What a turn of events this week was. I decided to just hang out in Lima for as long as it would take to get the bike fixed. I didn’t do too much as I was recovering from all the riding I was doing in Peru the last week or so. This was a much needed break. Main priority was to work on getting the bike fixed. The mechanic wasn’t able to look at it until Wednesday, which was two days after I arrived in Lima. I sort of wasted two days because I should have gone to BMW and had them scan the bike to see what was wrong with it. I should have just asked the Touratech shop to do that but I didn’t. When Wednesday morning finally came around they didn’t start to work on the bike till noon which was frustrating. They asked me to head over to help them out.
Interesting because It’s not a good sign when they call me over to help them out. I hopped in an Uber and made my way over there. The mechanic that was working on it was not the man Ivan I have been hearing about. He started with cleaning the ignition where the key goes in. I was pretty disappointed when that’s the first thing he did before I showed up. Come on man, hook the computer up and scan the code. When I walked in he was poking around the fuel pump and said the problem is coming from there. I was pretty pissed. This guy is just wasting time. I had them bring over the computer with the OBD 2 scanner and we hooked it up to the bike. Boom the codes came up right away. Malfunctioning gear selector sensor which I already knew about and another one about the throttle body on the ride side. This confirmed what I was thinking it was the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor).
I knew there’s a way to reset this in the computer but I didn’t know how because I’ve never actually used one of these programs. I’m too cheap to buy one for $400. I pulled out my phone and found a post on advrider.com and the guy was helping someone else out 2 years ago on an old thread with TPS issues. Dominick put up his phone number so I decided to call it and to my surprise he picked up and was more than helpful to help me out. Dom thank you man you saved my ass in a way and were a huge help and still are. He helped out finding the option in the program to reset the TPS and we did a few other things with the computer.
I love how I show up and I’m paying these guys to work on my bike but I’m the one deciding what to do making all the calls. It’s very frustrating. I don’t get it. Anyway we reset the TPS and the bike ran. It was running fine. I turned it on 20-30 times and it looked like we were in luck. I bought 3 liters of oil so I can change it next week on the road. I decided to stick around in Lima for two more days and ride the hell out of the bike to try to make the problem come back because once I leave Lima there’s really nowhere to go until I get to La Paz, Bolivia. I paid a little money for the work and tipped the mechanic which didn’t really do much. They told me about a shop down the block that had tools that I needed so I rode down there and got my 24mm socket to take the rear wheel off if I got a flat which I left in Ecuador. I went down the block to fill up on fuel since I was almost out and when I tried to start it, you guessed it. The same problem was happening. I decided to take the bike back to my hostel to get some food and I texted Touratech to call Bmw asap to see if they have a TSP in stock. I got some food because I was starving and still no reply from TT. I hopped on the bike and rode over to BMW after it took me about 5 minutes to start the bike. I got there and I found out some real bullshit.
The TSP sensor is attached to the side of the throttle body with two bolts. But BMW decides to sell the whole TB with the TSP attached. Seriously? They won’t sell this $20 part separately. I’m really beginning to hate BMW. Advertise this bike to ride around the world. Yeah, great so what happens when you break down in Kazakhstan or Kenya or Chile. Where the hell are you gonna get these parts from? The guy at the parts counter was pretty much no help at all. The TB kit was $1000 in the USA. But here in Peru it was $2200, BUT they won’t be able to get it for a few months. Fucking useless. I decided to head back to TT to see what I can do there except the bike didn’t start for about 20-30 minutes. Once I finally got it running I raced back over to TT and was told to wait. I was there after closing hours but they were there with me. My man finally showed up. The legend, Ivan.
We tried to recreate the problem for about 45 minutes and we finally did. We figured out it happened when the bike was hot and there was high temps in the engine area. I saw a few BMW’s under a tent and asked what’s up with the bikes. He said they broke down as well and were all back in Europe taking a break from their trips and getting parts. That’s when it settled in. Ivan wasn’t kidding about me having to fly home to get parts. I can’t believe it. They can’t get shit for parts here, and if they can it’s triple the price almost with a ridiculous wait time. Well that was it. I guess I’m flying home Asap to get parts. I can’t believe it.
I was talking to Dom most of the day and he got a price from DHL through a business account for shipping a TSP down to me which is the size of apple AirPods. $200 and I’m sure as shit it’ll get held up in customs for a few weeks. Ivan said I should get a few extra parts as well. I need to come back with a TB, TPS sensor, hell I might as well bring back three of them, a gear selector sensor and a fuel pump. Since most of these parts go and the gear selector was already giving me issues and can lead to problems with the bike not starting. So that was it. I parked the bike at their shop and called an Uber. I found a flight home the next morning at 11am. It was a scramble to get my shit packed up and in storage. I started ordering some parts online that I needed anyway. When I got down here I asked for a set of brake pads just in case I needed some because the mountain rides were killing my new pads I got put on in Quito. Front pads are normally $80 for the front set and $35 for the rear. Well I was quoted I think $400 US for the brake pads. WTF!
I ordered some brake pads as well to bring back with me. I got my stuff packed away and threw it in storage at the hostel for $5 a night. The flight was $300 or around that with the conversion so not bad. I’ll get to go home and see everyone for a bit and get some parts for a good price. Only problem I might run into is I fucking pray that Ivan and I diagnosed the problem as well as we can because if I come down here with the parts and that’s not whats wrong with the bike I’m actually gonna contemplate quitting because this is some shit. I’m excited to go home and make this a part of the trip. I never thought this would happen but I guess it’s all part of the story. I’m not too bothered by the whole situation right now because I’m on vacation, stock market is up and doing really well and this is still better than being at work at home!
So here I am on the flight home now after my layover in Bogota. I was just walking to catch my connection and I heard Marko! What in the hell!?!?!? I look up and there’s two women waving to me. I have no idea who these people are. I walk over and I’m like holy shit I can’t believe this is happening. They asked what happened to the bike and now I feel like a jackass. WHO ARE YOU. I played along and after about a minute I realized holy shit it’s Daniella’s cousin and aunt. I left my bike at their house all summer for storage. They were going to Turkey for a trip. What a small world. I was wondering if this would ever happen to me and here we are. I made my connection and on my way home. I’m about to spend a ton of money on parts but Dom is sending me some because he has three of my engines in his garage which are very specific. So I’ll be home for about 7-10 days. I won’t be uploading anything for the blog because I just want to enjoy my time at home and be off social media and just be present. Once I get back we will throw the parts in and pray to god it works. I’m a bit bummed because I left on the trip early to try to get to Machu Picchu early before the rainy season but it looks like that won’t be happening. See you guys in about two weeks.
I’m 40 minutes into the flight and have another 5 hours to go so I’m gonna keep writing after just putting the laptop away. It’s only been 20 days since I’ve been back and I’ve already seen so much and gone through so much it’s just beautiful. It’s so nice to experience different parts of the world all alone and to be vulnerable in the middle of nowhere. It helps you grow so much it’s unbelievable. Being out here alone especially in the landscape is such a wild feeling. Imagine being on a dirt road with nothing 50 miles for each direction. It’s just you and the bike and that’s it. Half the time you don’t have any cell reception and if anything goes wrong out here there might not be anyone to help you. Riding my bike in the mountains the other week where I caught myself in a bad situation with the bad terrain, I can’t even imagine what would have happened there if my bike broke down there. I would have had to walk 30 miles in either direction through hell to get back to civilization and that’s me having to leave my bike and everything I own there in the mountains. Absolutely wild. I’m so lucky I didn’t break down there but I’m starting to get more comfortable being out there in the middle of nowhere by myself.
I went back through my notes with gramps a bit ago and I have been reading a text he sent me in the beginning of my trip last year because I was so unhappy and full of anxiety and every week it makes more and more sense and I understand exactly what he’s saying even more. Here it is for those that haven’t been around to read it last trip
Give me a call today. But it’s not really about having fun. You can do that here or anywhere. For me the big things that came from that trip. 1st and most importantly I learned to enjoy my own company, talking to myself, being with myself and just figured out how to like and appreciate myself more, 2nd my best experiences were not so much fun or exciting. They were probably conversations I had with people. Random people who I may have sat and talked with for an hour or a few days. 3rd, the beauty, man. The fucking landscapes that are so incredible they make you wanna cry, the beautiful people who want to help you when they have nothing, the way you see families and communities live so strongly together(especially compared to here). And 4th the confidence to figure anything and everything out everyday. That trip is riddled with difficulty, fucked up roads and maps, crooked governments, landslides mudslide, earthquakes, poverty, fucked up border crossings. Days of rain are nowhere to sleep easily. That’s the adventure man. That’s the stuff that when you come home and second guess yourself or feel full of shit about who you are, you remember. You remember that and then know you can do anything always if your mind is right and open. And as I keep telling you, listen to the voice. The world will speak to you. Not the voice in your head but the outside voice of everything.
-Yak
Reading this brings tears to my eyes 75% of the time I read it. I didn’t know what he meant by this in the beginning . I mean I thought I did but the more time passes by and the more south I get on this trip it hits deeper and deeper. Some of you might not really understand. You probably don’t. But I know and I get it more and more now because he’s been here, he’s done it, he’s had the same feelings. He’s an incredible man full of knowledge. There are so many times every single day where I can just picture gramps riding on the same road I’m riding on wondering what he was thinking and its fucking wild that were so far from home and we’ve both ridden the same roads in the middle of nowhere and its just so humbling and beautiful. It’s really such a deep, lovely experience. It’s nice to have him around to talk to about this trip because he 100% gets it. There’s no bullshit out here, it’s all real and raw. Thank you gramps, I appreciate this message you wrote to me even though I’ve told you this so many times. I’m bummed to be going back home in a way because I just want to be here exploring more and getting to know myself more and more. I wish everyone did this in a way. It’s such a good experience to have to make everyone trust themselves more and be way more confident with so many ways of their life. Some people are scared to take a flight to another country even by themselves for a few days and here we are riding in the desert with no civilization for miles and miles and miles in each and every direction where we don’t even speak the language.
