San Francisco and bound for South America

I'm presently getting my bike (and myself) ready for a ride down to South America, a "slightly" expanded trip from my original goal of Costa Rica. My initial goal is to hit Santiago de Chile but leaving myself the option of making it all the way down to Tierra del Fuego. While I am planning on flying out of Buenos Aires (and shipping the bike back from there), there is the additional option of entering Brazil. So many decisions... but I figure I'll leave those to the point when I actually reach Santiago and I see how I feel about these endeavors at that time.

So the bike... a 2002 Suzuki DR650SE





Obviously, the rear wheel is missing right now as I'm having the rear spokes replaced and considering having the wheels sealed so I can run tubeless.

The blue IMS tank is courtesy of Dan Hershberger who is letting me borrow it for the trip. It's giving the bike a nice ratty look though I like the overall color scheme. At the very least, I'll be popular with
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_12_(Boca).jpg">Boca Junior</a> fans.

Other upgrades include a center stand (also courtesy of Dan), Dirt Bagz, new front and rear brake pads, new air filter, oil change and new oil filter, valve clearance check (thanks Rick!), a new gold DID chain (got bling?), a huge Parabellum windshield, and a Sargent seat that should save my butt.

Route wise.. the plan for now is to go down Baja and catch the Tuesday August 3rd ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan, then bump along the Pacific coast until splitting inland towards Oaxaca. Swinging by places such as Palenque, I should ultimately arrive in Panama where I have to decide whether to take a sailboat to Cartagena, Colombia or fly to Bogota. I don't like the idea of giving myself a deadline for reaching the sailboat (which would be the 24th of August) but a 4-5 day island cruise along the San Blas islands does seem pretty nice. We shall see..

Oh right, unless issues with my rear wheel rebuild force a delay, I am planning on leaving San Francisco on July 29th.

I will also be crossposting at http://jmkubr.livejournal.com/

Thanks to machete and everyone that has helped me with advice and tips for the trip.

Awesome. *subscribed*

dude, you're rocking it now. good luck, have fun, keep your eyes open, and take lots of pics and upload when you can. looking forward to hearing the stories.

don't drive at night in Colombia. that is all.

uh...p.s. I"m pretty sure that 1098 should stretch it's legs while your gone. just saying.

Very cool! Looking forward to the report(s).

muahaha it's alive!

I finally got my rear wheel back from having it re-laced so I was able to complete the work on the bike. Here it is:


The little sticker under the windshield if of my hometown of Bern.


The blue and gold (ok yellow) theme happens match my alma mater, the University of California at Berkeley. Go Bears!


Add the red of the toolkit canister and I'll be very popular in Colombi, Ecuador , and Venezuela

Ok, the next section will go into more details as to the upgrades to the bike as well as well as budgeting so feel free to tune out.

I bought this 2002 Suzuki DR650SE with 2500 miles on it for $2700 in September 2009. These bikes are an absolute steal.

Here is a list of all the costs assuming 4 months on the road:


$14k... yipes!

*subscribed*


sooo envious.

yeah, I agree. The word jealous does fit here!

*subscribed*

Day 1

And I'm on the road!

Carlos took this picture just before I left this morning at 7:45am.

starting mileage is 13'480.6 miles. I am guessing the total trip will be about 15'000 miles more...

Today took me to a Motel 6 in El Cajon close to the border. I was going to stay with my friends Jose and Amber in Oceanside but she went into labor yesterday evening. While I have not yet had official confirmation, I'm sure congratulations are in order

One small mishap was a screw holding the left hand guard coming off and having the hand guard dangling off while I'm going 75mph. This happened right before Laguna Niguel so I took the first exit and entered the nearest place that might have a mechanic. Pulling around the back of a strip mall, I see this gorgeous cruiser so I figured, this guy might be able to help me.


As it turns out, it's a golf gear shop and the name is on the bike, no bogeys!


Luckily, he had a bolt that would fit the hand guard so here he is cutting it in half as it was a bit too long. I was back on the road in 10 minutes. I stopped at a Suzuki shop in Oceanside where I got a more permanent solution.

As I said, I'm in El Cajon now. My last meal in the US for the next few months? In-N-Out double double, animal style, no pickles. Life is good.

Tomorrow, I'll be taking 94 to cross the border at Tecate which should be a lot less busy then Tijuana. After that, I'll rejoin highway 1 in Ensenada. The goal for the day is either El Rosario de Arriba or even Catavina which would be 306 miles for the day... we shall see.

Congratulations on such a long trip .
I would strongly suggest remembering you will be LEAVING USA.
Some areas along your trip may not be so friendly.
I know Buenos Aires and there is a lot of crimes going on right now.
Please be very careful, don't leave your bike unattended.
If you need some help in that area of the world, I might have some friends that may help you out in case of need.
PM me for those numbers.
Again, congratulations, but be very aware

Nice! But ill miss you in South America. I plan to ship me and bike to Buenos Aires first then ride back, but not till November.

good to hear man. have fun. and yes, be aware of your surroundings...but that goes for anywhere. more photos. sorry, I'm just anxious to see more photos.

cheers

Totally subscribed!! Look forward to hearing more of your adventure. Good Luck!!!

G'luck.

I'm the guy who worked with Mike to get the DR650 prepped for the journey south. In fact the initial pics are taken in my driveway. So I have a major interest in seeing how Mike fares and how our handiwork endures. So far only one hand protector bolt gone. Not too bad! Go Mike! And keep the pics coming.

Subscribed, good luck!

91hawk said:

I'm the guy who worked with Mike to get the DR650 prepped for the journey south. In fact the initial pics are taken in my driveway. So I have a major interest in seeing how Mike fares and how our handiwork endures. So far only one hand protector bolt gone. Not too bad! Go Mike! And keep the pics coming.

Click to expand...

There you are Rick! Thanks so much! I'm presently in Loreto and posting pics and updating the blog

Day 2

Day 2 took me from El Cajon to Bahía de los Ángeles. I left an hour earlier at 7am but it still took me 11 hours to reach my destination. The first goal was the border crossing at Tecate. The 30 miles there were uneventful except that about every fourth vehicle belonged to the Border Patrol. Who they are trying to catch riding around on the roads is beyond me.

I had picked this town 20 miles east of Tijuana not for the famous beer but expecting it to be a lot less busy than TJ. Alas, my plan worked a bit too well. As it turns out, Tecate does not have an Import office so I was unable to officially import my motorcycle by getting a temporary import permit.

Border procedures consist of a few steps:
1. get insurance. This can be done online apparently or at the border. Spendy at $109 for 6 months...
2. get tourist visa pay form
3. to go local bank and pay for the tourist visa which is $264. Now, don't freak out as that stands for 264 pesos, or about US$21 dollars. Mexico just uses the same symbol.
4. return to the border, give the official the stamped pay form and fill out tourist visa. You'll get to keep one section with your passport. The visa is good for 6 months.
5. this part is hazy as I was unable to complete this at this time but you should also get a form to pay for the vehicle import permit, pay for it, and then affix a sticker to your vehicle. This should be about US$15.

My choices were to head to TJ and do this or just complete this last step in La Paz which is what I opted for. I'll report on that when I'm there.

On a random note, I was listening to classical music this day, busting the border listening to Bach (including the Doppelkonzert fuer zwei Violinen). =)

Alas, Tecate turned out to be a poor choice for another reason: The first 20 miles out of town towards Ensenada were under on construction and I was riding on dirt most of the way. The road is being widened into four lanes which I'm sure will be nice in the future but right now, just rather annoying. The later part of this road was also being marketed as a wine road but so far, wineries were far and few between. Some day?

In Ensenada, I was greeted by a GIANT Mexican flag.

They don't come much bigger than this.

A note on the picture links. I think I'll link the medium sized pictures as they make the blog easier to read but if you click on each photo, flickr will give you the option of looking at each picture in different sizes, including the original sizes which may be as much as 4000 by 3000 pixels. There are also more pictures there that have not been included into the blog so feel free to peruse.


I don't know who these fine gentlemen were.


Heavily ladden DR in Ensenada.


On the coast south of Ensenada. It had finally cleared up with the day so far having been overcast San Francisco style.


it's dry.


ditto.


pretty though.

My bike's IMS tank (thanks Dan!) holds 4.9gallons which should give me a range of about 200-230 miles. My bike has acting a bit weird when on reserve though so I'm limiting myself to 180 miles for now. Gas in Mexico is only sold by the state-owned oil company, Pemex. Unless, you're in the middle of nowhere:

middle of nowhere, also know as Cataviña.

And this is the reason I installed a fuel filter at the last minute. Who knows what's floating around the bottom of those barrels.

As for hamlet itself, some of the people there work at something called an Ejido. I learn something new each day!

Alas, somewhere on the road, I managed to catch a bee up my left sleeve. Now that's not a card trick I recommend to anyone as I was unable to pull over for a while due traffic behind me and no shoulder. Poor bee stung me nicely in the wrist. Grr.

I finally reached Bahía de los Ángeles just before 6pm.


just before entering town.

The town is tiny and I only saw one decent hotel. no tv, no wifi but a lookwarm 3 foot pool. Most hotel rooms had tons of stickers on the windows from Baja racers.


DR after one day in Mexico.

But what is this?

my saddle bag was pushing the side fender onto the exhaust pipe. It's just a flesh wound.


this gives me a 2 day total just shy of 1000 miles. I have no idea how people do that in one day.


view from hotel.


my hotel, Villa Vita. Spendy at $450/US$36 but no real alternatives.

Next day, off to Loreto, a small fishing town.

format of post.. any way to change the [IMG] code to off?

Since I'm cross-posting this, it's highly time consuming having to change the format of photo and url links in order for posts to show properly here. Any way this can be turned off?

Day 3

I have reached Loreto and am back on the internets, allowing me to post the Day 2 report as well.

I left Bahía de los Ángeles before 8am and it was rather warm already. I had to backtrack 40 miles to get back onto Mexico 1. I expected to find a Pemex station at the intersection as I had glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye the day before. Alas, it's a former Pemex station...


old gas station in the background, "new" gas station in the foreground.

Santa Rosalita is one of the ferry ports of the peninsula. I only stopped briefly for some tacos as it was hot.

I could not resist taking a few pictures of this abandoned foundry:

The sign says museum but the backside looked decidedly decreprit.




yeah I dont think this is working anymore.

A random beach on the East coast of Baja California:

note that the cactii grow right up to the beach.


Riding in 100F is no picnic so I was glad for a break.


just a cool pattern formed by the boulders.


more desert and bay.

I made it to Loreto about 4pm. I drove around a bit looking for hotels with wifi. I settled one Hotel Plaza Loreto as the only alternative I found was a lot more expensive, not that this was cheap at $490.

resting place for the DR.


local church.


Loreto was the capital of all of California for 70 years.




a hotel on the same plaza.


so this is where el camino real began?

Tomorrow will take me the final 220 miles to La Paz where I will be taking the ferry to Mazatlan on Sunday.

rad!!! good pics. for better/ or cheaper hotels, check with the 18 wheeler drivers. in Mexico, they are a good resource, and help on the highways, beyond what you might expect in the states. for real.

they will signal you with their high beams at night, and use their turn signals to wave you around them, etc...just pay attention.

very cool man, and the flesh wound doensn't look that bad, just be sure and fix it so your saddle bags aren't the ones melting.