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Panamericana en KTM890 adventure
Hello,
i traveled solo on my KTM 890 Adventure from France to Montevideo ( Uruguay ) sea shipping of the bike . Rode down to Ushuaia ( Argentina ). Headed north along chilean Patagonia up to Arica Chile. Drove to Bolivia thru Tembo Quemado border up to La Paz ( Bolivia ). Went to Cuzco ( Peru ) , visited Macchupicchu. Went to Lima ( Peru) had the first maintenance sequence at Documoto Repair Shop ( KTM autorized ). Continued north up to Ecuador ( touchy border crossing ) and Bogota (Colombia ). Crossed the Darien Gap by air transport to Panama City. Went along the Panamerica thru Central American countries, Costa Rica , Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala. Continued north thru Mexico up to USA Texas border Ciudad Acuna- Del Rio. Had the second maintenance sequence at KTM autorized workshop. ride the Texas State down to Browsville Texas. Rode up to New Mexico Albuquerque, had to check the bike due to starting problem at KTM Dealer. Headed to the 4 corners region , Navajo Land and west to Flagstaff Arizona. Had the third maintenance at GOAZ KTM dealer. Continued west to Death Valley and then north Est to Zion , Grand Canyon North Rim, Brice Canyon, Moab ( Utah). Continued along the Rockies to Grand Tetons, Yellowstone. Rode up to Browning ( Montana ) and to the canadian border stayed in Calgary ( Alberta). Went along the Alaska Highway , Jasper, whitehorse, Beaver creek, crossed the border to Alaska ( USA ). Rode the panamericana up to Fairbanks. Made my way back to Calgary along the Circle Road ( Stewart - Cassiar ) via Boya Lake, Meziadin Lake , Smithers, Prince George, Jasper. Stayed in Calgary and flew back to Paris (Wesjet Bik’Air Program). 40 000 km , 5,5 months road trip. accomodations: campgrounds and youth hostel dormitories heating: self cooking and local cantinas main troubles : front wheel sheeming , hard cold start. main driving difficulties : south america gravel roads, tracks , weather conditions I prepared this trip with on line ressources , Horizons Unlimited as one the main source. issued a travel carnet on «myAtlas Panamericana en KTM « plateform: https://www.myatlas.com/Kalliste/la-...icaine-en-moto |
Great trip!
Do you have any photos? Anything specific you learned to pas on to other would-be travellers? |
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e0K...eyfwTZbzWDn6qg
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Road trip global planning
The Panamericana en KTM Road Trip was the longuest , farest and most costly of my motorcycling «*career*». I am 67, motorbiking since age of 17.
I made many trips in Europe, north africa. I went from Paris to Dakar and back, solo with a Yamaha 1200 YTZ supertenere as a preparation to the Panamericana project. I decided to downgrade the motorcycle, weight and power, to 900 cc, and choose the KTM 890 Adventure against a criteria grid : cost, type of roads, fuel consumption, etc… The project had some mandatory limits to respect: travel duration 6 months max, total budget enveloppe ( including 20% margin for contingencies). All the preparation and planning, trade offs, lists of actions etc… handled on a single Excel file of 45 sheets. first step: global cost estimate and duration faiseability. main concern was costs of transportation Europe - Americas - Europe, transportation Colombia - Panama , motorcycle insurance, personnal travel insurance and assistance, accomodations type second step: decide to travel North to South or South to North. I selected South to North considering that with the time the bike and the pilot conditions will deteriorate, thus it is better to ride the «*easiest countries*» at the end of the trip. third step: define the starting and the end dates of the trip based on the climate data / country the best compromise i found was mi-january to mid july. with objectives not to face temperatures under -5 celsius, avoid rain season in equatorian en tropican latitudes, avoid snow in the rockies. next was the detailled trip planning and in parallel the choice of the motorcycle luggages and gear. |
Looking forward to your detailed report.
Thanks for sharing! :scooter: |
Road Trip detailled planning
i built the detailled planning based on some principles:
max 500 km per day no riding at night 1day break every 6 riding days 2 days before and 2 days after each motorcycle main transport ( sea and air ) 1 full day for each motorcycle maintenance sequence at workshops drive only on identified road and tracks ( mandatory for my insurance ) avoid areas classified «*red*» for security risks by the french foreign affairs website ( mandatory for my insurance ) estimated riding time = google maps estimate + 2 hours first step: I draw the itinerary along the Panamericana highway from Ushuaia to Fairbanks on a paper map Added loops dedicated to areas of interest ( ie Altiplano ) Added liaison sections , Montevideo to Ushuaia and Fairbanks to Calgary not part of the Panamericana but needed for the transatlantic transfers. second step: verify the consistency with the project constraint «*total duration*» including 10 days buffer for contingencies. I had to delete many foreseen stays / visit at interesting places. define the location of the 2 motorcycle maintenance sequences at 15000 km and 30000 km according to the KTM owner manual: Cuenca ( Ecuador ) and Laredo ( Texas). based on this first edition of the detailed planning i performed a risks analysis to list the events that may bring not to achieve the roadtrip: extreme weather conditions motorcycle break down or accident health problem / sikeness major security problem ( theve, kidnaping, assault) i defined risk mitigation actions and escape routes back to France from each country. |
Luggages and gear trade off
The luggages and gear are a significant additional weight on the motorcycle manoeuverability, fuel consumption.
Luggages: I had a long experience of hard top case and side boxes ( aluminium). I decided to stick to my hard top case in order to have a «*secured*» box during the trip. I looked for side soft bags and choose Givi GRT 709 with lockers. I sticked also to my soft tank bag ( Givi …) and up with a luggages total volume of 116 liters , 20 liters and 5 kg ( empty ) less than my previous set up ! With the volume set , i switch to the apparel and gear choices. Gear: Selecting the gear for this trip was quite challenging due the amplitude of successive climates to deal with, dry/ humid/ cold / hot / calm /windy, high UV , rain… By principle I wear motorcycle approved protective gear boots, gloves, trousers, vest, belt , helmet all the time whatever the climate is. My choice , after comparison and road tests was to bring 3 gear sets instead an integrated multilayer gear: summer set : vest, trousers, gloves, boots winter set : vest , trousers, gloves, boots Rain set: vest, trousers, over gloves, over boots Combined with mérinos wool underwear and socks , it provides with a wide range of flexible combinations to cope with the weather. Next I worked out the accomodations |
Working out the accomodations
In the Road trip Excel file, added an excel sheet for each place where i was to stay according to the detailed planning, about 160 sheets.
For each location i searched with google maps, campgrounds and hostels. I selected as nominal a campground and as back up an Hostel to manage weather conditions or other constraints. Preferred were the accommodations with secured parking for the KTM. I collected key data address, phone number, email, whatsapp, price per night , distance to motorcycle workshop ( where maintenance work was foreseen), place to park safely my KTM I cross checked with others sources , HU, Overlander, Booking , Hostelworld, RbnB… For key locations , arrival and departure of motorcycle transportation, break days, a special attention was made to safety and access to points of interest. I secured the key locations accommodations with direct contact email or WhatsApp on the motorcycle parking topic. This first round of accommodations selection ended up with a 60 % campground and 40% hostals ( incl some RBNB) ratio. From this it was mandatory to add camping equipment tent, sleeping bag etc… It appeared that the availability of the selected accommodations could be limited during local vacations periods. Thus i had to list for each country the holidays dates ( ie Holy Week in Central America) and summer vacations etc.. I decided to plan the accommodations reservations ahead enough, specifically for key locations and for USA State parks and National parks campgrounds, in a dedicated Excel sheet. In parallel i was preparing my 890 KTM adventure for the trip and figuring out maintenance, spare parts and tools need. This is next … |
Amazing trip!!!! Congratulations!!!!!! [emoji106][emoji33][emoji16]
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