After lunch we did a little stint on the pavement. Mike, Yossarian, LifeinSepia Photo by BentAero (I think) If you drink Corona, you could literally be killing people, at least pay them proper respect and drink Tecate. When we first hit dirt, we got a little separated. Some guy in a truck saw me coming and decided to do a four wheel drift around the turn towards me. I missed the bed of his truck by about a foot. It was starting to get a little late, jch4 So, here's the thing, it rained HARD for 2 days a day before we got here. the road was PERFECT. bentaero and norcalslowpoke Yossarian jch4 The sun started to set... And then the sky exploded. As the sun set, I had a 15 mile sort-of race where I was right behind LifeIn Sepia, both of us haulin ass. It was beautiful, and fast, and exhilarating. Unfortunately after this I really don't have a lot of pictures. But the road was amazing. If you wanted to slide you could, if you wanted traction it was there. There was no dust, you could go as fast as you wanted, it was twisty and just the funnest roller-coaster I've ever been on! I did almost die once though, I came upon a cattle guard at the top of a hill. it was made of solid concrete sloped at like a 30 degree angle. On both sides was a barbed wire fence, and the opening was pretty narrow. When I got right up to it, I realized it was a 2' wide concrete 'hole' with grating for tires on each side but nothing in the middle. I goosed it and LAUNCHED off the top of the hill, landed as the road turned sharply and dropped back downhill with my heart beating 1000 times a minute. There were occasional surprises coming out of the dark And the occasional mud hole. We ran into a 4x4er and his GF broke down in the middle of a WAY dark road. So we pushed his truck off to the side so people could get around. And that's it. Kinda weird that the high point of the ride was kind of a let down photographically. I just could not stop and take pictures, the riding was SOOOO amazing. We rolled into Cabo kind of late, around 10 and we had a bite to eat. The next day people kind of split up and explored Cabo a bit. SepticSkeptic decided to risk running his bike a little, so he and I went to WalMart looking for a thumb drive (fail) Next to Walmart was a 'dune buggy experience' place for the tourists. It was pretty laughable but you could rent a dune buggy or a hummer and go around a little track. The place was closed, and we were not atgatt so we had to take it gently. This is septic taking it easy, I got 30 feet in the air, but the dork missed it. (or maybe he was being polite) Cabo is.... "cabo" you know? Septic Skeptic The locals were at the little beach on the far side. MUCH nicer than the main circus INMHO Looking the other direction it's a zoo of Americans. I live on a sailboat that's exactly like this one, but 110' shorter.
wow. I'm hoping this tale hasn't ended. cause it was very cool to relive the trip, and cause I had one great evening that last night! what a great group of folk. can't wait `til next year. thanks for posting.
Props to xymotic for taking the time to do a ride report. I think I gave Aaron (xymotic) a bit of good natured shit during the trip for taking so many photos..kind of regret it now Thanks, truly, for putting together the ride report, I know it took a lot of time. Great commentary & photos, really brings the trip back. Time to get the bike ready for riding again. It has been parked since we got back. A few photos in random order Not sure why, but the dudes at the taco place thought our chase truck driver was "montana de brokeback" Cold Modelos at end of trip Not sure why, but I love this photo of JC4h, essence of baja, or something like that. Cheers
You guys suck! I envy every picture. Someday......... Am hoping another George/Mike backed Baja ride appears within a year. I thoroughly enjoyed the short one last February.
Septic and I explored Cabo a bit, we went by the BMW dealership. In My head I thought the Only BMW dealer for 1000 miles would be like mecca for GS's and the like. I was shocked that it was one of the least impressive BMW shops I've been to. SOOOO glad I didn't go 1,500 miles out of my way to go there when I had my Dakar on my last trip to Baja. Domino's delivery via motorcycle in Cabo, probably not a bad job We found a little lunch spot The Tacos were Frikken AMAZING. 2 tacos and a coke, like $4, Highest of the trip. I think I could get seriously fat in Mexico. Then again I'd also get a LOT more exercise... The guys behind the counter were funny, I rotated the hot sauce around and they got all excited "no no my friend, that one is veerrrry hot!" I was just looking at it. I had to try it after all the hubub, they were right. We lost track of time a bit and had to get back to the hotel to help load all the bikes. Behind BentAero you can see the truck/trailer had been seriously blocked, the parking lot was full. Once again I took one for the team and opted to document rather than lift:deal We rotated the trailer a few times, went out and then back in a few times and eventually we got the truck out to the street. The boys loaded their bikes, I kept mine for a couple days. Mike's brother and his Girlfriend were in Cabo and stopped by to chat. I hate Mike's brother very much. Actually, super nice guy, thank you so much for letting us crash at your place and use of the trailer. Still, I hate you very very much. The locals also hate Mike's brother. I pretended like I was taking a picture of the guys loading bikes. LifeIn Sepia totally knew otherwise and started laughing at me. bastard. Seriously, can't you tell what a jerk Mike's brother is in this photo? Locals staring at Mike's brother. I actually missed a great photo, a bus went down the street, and the driver's head was looking straight down at her cleavage and his head rotated around like an owl. So for 100 feet this huge bus was going down a pretty busy narrow street with the driver craning his head out the window and looking backwards. We had a meeting to settle up some costs and BS a little Clockwise from the top: BentAero, LifeinSepia, Mike Kay, Zack, NorCalSlowPoke (with his purse), JCH4. I LOVE YOU MAN!!! (We all hugged Mike, all around great guy and Mike THANK YOU for putting this all together and herding us cats.) Then, we did what we do. This was the beginning of a VERY rough night for certain individuals... Those of us that didn't invite the wives, went to a little Sushi place and had some great Sushi, and there might have been a little Sake involved as well. The Sushi place was insane, we were sitting by the door, and every 5 minutes some middle aged American guy like this one: Would walk in with a "less-than" middle aged supermodel. It was seriously entertaining watching all the Yachties in the place.
Well said Norcalslowpoke and thank you xymotic. I am still cobbling together a short video out of the many hours of video footage. A majority of the footage is me riding and being passed quite often. I have also added in photos from this post. Hope the photographers do not take exception. Editing the video has been much more difficult than I had ever expected. Especially the effort to condense it into a ten minute or less format.
I have really enjoyed seeing the photos and story in the narrative form; thanks xymotic. I also am looking forward to the forthcoming video compilation. I miss you guys. It sucks sitting here recovering from shoulder surgery, looking out at 2' of snow sitting on the ground, and wondering if it'll ever all melt.
Hate to hear about the shoulder but hope you have a quick recovery. For those reading the report, Yossarian was nice enough to follow me for some 40+ miles on the pavement at night because my rear tail light was out and I was apprehensive about getting hit from behind by a less attentive driver. Good guy and much appreciated by me. And yes Yossarian, the snow will eventually melt but MAYBE not as quick as you hope.
I have a few addendum to post, but life is hectic... Seems like I gotta move back to Seattle for a while which I'm dreading. Who's ready to go again?
More likely the singing of our Chase Truck Driver. By the way, anyone seen our Ambassador to Pemex lately? I know he was discussing getting a bike and trying his hand offroad.
OK, so at the sushi place we were drinking Beers prolifically, then came some Saki, ingested in quantities so mass it would embarrass the Coneheads. Afterward, most of the guys decided to explore some of Cabo's more colorful "night Life." At one of these fine establishments one or more of the boys was introduced to a liquid called "Tequila" and events may or may not have progressed somewhat predictably from there. I have no idea, I wasn't there, it's all hearsay and what happens in Cabo stays in Cabo. What I do know though is that one of the guys was nice enough to lend me a few hundred dollars since I'd lost my debit card. I really just wanted like a hundred to tie me over until My GF flew down in a couple days, but the guy insisted on giving me $500. It was fortunate that he did because the next day he had no money, No credit cards and no memory of where his money went. ALLEGEDLY The FF remembered loaning me money though, So I gave him back what I could. I had bailed because I had a Big day the next day. My Neighbor from Redondo was just up the street in San José del Cabo with his boat, and I had invited everyone to go fishing. The next Morning Zac and I were the only ones who even wanted to go fishing, but we got rolling pretty late. We ran into JCH4 and Lifeinsepia who were heading to the airport. I had my bike but I needed to drop off my suitcase and gear so we shared a cab up north. When we got there, they'd given up on us and had already left. I had newfound respect for Mike's ability to organize the ride, cuz I sure messed up a one day fishing trip. After a short Time my friends showed back up and brought with them some sushi. Seriously, I didn't think it could get better than the previous evening's sushi, but I was wrong. Johnny fixed up some wahoo that was all of 2 hours old. OK, so the next morning I was able to better organize a trip. This is the boat: "scrambler" it's kind of infamous. Surprisingly, Yossarian was the only one to show up, and he brought his wife and two boys. This thing moves A LOT of water around!
That was a great day of fishing. Thanks again to xymotic, Dean (boat owner), Captain John, and fishing master Frank. We all enjoyed our day on the water and very much appreciate having been invited! Y
Sorry all I've neglected to finish off this RR. I had to move and have lot going on, but also I didn't really want to finish this report because it would mark the end, and I just didn't wanna. So I left off saying we went fishing. What I didn't mention is that it was happened: Oh yeah, we had some bent butts! Yossarian after his first successful fish wrastlin match: Got a couple little Tuna Some not so little Wahoo everybody caught a fish or two Got some nice Dorado: Got A REALLY NICE dorado: Weighed more than the kid I think... The next day I went exploring a little bit abound San José del Cabo, Even is "urban" areas you never know what's gonna trot onto the road in front of you: I found a nice little road up the hill above town I was riding in shorts and only a helmet, so naturally it turned into some of the more technical crap of the whole trip. Eventually the road sort of dead-ended into a creek bed, and I had to overland it up a small hill to get back to the pavement. There was a neat Cactus farm by the entrance to the Marina: And the marina itself was pretty interesting, lots of high-end americano's in the place. Rent was WAY cheaper than Cabo, with nicer accommodations and closer to the fishing to boot. I don;t imagine it will last too long though before San José Del Cabo get's assimilated just like Cabo. Mike was leaving the next day so finally I had to load my bike up and say goodbye That night we learned how to make Salsa. (there may have been some Alcohol involved as well, I can't really "remember") Our friends with the boat had other friends who had rented a (mansion) for a month, and they my Girlfriend and I to stay with them that night. It was pretty ghetto, but somehow we endured the hardship:
Note, the wooden beams are actually concrete, and looked AMAZING! Ruth and I went into town and check it out, 100x more nicer-er than Cabo. But before too long I got winded from walking and needed a cerveza! Apparently a couple other people have had this problem here as well, it's an epidemic! We went into Cabo for lunch and went to Baja Cantina. Baja Cantina is a somewhat famous spot for fishermen. Inside are pictures of (in)famous Cabo fishermen. So, next time when I tell you that the Scrambler is Famous, maybe you'll believe me: That Night we went back to San José del Cabo which was still all lit up for New Year's And again we endured some low-end prime rib for dinner. Can you believe these rednecks show up here with a pice of crap like this? I mean no helicopter! WTF? The next day was a bit more of the same-old same-old That afternoon we had a quick flight back to LA and as next thing we knew we were in 5 o'clock culture shock on the 5! Ruth Got to meet Yossarian and BentAero, (I needed them as alibi's proving that there really was a motorcycle trip in between the fishing and drink debauchery) They got loaded up and started a long assed drive back east: I grabbed My 610 and SepticSkeptic's broke bike and dropped it off at his mom's house since he decided to "endure" a few more weeks in Baja, poor poor bastard... Well folks, there you are THE END Here's the tale of the tape! PS: there was some carnage: The bike was surprisingly not too grungy, Just Grungy enough. I think she just looks "Happy" My broken subframe: I put a decent crack in my HID lynx fairing: Some bugs paid a heavy toll, and I broke in my new HDB guards, I dunno what these bugs were made of but this pic was AFTER I washed with a high pressure washer. My Speedo cable broke again Gotta Love that 606 after 1200 miles of dirt! Even with the sub-frame, really pretty minor crap considering I had a 50 MPH get-off and I beat the crap out of this bike for a week. An ADV inmate I'd met at Alfonsina's graciously offered to TIG weld my subframe for me, so off it came: Roundstock set to work course I took full advantage of free skillz and Steve set me up with a whole new tail section with flush mounted HDB signals and my Police strobe for a brake light
