Baja 3/19-3/26

[rjmorel]

At least its got him to eat his waffles , he's been slacking all winter rj

[Jay In Milpitas]

Turn the map t'other way around. Don Kee will think you're headed to the Bay of Fundy.

[culcune]

Originally Posted by rjmorel

So now my RX3s asking all sorts of questions like "wheres baja?

Totally unbelievable story about your talking bike






Baja is in the DNA of every RX3 since CSC first took the trip...

[rjmorel]

Originally Posted by culcune

Totally unbelievable story about your talking bike
Baja is in the DNA of every RX3 since CSC first took the trip...

Good point. It has been a long ,cold winter. Suppose to get more snow tonight ,Even the lawn mower is getting cabin fever. rj

[BlackBike]

Hey, Donkey Ohty is a great driver, he drove your ASS for the last 5 hours up interstate 82 toward home that night of the iron butt 1000. Really, That was kinda pushing it Rob but impressive.

[rjmorel]

Originally Posted by BlackBike

Hey, Donkey Ohty is a great driver, he drove your ASS for the last 5 hours up interstate 82 toward home that night of the iron butt 1000. Really, That was kinda pushing it Rob but impressive.

All true Blackbike. If I remember right it was kinda a drunk cowboy scenario only I was in La La land from staring at the white stripe all day. Just kinda pointed Donkey in the direction of home and let him run with it. literally.
All fond memories but I'll be turning 60 next month so I am wondering about the sensibility of it all. In my mind I still think I'm a 20yo, But my body is telling me the old six pack abs are fast turning into a real kegger and all the shelf-life and warranty on my body is fast reaching the due date. Maybe Donald can fix it?
I do plan on growing up some day, at least I saw that on my bucket list.
Or not, we'll see.
Till then Donk and I will just kick the tires and light the fires as I Have Baja and Alaska on my NC700x planned this coming summer Lord willing. Plus any other camping rally type stuff work, time and money allow in between.
Aren't these RX3s the best bang for the buck? No complaints, Donks never let me down. rj

[BlackBike]

Originally Posted by rjmorel

All true Blackbike. If I remember right it was kinda a drunk cowboy scenario only I was in La La land from staring at the white stripe all day. Just kinda pointed Donkey in the direction of home and let him run with it. literally.
All fond memories but I'll be turning 60 next month so I am wondering about the sensibility of it all. In my mind I still think I'm a 20yo, But my body is telling me the old six pack abs are fast turning into a real kegger and all the shelf-life and warranty on my body is fast reaching the due date. Maybe Donald can fix it?
I do plan on growing up some day, at least I saw that on my bucket list.
Or not, we'll see.
Till then Donk and I will just kick the tires and light the fires as I Have Baja and Alaska on my NC700x planned this coming summer Lord willing. Plus any other camping rally type stuff work, time and money allow in between.
Aren't these RX3s the best bang for the buck? No complaints, Donks never let me down. rj

yes, i got that sense as i read your post last year . white line fever. we all can relate.

there is something to be said for doing those bucket list things. time is a cruel sob. about 10 years ago now i snow ski'd like there was no tomorrow for several years in a row.(kind of a come to god moment in the beautiful Sierras and the Rockies) the thought was to do it now before the suspension wears out. i could not do now what i did then for sure . i was one of those one direction skiers along the way i discovered the rush of the snowmobile in the mountains and decided to get into 2 wheelers to approximate the great time i had... and to come!

[RedHawk47]

Originally Posted by CSCDude

It will happen, Dan.

So many rides, so little time...

My good buddy Welker has a place in Bahia de Los Angeles and we could do a ride through Tecate, San Felipe, Coco's Corner, and on down to the bay of LA. Would involve some dirt and some awesome scenery along the Sea of Cortez south of where we were on the most recent TT250 ride. Probably involve pseudo-camping and sleeping on the roof at Welker's place if I can talk him into allowing us to stay there. He's pretty easy to talk into things, though, so I think that won't be a problem. If we time it so there's no moon, the stargazing from BdeLA is incredible (no light pollution).

Hmmm...I think I just talked myself into something. Keep an eye on the blog.

If you go to Bahia de Los Angeles there is an interesting side trip - Montevida Cave Paintings - about 10 miles of dirt.

Dan

[Inroads]

Joe has an ongoing Baja blog informative on the upcoming trip as those going know.

I can ask Joe directly as he has emailed the enrolees questions about the trip.

I thought it would be helpful to have an interactive Q and A on the Baja trip here as to not overload Joe with a hundred questions as I know his plate is full.

1) So one question is truck and bike carrier parking ?
I was planning on transporting from Texas to California but have not heard of the
Parking situation if anyone from previous rides may want to chime in.

2) Joe recommends Lucas fuel additive for the trip along with some motor oil.
I was thinking if I brought Marvel Mystery oil that would allow me to bring just one bottle as MMO is a fuel and an oil additive. Not saying one is better than the other but that it would cut down carrying just one bottle.

3) Joe says he brings 2 pair of underwear and sox so is that counting the ones you've wearing and what about going "Commando"?

[DanKearney]

Originally Posted by Inroads

1) So one question is truck and bike carrier parking ?

I did two Baja trips with the CSC folks. Both times Steve allowed us to leave our tow vehicles parked in his locked factory yard about 1 mile from the CSC shop.

Of course, only Joe can answer this question now, as situations change, so I'd direct that to him if I were you.

Enjoy the trip.

Cheers,

Dan K.

[fjmartin]

I had asked Joe B when the trip was first being planned if I could park my motorhome and trailer at CSC somewhere and he spoke with Steve and they said I could. I'd check with him on making sure their is space for more vehicles.

I captured all the blog info from JoeB also and I know he says that we each need to carry all our own stuff and I plan on it but I would be good to discuss splitting up the load somewhat. For example on my 9 day trip to Cali in January and a few thousand miles I didn't burn any oil at all so if I burn some on this trip I'm sure it will be just a few ounces. Having each of us carry a quart with 16 bikes seems wasteful as we could share. Same goes with some of the tools and cables, fasteners, spark plug and other things like I carry a battery jumpstarter, and pump siphon, tire levers, patches, electric pump and spare tubes. I know for the BDR trip coming up we will sit down and figure out who will carry what so we have a complete kit shared amongst the group.

I have to say that I'm generally an over packer. Worse than my wife my a miles but I learned on the Mojave/Death Valley week that I was fine with very little extra clothing. I seriously was fine with just being a dirty guy especially since several of the days were camping with no shower. Since this trip has hotels I am planning on bringing a minimal amount of clothing but to more easily fit them and transport them I'll be putting them in compression sacks. I was able to get ALL of the spare clothing I'll bring for this trip in a test packing in a single compression sack that only took up about 1/2 of the Tourfella top case.

I'm not worried about bike weight for the road portions of the trip but I know now that handling a loaded bike offroad is much more difficult than not.

Really, right now my open questions are:
Tires. I put on my OEM stock CST tires as they roll much nicer than my Shinko 244's and most of this trip is road. but with the 14 miles to the cave painting and the 30 mile optional dirt/sand ride that I want to join in on I'm wondering if the CST's will cut it OK.
Fuel. I had seen a post on Facebook of a guy setting up his bike to carry extra fuel for this trip and a comment from another person saying it wouldn't be necessary as their are plenty of fuel stops with only one being a road side stop to get gas from a truck. So I'm thinking of leaving my 12 liter fuel bladder at home but bringing my Mr. Funnel which filters out water and particulates from fuel for that stop. What are you all doing?

Let's keep this dialog going and we'll see you down there in person!

[Inroads]

Fuel filter sock is a good idea.
A 1 gallon square fuel container fits perfectly on top of the left passenger peg.

Xtra keys is a biggie,I am hiding them on my bike.

Tire sealant: Slime or Ride On.

[rjmorel]

"Really, right now my open questions are:
Tires. I put on my OEM stock CST tires as they roll much nicer than my Shinko 244's and most of this trip is road. but with the 14 miles to the cave painting and the 30 mile optional dirt/sand ride that I want to join in on I'm wondering if the CST's will cut it OK."

I think stock tires will be fine FJ, Just don't play Johnny Dakarbe on the gravel roads and we'll all get home safely. I'll be running a half warn stock front and half warn Shinko 244 on the trip with plans to have CSC replace when I get back from Baja as well as oil change, valve adj, etc.
A fuel filtering device sounds like a good idea, but I don't recall Joe B ever mentioning it to be a problem other then bringing some Lucas fuel treatment. rj

[fjmartin]

Inroads, yes on the spare keys. I am going to be wearing a camelback and it has a snap for keys so I was going to keep my spares there and the main set in my jacket pocket. Had thought about seeing if someone else would carry my spares and I carry theirs but I'd probably forget to get them back at the end of the ride!

RJ, yeah, I'll behave!!! Joe didn't mention it be in reading some articles I'd seen comments about rust in the fuel from road side fills and some water in fuel. The Mr. Filter takes care of both. I need to actually test it out to see how well it flows.

[rjmorel]

" I need to actually test it out to see how well it flows. "

Is yours a 1 filter or 2 filter unit FJ? They look like a good idea. rj