« Day 49 Photos [Sun 12/31/2017] - Riobamba to Zapotillo, Ecuador | Main | Day 50 Photos [Mon 1/1/2018] - Zapotillo, Ecuador to Chiclayo, Peru »
January 1, 2018
Day 51 [Tue 1/2/2018] - Chiclayo to Casma, Peru
Day 51 [Tue 1/2/2018] - Chiclayo to Casma, Peru
Update: I am alive and well and resting peacefully in the Hostal Central in Casma, Peru.
Starting Odometer: 13,163
Ending Odometer: 13,427
Distance Traveled Today: 264 miles
Distance Traveled This Trip: 8,824 miles [13,427 - 4,603]
Distance Traveled This Trip(in Km): 14,200 km
My ride today looks something like this.
Planned riding distance: 250 miles
Planned riding time: 6 hr 36 mins
Planned border crossings: 0
Forecast:
Chiclayo, Peru - 82F Cloudy.
Huarmey, Peru - 75F Cloudy.
Expenses:
New front tire: $60 USD
Gas: $12 USD
Juice: $0.66 USD
Lunch: $8 USD
Hostal Central: $8 USD /night
I stayed up until about 1:00 a.m. in this morning, trying to get all of my daily tasks completed. My riding buddies told me to meet them this morning at 7:00. Apparently, they meant "siete y media", or 7:30 a.m.
So I lie back down for 30 minutes, which seems like much longer. Definitely needed more sleep last night. Not good to be riding tired all day.
At 7:30, we meet downstairs, roll out the bikes, and start looking for a motorcycle shop. One of my riding buddies (David) wants to get an oil change. I need a new tire. We find an open tire store, but the tire they have doesn't really match what I have. My rear tire is Pirelli Scorpion A/T 150/70 R18 M/C 70V tubeless tire. They have a Pirelli MT 60 120/90 R18 M/C 62T. About the only thing that's the same is the radius of the tire. They have a front tire that matches mine.
I think they wanted $500 nuevo soles for the pair.
I try to pay for the tires with cash, but I don't have enough Nuevo Soles. So, I try to charge it with my credit card, which doesn't go through, for some reason. Then I try my personal card, and it works. Yay!
Now, we ride around to find a motorcycle shop that is open and will mount the tire. But when we get there, I start having second thoughts. I really don't want to put this little tire on my bike. It's clearly too small. I can't imagine riding on this thing. This is the problem with the 3rd world. They never have anything that fits a real bike. Everyone down here rides around on these little Chinese imported motorcycles that you'd never see in the USA.
So, Johan takes the tire to try to return it, and a guy that works at the shop (I think), goes off to see if he can find the correct rear tire for my bike. If I'm not mistaken, he took my rear tire, and is off riding around the city, to different shops, trying to find a match.
I'm reasonably clear that this won't work, and I'll be stuck with riding to Lima on the same rear tire I've been on for this whole trip.
I'm not really clear what I'll do once I get to Lima. I'm not clear if I want to continue rolling down to Tierra Del Fuego. I'd much rather fly home with the bike from Lima, than try to reach Tierra Del Fuego, at this point.
Posted by Rob Kiser on January 1, 2018 at 10:14 PM
Comments