Landslide and Mechanical Issues

The last town that I stayed in was small enough that I was able to just follow the general flow of traffic to find the major road out of town.  This means that I'm starting a good day.  Usually it is quite a trick to find your way out of the city center and make it back on to the major roads.  Happily today I’m making good time through the twisties of Central Guatemala. After about 25 minutes of driving I come upon a HUGE line of traffic almost a 1/2 mile long. Since I’m on a bike and in Latin America, I cross into the oncoming lane and pass all the parked cars. Usually when filtering, you have to avoid oncoming traffic. This time it was not the case. Strange.

I soon realized why there was no one coming at towards me: Huge Landslide. For the last month, Guatemala has received tons of rain. Last night was no exception. It rained for hours and a big portion of the muddy hill now covered the road.

See the big truck on the left? He couldn’t make it through. This is when it pays to be on a bike. I hit the gas and stood on pegs and flew past the mudhole. The problem was that I had a bit too much speed.

I was trying to avoid the yellow van and drove into a deep rut of another truck and dumped the bike into the mud. Ouch. No physical damage to me or the bike. The thing about dropping a bike fully loaded with luggage is picking it back up. Fortunately there were tons of laughing Guatemalans who offered to help out.

The guy in blue kept making jokes that I needed to pay him “Fiva dolleres” for the help. Something about me being a rich gringo.  Despite the ridiculing, a large group of guys helped so quickly that I didn't have enough time to take the mandatory photo of a sleeping bike.

I don’t actually look that dirty in this picture, but trust me, I am. Every time I got gas the attendant said something about me dropping the bike.  Atleast that is what I heard.  DaveSpan isn't so good.  It was still obvious once I got the bike powerwashed. It was too chilly for them to powerwash me.

So I continue to Guatemala City covered in mud as I think I need urgent bike work done on my brakes.   Yesterday, I was in a panicked state because I had lost all rear braking power.  I drove for several hours without using my rear brake because I thought it was broken.  About 3 hours into the ride I decide for kicks to see how far I need to push the lever to see when the brake engages. I step on it and the bike starts to slow. Great.

On one hand, I’m very happy to have a rear brake again. On the other, I feel like an idiot for lining up some help for what I thought was an urgent situation in Guatemala city with one of Billy’s advrider friends who he met on his last trip.

The reason why the brake stopped working was that it got too hot. I thought about that and believed I gave it sufficient time to cool down (maybe 30 minutes? ) then I never tried it again that day and for the first 3 hours of riding today.

Lesson learned. Engine brake when in hills. Julio who not only helped me find the BMW dealer in Guate city, but also took me to dinner gave me the best tip for mountians: Ride down the mountian in the same gear that you would ride up.  What can I say?  I learned to ride motorcycles in the flatlands of Texas.  In Houston, the biggest mountain we have is an overpass that crosses two highways.

Here's the video I made with the aftermath.