Ruta 40
 

Hey folks how you all doing just a couple of days away from getting down to Ushia wow isn´t the road down here number 3 long and straight not that you can ride straight of course because of all the wind but hey thats life.

I was just wondering if anybody has any upto date info on Ruta 40 quality of the road the amout of time it takes that sort of thing would really appriciate it because I ave heard many rumors!!!!

Thanks Rich

Amount of time for what/where?

It's called Ushuaia by the way.

If you are going to do Ruta 40 make sure that you have lots of spare parts and tools. The condition of the road varies from small gravel to large gravel. If something on your bike breaks the nearest place to maybe find what you need is Commodor Rivadavia.

I know how boring Highway 3 is, but if your bikes are in questionable condition just take it instead of Ruta 40

Someone must have been there recently!!!
 

Thanks for the tips on my spelling!!!! Never said I was smaaart!!! The bikes are in tip top shape. But i heard that the route is shut from a couple of backpackers yesterday and I am on a bit of a tight time frame so don´t want to head up there if it is impossible!!!

Cheers Rich

In Mendoza
 

Hi, i just left the aaa office,i am not sure what was said except theres 50 km not good, i had a friend with me who understood, maybe can relay later. I am looking for others passing thru, maybe talk a bit or ride . take care ,i am going south within a week, fastfreddy

construction ruta 40 for 50km
 

Hi, seems that it is the 50 km south of Chos Malal that has alot o work going on, i think its just real slow going.I ill be there in a week or so myself.

Thanks fast freddy
 

Hey

I should meet you on the road on the way down then. I leave Ushiaia tomorrow I went to the ACA sight and sadly it has very little info. If you see me going the other way stop for a chat I have been in SA now for 4 months nad haven´t bumped into a single other biker!!! Kind of thought that from what people said we would be all over the place!!!!

Thanks for the help though

cheers Rich

Hey Rich,

We're coming down on ruta 3 for the moment. We started in BsAs, and are currently in Peninsula Valdez. Great wildlife here :eek3:
Ruta 3 is indeed not very exiting, but we're going north via ruta 40 so we don't wanna see things twice( till now).

If you pass 2 BMW with a belgian matricula, just stop and share some stories :thumbup1:

See you around hopefully, take care :mchappy:

Paul and Sigrid

maybe we can tell some stories in Bariloche
 

howdy, am now in Malargue, probably in Choos malal tomorrow. will let you know how it goes as the drop south after there is ????? When are you around Bariloche?

moon dust
 

Hi, I lost it in some moon dust, and fractured my ankle. between the big bridge over rio grande and baranca. Going south, went over the top of a rise and there it was 50 m ahead and longer. south bound lane only, but had a truck coming at me, went in and down ,deep shit! Back home now, med jet was great.:oops2: Dakar Motos continues to amaze, they are truly great people, thanks to Javier and Sandra for being there for all of us :clap::thumbup1:

Glad to hear that you are safe though. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Sorry to hear about your accident FastFreddy. Hope the recovery is fast!

I wrote this for another site and figured it might help answer some questions here about the south part of ruta 40. The stretch I am going to talk about is what we did 4 days ago, from the town of Perito Moreno to El Calafate (If you have already been, then you know this is one hell of a long day of riding, it took us 14 hours in total with less than 2 hours worth of stops).

Basically, this stretch of road was the worst we have done on our trip in the Americas so far, not so much because of the driving surface (although it too proved difficult) but because of the intense wind which varied between 40 km/hr to 100 km/hr. What also makes it difficult is the fact that you really are in the middle of nowhere on this road. In fact, we crossed a total of 2 towns before we got to El Calafate, about 650 kilometers away.

Part 1- Perito Moreno to Bajo Caracoles

So basically we went from Perito Moreno, leaving at 5h45 am to the town of Bajo Caracoles 123 kilometers away (this town is not on all maps). In Bajo Caracoles there is a small gas station that is not on the main road but rather in the town itself (on the left hand side of ruta 40 when you first see the town). Some people have told us that if you expect to get gas here it is a good idea to first buy a coffee in the attached restaurant as some motorcyclist who have gone straight to the pumps have been told that there is no gas for them. When we were there we definitely got the impression that buying a coffee before asking for gas was a good idea based on what we saw with some Argentineans that went straight to the pumps.

The good news about this stretch of road is that the first 50 kilometers are paved. After these 50 kilometers the road turns to ripio until you reach Bajo Caracoles. But the ripio in this section was actually quite easy. Basically we were able to go between 60 and 80 km/hr. In total it took us 2 hours to do this part.

Part 2 – Bajo Caracoles to the turnoff for Gobernador Gregores

Things start off ok for the first 50 kilometers with small bends in the road then you get your first taste of real wind as you drive a 50 kilometer straight stretch that gets pounded from the right hand side by gusts coming from nearby mountains. Were you were doing about 80 kilometers per hour your speed will (or rather should) drop down to a still respectable 50 kilometers per hour.
Once done with the straight stretch the road bends towards the Atlantic and you are treated to 50 kilometers of freshly paved road.

Part 3 – Turnoff for Gobernador Gregores to Tres Lagos

Assuming you aren’t going into Gobernador Gregores but rather heading straight down the 40 you are in for 180 kilometers of nothingness and hostile wind. This is the real difficult part and the first section of this stretch gives you a taste of things to come. Where moments before you were zipping along with the wind at your back on a nice paved road going about 110 kilometers per hour or more you are now reduced to 3rd and 2nd gear only (4th gear will remain a distant memory for a while but there are stretches coming up later where you can see if it is still there!).

So right about now would be the time to explain exactly what the road surface is like.
First off, from Perito Moreno to Tres Lagos there are 457 kilometers of which 360 are unpaved. Between these two towns there is only one gas station in the village of Tres Lagos unless you detour to Gobernador Gregores.
The unpaved sections are of varying quality:

-hard packed dirt with some loose gravel (about 20%)
-covered in small rounded stones except for vehicle tracks where the stones have been pushed aside (sometimes 2 tracks, sometimes 3 and sometimes 4) (about 35% of the road is like this)
-Covered in large, mostly rounded, half-fist sized stones except for tracks (about 35%)
-Covered in half-fist sized stones everywhere (maybe 5%)
-Covered in small rounded stones over the entire width of the road (about 5%)

Thankfully there is no sand on this road but because of these varying road conditions listed above your speed can vary between 110km/hr to 25 km/hr (we even had to come to a complete stop on two occasions as the wind kept pushing us off course). The trick is to make sure you are not going 110km/hr when you should be going 25.

On some of the road the tracks are barely visible because they aren’t much deeper that the rest of the road. This is because there isn’t much loose stuff on the surface to begin with. So you can easily zip along even in windy conditions without worrying if (when) you get blown off the track. In other words, the front wheel won’t catch in the stones that have built up on either side of the track if you can’t keep the rubber on the track because there is only a small 1 or 2 inch buildup of stones on either side. But what makes this road a killer is that the stones that have been pushed to either side of the track are often in piles over 6 inches high. So you find yourself driving in a track that is usually about 1 foot wide with 6 inches of half-fist sized stones built up on either side while you wrestle a 60 to 100 km/hr side wind that isn’t always constant. If you get pushed into this going too fast you go down unless you make a split decision to turn into that little wall of stones in which case you will probably make it over but the wind will ensure that you won’t be able to stop until you are in the ditch on the other side of the road.

Part 4 – Tres Lagos to El Calafate

In Tres Lagos there is a gas station. It is about 1 kilometer beyond the turnoff for the town itself. Look on the right hand side. After you have filled up you are on paved roads the entire way except for 20 kilometers of easy hard packed dirt.

So that’s it. We started off thinking to ourselves “this isn’t so bad” as we made our way to Bajo Caracoles. But on the last 5 kilometers before we got into Tres Lagos we were running exclusively in first gear as I was cursing the wind like a madman.

Hope this helps somebody out there!

Eek!
 

Well thanks for the advice Brian.
I'm not due there for another few months, but now part of me thinks I need a friend to share the "picking it up" experiences!:mchappy:

Paddy

I forgot to mention that we were riding 2up fully loaded on an 1100gs. Usually 2up is a disadvantage but in this case I think the added weight helped to keep us on the road.

Another thing, there is traffic on this stretch of the 40 but it is light. We passed about a dozen cars during the day.

You can also buy fuel at Estancia La Siberia, about 80kms north of Tres Lagos, although as everywhere in ruta 40, never aasume they are going to have some in stock.

And if you're really tired you can camp and eat there as well, nice friendly place.

I second what was said about Bajo Caracoles, not particularly friendly people. We waited an hour to get someone to give us fuel, served by some miserable g*t! Despite eating there the night before.

Hat off Brian and Marie: Perito Moreno - Calafate in one day! You must have been exhausted!

I don't think it is a difficult road IF you take your time. Just take your time, the wind (and over-confidence!) is a killer but the road is very wide and flat. It is easy to get too confident when the surface is good, speed up and get pushed by the wind into the soft stuff.

There are much (much!) worse road once you hit the Andes.