2-up on a Chinese 250 in South America
 

Went to Lima with little to no experience on bikes and after a few days looking bought a 'Davest xtreme 250 gy-2' one of these... Motos DAVEST - Pantera Motos del Peru - motos scooters - recambios motos - accesorios motos - moto ocasion - motos 125 - comprar motos - motos bmw - motos cbr. The dealer who is the importer spoke a bit of english which was great as my spanish isn't very good yet. I got a 'permiso especial para firmar contratos' which I saw was needed from a thread on ADV and he sorted the ownership card and number plate. My girlfriend and I went to Cusco to go hiking and ruins visting for about 2 weeks until he let me know it was ready. Another 22 hour bus ride back to Lima then time to pick up the bike and get insurance which was incredibly easy and fast. Having all this sorted I spent a couple of days learning to ride around Lima which was fun, only stalled at the lights a couple of times...

By now we've about had enough of the city so after looking into getting pannier racks made up I decided i could just make one out of wood. It seems to be holding up well after 600km. We find our way out of Lima and head north without much of plan and after a night by the ruins in Caral we head to Huaraz, where we are now. The bikes not doing so good it seems to have developed a timing chain rattle, so I email the dealer and he has assured me he'll have it fixed by a dealer in Trujillo. Didn't expect much from a China bike but hopefully we'll get a few more Kms out of her.

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Don't have much of a plan but we're thinking of heading nnorth through Equador, Colombia, Venezuala and down through Brazil. This depending on how well the money and the bike lasts...

Classic, a wooden pack carrier :-)

Have fun and good luck with the bike

kim

Onya mate! Let us know how you are going, there's some good blog tools on this site.

Nigel in NZ

Definitely keeping my eye on this ride report!

good luck with the bike big load for a 250 and 2 up

The same bikes are sold in south Asia under the Zarang trade name (and probably others) in Enduro specification, which doesn't mean too much since it is Chinese, it is just a marketing thing. For instance, the model for sale in Afghanistan has "200" written all over it, but I am told that it is actually a 150 cc capacity. You pay your cash and you take your choice, unless in Afghanistan where the dealers' could not care less what you buy, or what you do for that matter; get on and ride away, no insurance, no licence, no anything. :scooter:

In Huaraz we looked at a map and decided it would be a great idea to go up over the Punta Olympica pass (4890m) to Chacas, and from there through to Yanama and back over a 4700m pass to Yungay. Then through the Canon del Pato to Trujillo. It was a good ride, took us 3 days.

We left the sealed road in Carhuaz in the early afternoon and after a bit of looking/going the wrong way we managed to find the start of the gravel road to Chacas. It started off rough and stayed that way for 5 or so hours to Chacas going 20-40 km/h the whole way. It was a big climb to the pass and a lot colder then it looked on the map, it was raining at the start and snowing up near and over the pass. Had a couple of sketchy moments in slushy snow with it being a long way down if we left the road and the bike was struggling for power up some of the steep rocky switchbacks up near the top. The road was a stream most of the way and with the rain it meant numb fingers and toes and a hurry to get down to a more hospitable altitude once we get to the pass. I'm sure the view would have been great if we'd been able to see anything. End up riding the last hour to Chacas in the dark and rain which is fun with the terrible stock headlights and some slippery mud.

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Next day we put our wet gear back on and start off on another long slow day of rough gravel roads. Going up over the pass is another cold and wet afternoon and a hurried descent to get down to restore feeling to fingers and toes while i can still brake and use the clutch. The day ends with us getting into Yungay on dark, tired and with sore behinds. Some seat improvement is in need when i get around to it.. An early dinner and night definitly feels good.

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Then it's through the Canon del Pato, the gravel road with about 30 or 40 tunnels. It's nice to be warm and only showers not just rain. Near the top of the canyon we have to wait about an hour while a recent landslide is cleared off the road and we head on down with a few more hours of slow gravel roads through the impressive canyon which has quite a lot of water going through due to the rain.

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Now time to go to Trujillo and enjoy the beach at Huanchaco for a few days..

Nice report, keep it coming, would especially like to know about the bikes reliability!
Have fun.

Bikes reliability = Not much. With about 1300 km on the clock the piston decided to fall apart yesterday. The side had disintergrated, sending quite a few bits of metal the size of small change through the engine. We were only 50km out of Trujillo which was lucky and managed to hitch a ride with us and the bike on a pickup truck back into town. Getting to a repair shop at 5.30 on a Saturday evening they say it'll be ready by 9. So with a few guys working on it, we have a new piston and resleeved cylinder as this was cracked too, ready to go at 9.30. Total cost just under 400 Soles, about $140 US. Other bike problems, The rear brake has been through a set of pads and doesn't work properly now, a lot of the spokes came loose on the back wheel, Chain has needed tensioning about 4 or 5 times. Front end (headset?) got a bit loose. But apart from that it's been good.

On the positive I'm learning lots about fixing bikes..

Hi Chad, sorry to hear of quite serious bike problems, but sorted very cheaply, compared to European prices, whats the possibility swarf etc is floating around from the piston break-up?. If I was you I would do a couple of oil and filter changes after relative short mileages just incase, but even then, not guaranteed. I know breakdowns can certainly add often a different perspective to the trip, but its at unnessary expence, I know that I learnt mechanics very quickly, and met some of the nicest people whilst brokendown by the roadside on an old 500 Triumph!
Chinese bikes still leave a lot to be desired, I have a Yamaha badged YBR125 that was made in China, I thought no problem as Yamaha would not put their name on anything bad, wrong! no primer used on the frame and a rusted exhaust by 460miles from new, but at least its not let me down yet. I hope that your bike repair costs dont make you wish you had originally brought Jap.
Safe riding and all the best.

Hasn't been an update for a while, hows this trip coming along now? Get the bike sorted?

According to his profile, Chad has not been on the site for 3 weeks, hope he is ok and just enjoying the trip, hope we get an update and more pictures soon.
:thumbup1:

Thanks for the interest, I haven´t been around the internet for awhile but the trip is still going. I´ll update with some photos and more detail when I get a chance, hopefully in the next few days. We have made our way up through the top of Peru and up through Ecuador. The border was no trouble with the Peruvian plates, the border guards just laughed at us for having a Chinese bike. Last night we limped in to Otavalo coming from the coast, the bike getting serious copmression issues in the last couple of hours and blowing a large amount of oil through the crankcase breather into the air box. Going to get it looked at this afternoon if I can get the bike out of the hostal as there is now a market on the street outside. Hopefully it´s fixable within my budget. 5000km and my wooden rack is holding up better than the bike..

Keep going Chad, look forward to those pictures, bike aside, I take it you are having a good time.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Chinese bikes, is it? Glad you're continuing to have a good time!