Day 10 - The Big One on Ruta 40

Frankly this is a day that I feared. 

It turned out to be "Fantastico" on the core Ruta40.

The descriptions of the gravel over two sections of 43 km from the Estancia to the main route, then the 73 km gravel to join the sealed section to El Chalten, sounded "challenging" especially if it became windy. 

We had been warned of loose river-stones gravel, in particular a 10km section in the middle with high piles of loose rubble on each side of the track and a similar section for just 300 desperate metres before the seal.

I have never had off-road motorcycle training unlike all of my colleagues. However, they individually gave me many suggestions, and I listened with interest and care (which is not like me usually). These ideas litterally saved my bacon;

1. Make the bike lighter - so I removed the panniers and top box.
2. Switch to "Enduro Mode" so that the ABS and traction control would not stop me powering-on (with no wheel spin) when I really needed it. And I did.
3. Adjust the tyre pressure carefully, so that there is enough pressure to deal with the stones but low enough to form around the irregular surface. I chose 32 psi rear and 30 psi in the front.
4. Stay in the wheel tracks where possible. This required me to change and automate my counter-steering method considerably, and drive this through the pegs not the handle bars. I practised this religously as I rode and it saved me when the wind blew me sideways. I would definitely have been "off" with out it. 
5. The most useful advice came from Willy the night before, for riding where there was ONLY loose gravel and no tracks. Lean backwards to take the weight off the front wheel so it "floats" on top of the gravel. This worked brilliantly.
6. Lastly, dont grip the bar tightly - let it ride with the variations in the road. This takes some real mental commitment, but it works well.

So I did not fall on this section, despite some wild Llamas and other bikes coming the other way, one of which drove right across in front of me at high speed and totally out of control. Others did fall and I felt for them.

We saw many other intersting things such as a wild armadillo, and some Guanacos (llamas) that had tried to jump the fence, and been caught in the barbed wire, a horrible death.

Then the last 90 kilmoetres were head on into a full gale. Petrol usage went from 4.2litres/hundred kilometres to 7.9!

All together a brilliant and learning day.