Baja in May
 

Hello

I have three weeks in May from Los Angeles (must end up back in LA).

XR650(L) with knobblies and a big tank - hoping for Death Valley, Grand Canyon and then south into Baja peninsula, etc. Cross at Mexicala or whatever is best.

Never been to that part of the world so any suitable routes appreciated. Mix of tarmac and trails would be great. Any places to stay or head for also appreciated.

Bike will be on American plates (Minnesota) - I'm from the UK on British Passport. Any problem getting in to Mexico and back?

Cheers, Horse.

Baja in May
 

Horse27
May is a good time for travel in So. Cal. But, with the exception of Baja, a trip to Death Valley or the Grand Canyon are mostly Highway rides. True, once in Death Valley you can use your knobbies on dirt roads and the same is true of the area around the Grand Canyon. However, these places are National Parks and any off roading is governed very closely.

Now, if you are thinking of going cross country, the Mojave Desert has lots of dirt roads that go in every direction. If you have never taken on the desert, it is an aquired skill and should not be considered lightly. Same with Baja.

You can plan highway miles and then add dirt. BTW After 500 miles of highway your knobbies will be worthless for any serious dirt riding.

The street legal Honda L is a good choice for desert dirt roads and trails but it is too heavy for serious point to point sandwash riding.

Several of us ride KLR 650 Dual Purpose Bike in the desert and fire roads. The nastier the ride the more the tires become important. We've done a lot of experimenting with tires and I currently have serious dirt tires on mine but a little highway mileage really takes the edge of them.

So Cal and AZ are great places for open riding. But you need to be more specific about you intended riding before anyone can really help.

All the Best.

Check out reports on ADVrider
 

I would go over to ADVrider

Your best paper maps for baja come from Baja-Almanac.com | <h3>Mapping Mexico... Land of Adventure</h3>.
The simple multi-fold map is good, and the atlas style book is even better.
Go with both....

That's great ... thanks. Given me lots to work with there and good advice. I been down to the Sahara and back (from London) on an XT600 (few years back now) ... so got trail and desert experience (bit rusty now though). It's mostly mud in the UK all year round!

Baja on the Pacific side looks and sounds great - think that'll be part of the trip. As does the Mojave.

Got time to think and plan ...

I've used Pirelli MT21s in the past which I likes but have heard good things about Metzeler Karoos as a dual sport tyre (tire) with off-road ability ... not sure what you guys use?

Probably the worng thread for that sort of talk!

Cheers, Horse (London)

Both good Baja tires that last

Just an idea...
 

At this time, I guess even you don't know how long you'll spend riding in Baja, and where you'll travel.

Taking Mollydog's advice with Tecate, you could easily put a spare rear tire on a bus right after crossing the border and have it sent down to some place like Rice and Beans in San Ignacio, which is close to the half way point in Baja. Unless you intentionally bypass San Ignacio, say with a San Francisco or Bahia Torgas loop, it will be the center of your north/south 'figure 8' loop.

Ricardo, the head dude at Rice and Beans, can be emailed at:
riceand beans@hotmail.com