I had a bad crash in Carretera austral. Frontal shock beemer vs a KTM 990 adventure coming out of a bend on the wrong side of the road and totally out of control! I didn´t stand a chance!

I ´m more or less ok but my beemer is not!
I am now in Coyhaique and need the following:
- finding a good workshop in Coyhaique or nearest to rebuild my wheel
- new rim for my BMW F650GS front wheel and spokes
- new fork bridge
- how can I check if my forks are bent? Is there an easy way?

If someone can advise on any of these and can provide contact names etc would really appreciate.

Many thanks,

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

Hi Maria,

Sorry to hear about your mishap, but I'm glad that you are ok.

To check the fork legs you remove them, then clamp the lower (aluminium) part in a vice. Position something close to the end of the chromed tube and turn the tube. If it is bent it will be obvious to see.

However, if you can't see any damage without this procedure, then straightening out a bent tube is normally possible with a hydraulic press. Don't let anybody attempt this who has never done it before, as it is easy to damage the tube's surface.

Good luck!

Peter.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Hi Maria I'm a huge fan of your sites, I'm sorry about your accident.

But in all probability if you can't actually see if they are bent then I bet they have just moved a little in the triple clamp, undo everything the entire length of the fork to make the forks a little loose wriggle them about twist the shiny parts and then re-tighten.


Easy way to see if your forks are bent is:

Take apart froks.
Stand one up vertically.
Get a piece of string with a washer or nut at the bottom.
And hold it against the forks, slowly twist fork around it's axis.
Repeat for the other fork.

See gravilty can be our friend sometimes.

Easy and is a non techie way to check, I actually had to use this method when I had my off in Italy.

So what happened to the KTM, and is he paying for your repairs? Because there's a BMW breakers yard about 30 miles away from me in Macclesfield England, and I don't mind going down there to pick up the required parts and ship then to you, I sent a Centre stand for a R1200 to Oz and the difference between me sending it and the shop was £140.

Like I said you only have to ask, here's the shops website Cheshire Motorcycle Salvage Motorcycle Parts & spares online!

Lee

Great you are OK. Take care of yourself first.

We are standing by, use HUBB or e-mail direct if we can source parts at BMW dealers here in Buenos Aires. Don't be shy.

Are you in Chile or Argentina now? Shipping by bus is easy within Argentina.

Will ask *Jeff for answers to technical questions as soon as he wakes up. He will be touring again very soon and has been exhausting himself saying goodbye to close friends. (*see Buy/Tour/Sell thread)

We will help in any way we can. xfiltrate, Elisa and Jeff and all of the Buenos Aires community.

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Motorcycle Parking Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.xfiltrate.com
Discover how to legally Buy, Tour and Sell a motorcycle in Argentina

Guys thanks for the fast answers and offers of help, I really appreciate!

The guy on the KTM is fine and so was his bike. He is happily off on his trip once again. Lucky he was part of a tour and they had a support vehicule so we waited for it to trail the bike to Coyhaique. For paying for repairs, we did a police statement and he had insurance. God knows what that is worth here! And as it is saturday no chance to speak to anyone of the insurance until monday at least!
Anyway most urgent is finding spare parts and a competent mechanic workshop to rebuild the wheel.

Ed/Lisa and Lee, I may take on your offer of help. I need to speak with BMW in Santiago first see what they say on spare parts, and to MotoEscar in Punta Arenas. If Gonzalo can rebuild my wheel over there, I would get all shipped to his workshop. Anyway lots of things to check first but will let you know! Thanks again!
Maria

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

Hola Maria,
glad you managed to walk away from the accident. It's a beautiful route through there but potentially hazardous.
I would be surprised if your forks are still straight if your rim is in such bad shape and if your bridge is damaged. Whip them out and if it isn't obvious, even putting a straight edge along the chrome staunchion should show up any deflection.
You might want to consider having a complete secondhand wheel sent out. Could be less hassle than trying to have a new rim laced to your old hub in Coyhaquie. It's a nice town but could still prove difficult to get this done there. You'll probably want to be moving again soon enough.
Good luck mate

Jeff (with Ed and Elisa in BA)

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VanMan

Wow, this will be a crazy story to tell when you get back home. If you have something shipped make sure to do lots of research on your shipping method ahead of time. Otherwise you will be stuck waiting like me right now.

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http://www.journeyrider.net Latin America blog (07-8)

Hi Maria,

I had a big crash south of Coyhaeque on my Africa Twin in early 2005. I have every sympathy for you and hope you are feeling ok. It is not the most fun place to be stuck - I was there for 21 days waiting for my arm to fix and get the bike fixed. There is a very good guy called Paolo who will be able to help you - his workshop is close to the center of the town but I cannot recall the road - but only 200m or so from the octagon in the centre.

The good news is that you have a BMW - guess the parts are more readily available than the Honda bits I needed. Mine was the big one you don't want to have - a complete write off were it not for stubborn determination that this was my trip and would not be given up without a fight. I needed a new front end shipped over from the UK - forks, wheel, bars,lights brakes etc. I was lucky enough to have a friend who found the exact bits for £400 (used) and then shipped then with DHL to Santiago. Be warned that trying to get them shipped elsewhere is likely to be very difficult. Customs proved problematic but ultimately settled on about $50.

Paolo did a good job with limited resources - he is a general mechanic but does moto cross. He managed to do a great patch job on my bike that got me all the way round on my trip. The most difficult problem was a bent frame and damaged stock. I have no doubt with what you describe that he can help. Shipping to BA/Santiago etc may be prohibitively expensive.

If you find him please say hello. I will always be indebted to him.

Good luck Maria. Let me know if you need any info from me. I should be on line quite a bit in the coming week or two.

Matt

Hi guys, thanks for all the info.
We contacted BMW Balfour in Santiago but they kept ignoring my phone calls and emails (and I speak fluent spanish so it is not language problem!) As you can see BMW dealers around the world are consistently the usual useless twats!
I spoke with Sonia from MotoAventura but they had no parts. I found Jose Meyer from BMM / Andes adventure Tours in Santiago (HAmish and Em thanks for putting their contact details in the HUBB!!!!!!). They are being very helpful. They ordered the parts (via BMW Balfour! Go figure!)
Anyway it seems I am going to be stuck here for at least 3 more weeks while I wait for parts from Germany and my wheel to be rebuilt.
We tried to get stuff from USA and Europe but been put off by custom issues. Won´t save time or money in the end!
MAtt we found Pablo in the high street. HE is very helpful.
Total destruction of my bike is:
we need to replace:
- chrome part of the forks
- fork seals
- lower triple clamp on the steering tower
- head race bearings
- front wheel rim and spokes
- fork bridge & mirror.

Total cost: over 1500 pounds for parts only.

Insurance in South america is not covering anything! We are trying to get some money from the KTM owner. We´ll see. If we get nothing, he will publicly named and shame in all motorcycles and videos websites in north america and Europe so that any one on motorbike or future TV or video employer can find who he is!

We are also going to investigate with a lawyer the liability of the tour company that the guy was with. We could get them fork out for the irresponsible way KTM boy was riding. They must have known that he had insufficient insurance and that most guys on that tour were dangerous on bikes, considering taht they were crashing all the time (Details and photos my blog soon)

Cheers,

Maria

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

Hi Maria,

I am glad you found Pablo. I think you can fix this up in Coyhaeque with his help and avoid costly transportation of the bike. The first step is to get the parts shipped out asap to Santiago. I went to collect the package in Santiago (30kg!) to avoid customs trouble. This saved a good few days of grief as I was able to put some pressure on and get the package cleared very quickly. The trick is to send the parts as "used motor cycle parts" if new the customs guys are going to want more money. Maybe lots more.

I'm sure someone can help regarding second hand parts - could save you a good amount.

Interesting to hear about BMW dealers. Makes me wonder why anyone actually buys one. Similar story with the Honda dealers though when I needed help but the africa twin is less common....

Good luck with the insurance issue. I wouldn't count on it though. Did you have to hand over your license to the police there? I did and they still have it despite the assurance that this would be dealt with quickly. I spent some time looking into the legal aspects of my crash and simply decided the best idea was to forget it.

British embassy was completely useless too - not at all interested in helping.

Good luck and saludos to Pablo. I wish you well during what is a most trying experience. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Matt

Hi Matt, I passed your saludos to Pablo who was very happy! HE remembers you very well! He will help us rebuild the bike. He is of good advice. HE will fix my mirror and he can get the fork bridge fabricated locally , to cut costs.
Thank we have the dakar (my husband´s bike)to use as sample as my fork bridge is splattered around carretera austral!

All parts have been ordered with BMM and it is just a matter of waiting for them. Lucky we have the Dakar, so we may take few days off to ride 2-up to Futelefu for a week and come back - if we can find a place to store the excess luggage!

MAybe we will be lucky and KTM boy will do the right thing and pay us fro the costs? WEll I´ve seen stranger things happen. I have his parents address in Canada, I checked in Google so can phone them etc... heheheh!!!!!

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

Hi Maria,

Just read your report and seen the pictures. Pablo is certainly the man to fix this - he worked a miracle on my AT and one day I will go back and thank him personally. It is great that he remembers me but I guess there are not too many of us who come calling.

As the KTM boy is a Canadian I reckon you might just get some money from him - particularly as he admitted responsibility. Whether a police report would help I can't believe it would. I met a New Zealander who frequents the HUBB from time to time elsewhere in South America who had a big bike vs bike crash. Once the police got involved it was a complete nightmare although the other motorcyclist was badly injured.

I wish you both the best of luck down there. It seems a great place to spend a couple of days but a complete hell after 3 weeks.

Suerte

Matt