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HadesOmega's BARF Baja 2015 Ride Report

Awesome pics Merlin. Scootz, took it for a quick spin just to see how the bike handled. Not bad on the open stuff and light sand. No bueno in the deeper sand. Cant get enough weight off the front. Probably could do better with some time in the seat and adjusting technique. But still alot of bike. Nice motor.... zips right up to 80 (my upper comfort zone offroad) too fast for me. :teeth :ride

Had to be better than the loaded down GS800's Tom, Scott and I saw the last day. T
 
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Got drill the next couple days so no updates for a bit but I leave you this!

BARF Baja 1000 2015 Day 1 Part 1 of 2 Bahia de Los Angeles to San Francisquito
http://youtu.be/8892ZEZcYnQ
 
HadesOmega said:
Got drill the next couple days so no updates for a bit but I leave you this!

BARF Baja 1000 2015 Day 1 Part 1 of 2 Bahia de Los Angeles to San Francisquito
http://youtu.be/8892ZEZcYnQ
Click to expand...

Okay dude.. Drill is over now.. Let's have the rest of your ride report. Pleeze?

Oh, and how about more video.. Your first one is awesome! I'll embed it here for you..

[youtube]8892ZEZcYnQ[/youtube]
 
Awesome video Merlin! Cant wait to see the rest!
 
Cabrito said:
Okay dude.. Drill is over now.. Let's have the rest of your ride report. Pleeze?

Oh, and how about more video.. Your first one is awesome! I'll embed it here for you..

[youtube]8892ZEZcYnQ[/youtube]
Click to expand...

Yeh, more video. I keep hitting refresh like a cracked out lab animal. We need more video! :teeth
 
Definitely need more video! :ride :cool
 
Looks like sfcootz got you..


you use html thingies.
 
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AAAWWWWEEESSSOOOOMMMMEEEEE!!!!!! Merlin you rock! Your attitude while learning to ride the sand is inspirational too. :thumbup
 
I love your commentary Merlin! Too funny! These videos are AWESOME!
 
Day 2 - San Francisquito to El Arco to Mulege
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After an awesome night of camping at the beach and fresh fish tacos made by the local restaurant we set out on our second day of riding. It did rain overnight a little bit. I'm glad I brought my tent and put the fly on. San Francisquito is like a offroaders paradise. You have to drive several miles to get there on dirt roads and its very outdoorsie. The locals were very nice and accomodating. They even sold us fuel, I've never had fuel sold to me in a gallon jug and poured into my tank haha.
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The weather was overcasty and it would rain at times, this is a good thing because it kept the dust down and the traction up.

It was a good thing that I removed my duffle bag from my rack, because I found out it was broke and had I rode with it today it probably would have just ripped the whole rack right out. So we put my duffle bag on Cabrito's FJ cruiser for the day until I can get my rack mended. Poor thing has been on many adventures but it took the Baja to break it. Its hard to tell in the picture but the whole tube behind the weld is cracked.
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Gettin ready to head out for Day 2
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Our first destination is El Arco. It was planned that everyone would ride to El Arco together then we would split off into two groups. Cabrito, sfcootz, and Dmitri would take the longer paved way to San Ignacio because of the amount of sand there would be the vstrom wasn't having it. Dmitri would also take the vstrom to El Arco as well.

Today would be the DAY OF SAND! I was very worried/stressed about the sand. I was out of my comfort zone. As you know sand on a motorcycle is a challenge for me. Sand with a quad is one thing but sand on 2 wheels always presents a problems for me. Other people were probably thinking the same thing and in the same boat as me. I can do sand just not very well, but today is the day to practice and luckily its a little damp. Something I'd learned from death valley is the easiest way through loose stuff is to stay in the ruts and tracks other vehicles make, keeps you in TRACK. Another thing I'd learned is to give it throttle. If the bike gets all crazy and wants to buck you give it throttle. It will raise the front end and keep it from digging in and washing out. I was remember quotes from Jeremy Clarkson about how everything can be solved with POWER! In this circumstance that is true. Haha now that presents another problem, you go way too fast. I found myself going 50+ MPH sometimes in some sections and catch up to people sometimes, out of my comfort zone. So I've learned to slow down in sand also by feathering/modulating the throttle, rather than braking or letting off and engine braking. That also leads me to another problem is following too closely. If you follow closely and the person in front slows down then you need to slow down and that is potential to loose control. Wayne also told me what to do when it gets crazy on you is to repeatedly stab at the throttle and wiggle the handlebars. Lets just say my sand riding had leveled up by the end of the day. Oaklandf4i and Sasquatch were teaching some of us how to maneuver the bike using your legs, its helps a lot in the loose stuff.

Anyway we make it just out of San Fracisquito. The bike has so much more power and easier to handle without the dufflebag, especially with the hicomp piston. I would say the ride to El Arco I could have handle with the weight but not the section after.
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Regrouping after leaving San Francisquito
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The road going out was narrow and sandy and ladden with cacti.
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It eventually opened up
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The terrain would change from sandy to rocky gravel
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Loose dirt almost silty
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And my favorite DEEP SAND!
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We regrouped near where we took a break yesterday.
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I hung back for Dmitri and the strom since I'm in the back. We are TEAM SUZUKI haha. He did ride the vstrom very well even passing me sometimes.
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We hung a left from where we took a break and after that the sand was ON! Man varying terrain but I couldn't escape that sand it was HadesOmega vs Sand. Today though I was doing much better and made friends with the sand. Riding in everyone's tracks helped a lot too, except those times when someone would fishtail and leave all these wavy trails o_O.
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Riding through cacti forests
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Checking to see if the FJ was on the right track
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Cabrito didn't know that Dmitri got comms withe sfcootz in the FJ and went back to find them
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There were miles and miles of endless sand roads and ride them I did and I rode them fast! Speeds of up to 50 MPH, I couldn't believe it, it was terrifying and exciting at the same time.
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I'd actually found a good seating position for riding in the sand. My backpack was strapped to the rear rack so I would shift my weight to the rear by basically just sitting on top of my backpack. Less tiring on the knees and effective in shifting the weight to attack that sand.

Just miles and miles of this and the DR650 and I were eatin it all up!
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We got to a mountain area, it was fun going up the hill. There were some sandy sections I had some trouble with but no problem.

Takin a break before hitting the hills
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We goin up der!
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There were some turns and some sandy ones too!
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LONG sand roads following Salwater and 1962siia88
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Here is a large sandwash. PICK UR LINE! You can tell someone went left on the road, someone went to the side of the road and someone just said fuck it and went straight through the wash.
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Nice S turns through the cacti forest
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More sand
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Identify the hazard and pick a line. Big rock and tree. Go left of the rock, go right of the rock. I chose go right of the rock and make friends with the tree.
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We took a break not long after the long sand roads after super sandwash. I had lost a tool tube attached to my rack. It was the one with my tire irons on it, luckily sfcootz picked it up in the FJ cruiser, whew thanks. What had happened was that the nut holding the clamp on came loose then the tube broke off. So gotta regularly locktite bolts because just locktiting it doesn't do the trick.
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IMG_20150127_010843.jpg
 
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Great Pics and Vids Merlin. The in helmet commentary is great. I wonder what I sound like?
 
Next stop giant cave paintings! Or so I thought.
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The road ahead had some pretty deep sand and washes. They were tough to get through but everyone seemed to be doing ok. This is where the following too closely comes into play. Its like a domino effect if one person slows down then every slows and and then someone goes down haha.

There were these giant open sand washes.

I was flying down these roads at 50mph. Everyone left me in the dust so they must have been going >50mph o_O'.

Passed by ThumperX
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Some signs of civilization out here. Wind turbines and solar panels.
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Giant Sandywashes
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Having trouble can't slow down or else I'll get stuck too
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Some steep sections
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More endless sand roads. Check out the speed on these 50MPH!
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Regroup before hitting cave paintings
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A little melon LunchBox tossed me. I wound up keeping it in my pouch for most of the trip but broke it later =(
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More sand
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Taking a left here and heading to the cave paintings
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These was a pretty overgrown road. You can tell it hasn't been traveled much. It was almost a single track in someplaces.
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Cabrito taking a break
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Downed cactus, went around it. The thought had occurred to me that it would be fun to try and jump it because I had been practicing log jumping, but as I find out later that is not a good idea.
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Me dodging a tree lotsa these, thank goodness for barkbusters!
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Ahhh its trying to eat me!
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Here's a tough section
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Sadly this is about as far as I make it. Seems like everyone was having a tough time here. So what you are seeing in this picture is us trying to cross this giant sandwash looking for cave paintings. Eventually everyone just turns around.
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Here we GO!
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And I'm stuck, I've high centered on a plant of some sort.
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OaklandF4I
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Everyone's turned back, by the way I'm still stuck.
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Now Team Suzuki is stuck
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Unstucking the vstrom
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Getting roosted by the vstrom
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I'm still stuck but not for long
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OaklandF4I walking my bike in the sand. One thing I need to practice.
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So this is pretty much the end of the line for the cave paintings tour. We found this lizard but he wasn't in very good shape, nearly dead. We couldn't find the cave paintings so we decided to turn around. Was a fun little detour. From what I gather from the internet I think we were in the right place. I think you are suppose to hike it the paintings, wish there were signs.
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On the way back to the main road
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Lunchbox' front tire got a flat, probably from jumping that cactus ;) He fixed it in about 10 mins, way to go tubliss!
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Regrouped at the road
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Back on the sand highway
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