My Machine

My Machine
My fourth and current "ride" is a 2002 BMW 1150GS. My first bike was a kawasaki kx80 that I got when I was 12 years old.I rode that around the neighborhood until it died than bought a honda xl350 when I was 16 and rode that until "finished" than went onto the Kawasaki KLR 650 which I had for 10 years and thru my first trip to Asia.

Equipment Lists

  • Garmin Zumo 550 GPS
  • Jessie,Rear Compartment Box
  • Jessie,Odyssey Pannier System
  • Throttle Meister Cruise Control
  • BMW Tank Bag
  • Skid Plates
  • Hand Guards
  • BMW Crash Bars
  • BMW Adventure Fog Lights

Blog Archive

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2005 SanFrancisco-Lima, Peru 10K miles








After returning from Asia in 2000, my tranny on my Kawasaki froze so I went and bought a new bike, A BMW 1150 GS.  I was not able to travel on moto for a few years due to work, buying a house and non moto travel with my wife to other countries.  But the moto travel "itch"  was there.  In 2005, I finally hopped on my bike and started riding south from San Francisco. I wanted to see how far I could make it with Ushuaia, Chile , The southern most town in the world being the target.  I traveled all the way down the pacific coast of Mexico then cut inland toward Palenque. Then I put the bike on a little wood boat and crossed a river into Guatemala.  I continued thru Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa rica, where I was run off the road by a semi.  I was alright but my bike needed repairs.  Luckily, I was near San Jose, Costa Rica where they had a BMW dealer.  It took about a week but then I continued thru panama.  At that point I decided I wanted to keep going but that was the end of the Pan American Highway due to to the Darien Gap, an impenetrable jungle between Panama and Colombia.  So I put the moto and myself on a plane and flew to Ecuador, skipping Colombia.  Ecuador and the Andes is spectacular riding.  I continued on to Peru thru some of the most awesome sand dunes I've seen and into Lima.  After some rest in Lima, I started riding south again.  About a days ride south of Lima, I was almost run off the road again.  At that point, I decided that I was exhausted and time to come home knowing I would return someday soon to finish my ride in South America.  I shipped my moto and myself back to San Francisco from Lima, Peru.  











2000 Malaysia-Thailand-Laos




This was my first moto tour in 2000.  I put my previous bike, an 89' KLR 650 on a ship to Kuala Lumpur.  I did very little planning and after a nightmarish week of trying to clear my bike thru Malaysian customs, finally succeeded and just started riding north.  I traveled for about 3 months thru Malaysia, Thailand and Laos covering about 5000 miles before shipping my moto back home to San Francisco from Bangkok.  I was hooked on world motorcycle travel.