Epilog – A year late!! What-the-heck was wrong with that motor? May 3, 2012

Apologies for dropping off the end-of-the-earth.
Procrastination! I could be a professional procrastinator.

Contrary to what a few of you interpreted in our last post, Lisa and I are still great friends. “Departing ways…” meant she had work in Jacksonville, FL (IBA Daytona BIke Week Dinner) and I was going home in SoCal.

The VStrompasourus Fix!

May 2011 – I had a long time to contemplate the 3K problem. But the first thing I wanted to do was to switch fuel tank/fuel pump from another bike. It took 4 weeks for the bikes to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles, another week to clear customs and a couple more days to be delivered.

The VStroms were uncrated and reassembled – battery cables reconnected, mirrors mounted, windshields mounted, handlebars repositioned, Jesse Bags installed. Lisa had to mount her front tire. My DL1000 cranked right up and I rode it home ~25 miles. And it still sputtered at 3K RPM. Rode home at 30-40 MPH.

6/30/2011 – I’ve finally had time to begin clean up and replacement of broken parts. I removed all plastic, tires, fuel tank, air cleaner housing down to the throttle bodies, front and rear fenders to clean accumulated dirt from Deadhorse to Ushuaia. I have a second 2004 Suzuki VStrom DL1000 that is appropriately named the Scrapasourus. It’s a donor bike for spare parts.

I switched entire gas tanks (fuel pump is inside the gas tank) and the anemic, sputtering, problematic ManStrom leaped to life! The bike is on the lift so I was limited to a stationary revving of the engine. Todays test with a different fuel pump – no 3k cutoff. Increased RPMs up to 7K and no shut down. This is the first time I’ve been able to get the engine RPMs to go over 4K without massive fuel starvation!!!

After putting the bike back together, I rode out to the freeway and ran 40 miles at 70-80 MPH! Replaced the original fuel tank and the engine returned to the sputtering, choking, 30-40 MPH whimpering dog.

The Suzuki dealer in Vina del Mar did do a fuel pump flow through test but I do not remember if it was done at speed. And why we didn’t exchange gas tanks at the Osorno Suzuki dealer just never came to mind! They exchanged and tested every sensor in the fuel injection system. My friend Brian Robert and several others called the problem – a clogged “high pressure fuel filter” inside the fuel pump which is inside the gas tank. I read the work-around and it seemed very complicated. It involved disassembling the fuel pump, drilling a hole through the filter housing at just the right angle and installing an inline filter between the fuel pump and injectors.

Well, it seems the problem with the VStrompasourus 3K fuel starvation is the “high pressure” fuel filter. When I drilled that hole into the high-pressure fuel filter chamber, black thick goop poured out of the hole! I flushed the chamber out a dozen times until clean gas came out. I next had to install an in-line fuel filter between the fuel pump and the injectors.

Now this problem is well documented on many VStrom forums. The best mod instructions are at:
V-Strom Riders International, External Fuel Filter Modification

http://www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php/topic,6105.0.html

We are back in the saddle again!

Lisa will probably want to add some final remarks about our TransAmericas motorcycle ride. I’m off to another riding adventure in Europe.

Lisa:

This is funny – I’ve been on Deano to get this done for almost a year and today it pops up in my inbox! But no surprise, we have drafts of our 49 state ride as well as our 2001 Iron Butt Rally that have never gotten done. Oh well. As hard as it is to sit down and write this stuff when you’re on the road, I am sooo happy we did because it’s a great reminder for me of our fabulous adventure.

In hindsight, we did a lot of things right and a ton of things wrong. But as we have talked about it for the last year, I wouldn’t change much because it’s the harder parts of it that actually provide the sweetest memories. The truck driver who rescued us from the hell hole/mud pit known as Bolivia, the small towns who embraced the two stupid gringos and helped us more than we could have hoped, and on and on. I wish I had studied some Spanish before – that is the single thing I think could have improved the trip. Well, that and a whole lot more time to spend away.

If I had the chance, I would do the trip again in a heartbeat. I know certain things we would do differently but I can’t imagine it would be a richer experience. My take away from the trip is that people are wonderful, we live on a beautiful planet and the best way to facilitate personal growth is to get outside your comfort zone. Basically I was so far out of my comfort zone  for the entire trip that after a while even that nagging discomfort felt normal. I was a non-Spanish speaking female in a male dominated culture, taller and blonder than most of the population for a large part of the trip and traveling on a (for them) HUGE motorcycle with a man who was not my husband. As I think about it, I know the experience changed me and empowered me, making me less wary of that often uncomfortable place we call New Experiences.

I guess that’s it for us on this, now a year removed. But for those of you who stopped back in to read this, please know that your posts to us were precious and super important. Sometimes we felt pretty exposed, a little raw and very far removed from home and your notes were wonderful, encouraging and just like getting a warm hug sometimes. So thanks a million for hanging with us! Now on to Dean’s latest adventure…..

FIRST NOTICE
If you do not want to be on this BLOG about me wondering around Europe on a motorcycle, send an e-mail to me, dtanji@gmail.com, and I will delete your e-mail address from this list. The TransAmericas ride (Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina) Lisa and I rode was a true adventure (at least it was for me). My 2012 riding in Europe is a “smell the roses’ ride which will center around beer, mountain passes, apple strudel, gelato, and most countries between Germany, Italy, Romania, and Norway.