Is Mexico Safe?

[tricepilot]

Originally Posted by jimmex

I'd lose the tail box as well; sticks out too far behind the axle and too heavy.

Feck. Good thing I didn't post a pic of my GS mountain bike rack.

[tricepilot]

Originally Posted by PirateJohn

I had hoped ... and had thought about

We really need to help you get these words and phrases out of your vocabulary

[crashmaster]

Originally Posted by tricepilot

Where is this pic from, La Paz?

Yeah, its been a bit cool there this winter.

[jimmex]

Originally Posted by crashmaster

Yep.

This is probably the best option for dirt riding, take all those bars and crap off around your pillion seat, strap it to the bike and go: http://www.giantloopmoto.com/product...asin-saddlebag



They also make an additional dry bag that straps to the back of it. Good option to use for your KLR as well. For extended Baja trips on the 990 I just take the Giant Loop, then strap my tent and sleeping bag to the rack with Rok straps. That set up works pretty well for me anyway. You probably won't fill up the giant loop, it holds a lot of shit.

Also, I would probably put a proper knobby on the front. Front washouts tend to hurt.

What Vince said. The Giantloop with soft bags (tent, sleeping bag, pad) strapped either to it or the rear rack will probably weigh about the same packed as the hardware you would remove. Plus the weight will be lower on the bike. I have a GL Great Basin if you want to try it out or borrow it.

[jimmex]

Damn, this is making me want to go riding.

[Turkeycreek]

TP, Jick,

I see it every day, more middle class Mexicans come to our hotel. More Mexican mining engineers and entrepreneurs looking to sell new products to the mines here. We have local kids, sons and daughters of field workers and house keepers attending Universities studying everything from tourism to medicine to agriculture. Add to this that birth rates, Tom Friedman's poorly researched article notwithstanding - he couldn't even bother to get Mexico's population right - are now on par with birth rates in the US. Yes, the 7 kids of the last generation are all having kids but they are having 2. Believe it or not, this portends a labor shortage here in Mexico in the next 15 to 20 years.

I am all in on Mexico.

[tricepilot]

Vinny is aware of the purpose of this trip, he and I have been talking in the background. He has given me some excellent routing tips given the fact I'm not taking the KLR.

This is simply a Baja recon with minimal dirt.

I'm accumulating new bags from Wolfman for the KLR as we speak.

I'll return to Baja for a proper off-road trip on the KLR.

Simply, going to run the length of the peninsula and then back up to the ferry and across the pond to the mainland. There are some targets in Guerrero state to knock down after Baja.

[Pedro Navaja]

WTF with PJ and Schizz? Did y'all get the tape measure out to see who wins?

Actually you are both correct. It's just a matter of perspective. As an example my first time into a new area I will generally take the libres so I can see more, but if I've been to an area already and have to go through it again on a subsequent trip, then I will use a cuota and just blow through. Depends on how much time I have for the total trip and on what the trip objective is for that specific trip.

WRT mileage. I try to keep it to no more than 350 miles per day. It's 400 miles to the border for me and that's my longest day. Depending on sunset, my mileage varies. I try to stop about 1.5 hours before dark. That leaves me enough daylight contingency in case I have to do a roadside repair, or to seek auxiliary for a repair.

The question that was posed in the PJ-Schizz debate was whether to go on to Torreon or not since Parras was not a "party town" enough for the crew riding with the dude who asked the question. Yes, they could go on to Torreon, but does one really want to "party" in Torreon? If you are looking for some strange trim in Torreon, I would look in other places. Skirt-chasing in Latin America is not done as a group hunt like it is here in Gringolandia where you go cruising with your buds on Saturday night. The knowledgeable womanizers hunt alone, and they don't go to the puteros (like Boys Town) either So, if you want quality strange, you will have to have a class act, not a drunken stupor "I'm a bad mother-fucker" act.

[SchizzMan]

I'm with Jimmy and Vinnie. Losing my tail box in favor of a dry bag system.

Vinnie, is that black bag the one that has a smaller bag that straps on top? Kathy at Lone Star was showing that to me recently. Looks like a great system.

Looking at the Giant Loop bag for the WRR.

[Pedro Navaja]

Originally Posted by tricepilot

...I'll return to Baja for a proper off-road trip on the KLR...

Not to lecture, but I thought you came to the realization after Galeana that the KLR is a pig. How about a DRZ 400 for the dirt?

[Pedro Navaja]

Originally Posted by SchizzMan

I'm with Jimmy and Vinnie. Losing my tail box in favor of a dry bag system...

Like SealLine bags?

[crashmaster]

Originally Posted by SchizzMan

I'm with Jimmy and Vinnie. Losing my tail box in favor of a dry bag system.

Vinnie, is that black bag the one that has a smaller bag that straps on top? Kathy at Lone Star was showing that to me recently. Looks like a great system.

Looking at the Giant Loop bag for the WRR.

Yeah, the smaller dry bag straps on the back of the giant loop. The giant loop would be great for the WRR as would the Wolfman system.

Trice ought to sell that KLR and get a WRR with a Safari tank for the dirt. EFI, 65 mpg and about the same power/weight as the DRZ but with much better suspension, and first valve check at 26,000 miles! I love that WRR, its bulletproof. Sure, its a 250, but as Big Dog says, "it only takes 12 hp to go around the world, the rest is wheel spin."

[michaellmcc]

HeadShriniker, Ozarknzrider, and I were in Bato this past week. The loose gravel-egg sized rock-fist sized rock-head sized rock-volkswagen sized rock blast zone-wait two hours for the bulldozer to clear eat dust road from the bridge to town was fine.

It looked something like this:

[PirateJohn]

Originally Posted by Pedro Navaja

The question that was posed in the PJ-Schizz debate was whether to go on to Torreon or not since Parras was not a "party town" enough for the crew riding with the dude who asked the question. Yes, they could go on to Torreon, but does one really want to "party" in Torreon? .

I was mostly just curious. Riding back to Mazatlan in a day or two holds appeal to me and I have never been to that area. There was another gentleman (non rider as far as I know) on another forum who lived in some town near Torreon and he wrote a few years ago that they were having a lot of military action.

At one point an armed group without insignias rolled into town, went to a local restaurant, locked the doors, took everyone's cell phones, went back out and rounded up several locals, returned to the restaurant, returned the cell phones, and paid for everyone's dinner. Within a few minutes of them leaving town the uniformed military showed up.



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[SchizzMan]

Originally Posted by Pedro Navaja

As an example my first time into a new area I will generally take the libres so I can see more, but if I've been to an area already and have to go through it again on a subsequent trip, then I will use a cuota and just blow through. Depends on how much time I have for the total .

Bingo! That's the typical mode of the "long-legged" Mexico rider. When (if) I retire then I hope to take my time and see it all. Till then........