Rain sucks. Let's go to Baja.

[Whammo]

March 3rd.
6 of us decided it was a good time to head south and do a little dirt, drink a couple of beers, and have a few tortillas with shit smeared on 'em. We had a week plus a couple of days on either side to spend in Baja, and were determined to make the most of it, even if the weather wasn't (initially) on our side. Unfortunately, we received word that one of our celebrity guests wouldn't be joining us due to an unforseen relocation.....
cRAsH, playing the adult of the group, heeds other obligations. He is missed.


And then there were Five.
The cast:


SF to the border.

Tiny and I arrange to hook up after work with Lone*Star at a Cheveron in Gilroy, then blast down the 101 for a few hours. Arroyo Grande was to be our objective that day as a warm, dry, toasty room was waiting for us. Thanks Ron
Next day, it's off to Brattin Motors in San Diego since new rubber for our beasts was needed. If you ever find yourself in the 619, you can do a lot worse than to see Gary and his great crew at Brattin. Top Job! Fast, fair and friendly! Meanwhile, we are joined by J-L and Ed. The mad Frenchman, however, leaves us temporarily for the local KTM shop as his bike is belching a bit of it's precious bodily fluid.
Reunited, the group heads off to the campground that was to be our staging area before crossing the border the next day. Unfortunately, a deluge following our dismount at said campground had us scurrying for a plan "B". Now, there's nothing wrong with a little rain if you're ready for it, but setting up your shit in the rain, at night, with the promise of packing soaked gear the next day didn't sound like what the group needed this early in the trip, especially after getting dumped-on most of the 520 miles to reach this point. A quick call to my brother (we'll call him Eli) who lives in a part of town much like our own SF (we'll call it the Castro) provided us with a garage for our bikes, a roof over our heads, and all the pizza, beer, and Ali-G we could handle. Thanks Bro

Next morning, there was daylight to be leveraged, miles to be made, and crazy-ass mechanical problems a-plenty.

Yup, everything's still there.


Staging area.


My brother's (recently de-tuned, but still badass) WRX.


Tiny manhandling, making it look easy.


Who hasn't gotten this look from a "car guy"?


It's off for coffee, gas and a final F-U from the mechanical powers that be before crossing the border. At the gas station, Tiny's bike sounds like the fan is running even after the bike is shut-off. There are at least two things wrong with this diagnosis:
1. It's not warm out.
2. He's riding a GS.
Seems the ABS pump decided to actuate and stay that way. For good. No fuse-pullin' was going to fix it either, so it's off with the tank, remove a few panels, and yank the hot (ouch! yea, that's it) lead from the ABS unit. Problem solved.
Tecate was to be the crossing location, and we couldn't have made a better choice; there were great, hilly roads leading there, it was not at all crowded, great roads leaving there, and Tijuana sucks.

We received some great advice from this fella who was riding his KLR south of the border for breakfast (some guys know how to spend retirement), and we're off!

Next stop, Baja!
More to come. Feel free to add your own photos and stories, boys...this should be a good one.

[turkish]

More! More!

[Jean-Luc]

Originally Posted by Whammo

A quick call to my brother (we'll call him Eli) who lives in a part of town much like our own SF (we'll call it the Castro) provided us with a garage for our bikes, a roof over our heads, and all the pizza, beer, and Ali-G we could handle. Thanks Bro

Yep, that room was really welcomed!



Hey, who could guess that they are brothers???


3 BMW GSA, 2 KTM 950: the final team is ready to go:


Too much electronic?


And we are not even in Mexico yet . But nothing resist to Tiny & Whammo and soon we are on the road.


Yep, we can thank this guy enough for some of the best advices we got for this trip. He's over 70 and still explores Baja


YEEEEEESSSS! We are now in Mexico - Crossing in Tecate was such a good choice...

[Red Bull]

So we are months into a Mexico (very remote) trip, and after not being anywhere near anything, we need to go to this small town for gas... and look who we met in the circula! I had just burst a fork strut (still thinking it was a oil cooler) so I did not have much time to chat... so it was a quick exchange of ADV rider best wishes and we were off again going separate directions! Later I would fill-up in questionable gas, and burn my exhaust valve more than 100 miles south of the border so I rode "Red Bull" as a thumper to the San Diego BMW dealership.... where they robed a valve, (replaced the blown fork seal) and new tyres... and one my way again!

[Lone*Star]

Originally Posted by Jean-Luc

Yep, we can thank this guy enough for some of the best advices we got for this trip. He's over 70 and still explores Baja

Elden's advice really added to the enjoyment of our trip. He has a website dedicated to what he calls "Multisurface Motorcycling."

There is a good article there on riding an 1150 through Baja.

[Lone*Star]

Originally Posted by Red Bull

So we are months into a Mexico (very remote) trip, and after not being anywhere near anything, we need to go to this small town for gas... and look who we met in the circula!

Hi Red Bull

I was a pleasant surprise to run into you in the middle of almost nowhere. Hope you had a great trip.

[traveltoad]

About friggin time you guys got this thread started!!!!!!!

[Popey]

Yes, a big thank you to Elden, who was the wrong side of 70 but looked younger and was in better shape than all of us 30 somethings. Pretty awseome timing to run into him at the border. He delighted in telling us he'd been riding Baja since before we were born




He gave us great advice on the washed out dirt roads in the area close to the border. Within a few miles of the border we hit the soft stuff.

Tiny. This was one of those photos where I thought for a split second that I was toast




We were soon totally lost in a maze of roads, where Lone Star christened the trip with the first head plant (photo anyone!), but this nice ranchero unlocked his gate and let us back onto the main drag.

[Popey]

Heading south for San Felipe.

[Cornfed]

You guys rule. Rain, shine...these boys just do it.

[Whammo]

Originally Posted by traveltoad

About friggin time you guys got this thread started!!!!!!!

Sorry, geeeeez....

[Popey]

Originally Posted by Vance

You guys rule. Rain, shine...these boys just do it.

Vance, stay tuned, Tiny and Whammo have a photo 'just for you' but it's a few days down the road. Cheers.

[Cornfed]

Originally Posted by Popey

Vance, stay tuned, Tiny and Whammo have a photo 'just for you' but it's a few days down the road. Cheers.

Uh oh....Now I'm wondering what I left with my name on it at Coco's corner or something!

[dirtrider]

Great start guys - keep it up.

[Jean-Luc]

Entering Mexico is always a sobering experience. Although Tecate is a much better place than Tijuana, the contrast in those few miles on each side of the border is quite shocking .


We took the 3 East and were looking for a dirt trail going south. Allen from Scuderia had told us about a great dirt road going in the mountain through the “National Park of the 1867 constitution�. However, Baja California Norte got quite a lot of rain this winter, just like its US counterpart and Elden had warned us about not taking that road because of all the big washouts in it. He recommended the one just west of it.


It was my first riding experience in Baja and despite all my readings I was not sure about what to expect and how a dirt road in the map would actually look on the terrain. And the not so detailed Garmin Word map was not too helpful either. Long story short, we never found the right trail and were wandering in minor and sandy trails for a while. It felt good though: no dust, no rain, everything was green and the group’s pace was fine (if only we were going “somewhere� ).





That's when Lone*Star decided to inaugure the first crash of the group (but not the last!).





As usual the bags are the first thing that suffers but this time there was also "this"



L*S working on his bike with all the (psychologic?) help of his companeros...



Fixed!