'08 Baja 1000

[FrostedFlake]

Just got back home from the Baja 1000.  A buddy on his GS 1150 and me on my '06 Tiger rode from Texas to Ensenada, then hooked up with our respective race teams, rode the race, then hit the road back home.  We tried to stay off the interstate, cutting up through the middle of New Mexico and Arizona then down to Tecate to cross, and on the way back we stayed in northen Mexico until crossing the border below Deming, NM.  2600 road miles plus the race sections - a great trip.  I'll try to post some pics later (have a great one of my buddy dropping his GS in the dunes at Glamis), but need to reacquaint myself with the family first.  BTW, I looked for Fano, but since I only know him as the owner of a green Girly which he didn't ride down there, I didn't really know how to find him.  Some day.

Here's one shot of mine at the dunes.

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[fano]

Sorry I missed you. We just made it home few hours ago. You were right, Ensenada was little too busy to just bump in to you and I didn't see any Tiger along the way. Looking forward to your rr.

[fano]

[FrostedFlake]

Dang, busted!  I could make excuses about getting busy, the holidays, etc., but you're right.  Need to put something together.  The biggest problem is that my buddy lost his camera so 90% of my shots are of the arse-end of a GS1150, and who wants to see that on a Tiger forum?  But I do have some scenic shots, maybe a few obligatory food shots...  OK, I promise to get it done!   :oops:

[FrostedFlake]

Let's see - like I said, my buddy Dave and I were both racing the Baja 1000 on two different teams.  We sent our gear bags ahead with others in our group who were driving to make the trip manageable.  We agreed to meet at 11 am on Sunday morning and ride to Cloudcroft, NM where I've got a little cabin.  It was cold but clear, about 25 degrees when I pulled out.  



Met up with Dave at a local fast food place, and surveyed the bikes one last time before heading west.




I really had more storage than I needed between the Hepco cases, a Wolfman duffle and a Wolfman tank bag, but who knew how much tequila I'd be bringing back home?   8)
Lots of flat land between Lubbock and Cloudcroft.  About 200 miles of nothing before climbing into the mountains.

 

Finally starting to see some hills west of Artesia, NM

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[FrostedFlake]

Once we got into the Lincoln National Forest, we dove off the highway and cut across on some great forest roads - here, Russia Canyon Road, about ten miles of perfection!





If you've never ridden in this part of the world, I highly recommend it.  9000 feet, hundreds of miles of trail, countless miles of forest roads, perfection for dirt or dual sport riding.  The Harley guys love it because of the gentle sweeping turns on nice paved highways, which are the nut on a Tiger, too, but I'm really partial to the trails and two-track.  Would be a great location for a Tiger group ride!  

After a huge meal in town and a couple of more beers than necessary, we woke early the next morning hoping to put some real miles between us and home.  It was 15 degrees according to my cabin's thermometer, so we layered up.  I was sporting a new electric vest which, unfortunately, wasn't very reliable.  It'd work great, then just quit.  Did this the entire trip, so I was a bit chillier than Dave, who had full electrics, but not anything I couldn't live with.  We were on an adventure, anyway!  

We descended to about 4000 feet and the mountains started to disappear.



Started to see more vegetation as we neared Arizona.  Our goal was to stay off the major roads, no interstates or 4-lanes, and hit every national park or other scenic byway we could.





Stopped to get our bearings in Reserve, AZ, and the road from there was a hoot!


Didn't read the fine print on this monument, but it was unique to say the least.



Nice overlook view from my cockpit



Twisty mountain roads, with snow lining the roadside periodically.




We pulled into Prescott, AZ just after dark.  About 500 miles that day, not bad for a leisurely ride.  The Hampton Inn we went to had just opened that day - we were the first customers.  They let us park under the front awning and promised to watch our stuff.   :lol:   Don't know that I've ever stayed in a hotel that no one else had soiled - I highly recommend it!  Here's what it looked like when we started off on Tuesday morning.



Today, we would cross into Mexico.

[fano]

Nice!
Let see some Mexicooo

[FrostedFlake]

Teaser shot:



 :shock:

More to come.

[FrostedFlake]

Back to the ride.  We left Prescott and headed south towards Wilholt.  For 30 miles or so, I felt like we were on The Dragon - the most amazing twisties, mile after mile, all with a slight descent toward the desert.  No pics, simply because I couldn't let go of the bars for a second!  I'd love to go back and ride that part of Arizona again, great stuff.  



We kept south, mostly flat, straight rodes for awhile.



Pulled over to check our route at this canal ...



which was next to a 4-way intersection in the middle of freakin' nowhere...



But shortly thereafter, the sand appeared.  Glamis!


Dave eyeballed a place we could ride down into the dunes ...



But his beemer got scared and bucked him off.






I finally had to stop laughing and taking pics, or we'd still be there today.  Helped pick up the sleeping cow and we were moving again.



The Tiger felt more at home on the sand, obviously.






It was getting hot and late in the day by this point, so we headed back to the road and kicked it up a notch.  Eventually, we neared the border crossing at Tecate, and once again, some great twisties and scenery poppoed up unexpectedly, which I failed to document.  Nice train trestle just before crossing...



Hit the border, was waived through by some federales who could have cared less, and that was that.  No pics again as we hightailed it toward Ensenada, our goal for the night.  Got there just about dusk, found our respective groups, and I parked the Tiger in our host's garage for a few days.  The city was crazy, and I didn't want to ride it downtown and leave it unattended for fear of losing the bike itself or any accessories.  I've never had a bad incident in Baja, but when you add an extra couple hundred thousand to an already busy city, why chance it, especially when it's your ride home?  

I'd love to show you photos of what went on for the next eight hours or so, as my fellow team members decided we should go into town for a taco or three and ended up at the local clubs until dawn.  I didn't pack a camera, and most of what we saw would probably violate the boundaries of good taste for this site - let's just say a good time was had by all.   :shock:   That is, until we were rousted out of bed to go pre-ride the next morning.   :(

More to come...

[HockleyBoy]

Nice pics and report, looks like you had a great ride to Baja  :D

[FrostedFlake]

We had a blast, Hockley.  I think the ride over and back equalled the race on the fun factor.

I found some pics from Dave's camera before it went missing.  These cover pretty much the same ground as the ones I've already posted, but there's a Tiger in the picture, and this is a Tiger forum, so it had to be done.  







My garage in Cloudcroft.  Best part of the place, we've crammed twenty bikes in there before!



And me in the garage, getting ready to head out early Monday morning.



Either (a) riding with no hands; (b) making gestures about the size of anatomical features; or (c) no friggin' idea.











On the road between Tecate and Ensenada ...



Some horny girls ...



That's pretty much all from his camera.

[FrostedFlake]

Back to my photos, boring pre-race stuff with no Tiger.
My teammates having breakfast at la hacienda.



We split up on Wednesday morning to go pre-ride parts of our respective sections.  In '07 we rode the race without riding or seeing any of the 1296-mile course and did great.  This year, not so much.  Maybe back to the no pre-ride philosophy next year.  Our team captain used the race bike for his pre-ride and discovered that we had a lighting problem.  So, next morning, which was tech inspection day, we started trying to figure out why we had not lights.  Here's the huddle:



and here's the culprit - a bad stator.  



We had a spare, but it had issues too.  In the end, we pulled one from our '07 bike and it worked fine.  For the time being.  More about that later.

A little Sprinter clean-up before heading into town for tech.



Contingency Row, lined with vendors and wall-to-wall people.



For you Triumph fans, here's a nice triple - the Mexican National Female Threesome team.  




We did manage to eat over there in between riding and drinking.



There were two sidecars entered in this year's event.  Crazy!



Friday morning, we were up at 4 am and on our way to respective exchange points.  Our first rider apparently had a major getoff within the first 100 miles and knocked himself loopy.  We were literally two hours off the pace before our first rider exchange.  Oh well, it's about the ride, not the finish.  Sitting out in the middle of the desert, waiting for something or someone to come by, I hear a noise overhead.  If this is up there, that means that Team Honda should be by in about ten seconds ...



... but I wasn't quick enough to get the camera pointed in the right direction.  The dust cloud under the chopper was one of the Honda boys, doing about 100 mph.



To make a long story short, which is easier without pictures as I had to put the camera away to ride, we made it 60 miles from the finish and the stator toasted again.  Lights quit, then the engine died.  Luckily for me, I was able to ride both of my legs, one in the daylight and then about 100 miles at night up to Mike's Sky Ranch and back down to the west coast.  The night run was exciting to say the least, as the trophy trucks had caught up to us by this point due to our earlier problems.  Nothing like an 800-HP truck with more lights than a football field coming up behind you in the middle of a pitch black night on a windy mountain road!   :shock:   But in the end, I had no incidents and handed the bike off to our last rider in one piece, then settled down in our chase truck with a cold cerveza.   An hour or so later, he called on the satellite phone to give us the bad news, and we spent several hours trying to get to him and then get the bike running again.  At 5 am, we called it quits and loaded up for Ensenada.  Bummer, but still the ultimate adventure - and besides, I still had 1300 miles of Mexican road to cover on the Tiger!   :lol:

[Mustang]

[fano]

Nothing like an 800-HP truck with more lights than a football field coming up behind you in the middle of a pitch black night on a windy mountain road!   :shock:

 :lol:



and they are fun during the daylight too

[John Stenhouse]

Great Report Frosty! Fab pics too, I reckon the odd photo of you with your no hand riding is actually you caught getting your camera out and shielding your eyes from the lovely view!  :lol: