You can read my review of the first 6 months and 30.000 km with the bikes here. This review will be a continuation that picks up where the other left off.

The oil consumption on Katrine’s bike developed into a bit of a headache as we made our way into Mexico. The consumption slowly increased and from the soot on the license plate it was evident that the oil was leaving the engine through the combustion chamber. We needed someone to troubleshoot and do a compression and leakdown test. Finding a qualified shop in Mexico turned out to be a challenge. Katrine felt the bike was running fine and the consumption was manageable so in the end  we decided to keep an eye on things as we continued south.

In Guatemala we bumped into Charlie who told me that the CRF 300 was sold in Costa Rica and Chile. Up until that point I thought the model wasn’t available anywhere in Latin America. Charlie could also supply me with the contact info for the head of the Costa Rican CRF owners club. I texted the guy and after some writing back and forth he agreed to set me up with a renowned local shop and help me out.

About a month later we dropped the bike off at the aforementioned shop and they set to work.
They discovered that there were two separate issues with the engine that both caused oil consumption.

  1. One of the compression rings had failed and slightly damaged the cylinder wall.
  2. There was excessive play in both exhaust valve stem guides. It made the valve stem seals leak and had caused a bit of damage to the valves.

Aside from that they noticed that the cam chain tensioner was at its limit and that the weld holding the bracket on the mid section of the exhaust had snapped off the pipe.
The Costa Rican Honda importer didn’t have the parts we needed even though the model is sold in the country. We ended up ordering  a new piston, cylinder and a complete OEM head from the US.

Both bikes had around 48.000 km on the clock at the time and the shop was top notch so we decided to let them service both bikes while we waited for the parts for Katrines engine to show up.
The valves, that had been inspected earlier but not adjusted, were still within spec on my bike. The cam chain was replaced on both bikes.
Drive chain and sprockets that I replaced on both bikes at 41.000 km didn’t need attention. The brakes front and rear looked fine as well.
The service also included new engine oil, oil filter and spark plugs.

The Dunlop Trailmax Missions on my bike still had a lot of meat left after 25.000 km but the front was cupping badly.
Katrine’s Mitas E07+ was about half worn and looked good after 10.000 km. 
There are 4 tires on my short list for the Rallys on this journey:

  • Dunlop Trailmax Mission
  • Heidenau K60 Scout
  • Motoz Tractionator GPS
  • Mitas E-07+ Enduro Trail

The first two  are no longer produced in the right size for the rear wheel. The third was impossible to get in Costa Rica and the last one was crazy expensive.
We decided to mount Dunlop D604 front and rear on both bikes. They received praise as a good 80/20 option from the local CRF riders and could be had for less than half price of the Mitas.

Katrine’s bike was at the shop for 3 ½ weeks. Most of that time was spent waiting for the parts.
The rebuild of Katrine’s engine ended up costing around US$800 in parts and US$150 in labor.

My bike has been running like a champ with no measurable oil consumption since the rebuild at Mancos Motorsports in Colorado.

As you have probably already deduced, we have not ridden nearly as many kilometers in the last six months as in the first. There are a couple of reasons for that.
Our visa only allowed us to stay in the US and Canada for 6 months. There was a lot we wanted to see during that time so we spent a lot of long days in the saddle. Moreover, the roads were generally in good shape and made it easy to cover distance.
As we reached Mexico a 6 month visa and pleasant climate allowed us to slow down.
Closer proximity between places we wanted to see, poorer road conditions and increased traffic contributed to reduce our mileage. It was also during that time that Katrine’s bike started burning oil. It made us less inclined to put “inessential” miles on the bike.

In Europe, Canada, the US and Australia 300 ccm is considered a small bike. That is not the case in Latin America. Ever since we crossed the border to Mexico the bikes have inspired awe among the locals. Down here everything above 250 ccm is considered a big bike. Looking at the general traffic and road conditions I understand why.

Both Katrine and I are happy that we are not riding anything heavier than the Hondas. It makes life so much easier and we have never lacked power or speed potential since we left the US. Unless you are riding 2-up a bigger bike simply doesn’t make much sense down here.

I’ll finish this post with a few numbers for the nerdy ones (like me).
The bikes have now covered 81.067 km/50.373 miles combined.
To do that they have burned 2.493 liters/658 gallons of fuel.
It results in an average fuel consumption of 32.53 km/l – 3.07 l/100km – 76.52 US mpg.

The total service cost on the bikes during the first year:
Katrine’s: 23.055 Dkr/$3.364 – of that 6.531 Dkr/$953 was to rebuild the engine.
Mine: 28.024 Dkr/$4.089 – of that 15.154 Dkr/$2.211 was to rebuild the engine.