Watch out for gas milage in Patagonia
Í´ve just finished riding Panama to Ushuaia, and back up to Mar del Plata (near Buenos Aires). The only place that I have had trouble has been Patagonia, for two reasons. First, it is so boring (thousands of miles of pampas) that I just wanted to go as fast as possible. The KLR650 with side bags is VERY un-aerodynamic, and at 130 km it is like pushing a wall. This reduced my milage substantially. The other thing is the wind. When it is sideways or coming at you it also drains the gas. Normally I get about 200 miles before I go to reserve, but under the conditions above it has been as little as 120!
Also, I ran into many gas stations in Patagonia that were either closed or out of gas. This is high season, and they sometimes sell out early. For the last 2000 km I got into the habit of filling up often, even if I had only gone 60 or 70 miles. I actually ran out once (first went to reserve, then leaned the bike to get gas into the left side of the tank, then nothing). The VERY good luck was that it finally completely died about 100 meters from a gas station that was open. The gas gods must have been smiling on me!
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Steve Barnett
Panama City, Panama
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