So I'm here in Mar Del Plata and the plans are changing again lol. Well because of the bearing thing and deep need of new tires, I can't follow dakar as I want it to do - o well. I did go to the start point and spend a whole day walking around and later watching some of them riding / driving around but there was no way to get to them for autograph etc.
Yesterday I was sitting on the side of rt88 and watch them all go by for stage1 so at least that was cool. (on the other hand with so much people following them I can only imagine the lines for gas lol)
anyway so I found this cool place to get tires and tomorrow I will get a brand new set but he only has a 140 rear from tourance (we'll make some phone calls in the morning to see if we can find one around)
otherwise those are my choices:
Pirelli scorpion trail - $414 dollars for set (so far I'm  leaning towards those)
Bridgestone (forgot the name but they did not look adv) - $515 dollars
Michelin Anakee - $671 dollars for set
or maybe he can try to find Saharas but I don't think that they last very long, specially as I have few miles on pavement.
hmm will see in the morning, any input would be appreciated - thanks :)

ok few pics from past two days

 

It was awesome to be there and walk around but it was super hot so I went back to the bike to take a break (there was also a couple from UK there) some people want it to take a picture with our bikes and at first they were asking to either sit on the bike or have their kids sit on it but after a while they were not asking anymore, the people were just lining up and hopping on the bikes like they were part of the show or something. So we had to get the heck out of there.
 

 So we found a restaurant near the beach and soon enough the presentation of Dakar competitors started.

 Next day I was up early in the morning so I can catch them going by on rt88, I got there just after 5am ready with my camera :)

Here is Marc Coma

Cyril Despres gave me a nice wave

So did Francisco Lopez

Here is one of the Polish guys Jakub Przygonski 

 

Here is Jonah Street

So Sorry to hear the bad news, R.I.P

Just another day - I guess

For starters this is what my tires look like right now - see the slits?

I left Pehuajo early in the morning with hopes to make it to the ocean early enough so maybe I can enjoy the evening on the beach, well that didn't work.
About 20 miles in the the ride I felt a very strong vibrations in real wheel so I immediately pulled over just to notice a oil leaking from the rear drive, the seal was partly out. So I took everything off plus the wheel and as I was checking the seal I noticed few small peaces from the bearing it self.... sh**t the darn bearing failed.

 Well not much I can do about it now but try to get some help, the closest town is 20miles away but this is very busy road so I posted a "help" sign and hoped for the best.

The first guy stopped and he said that he will ask around in next town but he wasn't coming back for over an hour, Next guy stopped by and and start making phone calls back to the city and to the neighbors. After some time more help arrived and we all got the bike on the pick-up truck to bring it back to the city where a local scooter/go-cart mechanic were willing to help me out. I had a spare bearing so we got to work on it right away, 3 hours later I got the bike back in once peace and the only thing now is hope that we did a good job lol.

The mechanics :), thanks guys :)

New sticker on my case

So I'm staying for the night here again and later meeting the pickup driver for few beers and tomorrow I will try again. (fingers crossed)

cheers

From Calma we took of to San Pedro De Atacama, it was a short and fast ride so we got there in no time. San Pedro is very touristy town so its full of hotels and we found one to stay for the night and went for a walk to the town.
I got invite from Marcos and Marina for Christmas so next day we went our separate ways as Roberto want it to make to Chile coast that day.

Desert ride to San Pedro

Kids going "snowboarding" in the sand

There was some power outage in the morning
so the line at the border was very long, it took me 3 hours to get through

Met the Dakar team from Ecuador :)

The road was going up and up to cross to Argentina

The border crossing was a breeze and soon after I was on my way to Slata

the was very nice 

It took me 3 days to get to San juan but I'm here for awesome holiday and tomorrow I will leave in the morning to get to Mar del plata to see the Dakar start and I will follow them for a while, not sure how long yet.

I would like to thank Marcos and Marina and Marcos family for such warm welcome and everything they did for me here :) you guys ROCK!!!!!!!!

cheers