SRAD600
Active member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2003
- Location
- Claremont, California
- Moto(s)
- broken one's
- Name
- Eldrick
- BARF perks
- AMA #3347697
Day 1
During our last ride down to Carrizo Plain, I mentioned to LeoJb that I was planning to do a ride to Baja this winter. He seemed mildly interested at the time. We discussed the trip a few more times and as the weeks went by it became clear that we were both serious about making a plan to ride to Mexico.
After many e-mails, we had a good set of viable tracks for a 10 day round trip ride from S.F. to Baja and back. Our plan was to take the big bikes, a pair of KTM990 adventures, and ride the entire way. No truck, no trailer, no air conditioning...no heat.
We planned to do some camping during the trip so our bikes were loaded down with tents, sleeping bags, water… etc.
Here are some teaser shots of the days to come:
We made our getaway just after rush hour on the morning of Friday January 24th. The plan was to meet up south of San Jose, then cruise down Highway 101 for the day. We wanted to cover miles today, but being the first day of the trip we also wanted to be careful not to hit it too hard. 101 was the perfect choice, not a bombing run to the border like Highway 5 south would have been and not too slow, since the point was to be in Mexico, as Highway 1 would have been. The plan was to end our day just north of the border near Tecate.
At the meet up spot, Leo and I greeted each other, exchanged pleasantries and looked over the recent modifications we’d each made to our bikes. Leo had done some welding to his kickstand to assist in sand parking, something I’d totally neglected to think about. Wonder if that would become an issue later on?
We’d both bought new tires, “Pirelli Scorpion rally’s”, for the trip. As we were checking out the rubber, Leo noted that the tread pattern on my rear was very different than that of his rear. Humm…they’re both Pirelli Scorpion Rallys? Oh, but wait…what’s that…his is a 140/18 (as it should be), mine reads 120/18…uh oh. I ordered a 140/18 from one of the online retailers, received the tire wrapped in cardboard, and promptly put it in the corner of my garage until the night before the trip when I installed it. I’d never even noticed the size on the tire until it was way too late. Oh well, what better way to start an adventure right?
These photos were taken after the trip, but I was pretty concerned about the tire width for the first few days of the trip. The ride down the coast was pretty uneventful, 500+ miles of burning asphalt, as evidenced by a distinct lack of pictures. We rolled into San Diego around 9pm that night and performed a bit of maintenance to the bikes. A few loose bolts here, some last minute checks there and the bikes were good to go. We had an early dinner, then hit the hay in preparation for Day2 – Crossing the border.
Edit - If anyone knows the code to embed a spotwalla map, please clue me in. Thx.
During our last ride down to Carrizo Plain, I mentioned to LeoJb that I was planning to do a ride to Baja this winter. He seemed mildly interested at the time. We discussed the trip a few more times and as the weeks went by it became clear that we were both serious about making a plan to ride to Mexico.
After many e-mails, we had a good set of viable tracks for a 10 day round trip ride from S.F. to Baja and back. Our plan was to take the big bikes, a pair of KTM990 adventures, and ride the entire way. No truck, no trailer, no air conditioning...no heat.
We planned to do some camping during the trip so our bikes were loaded down with tents, sleeping bags, water… etc. Here are some teaser shots of the days to come:
We made our getaway just after rush hour on the morning of Friday January 24th. The plan was to meet up south of San Jose, then cruise down Highway 101 for the day. We wanted to cover miles today, but being the first day of the trip we also wanted to be careful not to hit it too hard. 101 was the perfect choice, not a bombing run to the border like Highway 5 south would have been and not too slow, since the point was to be in Mexico, as Highway 1 would have been. The plan was to end our day just north of the border near Tecate.
At the meet up spot, Leo and I greeted each other, exchanged pleasantries and looked over the recent modifications we’d each made to our bikes. Leo had done some welding to his kickstand to assist in sand parking, something I’d totally neglected to think about. Wonder if that would become an issue later on?
We’d both bought new tires, “Pirelli Scorpion rally’s”, for the trip. As we were checking out the rubber, Leo noted that the tread pattern on my rear was very different than that of his rear. Humm…they’re both Pirelli Scorpion Rallys? Oh, but wait…what’s that…his is a 140/18 (as it should be), mine reads 120/18…uh oh. I ordered a 140/18 from one of the online retailers, received the tire wrapped in cardboard, and promptly put it in the corner of my garage until the night before the trip when I installed it. I’d never even noticed the size on the tire until it was way too late. Oh well, what better way to start an adventure right?
These photos were taken after the trip, but I was pretty concerned about the tire width for the first few days of the trip. The ride down the coast was pretty uneventful, 500+ miles of burning asphalt, as evidenced by a distinct lack of pictures. We rolled into San Diego around 9pm that night and performed a bit of maintenance to the bikes. A few loose bolts here, some last minute checks there and the bikes were good to go. We had an early dinner, then hit the hay in preparation for Day2 – Crossing the border.
Edit - If anyone knows the code to embed a spotwalla map, please clue me in. Thx.
Cool, I’ll go for a coke please! It was the coldest soda I’ve ever had in my life…from a shack with little/no electricity, so awesome. A few minutes later Leo pulls up, we shoot the $hit with the Oregon couple and then after adding some oil to their 450, they head out.
