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Great idea. I would think there would be some way to just turn transmission off for a channel (or frequency), but I guess not. Seems like something that might be worth adding as a feature.

WOW, I think people must have misunderstood me. I certainly never advocated transmitting on any illegal frequency. Down in Mexico (the baja 500) the rules are differnet, they do not have our FCC. Anyway, I moded mine solely for communications in Mexico during off road races. While in the US I see no reason not to use the 144-148 band, nothing wrong with it. Somebody mentioned being careful where you transmit. I totally agree. I HOPE that people who take the time to figure out how to mod their radio are also smart enough to figure out when and how to use that. Anyway, didn't want to start anything, just thought it was interesting that nobody had mentioned it. Have fun guys....

So I haven't seen anybody mention that the VX-170 radio can be easily modified to transmit through the entire band it recieves on (about 137-174). I was able to use mine in the 150mHz range at the baja 500 last weekend. Worked great too, I was able to speak with the "weatherman". Be aware, if you modify the radio it will erase all presets. You can reprogram, but it will erase when you do it. Found that one out the hard way.

Allright, Y'all talked me into it. I just bought the radio. Headset to follow. Should be good to hear whats going on at the Baja 500 this weekend.

So all legality aside, woudla group of riders (all legal of course) actually set up to use the repeater while riding as a group? Or, would you just set up siplex and run with that? Sounds like it limits your range, but from what I am hearing using the repeater for bike to bike on a ride would be too much hassle. True? 10 miles sounds great. Most of the riding many of us do is the dessert and you can usually get quite far away but maintain line of site. Thanks guys, for the infor AND the entertainment. 1469RU Clear

Yeah, I read about the PTT problems. Worst case I am OK wiring up a kill switch as someone else did. WOW, that does seem like poor range. I had hoped for more, although there is no way I am going to use repeaters. That time we lost the guy on the dry lake bed we ran into some baja racers (with radios) and they were able to help us out communicating with their buddy in a buggy. Granted the buggy has a 25W radio and whip antenna, but they were able to talk 10 miles or so across the lake bed. I am sure they have the best stuff but I had hoped for this kind of money we could do a bit better than a mile. Well, a mile is still about 5278 feet farther than I can communicate now, I guess I will have to invest. Thanks!

A couple of quesitons for all of you acknowledged radio experts.... First, I have seen it mentioned in here that "simplex" is short range. I THOUGHT simplex was were you transmitted and recieved on the same frequency. Is it short range only because you are not using a repeater? Somebody please enlighten me. Second, I would like to get some idea of the expected range of this setup that has been talked about here (the yaesu) (both with stock anrtenna and with the smiley). I plan on using this system in baja a lot where we can get sometimes very far from each other and it would be nice to know how far it will work. One time a miscommunication on the dry lake bed had our riders spread out over about a 10 mile line, no good. Last, how are the connections in the BD system these days? Are they Nexis? The Nexis connector seems the most durable to me. I previously had a motocomm setup (which sucked) and broke the conenctors pretty easily. I know Avcomm runs nexis but is a fwe dollars more money. Thanks!

I only have some of the manual, what area are you looking for? Mine is a 06 as well. I am doing the top end. I accidentally let the boot from the aircleaner to the carb come off for a bit. Plus she has gotten hot a few times, I figured it couldn't hurt. I actually ended up ordering a manual, so if anybody has any questions I ought to have the answers in a few days here. I am also going to add the XR 400 oil cooler and run thicker, synthetic oil. Figure between all the changes I am making she ought to back to new and run cool from here on out. Thanks!

To DirtDiver....YEAH! I remember seeing you guys. If I remember correctly there were a few of you. I was the lead rider and the white Triumph Tiger with us was the couple going to Panama. To Christi20....Actually it is his OTHER leg that was recently amputated. Coco is Diabetic and it was complications with that rather than the original trauma that got his first leg. Ill tell you what though, he seemed to be getting around OK. He was hanging pictures when we were there, all sitting in his wheelchair. Even more sad than his loosing the second leg is that while it was happening he was robbed. People broke into his house and stole EVERYTHING. I guess everybody wants a bit of memorabilia, but wow, what a way to get. Makes you mad, you know.

Anybody have a .pdf copy of a Honda XR650L service manual? Year doesnt really matter, since they are all the same. Mine happens to be an '06. This would be a bg help! Thanks

So my buddy Mike and I just got back from 3 days south of the border. We took our "bigger" bikes, mine a V-Strom 650 and his (get this) a Honda Shadow 1100! We headed out the first day from San Diego and after many margarita stops, ended up in San Quintin. We stayed at the Old Mill. Also, about 20 miles north of there we ran into a cool couple on a Triumph Tiger that was on their way from Seattle to Panama. They were doing it on the cheap. Second day we ran through El Rosario and on to Chapala Junction. There are rumors of that road being paved but, while it was decently graded for a couple miles, there was NO heavy equipment in sight. So we continued on to Cocos corner. We had heard Coco was not there, but there he was! He has recently had his second leg amputated, and is wheelchair bound now. He told us he was away for 8 months and while he was gone the place was totally ransacked. This was so sad to hear. While he did seem a bit sad to me, there he was hanging pictueres on the wall and saying "I start over!" What a guy. Coco still has his campers for rent and is planning on staying, so please...go see the guy. Coco took one look at our bikes (again, think Honda shadow here) and said "----, you f%&^ LOCO". With that, we continued on to Gonzaga bay where they actually did have gas this time. We ran into Gonzaga about 4:30 or 5 in the afternoon so we quickly got gas, and started up toward puertocitas. We had only managed about 25 miles when it was totally pitch black outside, which actually made the riding great! That road is NOT as bad as everyone claims, but at the same time it is totally inappropriate for a shadow. My V-Strom was fine, but I sure could have used some tires with actual tread on them (my trailwings look like racing slicks). We were able to average about 15 miles an hour over the 90 miles of dirt from Chapala to Puertocitas, but we did NOT stop....that is pure riding. As most of us have heard the road is being paved south of puertocitas. It is currently 5 miles south of the town with heavy equipment woeking another couple miles past that. This did NOT but a damper on this part of the trip, but it will at some point. Oh, we made San Felipe about 9pm after starting out that morning at 8. Day 3 we left San Felipe and rode north (they are repaving about 10 miles of highway 5, be careful) to highway 3 and turned left. We rode into Ensenada and then up the free road back to SD. All in all a great trip! I suck with photos, so these attachments are the best I could do.

Nice report Morgan. Wish I could have been there, but there was now way I was getting 2 whole days away from the wifes family.

Yeah, it was crazy! I was out there with a couple of friends. I felt like I was going down a two lane road if I stayed on main trails. There was always a line of people in front of me and a line of people going to other direction. You couldn't even pass. Anyway, we had a great time...just kept our eyes open.

Should be there saturday morning with 2 other guys. I am going to guess it will be a little crazy this weekend.

Last post was right....it changes every year. This is the shortest 1000 I have heard of, but they are commonly in the 800 mile area. Last years was a lot longer, actually about 1200+ miles. So far I haven't heard any horror stories from this year. Hope it stays that way. As for La Paz, it runs from Ensenada to La Paz some years, and other years it runs a loop back to Ensenada, like this year. Everything on this years course was within easy 3 day trip distance. Our last trip was 3 days and 710 miles, so I guess we could have run the whole course.