California - Baja - Mexico - CA 7th February......

[Keith Flynn]

Hi folks! Countdown to my midlife crisis trip is now under way.
Two weeks and counting. I'm an Irish fella (41) who's flying into LAX on the 6th February, picking up my nicely farkeled 2009 DR650 and heading to Panama via Baja. I have a month for the trip and no set itinerary beyond start and end points/dates. I'll be doing a mix of camping, Airbnb, hostels and hotels and plan to ride as much off road as possible. I'm an experienced rider (20 yrs approx) and have toured extensively in Europe but this will be my first long trip. I know my limits so there'll be no heroics. The only rule I'm setting myself is to relax, ride miles and have fun.

I'm interested in a riding buddy/buddies for some or some more of the trip. Anyone interested then drop me a line.

Cheers!

[Paulo Sadio]

Hi Keith.
I´m a portuguese rider, 50 yrs old, and I allready rode in South, central and north America in previous years, I have a total of 50 000 Kms in Americas riding an Honda Africa Twin
In 2016Feb08 I´ll leave San Francisco heading south, trough Baja, Mexico till Panama, on a month trip, wich i intend to finish around March06, so I`ll enter mexico mainland around Feb19/20. As I already visited Mexico on my 2015 trip, i intend to go fast to San Cristobal de las casas, and then to Coban in Guatemala.
I have a page on Facebook called " America Twin",https://www.facebook.com/America-Twi...570288/?ref=hl,
where I wrote about my trips on Americas, since 2012, and where you could see places and advices to your trip.
If you wish and your dates of trip are similar to yours perhaps we could meet at San Francisco or L.A and ride south together.
My email is paulosadio@gmail.com
Best regards
Paulo Sadio

[Keith Flynn]

PM sent.

Cheers.

Keith

[Keith Flynn]

Correction. Email sent.

[mollydog]

Welcome Keith,
If you have any DR650 questions I may offer a few tips and tricks on the DR.
Be sure to check out the two good DR forums/threads:

www.DRRiders.com
the DR650 thread | Page 5981 | Adventure Rider

Good when on the road and need help, advice or tutorial.

Remember Pro Cycle is only one shipping day away from L.A. so any parts you need are easy/fast to get.

What spares are you taking? Tire changes? Flat repairs?

Good luck, you'll run into all sorts of riders in Baja, but most won't be going all the way to La Paz and even fewer will cross over to mainland Mexico.

Have a great trip, hope you can post pics and story here.

[Keith Flynn]

Originally Posted by mollydog

Welcome Keith,
If you have any DR650 questions I may offer a few tips and tricks on the DR.
Be sure to check out the two good DR forums/threads:

www.DRRiders.com
the DR650 thread | Page 5981 | Adventure Rider

Good when on the road and need help, advice or tutorial.

Remember Pro Cycle is only one shipping day away from L.A. so any parts you need are easy/fast to get.

What spares are you taking? Tire changes? Flat repairs?

Good luck, you'll run into all sorts of riders in Baja, but most won't be going all the way to La Paz and even fewer will cross over to mainland Mexico.

Have a great trip, hope you can post pics and story here.

Hi Mollydog and thanks for your message.

It's funny but I had never considered a DR650 for this trip. The DR was never even on my radar and there's a story behind it.

A chance meeting last summer in a garage in West Cork in Ireland with Wheatwhacker led me to James Tucker in Claremont California who's a big DR fan and has done several builds for riders coming to the US to ride there and further afield.

So, Wheatwhacker and James Tucker essentially do the same thing. Wheatwhacker in Ireland and James in California and they provide a brilliant service. They take your brief for what bike you want, go shopping for said bike, check it out mechanically, negotiate the best price, buy the bike (with your money), farkle the bike to your specification, register the bike in your name and organize local insurance so all you need to do is fly in, jump on your bike and ride into the sunset and all this for an exceptionally reasonable fee. The real value is that they take all the hassle, risk and guesswork out of buying a bike abroad. The enthusiasm and the knowledge they impart is priceless.

I'm a KTM rider here and I had pictured myself riding a big bad KaTooM down through Baja, Mexico and CA but there were none jumping out off the pages of Craiglist or ADVrider at the time. James had a minty fresh '09 DR650 with tiny miles that was costing half my KaTooM budget. The rest of my budget was to bring the bike up to expedition readiness. So the deal was done and within a few days the bike was registered in my name and my inbox was filled with pictures of new DR650 farlkles. Here's what's being done in advance of my arrival:

New rear spring for my weight
Heavier front springs and new oil
Seat Concepts seat
Lower footpegs
Pelican top box
Acerbis 6.6 gallon tank
Fat bars
Bar risers
Heated grips
Bark busters
Bajaworx screen
High output stator
NSU removed
Tool tube packed with spaniards
Heavy duty tubes and spares
Mini compressor
Spotlights
Small indicators
250 tail light
FMF power bomb and mid pipe
Counter shaft seal install
Side stand switch mod
K&N filter
Oil and filter
Headlight shield
Magnetic sump plug drilled and wired
SW Motech bash plate


There must be more. My head is spinning. I've gone from never even considering a DR to jumping up and down like an excited schoolgirl at the prospect of getting on an expedition prepped one like the one waiting for me in James' garage. I'm pretty excited.

Tires. That's the only thing I can't decide on. I plan on doing as much off road as possible and I'm thinking Mitas but I'm open to suggestions.

I'm blown away by the enthusiasm of James and Martin (Wheatwhacker) and the help they're giving me for this trip. Anyone wanting their details please shoot me a PM.

[twowheels03]

Hello Keith,
Just a few titbits....If you are riding down the east side. Good beach camping in san felipe...Pete's campo on the outskirts into san felipe. Worth a visit is Mike's sky Ranch. Camping at Alfonsina's but It's worth getting a room. Not always fuel at the Pemex at Alfonsina's so could be worth carrying a can...depends on your range. A at Coco's corner is always worth a stop....if the old bugger is still waking up in the morning !! Good free camp out near the ferry, La Paz.... Beach bar with food...small dunes and free camping to the right
..https://www.google.com.mx/maps/place...a22fb71b5d13ea

Oh and on the Ferry...the truck drivers dash for the seats and sleep on them on the overnight, worth doing the same or taking your sleeping pad with you.

Not teaching you to suck eggs but you know about not riding at night?

Have a great time.

[Keith Flynn]

Thanks for the info Baja Bits. Mike's and Coco's are both on my itinerary. Riding at night comes under my 'heroics' category of which there'll be none

[Keith Flynn]

Hi Molly, used car salesman notwithstanding , James is a top bloke and hugely enthusiastic about the Dr. White (that's what he named my DR) and the trip. I can overlook his being disreputable.

I deferred to James' experience on the NSU.

Have you personal preference regarding 50:50 tires for the DR? I like Mitas but hear conflicting reports.

You'd be surprised at how many Spaniards you'd get in a tool tube

Oh yeah, I forgot, blue loctite on everything boltable.

[mollydog]

The good news is James claims to be expert in the workings of our California DMV. A very good thing for travelers!

A few things to pack:
Spare Pick-Up coil, aka Pulser coil. They can fail on the DR, but are fairly easy to replace. They attach to the stator. LOTS on the forums about this. A spare one is about $35.

Spare Pilot jet (stock size),
Spare fuel inlet tube filter (the tiny white one)

Switch over to a DDM tuning HID headlight kit. (cheap, easy, plug and play) Saves Watts, 3 times brighter than stock 55W H4 bulb. You don't plan to ride at night ... but you will, guaranteed.

Tires
We could on and on, lots of opinions. The Euro tires are tough, long lasting and expensive. I hear more good things about Mitas and Mefo than I do about Heidenau. You decide.

But here is the thing: None are very good off road. I think you said you wanted to do as much off road as possible, yes? In Baja (i've made about 15 trips there since the 80's) none of the Euro tires have the tread depth required to do well in deep Baja sand (or mud or anything very loose).
Best you can do is deflate them down to about 12 PSI and pray.

For Baja consider "real" knobby tires front & rear. Limited choice on the DR's 17" rear. Try Michelin T66. For the front I like the TKC80 because it lasts a LONG LONG time, works well on paved roads and works off road too!
Expensive but good IMO.


Rocky and steep Baja ... on the road to La Purisma, Scorpion Bay.

Dunes. Fun, with right tires.


Miles and miles of deep sand tracks. Knobby tires help. Front most important.

If you really want to get lost in Baja perhaps a TKC80 front, MT21 or T66. For the rear, T66 ... and pack a Mitas rear on the back. Put it on when the T66 wears out. (3 to 4K miles)

The Mitas rear will take you all the way to Colombia. Best place to buy new tires. (more selection, better prices)


This pic from Jammin Jay's 1st shortened trip. His FMF came apart, mine started to come apart too but I caught it early, Loc-tited bolts and SOLD IT OFF.

Good luck with prep!

[Keith Flynn]

Great information there, Molly. Thanks a million. much appreciated. Most of your suggested spares were on my extensive list. However, the pulser coil is new to me.

I'm banking on the standard headlight and spot lights in the unfortunate event of me riding at night.

I like the TKC80s too but I thought the mileage was poor. I travel very light and I'm light on the throttle too which might help keep wear down. Have you used a TKC80 on the rear? If so, what kind of mileage did you get?

That's not a good outcome for the muffler! Yikes! I wonder how a coating of gasket seal on the contact point between the end-cap and muffler body would work...