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Published: August 8th 2015
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Distance driven today: 202 miles / 325 km
Cumulative distance driven: 13,130 miles / 21,131 km (3,000 miles to go)
Today’s trip: Salta ro San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina
Tires changed on the bike: yes, two sets of brand new tires for the remainder of the trip
Latest time starting riding ever: yes, we started riding at 7PM!!!
The plan today was really simple. In the morning we would first send a package to Seattle with things we no longer need, and then we would get new tires for the bike. We left the hotel at 8:30 am, thinking that we should be done with both action items by 11ish and then start riding. In reality, we didn’t leave the city of Salta before it was 7pm! During our first full day in Argentina, we got to experience Argentinian efficiency, or rather the lack thereof.
We went to the Correo Argentino, i.e. the national Argentinian post office in Salta when they opened just after 8:30. We should have understood that Correo Argentino was not the pinnacle of logistics efficiency when we spotted a long line that stretched for half a block outside the entrance
of the post office. After finally figuring out which office inside the building we needed to go to for sending a package, we waited in line for 20min or so. Once it was our turn, Zoe had to fill out four separate recipient address forms, at three different offices, while each office had to stamp (and re-stamp) each form with three separate stamps. Also, each of the address slips at each office station had to be carbon copied with four separate paper slips. By the way, I don’t think that I have seen actual physical carbon copied documents be used since the early 90’s. One and a half hour later and $100 poorer, a simple package was on its way to the US – or so we hope at least. Afterwards Zoe commented that she will
never ever complain to her friends that the US Postal Service is slow, inefficient or expensive. USPS is a marvel of efficiency compared to its distant Argentinian counterpart.
Our next stop was the motorcycle tire shop in Salta, which our new Bolivian rider friends from yesterday had recommended. The tire shop had easily one of the widest selections of tires that I have
even seen, while the owner was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Turns out that the owner drove an identical motorcycle like ours, and on top of that he had ridden several times in southern Argentina, on the very same road that we plan to take. He had the perfect tire for the remainder of our trip. For those of you who are motorcycle and tire geeks out there, we got a pair of Michelin Anakee 2, which is probably the best tire for riding pavement
and gravel. Because these tires are imported from France, and the Argentinian government really likes to get as much tax revenue on imported items as possible, the new tires set us back a whopping $800. The same set of tires can be bought from Amazon.com in the US for under $400…
The tire shop owner then sent us 50m/150ft around the corner to another store to have the tires fitted to the wheels. By now, it was already noon, and we were behind our time schedule for the day. Little did we know that it would take another 7 hours before the tires were fitted, and we could finally leave the city of Salta. Turns
out that the tire fitting shop owner had gone for siesta, i.e. his afternoon rest. Normally, in this part of Argentina, employees apparently go for siesta around 12:30 or 1ish. However, this shop owner decided to leave extra early for his noon nap, leaving us with two brand new tires, but no way of fitting them on the wheels. We returned to the tire shop we had bought the tires from, and the helpful owner called the authorized BMW dealership in town. The later said that they were happy to help us. I asked if the BWM dealership was open during the afternoon, and could fit our tires asap if we came by, since we were just travelling through town and we really were in a hurry to ride southbound. Sure, no problem came back the reply the BWM dealership.
Half an hour later we showed up at the BWM dealership only to find out that they too had also decided to take a siesta. Never mind that they had just told us otherwise only 30 minutes ago over the phone. We had to wait no less than 3,5 hours, until 5pm, before the BMW dealership would open again
:-( At least we found a good coffee shop next door with a wi-fi connection. At 5 pm I was at the BWM dealership, with the motorcycle parked outside the service entrance holding the new tires in my hands. Five minutes later, I learned that the BMW dealership did actually not install tires (wtf). They would happily service our bike, but when it comes to tire changing they had decided to outsource this function to a tire fitting shop across town! Half an hour later I was, now for the third time the same day, standing in front of a tire shop, hoping that this time we could get the tires changed. I guess that third time is a charm. This time we finally got the tires changed. While waiting for the mechanic to remove the wheels and change the tires, the store owner approached me a started to talk to me about our bike, our trip and tires. It turns out that he had a wealth of information around the road conditions in southern Argentina, and especially the famous Routa 40 which we intend to ride to the very end of the PanAmerican highway in a few weeks.
By the time we had shipped the package, changed tires and were ready to ride, it was 7pm! We definitely had a very late start this day.
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Mike
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Tire Irons!
Although sort of a pain on a big Beemer, too bad you didn't have some tire irons and a small air compressor or foot pump along! It's kind of a tussle to change out R1200GS tires, but I've done it a couple times now. The knobbies I had on my bike when we rode the WABDR together were installed by me a week or so before the ride.