What happened today was incredible.
We started the day with 7 motorcycles. We needed to do 100 kms to get to the sail boat. The sail boat the Sharate will cross us the through the Caribbean islands to arrive to Cartagena, the most famous and beautifull place in the Colombian Caribbean coast.
Unknown to me was that 40 kms of those 100 was off-road. The off-road was very challenging, the small bikes took off where the big bikes had to hold back! We cross several mountains, so it was hard up and down hills. I am very happy of the performance of the bike.
Ok....we got to the river crossing !!! ....well...It has been raining the last 10 days in Panama and the river was big!
The small bikes crossed the river with no problem, but the big bikes are much heavier and difficult to maneuver.
It was my turn and as you can see in the video, I have two guys holding the bike and one guy guiding me.
Everything went well until I sank into the biggest hole. The water came all the way until it covered the engine and my bike stooped. With the help of the guys we took the bike out of the water and we moved it inland.
The bike did not want to start and for a good reason!
The engine was FULL OF WATTER....you have no idea...One of the guys (Omar Paulucci), a mechanic from Argnetina (DOC Auto Repair Las Vegas)... and I took the spark plugs out of both cylinders and we started the bike.
It was UNREAL the amount of water it came out right out of the chamber.
Then we removed the air filter. OMG! the air intake AFTER the filter was a pool of watter, I just say... BROWN MUD !
The 3rd check was the oil level...It was over the limit .... FULL of a mix of water and oil. A brown mix that looks like diarrhea
I was forced to clean the air chamber, change the oil filter, remove as much oil/water out of the motor and replace it with the only litre of oil I had.
The fist time I started the engine was horrible (but normal apparently) Plata started on one cylinder, backfiring and making a lot of noise. After idling the motor for more than 30 minutes the sound disappeared and now Plata (despite of having a mix of oil/water in the engine) is working fantastically.
This river crossing took ME 2 1/2 hrs. working in what a BMW shop will call....NOT IDEAL CONDITIONS.
