Back On Two Wheels

January 19, 2010
Monday

After a marathon 21 hour drive, my bike and I are back in Santiago. Johan Schulin and I left Calama, Chile, yesterday morning, just after 10:00am and arrived in Santiago at the BMW motorcycle dealer at 7:00 am this morning, an hour before they opened. I was a bit shocked when I was told by Claudio, the service manager, that I would have the bike back by 3:00pm the same day. I guess my good friend and General Manager of the dealership, Mauricio Vergara, had suggested to his people that they get right on my bike. Mauricio takes good care of me whenever I need something there. Mauricio has invited me to go along on a motorcycle ride, to the Pacific Ocean, with him and some representatives from the BMW motorcycle factory in Germany while they are here visiting in Chile, in a few weeks. Sounds like a good time to me.
By 4:00pm I was at the dealership picking up the bike, but as I was about to leave, I found that the battery had died, and the bike would not start. Turns out the battery had an internal short in it and had to be replaced. I had some suspicions about that battery last year, because I had problems with it on my trip to Ushuaia. I even mentioned to Mauricio one day last week that I thought the battery was a bit weak, and I had Mauricio listen to the bike as I started it, but he thought it sounded normal. Looks like I might have been right after all! Anyway, we have a brandee new battery in the bike now and it starts just fine. The adventure continues.