Going All Out!

One day I came up with this crazy idea to buy a motorcycle and travel from Portland Oregon down through Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, up and around to the Florida Keys, up into Virginia Beach VA to see friends, then on to Buffalo NY to see Niagra Falls, Chicago to visit family, and then take the Trans American Trail back to Oregon. I'm not a writer or a photographer but I do have the adventure bug. I don't have years of experience riding but I would like to think I have the ability to pick things up pretty quick and I have a pretty good head on my shoulders. I convinced my buddy Paul to come with me part of the way so you might see some similar pics on his threads. I realized I should have started this thread September 23rd when we started but better late then never. I'll stop boring you with all this BS so I'll get started.

Here is the whole trip.



My new 2008 Honda XR650L with a few mods.



I'm using a old military toolbox to store my laptop on the ride.



Spent a day at my buddies customizing a rack. I wasn't planning on spending hundreds of dollars for a $30 rack. Sorry I don't have pics of the rack alone but here is a pic with it all loaded up. I ended up returning home to drop some of the stuff I could live without and downsize on the sleeping bag. I don't know what I was thinking. I tried adding some foam to the seat but it didn't help that much.



Day 1 and I already have problems. About 2 hours into the ride I stopped to ask Paul if he needed any gas or food. As I pulled into the gas station and turned around to see if Paul was behind me I noticed my bike was smoking. I thought to myself that this might be the end of my trip. What happened was the saddle bags put pressure on the plastic panel that protects your leg. The exhaust has a small piece of metal that keeps the plastic away from the exhaust but I guess the engineers didn't realize that the metal attached to the exhaust might get hot. Well, it did and melted through the plastic, then through my water proof bags, into my extra quart of oil and almost igniting a road flare which was next to 2 arousal cans. That would have been a loud firey mess. Yes, turning around did cross my mind but come on, if that was day one then I want to see what happens on day two.

Luckily Paul had a aftermarket heat shield that he let me borrow/have.



Really? Thats all they could think of?





We finally made it to our friend Anna's house for the night. Thanks Anna!



The next day we headed to the coast to camp. We decided to take the short route which turned into the mountain route. We ended up camping on the beach for the night.







Day 3
We rode along the beach in CA and saw some big ass trees.









We ended up spending a couple days at my cousins to catch up. I also spent some time putting on hand guards and fixing my melted bag. Black shoe goo worked like a charm.

Jumping jehosophat, this is gonna be an epic RR! :eek1

In like flynn

Giddy the Hell Up.

THANK YOU! Looks to be an incredible trip, post away!

by the way... you look like an ape on that bike

I will take that as a compliment

Nice bike.

Is there any reason why you are just kind of going into and out of Guatemala in the southwest? You can route through Guatemala into Belize. I realize the route that you are looking at from Guatemala back into Mexico and then up and around to Belize is pretty much going to be awesome, but the sights along there can be day tripped when you are coming back from the Yucatan.

Looks awesome dude. I wanted to do similar last year... I might have to sneak out the door one weekend and take off to "arkansas" and bring my passport.

If you need me to fabricate a small rack to keep you saddlebags off the exhaust let me know and I'll ship it to you.... Where are you now anyways?

I did the same thing in Mexico last month... I used a vienna sausage can crammed in there...

Looks like the start of a great RR....



Cheers

Dave..

nice start

I like it........have fun and good luck!

Todd

So you started September 23. You must be back now, right?

I'm in for the long haul

That should of been one hell of a ride. More please

1) I will be staying in Guat for 3 weeks and I will be doing side trips throughout Guat but I don't know where to go yet. I'm in contact with some other riders that will hopefully show me around.
2) A rack would have been nice but I will survive without. Thanks for the offer thou.
3) I'm currently in Puerto Vallarta
4) The vienna sausage can is freaking BRILLIANT!

Not even close! I stopped here in Puerto Vallarta to learn some spanish and fell in love with a mexican girl. Long story short.... it's been 3 months and I'm headed back out on the road starting Feb 9th.

Day 5-6
We awoke this morning at 4:30 with a rooster crowing up a storm so we grabbed some breakfast, checked my oil, (which was really low) and then headed out. We made good time until we stopped for lunch when my bike decided to try starting itself over and over. I had a alarm put in before I left which came with a tilt sensor, automatic starter, and a couple of other fancy options. When I stopped, I turned the key to off and then the starter kicked on. I hit the kill switch, took out the key but nothing helped. I turned the key back to on and it started the bike back up. I didn't have a clue what to do so I let it run until we found a bike shop to go to. By the time we got to the shop and turned the bike off, the battery was dead. One of the mechanics jumped my bike which must have reset the the alarm and it was working again. I didn't want this to happen in Mexico so I had to get it fixed. We had to wait to get it fixed because the shop we were at couldn't fix it for a couple of days. I've had a little bad luck on this trip but really, it can't any worse.....right? Once again I forgot to take pics.

On my way through Cali I saw this and started laughing. Free water and air... just push the button, but first insert money.



Day 7

Today I once again was woken up with a loud noise. It wasn't a rooster, it was a chainsaw! After a good laugh I took my bike in and had the guy disarm the automatic starter and top off the oil. We asked him if he heard anything about Baja and he basically said to be really careful. I forgot to mention that we met a guy while we were getting some coffee yesterday. He started asking about my bike and our travels. Once he found out we were going through Baja he suggested that we find a different route or be especially careful between TJ and Ensenada because of all the highway robberies. I checked out some reports online and it was true that it has been getting worse ever since they got a new governor. Paul and I went with our gut feeling and decided to go the main land route. We are staying in Yuma and will be heading out tomorrow with confidence that we won't be having any problems.

Arizona





Day 8

LOL! Weeeell, today I woke up excited, thinking I would be drinking Coronas in Mexico tonight, but fate thought differently. Paul's radiator fan wasn't working. So we headed back to Yuma to get it looked at. Go figure, nobody has tires or parts for either of our bikes. So once again fate gives us another wedgie. If we can't fix it then Paul will be heading to Phoenix and then home and I will be crossing over into Mexico by myself. LOL, I will never forget this trip, it's such a pain in the ass! At least we are both getting a good laugh out of it. Paul checked the fuses and they were fine so I checked the schematics and realized that there was a hidden one. What do you know, we are back on the road.

Heres Paul working on his bike in 101 degree weather.



Day 9
Since we needed to make up some time, we headed out at 7. The border crossing only took an hour to get our visas and vehicle registration. It was 101 degrees today and I can only imagine how hot it was with all my BLACK protective riding gear on. We made it to Hermosillo at 7, only 12 hours! All I ate today were MRE's so I was itching to try some good old fashion Mexican food and boy o' boy was it tasty! Nothing like some hairy salsa.... use your imagination. Oh and I don't want to forget to mention the cockroaches on my bed, you gotta love Mexico. Every day seems to make me wonder why I'm here.

US/Mexico border



The only shade for miles



Front of the shrine



Inside



And the back where they are saving all the glass from the candles.



Day 10

We decided to take a couple days off so we headed to Bahia de Kino. It was nice to just relax for a while and take in some amazing sunsets.

Our motel



The view from our motel

Day 12
Paul came up with the idea to visit a small little town called Alamos so we ended up taking a small detour.

Our hotel



Dinner in a.... restaurant/home? It had laundry hanging out to dry on the side if the building.





Around town






Day 13
We woke up and road all day until we arrived in Mazatlan at sundown.



Day 14
We took a quick tour around Mazatlan without our gear and man it felt good.





We headed out on the road again and right outside of Puerto Vallarta we stopped to take a break. The twisty roads, busses, melon trucks, and road construction can really wear you out, mentally and physically.



We arrived at Paul's friends house just in time. It started to pour.



For the next couple days while I was trying to find a place to live I had to deal with my tasty looking alarm clock that would wake us up at 2am 4,6,7,9,11... well pretty much all day and night. It didn't help that there were about 12 of them.



Day..... I don't remember
I found a place to stay while I study some spanish.




I don't have a view of the beach but it's in the centro and only 2 blocks away from the beach. It costs 4600 pesos, so about $350 a month with all the utilities.

View from my window/balcony




I get to see this almost every night




The next update will be a overview of my 3 months in PV. I will try to keep it short.

I want in on this trip. It looks very nice.

Awesome RR. For me, the fact that you're doing it on an XR650L makes it even better. I take it you're sporting the Acerbis 5.8 gallon tank there. How do you like it and how many miles do you get on a full tank?

Fabulous pics and RR! Makes me want to go back to Mexico.

If you have the time and money you are more then welcome to join me and that goes for everyone else.