Baja Team 6 - The Incursion

since the 1500s at least:

Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1656. The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, which they called octli – later called pulque – long before the Spanish arrived in 1521. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North America's first indigenous distilled spirits.<sup id="cite_ref-blue_history_6-0" class="reference">[6]</sup>

All of these bikes did well for the type of riding we did. I've owned a KLR, DR and currently a WRR.

The WRR with the 6 speed is a plus on the slab. The newest technology of the bunch with fuel injection, decent suspension, good brakes and high wattage for running accessories. The lighest of the bunch but still heavy for a 250.

The DR did fine in the sand, and this one was running a Scotts damper. Also has a Cogent rear shock and Ricor Intiminators in the forks Its a work horse that gets the job done with fewer moving parts.

Can't comment on the DRZ (don't have much seat time on one) but it did great on and off road and seems to be a good bang for the buck.

Best bike for Baja depends on the type of riding. All of these bikes except for the KLR will benefit from a fuel tank upgrade.

Some of the other guys may chime in also.

Fixed.

Pic taken between Puertecitos and Gonzaga Bay. Road is now paved to within 5 miles of Gonzaga Bay. Two bridges under contruction will probably take a couple of months to finish and then the road will be completed. This will open up more tourism to the Gonzaga Bay area, if gringos will travel to Baja. I kind of wished the road would have remained dirt.
The Baja 1000 traveled this road mid-November. We had been right behind them by a few days before and knew the road would be even more rocky and washboarded when we hit the gravel.

Here''s Doug (chabon) doing his "Photoman" duties!!
As you can see, another horrible day in Baja-- maybe high 70's to low 80's.

Of course we had to stop and have a beer with Coco. I told him he made so much money from the Baja 1000 crew that he should retire. His response: "They were cheap bastards"!!
He's not looking good, now has some temoring of his right hand, had on a glove on that hand. His diabetes must be acting up. Spent a good 90 minutes or so bullshitting about life in general.
He warned us of the road to Highway 1, full of big rocks due to rains this summer. he said it takes him one hour to go where it used to take him 40 minutes.

Coco now:




Coco in March 2004.

Good times Baja Team 6....and howdy to the Gunns.........

Don't give away all the Baja secrets, it's going to get really crowded when the road is completed.....

:eek1

New paved road will bypass Coco's whenever it is completed. Going to hard on his business, kind of like when the interstates bypassed all the small towns here.

Not sure why he had the glove on. Don't think he is a Michael Jackson fan???

And Tim got a free beer for hanging up a picture for Coco. Tim had to remove a pair of black panties before hanging the photo. And no, Tim was not wearing the black panties, they were on the wall where the photo had to hang. You guys have sick minds.... (not sure what happened to the panties, they were never seen again).

be patient...

I have a Bmw F650 classic and got the Wr250 after a trip to Copper Canyon. Love the lighter weight and responsiveness of the WR. The 650 would have been fine on this trip, but the WR was just more fun. Its drawback would be highway travel over 65 or 70 mph (13/47 gearing). But we generally moved at 60-65 mph. The 650 is better on southern Calif freeways.

Dia Tres

Guerrero Negro To Abreojos Via San Ignacio

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These guys (Rodrigo y Gabriela) use Yamaha guitars. Never thought about it, but could this be the same Yamaha as the one that makes bikes?


Up early, breakfast at the new Pemex (doesn&#8217;t show up on Google maps yet).


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Mike and I shared a Bimbo.

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Todays destination is Abreojos (eyes open, or lookout - has to do with hazardous rocks out in the ocean).


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Had my new Montana 600 mounted to a Lynx fairing (Britannia Composites Ltd)


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Brad suffered a rear flat tire along the way, this will be the only flat of the trip. Tube seemed to have some abrasions on it. Put in new tube and off we go again. The only other mechanical problem was with Lee&#8217;s Drz400. It kept flooding out, seemed to have a sticky or leaky needle valve. If he didn&#8217;t shut off the petcock when we stopped he would flood out.

Made a little side trip to San Ignacio and breakfast at Rice and Beans. The Bimbo was starting to wear off at this point.


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A few parts from the Baja 1000.


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The road into San Ignacio. This was starting to get good. But alas, this would be our furthest point south.


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Left San Ignacio and headed out for the coast and Abraojos.


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Here is the scene of the flat. Didn&#8217;t take too long to change. Brad did the whole thing dry. I mean with no soap, water, lube etc. I struggle changing tires, this looked easy.


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Ever feel like you were being watched??

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On our way again. Baja has its good areas, and some areas are just kind of &#8216;flat&#8217;! But still interesting and the solitude and vastness of it all keeps it interesting. Still glad I had music to listen too while I rode (SMH10)!


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When we get to town we get directions to the hotel (I think there are 2 in this town). Unmarked building that looks like two story house.


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Nobody camps here. Mike and I share a room,. Room is about $10. If you stay here keep in mind they don&#8217;t have a key for room 4. They lost it (maybe years ago) but nobody locks their doors here. Kind of like the USA 40 years ago. We are only tourists in this sleepy fishing town. Oh, the hotel office sells beer and its only about 20 feet away!


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I go with Brad to get his old tube patched so that he will have a spare.


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We walk around and locate the local grocery store (think small 7-11) and Juanita&#8217;s restaurant. Only restaurant we could find. Not open now but we will return for dinner. Abreojos must have been given some money by the Ministry of Tourism for trash cans. Nice sea creature themed trash cans along the beach. We did notice that this town had no litter and that they must have had trash service. All the houses had 55 gallon drums with trash sitting out by the road. They probably pick it up, go a few miles downwind from the town and dump it in the desert????



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The trash cans seemed somewhat out of place here.



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We gather up and head down to Juanita&#8217;s for dinner. Its only 5:30 and they are not open yet. Knock on the door and some red-eyed dude says they open at 7:00 and to come back. We don&#8217;t want to wait so walk down the road and Mike see&#8217;s a domino game going on. He goes over and does his PR thing (he like to wave his arms while he speaks spainglish). We find out there is another restaurant and set off down the road. Stop at another house where they are having a BBQ and they say to keep going, its past the baseball stadium. Its a long ways and we keep walking. Finally find a beer store past the baseball stadium and the lady says there is no restaurant around here.


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We were crushed, thank goodness they had beer for the boys, and guava juice for me. We head back to town (walking) and go past the BBQ party again. Told them we couldn&#8217;t find the restaurant and they said it was attached to the back of the beer store! Cripes, the lady didn&#8217;t know their was a place to eat 10 feet away! Well, they offer us some tacos, and they were great.


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Didn&#8217;t eat much because we were headed back to Juanita&#8217;s for lobster. Once we get our strength back we head back to Juanita&#8217;s, my feet were hurting now, and a woman walks out and says they aren&#8217;t open tonight. WTF, the guy said to come back. Hungry and tired we head for the grocery store (large closet). Got a bag of chips and a mango juice. Dinner is served.


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And yes, segregation still exists in Mexico. I was not allowed to throw my Guava and Mango juice cans in with the beer cans. I was reprimanded.


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As the beer cans pile up the discussion turns back to Burt&#8217;s SPOT and if it will be found. The number of beers directly (almost logarithmically) affects the volume of the conversation as well as the logic involved. By the time its done there are 10:1 odds that it will not be found. Lee is into it for $400! This is going to be fun. Day after tomorrow we go SPOT hunting.

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Here is a little map of our walkabout looking for a restaurant. It was only a couple miles, felt like more.
CLICK HERE IF HAVING TROUBLE SEEING TRACK --------> View Abreojos in a larger map

We seen signs of Hayduke and Bonnie.

Chabon,

how do you like the Garmin 600? If you would, please tell us what you like / dislike about it. It looks big. Thanks!

...and thanks for the ride report.

Great pic from 2004.....Long live Coco !!

Great ride report, thanks, which front tire worked best in the sand the 19" or 21"?

Coco's state of the art Directv system mounted for all visitors to enjoy!! It's amazing what technology exits in Baja!!

I asked Coco about the very large panties mounted on the wall. Just how big was this woman??

My slightly overloaded DRZ, I didn't listen to BigDog who says "pack light, really light-- you don't need that!!"

Dia Quatro

Abreojos to Guerrero Negro via Bahia Asuncion

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No breakfast except some leftover snacks from market. Head north along ocean. Local trails and roads criss cross the tidal flats and there is a relatively new pipeline road. Pipeline road is washboarded and dusty so given the option take the tidal flat.

This is our road, straight ahead....

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Mike was up front and caught this video of a Coyote.

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Fist long stretch of deeper sand as we started out for the day and then some more heavy sand as we got close to Bahia Asuncion. Of course you never get pictures of the harder stuff as you need to keep up the momentum! This is what I was imagining the riding in Baja would be like, following the coast, no pavement, etc.

Have a little trouble finding a place to eat or first real meal of the day, there were two restaurants in town, one of them hidden on a back road.


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After lunch we decide we don’t have time to make it to Bahia Tortuga and then back to GN before dark so we just take paved roads back to town, with a few rest stops along the way. There is a shortcut across the salt flats that looked interesting, but will save that for a future trip.


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Back to Guerrero Negro to same hotel. Have dinner just a block up the street at an outdoor taco place.

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The german family on their bicycles had made it and were staying at the same hotel. I notice the woman has all her teeth, must have gone to a dentist? Then they come to the same place for dinner and her tooth is gone again? Only explanation I could come up with was a ‘retractable’ tooth. Probably some German bionic device???


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Burt and the boys took a room on the lower level. It was the ‘safe’ room. Bullet proof window in the door, steel door with big hinges and bolts and two big safes in the room. Was it used by the cartels to haul their money up the coast? Story from the hotel clerk was that when an armoured car needed to stop for the night they would come to this location and lock themselves in with all the money. Funny thing was, there was a big bolt on the outside of the door also. Maybe the boss would lock them in so they couldn’t leave with the money in the middle of the night.


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When we return from dinner we bump into David Letterman in the parking lot. WTF! Turns out is David Letterhead, an impersonator that lives in Scorpion Bay. We all hung out in the parking lot and chatted, well, he did most of the chatting.


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http://www.gregletterhead.com/

He almost signed Tim as his Paul Schaffer look alike, but when Tim learned he would have to shave his head he backed out ot the deal. Much brewhaha and (brew) about the search for Burt’s SPOT took place, tomorrow would be payday for somebody.