Baja for New Year's ...

[SFMCjohn]

Dang...looks like you guys know how to have some fun!! arty

WoodsChick

Hey WC,

Nothing says "I'm ready for fun" than showing up to the fiesta on a Barbie KLR wearing a home-made party-hat, ha!

It was really quite a scene, with the Ena Riders showing off their dance moves and handing out Japanese folding fans, the Baja Girls in 4" heels dancing with their Vaqueros in big cowboy hats and the Americans in their party-hats ... every body dancing with the moon rising and the entire town making an appearance ...

see you on the dance-floor,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[SFMCjohn]

I'm going with you next year

Hi O G!
Wouldn't a six-week trip from Thanksgiving in Saline Valley to Christmas and New Year's in Baja be Devine?
see you soon!
-- SFMCjohn

 

[Cereal KLR]

Hi O G!
Wouldn't a six-week trip from Thanksgiving in Saline Valley to Christmas and New Year's in Baja be Devine?
see you soon!
-- SFMCjohn

Imma going to start selling blood plasma for the fund now. That lobster was as big as a meatloaf!

 

[SFMCjohn]

We had big plans to hit the road and make it back to San Francisco by Thursday night ... I'd been elected President of the SFMC in my absence at the last meeting of the year, and felt it was important to be at our first meeting of 2013 ... Baja had other plans for me ...

More proof we don't take ourselves too seriously ... world's ugliest club jerseys ...

We said goodbye to Christine and Jim, and headed north ... the most poignant part of any Baja trip ...

They soon ran us down on the cold, windy run to Coco's Corner ...

So we had coffee, Coke and Tecate, and said good-bye to Christine and Jim again ... The plan was to get to San Felipe tonight, the Grapevine Wednesday night and San Francisco on Thursday ... how do you make God laugh? That's right, make a plan ...

We picked up a nail ... Twelve miles north of Gonzaga Bay ... we got the wheel off and the tube replaced, but in the cold I could not get the bead of the tire back onto the wheel ...

Frustration and failure ... sometimes, that's Baja for you ...

It is better to be lucky than smart ... only twelve miles from help, we strapped the wheel to my bike and Cary rode back to Gonzaga Bay where our hero Jim took it into his room and had it mounted in five minutes!

Man of the hour, Slim Jim, and our fixed flat ...

All this was going on while I contemplated the sunset, and maybe having to walk home because I'd ruined the tire butchering the bead trying to mount it ...

As I was getting ready to set up the tent (we'd sent Cary back as it would be less of a loss if banditos abducted me) she returned and we soon had the bikes rolling back to Gonzaga Bay, a good dinner and a warm motel room ...

Helpful friends close by, and another sunrise at Gonzaga Bay ... Priceless ...

Baja, one; our plans, zero!

 

[SFMCjohn]

Imma going to start selling blood plasma for the fund now. That lobster was as big as a meatloaf!

Hi Cereal KLR,
That lobster and a bunch of margaritas was less than $20, so maybe we'll only have to sell whole blood instead of plasma ... ha.
see you on the salt,
--SFMCjohn

 

[WoodsChick]

All this was going on while I contemplated the sunset, and maybe having to walk home because I'd ruined the tire butchering the bead trying to mount it ...

Oh...my...goodness... If you hadn't had trouble seating the bead you might not have been in position to fully enjoy this gem of a sunset. Win!

Eric and I rode the 950 home from the Warner Mts just west of Cedarville on a rear tire that was not seated all the way. At first we were going really slow and being all careful-like, finally we just said "screw it" and rode the whole way home as if everything was normal. Tire looked exactly the same when we got home




WoodsChick

 

[SFMCjohn]

Oh...my...goodness... If you hadn't had trouble seating the bead you might not have been in position to fully enjoy this gem of a sunset. Win!
...
WoodsChick

Hey WC,
You're right, it was a total win ...
... though I was such a mess I could not get the tire
back on the rim at all ...
see you at the llanteria,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[Nemo Brinker]

Eric and I rode the 950 home from the Warner Mts just west of Cedarville on a rear tire that was not seated all the way. At first we were going really slow and being all careful-like, finally we just said "screw it" and rode the whole way home as if everything was normal. Tire looked exactly the same when we got home
WoodsChick

Oh man, I've always wondered what I'd do if I couldn't get the tire bead to seat...now I'll know that riding it out carefully might not be the end of the world.

I feel your struggle, though, John! No feeling quite like mechanical problems in a desolate place. But wowie, that sunset...funny how some of the most gorgeous moments come at such trying times. Glad Jim could finesse that sucker back on, he's a smooth operator.

In the shop we slather lots of lube on the rim, pull the valve core out and give it an unrestricted blast of air from the compressor--usually does it. Sometimes a ratchet strap around the perimeter of the tire will push the bead into place. But in field conditions, especially cold ones, it's much tougher.

Congrats on your presidency, too.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Congrats on your presidency, too.

Hi Hiedi,

Thanks! I've been a member for almost 17 years, so it was sort of my turn.
We're a group a lot like the people that post here on BARF Adventure, or ADV, or the AFM ... City people who love motorcycles, riding different bikes ...

I imagine we'll see a lot of BARFers at 3pm on Sunday 1/13 for
rapidrobbie's Memorial Service:
http://bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=421217

That will be a sad occasion ... hope to be able to celebrate rapidrobbie's life with a few BARF Racer's Corner and Adventure people on Sunday ...

-- SFMCjohn

 

[SFMCjohn]

Oh man, I've always wondered what I'd do if I couldn't get the tire bead to seat ...

Hi NB,

It was a failure of technique on a cold day ... Could not even get the bead back on the wheel ... so it was the step before getting the bead to seat or "pop" ...

In this pic you can sort of see the bead on the outside of the rim ...

And here that I'm scraping away the rubber that covers the metal cable of the bead ... so, anyway, the tire looked like this --> D

a "D" shape, with the bead far away from rim so that I could not get it levered back over the rim to even get the tire and wheel reassembled to where I could worry about the bead seating ... we had soap and water (and talc for the tube) for bead lube, but I was not getting the bead anywhere near a position where lube would help ...

The failure of technique was that I was not/could not force both beads into the rim opposite of the side I was trying to lever back onto the rim ...

I'm blaming the cold, but probably the failure of technique begins when I have Werk Statt install my tires instead of doing it myself with the tools I carry on the bike, as we've all been encouraged to do by our more experienced motorcycle buddies ...

Jim used a much longer Motion Pro tire iron in a motel room, but I'm sure he could have used my irons out in the desert because he's mounted a zillion tires with hand tools and his technique is flawless, where I struggled and damaged the tire ...

What I need to do is set myself up better for success ... for example, I recognize my limits as a rider, so I set the bike up for the hard dirt with knobbies and low gearing, and just deal with it on the highway ...

I'll try to do the same with my tire irons, switch to the MT-21 from the 606, ride more, get more flats, and more practice!

see you in the shop,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[Nemo Brinker]

The failure of technique was that I was not/could not force both beads into the rim opposite of the side I was trying to lever back onto the rim ...

I'm blaming the cold, but probably the failure of technique begins when I have Werk Statt install my tires instead of doing it myself with the tools I carry on the bike, as we've all been encouraged to do by our more experienced motorcycle buddies ...

Jim used a much longer Motion Pro tire iron in a motel room, but I'm sure he could have used my irons out in the desert because he's mounted a zillion tires with hand tools and his technique is flawless, where I struggled and damaged the tire ...

Oh, that sounds miserable. Cold makes a difference, too, as does fatigue, hunger, etc...I make myself spoon tires on by hand sometimes, as my technique in the field still needs work. And there are some tires that just seem to have it out for humans.
But as for Jim, while he has mounted a zillion tires by hand, I did Jim's and Christine's tires in the shop before their ride (fecking rimlocks)!

 

[SFMCjohn]

Oh, that sounds miserable. Cold makes a difference, too, as does fatigue, hunger, etc...I make myself spoon tires on by hand sometimes, as my technique in the field still needs work. And there are some tires that just seem to have it out for humans.
But as for Jim, while he has mounted a zillion tires by hand, I did Jim's and Christine's tires in the shop before their ride (fecking rimlocks)!

Hi Nemo Brinker,
Yes, it was pretty miserable ... Especially when it is your own fault! We did a side-by-side comparison with the 606 and MT-21 ... I'd say the Dunlop was holding up better than the Pirelli over 2000 miles, but I'll probably put the MT-21 on both bikes next time, on the theory that nothing could be harder to mount on the trail than a 606 ... ha.

Funny about you having mounted Jim's tires ... Just goes to show that Werk Statt is where all the cool people hang out!

Did you get any photos, or were they superseded by Termgant's extraction?

See you in the shop,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[SFMCjohn]

Campo Ojai, Parkfield Inn and Home ...

We said good-bye to Christine and Jim for the third and final time the next morning, heading north on the new paved highway that now begins just a few miles north of Gonzaga Bay ...

Our friend Adam, of orphanage fame, passed us on his way home to Colorado and snapped our pic ...

Up around 4000' there was snow on the ground in La Rumarosa, and by the time we got to Campo Ojai, 15 miles east of the border crossing in Tecate we were ready to call it a day ...

[

The cabin we got had a bathroom and a heater for $50 ... They wanted $72 but the lad in the officina took pity on us and gave us a discount ...

The next day we made it to Palmdale and our favorite $34 Motel 6 at Rts 14 & 138 an hour after dark ... since we'd blown our Thursday night deadline with my tire debacle we decided to slow down and make for the Parkfield Inn ...

Which is what we did ... This is a pic of the vast new solar ranch just outside the Carrizo Plain at Bitterwater Road and Rt 58 ... It was not there at all a year ago ...

A view along Bitterwater Road and the collapsed Old Country Store ...

The inn had a room for us and a rib-eye dinner ...

Our last day on the road presented us with frozen puddles on the Parkfield Grade and rain threatening in the north-west ...

Looking east across the Central Valley at the snow-capped Sierras ...

We got to Hollister with 200 miles on the trip-odo, put three-and-a-half gallons of gas in each of the KLRs and put on our rain-suits ...

It started to rain around Palo Alto and an hour later we were home again ...

We love Baja ... looking forward already to our next trip ...

See you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[ThumperX]

Thanks for taking me along, I enjoyed the trip and lok forward to the next one.

 

[Cabrito]

Wow, Great Trip!

Started with rain and ended with rain - ugg..

Regarding the flat tire, do you think the cold had something to do with the bead not seating? Your short tire irons remind me why I tossed mine and got one longer one and a pair of the super light MotionPro tire spoons with the axle wrench on one end. I've taken a few tires off, but never put one on by myself. I think I better practice a few times.

Parkfield looks really cool.

See you in the Lower Haight..

 

[WoodsChick]

We said good-bye to Christine and Jim for the third and final time the next morning, heading north on the new paved highway that now begins just a few miles north of Gonzaga Bay ...

I'm not happy about that new pavement
The road was rough as hell but you knew the folks you ran into far south of Puertocitos really wanted to be there...




WoodsChick

 

[SFMCjohn]

I'm not happy about that new pavement
The road was rough as hell but you knew the folks you ran into far south of Puertocitos really wanted to be there...

WoodsChick

Hey WC,

"Bad roads bring good people, good roads bring everyone ..."
-- Mama Espinoza

see you in Nevada,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[SFMCjohn]

Wow, Great Trip!

Started with rain and ended with rain - ugg..

Regarding the flat tire, do you think the cold had something to do with the bead not seating? Your short tire irons remind me why I tossed mine and got one longer one and a pair of the super light MotionPro tire spoons with the axle wrench on one end. I've taken a few tires off, but never put one on by myself. I think I better practice a few times.

Parkfield looks really cool.

See you in the Lower Haight..

Hi Cabrito,

Is that your KLR I see parked on the street in the Lower Haight?

Parkfield is really neat ... they were telling us about a blue grass festival and their annual rodeo, both held in May ... would love to check them out ... hoping to get back down their for the wildflowers in the spring ...

The cold had a big effect on the tire, but also on me, making me tired and more stupid than usual, ha.

I'm going to upgrade my tire-irons to the longer Motion Pro ones, and try to ride more, so that I get more flats and more practice ...

see you in the 'hood,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[SFMCjohn]

Thanks for taking me along, I enjoyed the trip and look forward to the next one.

Hi ThumperX,

Great to see you at rapidrobbie's memorial celebration at the SFMC on Sunday ...

Got to see you and a pair of BARFers who are planning a trip to Baja in a couple of weeks, and a handful of my Racer's Corner people ...

Riding to Baja and back and seeing only a small handful of motorcycle people, and seeing all the new paved road south of San Felipe and then spreading Ernie's ashes on Saturday and going to Robbie's memorial on Sunday, or BenJava's memorial on Sonora Pass earlier this season helped to remind me what a small, wonderful community or subculture we are ...

It was so cool to meet you and Wayne in Saline Valley, and then find out that I'd known you already from BARF ...

Just need to remind myself sometimes to take the camera out of my pocket, make time to post a ride report, go to a meet-and-eat, a rally, a hotspring, a meeting, buy a vintage bike, a dual-sport, a racebike ... go to Carrizo, Mendocino, Nevada, Baja ... life is too short, let's ride!

See you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[WoodsChick]

"Bad roads bring good people, good roads bring everyone ..."
-- Mama Espinoza

That is exactly the quote I was thinking of when I wrote my post
Great minds think alike, I guess.




WoodsChick