A Baja Rookies Impressions from the 2020 Baja Ride
Hi Guys!
I promised CJ that I would post some impressions, advice to future rookies, feedback and pictures from the ride and I did tell him it may take a while. Well I didn't anticipate it would take this long, but since the family and I are currently evacuated waiting for the fires just south of La Honda to reside, I'm fresh out of excuses for not getting this done.
A Baja rookie’s impressions and learnings from the BARF 2020 Baja ride:
I had been curious about riding Baja for a while so when Rebeckah Burchard mentioned the yearly Barf Baja ride I became very interested. I went to most (almost all?) of the pre- meetings, asked a lot of questions and got a lot of good and thoughtful answers from friendly Baja veterans over pizza and beer. I also carefully read all the recommended posts which contained useful and often essential information.
The Bike (selection, preparation and lessons learned along the way):
I soon realized I did not have a suitable Baja bike which gave me an excellent excuse to start another bike build project! After a lot of consulting with knowledgeable group members the choice fell on a 2002 Honda XR650R. The bike I purchased luckily turned out to be in excellent condition. It still got a complete teardown, partial Baja mods and rebuild of all components that showed the slightest sign of wear. The advice I got was to check everything on the bike thoroughly, which I did, and it later seemed to have paid off. Apart from a broken bolt and a couple of flats the bike ran great without issues for the 1000+ mile ride.
Bike lesson learned #1: I bought relatively large Coyote bags from Giant Loop that stuffed full with clothes, tools and spares. What I learned from the faster and more experienced riders was that I could have gotten away with smaller Mojavi bags and much less clothes. One set of thin evening clothes, a warm sweater and a thin jacket is enough for the whole trip if you are serious about the riding and don’t plan to spend much time in camp, going out to bars etc. (remember bars?). We got in to camp before dark only once in the whole trip so the only clothes we wore were pretty much the riding gear and since we washed them every night in the shower, not much change of clothing was needed. If you aspire to ride the technical stuff and “hang with the fast guys”, bringing an absolute minimum of luggage is helpful. You still absolutely need spares, tools etc. so choose wisely…
Bike lesson learned #2: Your range can never be too long. I had made sure my 4.3 Gallon tank gave me a 150+mile range which I was told was sufficient. It later turned out to be correct, but I often had a lingering worry about range due to the sometimes deep sand and the occasional full throttle orgie up a sandy hill. I never ran out of gas and never had to borrow fuel from a fellow rider, but I cut it too close for comfort a couple of times. The first day I reached the last gas station on fumes, literally having to stop and tip the bike over several times to get the last drops of fuel to reach the petcock. I have now acquired an Exxon Valdez style Acerbis 6.3 gallon XR tank that should be sufficient should I ever get the opportunity to participate in a similar ride again.
Honda XR lesson learned #3: Use hardened bolts for the Honda XR footpegs. And bring spare bolts just in case!
I used heavy duty tubes and got a total of two flats from cacti thorns. To avoid pinch flats from the rocks I ran fairly high pressure which unfortunately reduced control and thereby increased the risk of falls. The guys that used Mousse had issues with them melting on the longer high speed stretches. I personally like Tubliss a lot and may consider trying that next time.
The people:
The people on this trip came from all walks of life but with some common denominators: a passion for motorcycle riding and an adventurous but team oriented spirit. I joined the trip alone but a roommate was picked out for me (hi Scott!) which worked out great. There were several challenges along the way, everything from issues with hotel bookings, several bike related problems to an unfortunate and pretty serious injury. All hurdles were solved efficiently and successfully thanks to the gathered experience present, great team spirit and sometimes a bit of luck. Given the risks involved in a trip of this nature I tend to be pretty picky with whom I ride with. It was a good feeling riding with a group that you can trust will help you out of trouble when and if you need it.
The experience:
Looking at pictures from previous years trips I envisioned the views and how the trip would play out. No disappointments whatsoever! The views indeed proved to be absolutely awesome. The variation of riding was wide and although we were in the saddle 8-10+ hours a day it never got boring or tedious, just exhausting sometimes. Everything from gnarly single track to wide open beach and dry lakebed riding was there. Having previously practiced riding in deep sand and in rocky terrain proved quite helpful.
Food and drinks were great throughout the trip! Maybe a healthy appetite from long days in the saddle helped a bit?
I interacted with several locals and everyone I met were truly and sometimes even touchingly friendly and helpful even though I do not speak a single word of Spanish and they usually did not speak English (nor Swedish).
Since this was my first trip to Baja I did not have much to add in the planning stages as far as opinions on where to go and what to ride even though frequently given the opportunity to weigh in during the pre-meetings. We did travel quite long distances each day. Since the riding was almost always very interesting and varying I wonder if maybe choosing hotel stops a little closer together (as the crow flies) would provide more options for all riders to opt for more technical and interesting riding by taking some pressure off from covering so much terrain each day? The more hardcore guys could just add mileage by taking a longer route to the next hotel. It seemed some riders had to resort to slab riding or opt out of some of the tasty single track just to make it to the hotel in decent time. Being an out of shape 50+ office rat I had to stretch my abilities to the max to keep up with a group of younger, stronger and faster riders in sometimes relatively technical terrain and over long distances, but it was certainly worth the effort!
Finally, a big thanks the organizers and the whole group for a fantastic experience. I am so grateful for having had the chance to be a part of this amazing group!
Partially due to Covid and other unforeseen life events I have not yet had the chance to join additional BARF events, but hope and plan to be able to meet up with you again soon!
/Andreas
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