC, found out, that there must have been a too tight tolerance between the overhead cam shaft and the bearings. The bike had only 6200 km, when it died, and ran only about 3-400 km a day, but never more than one hour continuously and usually at =< 90 km/hr. But on the day and the day before the bike died, we did about 600 km/day at 110km/hr (yes, the XT350 can take it - or can it?) When the bike died there was some burned oil (I mean, tar) in the engine, but we didn't notice any smoke comming out of the exhaust. I even checked it when I noticed no oil in he sight, and there was no black deposit inside the pipe. The engine must have been terribly hot, but she didn't notice that riding fast in 0-5 C weather and rain, when you feel damp and cold no matter that you wear ALL your clothes + hot water bottle and pocket hand warmer. Well, there were some signes, now as I recall: first, the side pannel burned through, I fixed it with a 1" thick stick that was placet between the saddle bag and the exhaust pipe. The day before we found this stick burned and there was a 6" whole in the saddle bag inner wall. Of course, we burned the rice and the pasta in the bag, and we fried the eggs and a tuke. We found it quite funny. We left the XT350 in Smithers to be fixed there, and planning to come back for the bike in about 2-3 weeks. June took a Greyhound bus (23 hours ride) to Calgary, and I rode home my dear KLR650 - the long way towards Lussier Hot Springs, since I was dreaming about a hot bath for almost two weeks at that point. For those of you, who live in Southern BC or Alberta, there is a road that takes you from Hwy 93 (close to Cannal Flats) through White Swan Prov. Park (and Lussier Hot Springs - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) to Bull River Road, accross a pass to an other road that goes to Kananaskis Country Prov. Park. Well, I was there, at the beginning of the pass, but the trail was about 35-40 deg steep, very rocky. I checked out at the top: no problem. But I have a heavily loaded bike, almost bald front tires, I'm alone and tired (4PM). ... so I took the road along Bull River. Beautiful valley!!! Go and visit it, if you have a good and tough bike. The road conditions are terrible, the gravel sections are really bad, my MSR bash plate was working overtime. If there are cavers among you, guys, this is all karst area, lots of holes in the rock faces, I say worth some effort to look for new, undiscovered caves. Same in ... shoooot, I forgot the name of that big prov. park in northern BC along the Alaska Hwy, just before crossing into Yukon (maybe for the second time?) It was dark when I got to Fernie, BC, but I decided to make a dash to Calgary, since there are two gentle arms waiting for me, and there is food and hot shower and comfortable carpet on the floor to sleep on (yaaa, I sold all my furnature before I left for this trip, and the house was listed for sale as well but not sold yet.) Crowsnest Pass wasn't as cold as I expected, but just before Longview the rain started. When I arrived to Calgary, I discovered that the droplets are kinda frosen, it was more like heavy snow flakes. I arrived at 3:30am. The camshaft has to be ordered from Japan, I couldn't find one anywhere in Canada or USA. Does this mean that this problem with the XT350 is quite frequent? or is it totally unlikely that this would happen, and that's why nobody stores it? I don't know. Meantime, in about 3 weeks I managed to sell my house (yes, I sold it, not my realtor who did nothing!!!) and I managed to bargain $1000 off the realtor fee. I'll get my money in about 3 weeks from now, but I'll take off now because I can't wait anymore to start riding again. If you have any news from any country in Central and South America, please, drop me an e-mail on my traveller e-mail address: tra_pista@... Thank you. That's all for now. More trip reports will be posted every time I can get to computer. A request: June is in Singapore now working very hard. I miss her very much, so I thought I surprize her by dropping in from San Fransisco or Los Angeles. I was wandering if there is anybody among you guys who can find me a REALLY cheep flight there and back. I'm very low on budget, so the cheepest flight would be the best. Even to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia would be okay, if that's cheaper. Your help is much appreciated. Oh, one more thing: Could I leave my bike with somebody from either SF or LA, while I'm away in Singapore? It would be only 10-14 days. Please, e-mail me personally. Thank you for the help! I wish you all safe riding, and all the best! Cheers, istvan+Eh13(Calgary) _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com