Fathers day weekend in Baja

[Crawdaddy 96]

ohh! happy fathers day,,, hasta la vista...

Thanks Javi/Tree for your assistance in working out the logistics/details .......We're rolling out on Thursday....

[javi 0]

you welcome......nice chase truck

[Crawdaddy 96]

Hey Tree/Javi - Do they take plastic at RSV, El Cortez, Mike's or is it "cash only"? Don't really want to carry much cash if I can avoid it.....

We're all jazzed about our trip tomorrow.......add 6 new members to the "Non-SOB" club

[2Wheels 0]

I can't speak from experience about using plastic in Mexico (I've always used cash except at the Hotel Corona in Ensenada.) but I remember someone asking something similar in Baja Thumpertalk.

One answer was that you might get your credit card number stolen. See post #15 on this thread: http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showthrea...5783&page=2

The guy who replied, luissuperdog, is from Mexico so I guess he'd know something about it.

[Crawdaddy 96]

One answer was that you might get your credit card number stolen.

True.....could happen anywhere but more likely in Mex.......I don't normally have more than ~$20 in my wallet I'm so used to my "Debit card" lifestyle....... but perhaps operating on a cash only basis down there is the way to go.......I'll just stash different amounts in different areas on the body/bike.....

[Tree 0]

One answer was that you might get your credit card number stolen.

True.....could happen anywhere but more likely in Mex.......I don't normally have more than ~$20 in my wallet I'm so used to my "Debit card" lifestyle....... but perhaps operating on a cash only basis down there is the way to go.......I'll just stash different amounts in different areas on the body/bike.....

Yeah cash is king down there. I paid for the cortez on cc before out trip but mikes is strickly cash. If you can keep track of the exchange rate (you'll need to) pesos work well. They always give back change in pesos.

[Crawdaddy 96]

And we’re off…….

[Tree 0]

How was your trip? Did you take alot of pics? Where's the ride report?

[Crawdaddy 96]

How was your trip? Did you take alot of pics? Where's the ride report?

This ride was Tracy's idea...........he'll post up a ride report.......Samir, Rich and Tracy were the primary photo takers so they'll post up some photos (the ones you're allowed to see )......in short, we had a great time on the aptly named "Tire Iron 350" (which was actually about ~425 miles)

A few recurring themes......

- BEER & TEQUILA (21st B-Day in our group/on our trip.....some of us started behaving like we were 21 again...)

- 6 Flats......Samir had 4 (rear), I had 2 (front).......Tracy dubbed the ride "The Tire Iron 350" ……..Look for the aptly named T-Shirt hanging at Mike's next time you’re there…..

- “These shots go down smooth”…….see first item above……

- Federales.......we were stopped 4 times on Compadre Trail between Veronica and Indepencia, once on Laguna Diablo Dry Lake Bed......and passed several more groups that waved us through......

- Old/fat guys skinny-dipping at Rancho Veronica/Mikes ......see first item above...

- Are we lost?.....I created some "map drawn" tracks for us to “explore”.......my tracks didn't always correlate with any existing or easily recognizable roads or trails ……for the record, we were never lost …….we were just “on an Adventure ride”

- The booze/food is good/cheap down here :dance: ……see first item above……

- I need gas (again) :help: .......Rich has a 2.1 gallon tank on his DRZ.....luckily I was riding the Exxon Valdez……

- FUN!!!......we had a great time .......6 “NON SOB” riders......we'll be back

[Tree 0]

Cool, sounds like a great time. I'm glad we have some more NON SOBs in the group now. I'm looking forward to the "official ride report with pics". You guys ready to start planning for San Quitin T-day weekend?

[tlking6 0]

Chris pretty much hit on the Highlights of the "Tire Iron 350" and I'll post up some Pic's as soon as I get a chance. I thought I counted more flats than 6 though!

Good times, good people, lots of laughs and yep, adventure!

[Crawdaddy 96]

I thought I counted more flats than 6 though!

I wasn't including any "unnaturally occuring" flats......you know, the kind that are caused by a couple of jokesters such as you and Chris (the other one!)

Backstory: Samir had 3 rear flats on Friday.......3........that SUCKED..........so these jokers decided to pour salt on his wounds by letting the air out of his rear tire after he went to bed Sat night at Mike's.......are they cruel or what?!?!...........Samir was NOT a happy camper when he woke up to find that flat early Sunday morning.....and I couldn't let him take off his wheel.......so when I heard him grumbling/mumbling/fumbling for his tools I chased him down to let him know that "things aren't always as they appear"......he cracked up/took it really well (thankfully)

[tlking6 0]

he cracked up/took it really well (thankfully)

Thats a good thing since he is one big Indian! I'm surprised, since I left my helmet on my bars, that it wasnt at the bottom of Mikes Pool! Guess I would'a deserved it!

[Jaynen 0]

Probably just so relieved he didn't have to see those tire irons again

[JohnnyAirtime 2]

Sounds like a great ride....

But Samir should know better!!

What tubes was he runnin?! Stock? ..or "fulloholes" brand?

... I didn't know he was going with some SDadvRDRs, he emailed me asking about cash/credit card info on the 17th.

Boy, am I jealous!

... just about time to go back.

Thanks for the post, I lived a bit vicariously through what few pics were posted.

[Crawdaddy 96]

Samir should know better!!

His first flat was a ~3" long metal screw he picked up along the road into RSV......NO tube was gonna stop that screw......which left him......well......."totally screwed" .......after that he used light duty spare 21" tubes since that's what we were all carrying.......and he was running a MT43 Trials tire.....high side walls.....lot's of volume to fill.....I think the next 3 were all pinchers which was surprising because he rocked up his tires at a pretty high PSI......we picked up a 18" tube from "Jaime's motorcycle service" in San Felipe (Yes, I set a waypoint since "Jaime's" seems to be about your only option in San Felipe....good thing we didn't need anything other than a tube )......his last flat was on Sunday and he was within 10 miles of RSV.......so he just rode up to RSV on his other bike and snagged his truck rather than dealing with another tube change.......I stayed back at the WR400 with Rohan.........it was hot, he was tired, (and he was tired of changing tubes! ).......actually, I guess it would be fair to say he got 5 flats because he also pinched a tube during a change at the El Cortez in San Felipe so he had to start over again with a fresh tube .......so that's 5 flats for Samir.....ouch.....

My first front flat was on Sat........we were heading across the misc. fire roads leading to Laguna Diablo Dry Lake Bed and I pinched it......funny story about the location of that first tube change.......here we are riding in BFE nowhere and we stumble upon a pleather lounge chair and 5 gallon paint bucket along the side of the trail (upon approaching the 5 gallon bucket it became instantly clear (to the nostrils) that the bucket had been used as a sh*t bucket - literally)........anyway, the smell was toxic but we were surrounded by sand and cactus so it made for a good bike stand to lift the Exxon Valdez onto so I could get the front wheel off........needless to say, the tube was changed a short ways away from the bike/bucket ........then, once we got about a third of the way across the dry lake bed, I had the brilliant (not) idea to explore some less traveled dirt roads to the west of Laguna Diablo…….that’s right, “west”……I know what you’re thinking, “there isn’t anything to the west ”……..that’s pretty much a true statement…….we hit a really fun dirt road…..which turned into a cow pasture……which turned into……well……a wash…….then rolling dunes with cactus…….seems only appropriate that “I” was the one that had a cactus penetrate my front tire in that stretch as we rode cross country to get back over to the main trail on the dry lakebed.......so 2 front flats for me......

[SXP 1]

But Samir should know better!!

What tubes was he runnin?! Stock? ..or "fulloholes" brand?

The first tube was a Bridgestone Ultra Heavy Duty that a 2 to 3 inch screw took out. I would have patched it if it were only a hole, but the screw actually tore the tube. The rest of the tubes were the paper thin 21" balloons.

I just dismounted my flat tire (for the fifth time since the start of the ride) and the 21" tube had a pin-hole leak on the inside (spoke side).

[Crawdaddy 96]

We ran into another group of 5 (?) guys at RSV that were taking off on a similar "adventure".......they were headed over to Mike's where they'd stay a couple of days.......their plan was to ride to Mike's on Friday, loop over to the coast and back on Sat., then head back to RSV on Sunday.......nice group of guys......we were the only two groups at Mikes......they printed up some pretty funny stickers....you can see their annual "Monkey Butt" stickers all over Mike's....

This year's flavor (sorry for the lousy cell phone pic):