Hi Will, I'm going to be finishing my trip in Santiago in probably 4-6 weeks and selling my bike there, while I work and live there for a bit.
It's a chinese 250cc enduro, which at the moment has 8500km on it and would probably have close to 9500 on when I sell it. It's been more capable off road than any other traveller's bike I've seen in this trip, doesn't care about deep sand, or about mud and water up to your knees! I've been well off the beaten track with her, the ground clearance and big knobbly tires make it lots of fun in the mud, passing stretches of roads impossible to 95% of other travellers' bikes.
It IS chinese however, and has had some issues, It's not going to take the same beating you could get away with giving a honda XR for example, (or probably any honda) but since it's chinese when things go wrong parts are a dime a dozen and I've never had a problem finding spares. I crashed it the other week and bent the swingarm, the new arm, plus the pin that goes through it, plus modifying it to fit, and labour all up cost just short of $50usd here in Peru, Bolivia is cheaper (I love that country!) it's not geared super fast, but I took 3 teeth off the rear sprocket to get it a bit taller cos it was so short to begin with, The max speed I'd estimate to be a touch over 100kph. (gps kph that is, not speedo) so I now cruise at about 70kph (@4,100rpm) to conserve the engine's life and probably some fuel too,
I'll also be selling (separately) a Garmin car GPS, a big touratech tank bag, a hein gerikle armoured jacket (cosmetic damage, but still doubles as a sleeping mat) which has been brilliant, some padded riding pants and really good pair of leather riding boots, all of which has been indispensable.
I bought the bike some taller wider aluminium handlebars, which make it look really cool and feel a bit better to ride. it has a little rack on the back, which I've strapped my backpack, tent and sleeping bag to over the last months. the original broke when I was pretending to be travis pastrama with all my things strapped to it, and I replaced it with a stronger one. The number plate also left the scene the same day, so the current number plate is a very special hand painted edition, I've not had any problems crossing borders or with cops etc though, I like to think because of my art skills.. (see first photo)
It also has a lockable tool tube I've hose clamped to the side with a spanner for every sized nut, pliers, feeler guage, screw drivers, etc, plus carburettor jets for different altitudes (we've been to at least 4700M together) a spare piston and rings, spare inner tube, which fortunately I've never had to use probably due to having upgraded the inner tubes to Pirelli's before I left for the trip, right now it's got big knobbly tires on it but they're pretty worn so it will have new tires on it by the time I leave here, probably an agressive-intermediate style tire.
I also installed some electrics (my trade from back home) - that is a USB output socket to charge a GPS or what have you, installed with a tidy push / pull switch and routed through the main fuse, it's also waterproof when not in use.
I bought it in Cuidad del este and travelled up through some of Brasil, through Bolivia on every imaginable road and some ridiculous conditions, I'm now in Peru and expect to arrive in Santiago in the next month and would probably sell it some time after then... damnit.
Anyway, I bought it for $2091 in Paraguay incl. plates & rego. 4 months ago.
I'd probably sell it with the parts and tools for $900, due to all it's knocks and scratches, it's definitely not a "new" bike, but come and have a look if you're interested and you can take it for a skid somewhere, or if you're not interested but will be in Santiago around the time I will be, let's catch up for a
anyway!
Russell.
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