Originally Posted by AndyT (Post 362594)

I found this:

DR650 DR 650 Complete Cylinder Head Motor Engine Top | eBay

everything from the head up, with a 10 second search on EBay. The ad says they ship worldwide.

You could try www.mercadolibre.com kind of the Latino Ebay.

Try Javier at Dakar Motos in Buenos Aires. He sees a lot of travelers bikes there, and may have access to parts for bikes not sold in Argentina.

Meanwhile, enjoy a bife de chorizo and a Quilmes for me!

Originally Posted by John Downs (Post 362630)

Hi Luke,

My advice is to cut your losses, get rid of the bike as quickly as possible and move on. Forget about parting it out. Forget about shipping it back to Bolivia. Just sell it as is where is and put it behind you. You've been in Mendoza long enough. Patagonia is calling.

I have seen people stuck for weeks trying to salvage a dead horse. Dumping money and time, waiting for parts, throwing good money into a questionable bike, waiting for parts to clear customs, paying extortionist 100 per cent customs duty, shipping fees, additional parts and mechanics time etc. etc.

Shoot it, put it out of it's misery and move on. Any mechanic who says the bottom end is fine with top end damage that severe is telling you what you want to hear. I am here to tell you the harsh truth. That motor is toast. And buying a used motor that would fit a nearly 20 year old thrashed Bolivian DR and shipping it to Mendoza would be expensive and time consuming. (Although it would appeal to the masochists among us.)

If I was in a similar situation with two months left on a killer vacation in South America, I would try to sell the dead DR for a few hundred bucks cash in Mendoza, take a bus to Santiago Chile where it's easy for a foreigner to buy a bike, get a cheap, disposable Honda CG125 or Suzuki GN125 for a few hundred bucks, ride down the Careterra Austral for a couple weeks until the final paperwork is done, cruise back up to the Registro Civil in Coihaique or Puerto Montt to pick up the final paper work and head over to Patagonia for a few weeks. Sell the bike cheap after cruising around for a few weeks and fly home.

I would do the bus tour backpacker routine only as an option of last resort. That's just me though.

If it's any consolation, it is not the first time someone has failed to check the dipstick and starved the top end. Thankfully, it's not a new expensive bike.

Kindest regards,
John Downs

Originally Posted by gatogato (Post 362646)

I think Javier has direct access to about 5 parts covering all brands of motorcycles.

:oops2:How do you know that?????Didn´t stay at his place.....think?

I think that if you repair your DR650 you are definitely going to need to have the parts air-shipped to you.

I have been in a similar situation to what you are in now. My advice is to cut your losses asap and sell the bike within the next week. Put an ad in the Mendoza newspaper and go around to the bike shops and see what they will offer you. The key is to contact as many people as you can in as short of a time as you can and take the best offer.

You did not go to Latin America so you could be a used motorcycle salesman. You went so that you could travel to amazing places and meet interesting people.

I rode my 2001 F650gs all the way down to Tierra del Fuego on Ruta 3. On the way there and the way back I had my chain break twice and my clutch cable almost break. If you ride Ruta 40 down there you are likely to break some parts and I hope you have extra spare parts to replace them with because the moto shops in the Southern half of Argentina do not stock any replacement parts. They have to be shipped from the North which takes $$$ and time.

:oops2:How dou you know that.....doh All shops???? think again?

I highly recommend that you take the bus down to Tierra del Fuego or even just fly down there, because most of the scenery on the way down there is wasteland that looks identical to Nebraska and it is windy as hell. It also rains a lot on the way down there. By riding down there you will spend a fortune on gas to experience mostly crappy scenery and crappy conditions.

:oops2:Crappy scenery?????You just speed up all the way on your F650 GS......doh think????

It would cost $100's of dollars to have those parts air-shipped to you. It is also going to cost $100's of dollars in customs fees. Then you will have to worry about finding a good enough mechanic to do the job right and that everything goes perfectly. Shipping your bike to Bolivia would cost $500+ and you would also have to worry about escorting your bike through customs so that it makes it.

:oops2:Tax expert too????........think?doh

I had the chance to sell my 2001 F650gs in La Rioja to a judge for $4000 and I passed on the offer because I wanted to say that I rode all the way to the tip. Trust me, that riding the Southern half of Argentina is overrated and you will be happier if you just sell the bike now and rid yourself of the tremendous problem that it is creating for you.

Originally Posted by rauleloy (Post 362824)

Hola Luke

siento lo de tu moto. Unas gotas de aceite quedaron en el piso de casa donde estuvo.
Me parece raro que no puedas conseguir los repuestos, ya que hay muchas de esas motos en Argentina. De Buenos Aires a Mendoza tendrían que estar de un día para otro, el mecánico tendría que tener su proveedor. Si no fueran japoneses funcionan de todos modos, tal vez de inferior calidad pero te permitiría completar el viaje.
Si decidís vender la moto en Mendoza estás violando la ley argentina: todas las motos usadas que entran al país tienen que salir. Si de todas formas la vendés sin papeles tendrás que denunciar un robo para no quedar mal con la Aduana, sos joven y seguramente habrá otra oportunidad de andar en moto por estos lados.
Levantá una copa de buen Malbec a mi salud... y si puedo ayudarte con algo decime
Raúl de Junín