Saturday Mar. 10, 2007
I've learned it's nearly impossible to estimate the time it will take to travel between two places in these countries. They may not look far on a map, or even be that far apart in actual road kilometers, but you can almost guarantee that it will take longer than anyone estimates to travel these roads. The incredible abundance of twisty roads here, roadblocks, construction, military or police checkstops and of course the weather continually muck with your time expectations. Almost for fun now I ask someone how many hours it will take to get somewhere, because without fail they always look at the bike and answer "4 hours by car, but 2 hours with that bike".
Shortly after I left Bogota and started to experience my first glimpse of the stunningly beautiful countryside, I crossed paths with two Brits heading north on BMWs, so the mandatory stop and chat was required - nothing special, they were just out for a little ride through the Americas like me. Shortly afterwards I came across another Brit riding a BMW F650GS solo. My chat with him revieled he was an off-road riding instructor for BMW who was riding to Bogota to meet two Dutch riders to attempt crossing the Darien Gap. Unfortunately I never followed their progress, but it was obviously a very difficult challenge that also required a fair bit of insanity (I believe it has only ever been completed by two other motorcyclists - and then just barely with their lives intact). He was an interesting chap who had prepared his bike with a crossbar between the forks and beneath the front fender so that he could inflate a large inner tube around the entire bike so it would float in water. When our visit was over and he tried to ride up the 50 mm (2 in) step from the small shoulder of the highway he fell over. Obviously, an embarrasing moment for such an experienced rider, but a reminder that everyone falls and I felt just a little better about some of mine.
As I continued to climb higher into the mountains the temperature dropped and the clouds and rain reduced my visibility for a shory time before I entered the "zona cafeteria" (coffee zone) which encompasses 3 or 4 small cities (including Pereira) and countryside where lush green farms (you guessed it, mostly coffee) and beautiful flowers line the highways. Surprisingly, there are no Starbucks or fancy coffee shops in any of these towns - they are all still pretty basic - and almost all the good coffee is exported because the locals can't afford it.
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I was looking forward to my visit to the Suzuki factory just outside Pereira where I was hoping to get a tour of the plant and pickup a new front wheel to replace my bent one from the rock in Honduras. I was surprised by their hospitality and interest in Buzz. They had a photographer take pictures of us, fed me lunch, gave me some nice Suzuki clothes, a personal tour of the plant, a discount on parts from the dealer in town and a dealer list for all of South America.
I loved seeing how a bike was made and surprised to see so many V-Strom 650s there. Here are a few statistics from this plant:
- They employ approx. 500 employees.
- Some frames are welded here, some parts painted, others come from various locations around the world for assembly here.
- They sell directly to dealers in Colombia (assembled) and export to Venezuela, Ecuador & Costa Rica (crated).
- They can assemble a small bike like the AX100 (their most popular model that sells for approx. $1200 US) in 45 seconds.
- They can assemble a big bike like the V-Strom 650 in 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
- The V-Strom 1000 is imported completely assembled because they don't sell many in these countries.
Unfortunately, there was some kind of mixup with my front wheel (I'm starting to see a pattern here). Instead of being $171 US like they said it would be in Costa Rica, it was now over $1000, so a new one was out of the question. And that's when I heard something I thought I'd never hear a manufacturer say "our dealer can have that fixed for a few dollars and it'll be as good as new". This was the same logic I had experienced before (repair rather than buy new), but typically only in moto-zones where economy was the prime concern. I still wasn't used to thinking that way, and as I found out later, Colombians are even more resourceful than Central Americans. I guess if the factory recommends straightening my wheel then it must be OK.
I try to do most of the maintenance on Buzz myself, but since my next stop was at the dealership in Pereira for the wheel, I thought I'd have them replace the steering head bearings and a few other things also. Guillermo, the shop foreman was great. He let me walk right into the shop during the day and talk to the young mechanics (Alex & Ramiro) or work on my computer. The level of customer service I received was incredible and I couldn't believe how little the price was for all their labor and parts. I was invited to their homes for meals, taken on rides around the city and Alex even gave me some candies from Colombia and a letter telling me what my visit meant to him.
On one ride with the mechanics around town, while I was stopped at a red light in the right lane next to the curb, a nice looking labrador type dog walked by and for no reason decided to jump up and put his front paws on my right forearm. He was friendly and I wasn't nervous, but the guys really started laughing when he decided to start chewing gently on my arm with his open mouth - as if it were a game bird. On another day it rained so hard that the roof in the shop and showroom leaked a bunch of water into the building, the alarm siren sounded for hours and everyone switched to cleanup mode.
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Other items I noticed here in Colombia: Police often drive around with their emergency lights on for no reason, so you never really know if they are after you or not; trucks, buses and motos have no standards for lights - some have blue fluorescent lights all over them, others have strobe lights, some leave their high-beams on all the time and others drive around at night without any lights; most drivers are fast and can never decide on a lane, often straddling the dashed line for miles while jockeying for a better position, most vehicles are courteous towards motos and allow them to flow between cars like sand through an hourglass; police and military presence on the highways is obvious - I've seen as many as 20 military checkpoints in 100 km (62 mi) on the highway; you can pretty much do anything you want (passing on the right-hand shoulder on the highway, riding on the sidewalk around cars to get to the front, double the speed limit, going through red lights when nobody's there) and the police won't stop you; there's enough fruit here that I've never heard of before to fill a truck.
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