FuzzyNugs

Looks like normal Gopro footage sped up to me...I'm still questionable about this KTM superiority PS: nice new bike!

I have tried them all as a rear on my DR. I really like the T63 for the price and ordered two the last time at $67 a pop. The knobs aren't as aggressive as the 606, but they are big enough for loose sand and rocks. No issues on the street so far. For hardpacked dirt and fine gravel, the K270 has the edge with it's tighter spaced knobs. Certainly worth a try IMO.

Nice, I've been waiting to hear about this. Any more pics? Did this gracious sweep rider who lent his bike happen to be on a DRZ400?

2 weeks later and we're already back in Puerto Nuevo for lobsters. The plan: lobsters, Coyote Cal's, Mike's, and back to Tecate in 3 days. I'm planning to move back to VA in a month or so and this would be my last trip south...for now. The crew from left to right: Aram, Big Todd, Arnie, Little Big Todd, and myself. It was a short jaunt down to lunch and I had the special: 2 smaller lobsters for $23. When in Mexico.. Day 1 was to be pretty easy being mostly highway. What we didn't expect was to have an entire lane of traffic closed off for a bicycle race. We "shared" the lane when possible and saved some time. We finally hit dirt after cutting towards the coast at Santo Tomas. Aram testing his rear brake I came around the corner in the top left of this picture to find this scene Blinded by my dust, Todd and then Aram both laid the bikes down trying to stop. Fortunately no one hit anything. It was only then that these yahoos decided to go put up some sort of warning marker on the hill. Apparently the Norra 500 was taking place today and this Canadian driver bit it on the corner chasing 1st place. Instant fire, no other racers stopped to help and they had been there since the morning working on the recovery effort. Looks to be a total loss, but no injuries to the racers fortunately. We watched for about 20 minutes as they tried to pull it onto the trailer using tow straps and pickup trucks from different directions. It wasn't moving quickly so we got back on the bikes. Todd, I think you can still go deeper..more throttle! After playing on the beach for a bit, we pulled into Coyote Cal's for a great night of beer, tequila, Thai curry lingcod(Thanks to Rick the owner), and some Trivial Pursuit. Following breakfast and coffee, we hit the road as it was to be a long day with over 100 miles of dirt. Big Todd knew of a long stretch of beach with some caves so that was to be our first stop. But not before showing them the beach jump Goofyfooter and I had discovered on another trip. 3 foot ditch to avoid climbing up to a farm road. Rolling along This steep drop into an arroyo claimed both Todds as victims. One at the top and the other at the bottom. Once we made it to the beach, it was 60mph right along the water's edge. A first for me and a very cool experience. Towards the end of the beach there are 2-3 caves with this one making a perfect motorcycle garage. The BMW GS800: Ride through knee high sand while chasing birds one handed! 2 sides of the same coin. Todd didn't join us on the beach as he tweaked his thumb coming down a previous hill. On our way back to regroup, I saw some birds running for the water and decided to chase them, not really paying attention which way the tide was moving. I was soon cresting water over the bow in a frantic attempt to stay upright and get back to the beach. I made it. DR650: an ocean going vessel. Continuing south, I made a few adventurous turns that had us criss-crossing farms and cows to get back on our GPS tracks. Not a big deal as a wrong turn is quickly met with another dirt road to get back on target. We gassed up in Camalu and using my terrible Spanish skills I deciphered that tacos were to the north and on the left. Found it. Must have been at least 10 taco places :lol:/> From here, we had a short stretch of pavement to get to Melling Ranch. None of us had been here so we wanted to check it out and ask about trail conditions to Mike's. The proprietor was very nice and fetched us a round of Tecate while showing us the place a bit. They have a 10-12 man house that can be rented for $300. Would make for an awesome big group spot. They had a pool, fire pits, dining hall etc. He gave us some directions and said we should be good. It's a well traveled road. It went from a nice trail, to some single track, to boulder field crossings and finally the trail just ended in a creekbed....hmm. Arnie decided to go just a little further to check it out. Barely made it up, only to return saying that the road got worse and then disappeared just ahead. We went back and regrouped with the others at the last turn. From here, we didn't know where the trail would go, but it was our only option and had race markers so it must go somewhere. Not 100 yards into this new trail and I dropped into a silty truck rut. I still don't know quite what happened, but my front tire pulled to the middle and when corrected it caught the outside lip of the trail. The front of the bike nosed up in a wheelie and then slammed down hard on the right side berm. I got lucky with no injuries other than a backroll into the dirt and some confusion as to how I just pulled that spectacular off. I bent my oil cooler guard back halfway so I guess it did the job and broke an auxiliary light mount. Here are the GoPro stills.. Wheel in the air.. Going down please. Time to let go. Legs up. Ah yes, there's the ground. How did this get up here? Now up until this point, the trail wasn't really difficult, just a few technical sections through the rocks. Soon though, as we got closer to Mike's, the rutted out, boulder climbs started. The first of many.. One or two wasn't bad, but they were plentiful and once the big bike's start to go down late in the day...it wears on you. That and Todd's GPS seemed to constantly hover at 6 mile's from Mike's. It's as if we were circling the damn place. Then Aram had a slow leak on the GS800, but he figured best to push on since we were so close. Arnie was up front and stopped short of what looked to be a ski hill of a drop. He wasn't sure he'd make it back out if he had to turn around so best to wait for the group. All together, we started down the mountain and it was bumpy too, but downhill so not nearly as tough. Finally, we had Mike's in view, reassuring that soon enough we'd be off this nightmare trail. We knew Simpson trail was to be avoided, but I'm sure we all had suspicion's as to whether we were on it by accident at some point. Doubtful, but still suspicious. Tire changing fun at Mike's. Todd had his own bike issues to work on, but I'll let him fill that in. Three other guys showed up doing almost the reverse of our trip route. They mentioned stopping at Casa Verde on the way down for lunch and recommended it. It's on the trail that connects Compadre to Laguna Hanson. The bar was closed as it was Sunday, but they still had cold Pacifico for us and a delicious steak ranchero. For the final day, we took the "easy" way out of Mike's that dumps you onto Hwy 3 south of Valle T. It was a fun little route and soon enough we hit Compadre trail. Knocked that out and then for the finale back to Tecate Arnie sourced some new dirt tracks for us. This proved to be a fun trail as well with a few tight switchback hill climbs before dumping us just south of Tecate. Highly recommended for future Baja travelers who don't like that slog on Hwy 2 out to RSV. Finish it off with some local carnitas tacos and call it a trip.

Thanks for sharing the extra pics. The one with the soda makes me want to go back most for those pork tacos.

Randy, this is a great story you are concocting here. Nancy's food must have really been something else to reroute the whole trip...looking forward to the conclusion.

All the makings of an eventful trip it seems and great job on the pictures. Chasing wild horses sounds pretty epic. Any close-up pics of that?

Not sure of the relevancy, but I rode South Main Divide on Sept 17th before the SDAR meeting and it was open. I honestly don't remember seeing any gates so I'm not sure if it is even possible to physically shut it down.

I like it, great pics and write-up. I'd love to be able to ride that stuff some day, but I'm with Ken, this and Rincon in particular do not look DR-friendly.

Saw this yesterday. If you are familiar with how much a GoPro can distort terrain, it makes the video even more impressive.

That video was amazing. I got excited when I saw the guns, but thought it was just to set the scene. Then when they shot the lights and they flickered back on..LOL what are these things made out of unobtanium? I saw the first two pics and immediately thought "ouch, sorry for the purchase there Goofy". Dismal is what I would have called it. Then another scroll later and I was laughing at how bright that little thing is. Good job man and clean looking install. You definitely needed the extra light it looks like. Might have to throw one of those on the KLR250...which now runs haha. Is it time for a light-bike night run?

Very cool, looks like you guys did that night of grilling right! Do you have any trail ideas/tracks north of Laguna Hanson. I've only been up a ways and then usually we cut over to Compadre at some point. I'd be curious to get to that lookout over the Mexicali valley.

Congrats HVYWT, didn't realize you were moving. CO should have plenty of awesome opportunities for you. I hope to live there at some point in my life.

Lookin good Ken. Is that the Pat Walsh Designs plate? What did you use to cut up the old skid plate?

Good stuff you guys..and I almost joined ya. Make it a short camping trip next time and I'm game. I mainly didn't want to ride Anza-Oside at night. Cool tarantula, they are nocturnal right? Seems most things are out there in the dez.

Good info there. Just to add my experience, I ordered my Gen 3 in July from REI's website. It said it was back-ordered, but to my surprise it shipped within a week I'd say. If you know you want one, I'd say order it and it may arrive sooner than expected. Also comes with a caribeener clip/strap so you can get your dangle on. Not sure if the old one's came with any way to attach out of the box.

Everything Arnie said was spot on, another great trip south. After my first foray through Tijuana, we started down the coast. Things soon became a mirrored bizarro-world of the SD coastline to me. After going through the big city, I saw a sign for La Joya. Hmm, must be the Mexican version. Then further south a sign for Rio Del Mar. Unfortunately, Puerto Nuevo didn't turn out to be a Germanic doppleganger of Carlsbad. But it was still strange to see people hawking lobsters in the street as we rode by. I think Seth got the recommendation for this place from a friend, turned into a good choice. They stuck us gringo's in the back corner of the restaurant.. ..with a great view of the coastline. The large lobster, an amazing bowl of tortilla soup, rice, beans, and tortillas for $26. Bellies full, let's find some dirt. East from Ensenada and just past Ojos Negros on Hwy 3 we started our way north to Laguna Hanson. We made it to the Sawmill, where some got their first taste of milk jug gas. Some other dirt bikes were also filling up..and wait who's that with them. Sondra of course, down in Baja by herself looking for adventure. It was great timing to run into her, so we shared a round of drinks to contemplate our next move. Two older guys who rolled in on dirtbikes told us "the road is impassable on those big bikes". I had done the route connecting Laguna Hanson to Compadre and couldn't imagine anything more than some puddles. Dave's hesitation on the GSA was easily sensed, but we didn't really think it would be too bad. Adventure bikes roll on..so we did. We stopped at Laguna Hanson and it was brimming with water. Just one month prior it was bone dry. Heavy rains must have come through with those storms, a sure sign of the puddles to come. Things never really got that bad, typical puddle dodging, short sections of some moderately deep sand, but at one point Dave and Todd were taking a while to catch up. Finally we heard engines through the trees, but not happy campers. Dave must have gotten loose somewhere at the wrong spot and nosed the beemer into a trailside tree. Luckily it was only some expensive surface damage via the lights and one increasingly frustrated Dave. I know how it feels to smash something expensive it's never easy. From here on we took our time navigating our way to Compadre. Making a slight detour around a GSA unfriendly section of trail. Not long after we came upon our biggest puddle yet, more of a bog. I was following Dave and I guess he didn't see any way around so he set sail for the middle, but only made it halfway. I skirted around the left side through muddy grass, but Dave was still spinning away in the muddy water. Seth and I waded in to our knees and gave him a push and he was soon out of that mess. Seth stopped for this guy on the side of the trail. Always good to see some wildlife. Then Arnie comes back to say he ran him over :lol:/> Snake seemed fine though and was moving it's tongue. Probably just frightened of the brute 950SE. We are running out of daylight and still not on Compadre. It wasn't all bad though, I got to finally use my LED lights to moderate success. One kept flickering on me and I'm confident it's just a lose wire connection. Riding through Baja at night though was a first and I think we all enjoyed it, except maybe for Dave. The trail turned out to be no issue at all. We slow rolled our way through the night, but about 3 miles short of RSV, our Sawmill Sage's advice finally rang true. 2-3Deep pits of sand littered the road for about a 1/4 mile each. Dave had a tough time of it plowing the beemer through. It makes for easy falls though, and with a little help picking up the bike, he always got back on it. Out of the darkness and at our final destination, we stumbled into a bar full of locals hoping to see Mexico take down undefeated Mayweather. I'm sure they were just as surprised to see us. As if we had reserved seats prior, Miguel sat us all at the bar for prime viewing of the fight, excellent quesadillas, and of course only the best for a round of birthday shots. El Mejor...according to Miguel Seth and I got forced into some additional beverages by some Tijuana locals. The one guy runs a machine shop with a CNC machine and insisted that we come to him if we ever need anything made as he's "half the price" of the US. Even a one run item. All he needs is an autoCAD drawing. Nice guys and we thanked them for the drinks, but had to get some sleep. Hope their business grows. Next morning we made the fastest return ever through the border. Sunday at 10AM..I'll remember that. Arnie, Seth and I did a quick rip up Bear Valley and had lot's of fun doing it. I gave my new suspension quite a ride this weekend have been nothing but pleased. Here's to doing it again sometime.. :drinks:/>

Glad to see you made it back too, such a coincidence running into you. Everyone made it back safely, but there may have been some minor bike damage. I think there were some differing opinions of the trail. It was certainly not impassable on big bikes as the two older guys kept harping on about. There was one really solid section of very deep sand on Compadre a few miles short of RSV, but other than that, just slightly more challenging than normally. If a RR doesn't show up by tomorrow, I'll start one.

I use it in my F 800 GS. Wal Mart Gal Jugs :good:/> Has anyone ever had a oil related falure in the last 25-30 years ? I've used it in my DR650 with no issues. Also bought the 10-30 version on accident last week and it works just as well in the bike.

That was such a great read. I just got caught up on the last few days of the journey. Job well done! Also didn't hurt that it was one of the best RR I've read so far.

After 12k miles of bouncing around on the DR650's stock shock, it was well past time for an upgrade. There are several options, Cogent-Dynamics, Ricor, Race Tech, Ohlins, Elka, or even a stock rebuild... but I couldn't make my mind up. Then I found a Dutch company called Hyperpro, known for their progressive springs. Turns out they make an emulsion shock for my bike, but I couldn't find any reviews specifically for the DR. The few reviews I could find from BMW owners liked their Hyperpro shocks. I liked the idea of trying something new to share with other DR riders. I'd be the test case. Worst case I'm out $600 right?...oh and they had front springs too(have to get the set of course), so after all combined with shipping, this was to be about an $800 experiment. I dropped the new springs in my old oil before my big Sierras trip last month. They were a definite improvement, but something wasn't right. The new springs called for an oil level of 220mm compared to the stock 150mm. Also, over the summer I've been collecting up a spare set of plastics and a tank. Mine are pretty scratched up and the dirty white constantly looked like garbage. It was time for a paint job. Here's how it all unfolded over the past 2 weeks or so..warning, too many pictures ahead. Tearing down the bike after the Sierras trip, started off with a rear tire change and then removed the airbox to pull the old shock out the top of the frame. The brand new Hyperpro in wacky crazy purple VS the OEM Suzuki Pogo-matic After some careful maneuvering, my bike has new legs. On to painting for a bit. I used Aircraft Stripper from Wally World to eat away most of the stock paint. It was a blue 05-06 tank. It didn't work as well as it does on Youtube. I had to hand sand the last 10-15% of the paint off. Got it mostly shiny and then primed. Probably the worst place to use spray paint. Coastal breezes upon opening the garage door for fresh air sent overspray afloat. In the end it wasn't too bad fortunately. Primer done For the top coat, I used Rustoleum Gloss Black Enamel. Propped the tank up on a cardboard box. New to me plastics ready for some Krylon Fusion for Plastics, Gloss Black. Making a mess everywhere I was going to get fancy and do an extra color or two, but after reading the dry time of 7 days I said screw that, I need to ride the dang thing. So all black it will be. Back to the bike, while things dry. Pulled the front end, swapped a fresh tire on and started mounting my new rear rack, OEM one Suzuki makes. This is my 3rd rack now I think, and I wish I had bought it from the start. Bolts directly to the subframe crossbar. Requires drilling two 17mm holes through the rear fender. Realizing I didn't have any drill bits that big, I instinctively went to Harbor Freight down the street and found this step bit to do the job. Looks fresh! For the front suspension, I had several factors to consider. I had been using Ricor Intiminator drop-in valves which call for a switch from 10wt to 5wt oil. The Hyperpro springs called for 10wt oil at 220mm instead of Suzuki's 150mm measurement. I decided to keep the 5wt oil and used a measured zip-tie to get 220mm of oil height. So just less oil than what I had in for my Sierra trip. The new fork springs are significantly longer and call for the removal of the stock spacer. Fine by me as those suckers are heavy. Ended up 12mm over the tube when standing freely. This skeleton needs some skin. I rotated my handlebars forward a bit to make standing easier. Also installed the Dirtbagz racks that TrophyHunter dontated. Getting close, notice my cardboard box and foam top "work bench". Huzzah! She rolls again, first ride in a month since my trip and hurting my ankle. Feels like a brand new bike. Started at the bottom of Nate Harrison at 1800 with my gps calling for a 1900 sunset. One hour of play time. The luggage works great, very slim and lightweight. Basically two metal poles and two backpacks. Made it to the top and turned right around with 20 minutes of daylight. Every other turn was a beautiful sunset. Only to get better as I went downhill. 5 minutes to sunset. All in all, I am very happy with how the suspension turned out. Just in the garage, I've gained an inch in skid plate clearance. I knew it was an upgrade with the front springs alone last month. After correcting the oil level AND adding the rear shock..WOW. Immediately, things seemed smoother on the street. Increased acceleration and response as the bike was no longer sagging through the suspension on take off. Once I hit the dirt I knew something was different. Nate Harrison has a lot of washboard. Before my rear tire would skip and stutter constantly, leaving me in less control. Now I can feel the bike making traction over almost any bump, rut, or pothole. The first thing that popped into my mind was the time Afry let me try his Husky 450. It was the exact same feeling of being on rails, only on a much heavier bike. I raced my way up Palomar and then gave it a downhill run. Once again, the suspension earned it's value. Hard braking into turns gave me that same positive contact feeling on the rear which before would start to slip and slide. It was a great little test run for the bike. The painting process proved to be more effort than I imagined. It didn't come out perfect, but I'm not a professional. That and I expect it to get thrashed again soon. It would have been much better had I a better place to paint. Can't wait for Saturday to give this thing a real test when we head for lobsters in Baja!

I'm pretty impressed with them for the money, but I don't have much experience with lighting. They certainly won't be a beaming laser like your Cyclops, or the concentrated Sun power of the Squadron. The high lumen output for the size/price was a plus. All I can really say is they are better, but I had nothing before. They definitely send light down the road. Last night coming home in the dark on 76 I did a couple on off tests. Reflectors in the distance really brighten up, but I turn them off like high beams for oncoming traffic. For divided roads they are great for visibility. I like to think it makes me more visible to cars when splitting lanes. Even more when dark as it hits their mirrors. BUT, the main reason I wanted them was for more peripheral visibility at night on trails and tight roads. I got the 40 degree beam instead of 20 for this and feel these work well for the purpose and price. Better view of the front

Yup, always fun to have a few pictures to look back at. Helps in writing this stuff up too and to show what not to do..paint in an enclosed shared garage. To answer your question about the lights from advrider, they are these from superbrightleds.com: Lights And I also bought the Wiring Harness, but it was obviously for a car. I had to remove a few feet of wire running to each light. They bolted perfectly to the front reflector mounts. A little big, but they work for me and were super cheap at $120 total.

Haha, yes there is a Krylon for Plastics clear coat, even bought 2 cans. I just didn't want to wait for it to dry. Lazy..but I'll have it for the next touch up.

Thanks for the crazy read. Funny, I just read this story last week: Motorcyclist Struck by Lightning I think you'd have been fine haha.