SOCO BAJA TRIP

[Bashed]

Is it they were to small or we were to big.
Lately it is the little bikes I hurt myself on.LOL
You going to be in town this week Bob?
I need to get a Long Way Down DVD from you.
Later Bash

[Yamacati Bob]

Probably not till next week, but will know tomorrow for sure and will let you know...the tapes are in Denver at Moonshine's...if you are going to Denver call me and I can give you his phone # so you can connect and pick them up...sorry, really thought I would be down this week, just didn't work out that way....
Yamaha Bob (Ducati in shop, indefinitely)

[Dave]

Day 3 Insursion into Mexico
We stopped at a Pemex for fuel and Dave waved us by about 10 miles earier I guessed to wait for Zetaetatheta. We fueled up and waited for a bit and before long Zetaetatheta showed up. We asked had he seen Dave and he said no. So I flew back about 10 miles or so to find him to no avail. I came back to the Pemex station and reported my results.
Lesson # 1, We lost Dave in the middle of Mexico.

Hey, where did everyone disappear to?

We’ve all had a good lunch, and I’m riding with the main group, 5 bikes deep, southbound enroute to Los Mochis. We’re flying along very quickly as the main group is in need of keeping to the Ferry’s departure schedule. Zeta and I are not on this timeline, and since Zeta is no where in sight, I drop off the pace hopeful to find him. I waived to the group as they passed me by. After a few minutes passed riding alone, I was watching my rear view mirrors closely expecting to see Zeta approach, and for my own safety, since I was now moving at the posted speed limit and quite a bit of the traffic was nearly doubling (no kidding) the posted limit.

A few more minutes of riding passed and I realized the main group had stopped for fuel, and that I had passed by them. I thought to turn back and rejoin, but this super slab highway had a median that would not allow it, and there we’re no exits in sight. I rode nearly 10 minutes before the highway allowed a person to turn back, and I didn’t take the opportunity since I spotted a fuel station just ahead, and believed the group eventually would have to take this route. This was my mistake… I’m sorry group. I stopped, fuelled up and waited, expecting to see the group blast by any second. I was alone at this point and immediately began searching for that Mexico map I had packed somewhere…

After looking at the map I realized I was on course to Los Mochis, but Oldkneedragger and the group probably opted for the toll highway which also bypassed the approaching city of Guaymas, and would most assuredly get them to Los Mochis in less time. Or they were looking and or waiting for me, or there was a road incident that prevented them from riding. Either way, since about 30 minutes had passed since I saw them last, I turned back.

After reaching the missed fuel stop I found the one attendant there who spoke a few words of English and asked if he’d seen any SoCo sportbike club riders. j/k The folks at these service stations were very kind and really wanted to help me. The entire team of attendants gathered near me and looked over my bike as they took a few minutes to ask each other in if anyone remembered a group of motorcyclists recently. Actually they may have been discussing anything since I couldn’t understand a word of what they said. Finally, in very poor English, I was told the group had ridden out at least 30 minutes ago. I smiled, thanked them, and quickly rode out. The good news was that everyone was fine and motoring on, and the not as good news was that I had lost nearly an hour of daylight, and was without my English speaking friends…

[Clovis]

where is today's installment??? I demand answers!!

[Dave]

Day 3 Insursion into Mexico
We made our way out of the magical mountians and down into the city of Hermosillo.
A busy little city with palm trees and medians.We stopped to gas up and get our
first taste of real Mexican food.

A couple more pictures of the lunch stop in Hermosillo.

[Dave]

I ended up riding into Los Mochis solo, and even had to break the no riding in Mexico at night rule by about 1.5 hours. I did find my way to the Hotel that I had a reservation at, and am glad it turned out to be restful place, as I was tired. Although Los Mochis was very busy on this Sunday night.
After I parked the bike, I ended up walking around town a bit, to look in on how the Mexicans roll in Los Mochis. The picture is dark, and my camera isn’t that great, but there were many bikes parked downtown with riders standing about. The bikes were smaller cc's than what you see in the US, and older models. It was somewhat like a scene at the Shell/Sonic on Academy Blvd in the Springs.

[Dave]

It’s day 3 riding for me; I’m well rested and southbound on the relatively short ride from Los Mochis to Mazatlan, and on the back roads enjoying the twisties and what seemed like zero law enforcement. This was definitely one of the most interesting New Years Eve’s that I've ever had- it was a great day!

[Dave]

I arrived at Mazatlan around 4pm and rode up and down the beach area a few times to take in the atmosphere of the place. It was New Years Eve and this town was partying. I was riding in an area called the Golden Zone, which is a strip of ocean front hotels, many of which were high rises. The temperatures were probably in the mid 70’s, and pedestrian and auto traffic was heavy.
I eventually stopped at Holiday Inn to get a room and discovered what Golden Zone really meant- the price for a room was $160.00 US. I declined that room and rode over to the Hotel next door, and was surprised to find Zeta’s bike parked in front of the lobby.

[King Nothing]

[Dave]

I had planned on a leisurely 8 hour ride to Torreon in the morning, but learned otherwise from the hotels English speaking front desk clerk. He estimated that this piece of roadway, that he had driven recently, will take us 12 hours minimum to cover, and that’s if the weather remains clear, and the mountain fuel stations are open, as sections of this highway are very remote territory.

It is morning and Zetaetatheta and I roll out of Mazatlan; the city is quiet this New Years Day and I’m excited and a bit nervous about experiencing the Diablo highway.

[Bashed]

Day 6

Rentry

I awoke early and decided to jump into the shower and warm up as it was cooler than the previous night. I had been rooming with Billsmith7 to defray expenses while on this trip. He was awake and cold so I threw my blankets on him as I headed for the bathroom. As I turned on the shower the whole shower head and pipe came out of the wall. It seemed that the threads on the connector pipe were stripped and would not hold. As I was trying to contain my laughter Bill was up and checking out my handywork.
So we had to get cleaned up with just water shooting out of the wall. What was I expecting for $12.50 for the room. At least it was hot.

The rest of our group was up as well and we packed up the bikes and headed out of town for our last day in Mexico. We skirted up the coast and before long we had made our crossover road. Now I and being genorous calling this a road. First it was not paved, just rocks, gravel and dirt. Next it seemed to cross a small mountian range. Third we were on streetbikes. Some of the grades were quite steep and we had to pickour lines on the road to keep from rattling ourselves to death from the washboards. At one point we had to backtrack as we had missed a turn and were not on the right track. We cut thru where some large pipeline had been laid and after decending a very steep hill we came to a locked gate. After checking out the fence on both left and right sides and determining there was no way aroud we were just about to cut and resplice the barbed wire when a man came out of this building and through our now complete mastering of the Spanish language he unlocked the gate for us and let us out of our self-imposed prison. Good stuff happens to bad/lost people sometimes.

After getting beatup on this "road" for over another hour we finally came out of the mountians and into a town where the highway was. Yea we made it unscathed. NOT. Yamacati Bob had gotten a flat in the rear tire of his Ducati ST4S. As I was fixing the flat with my kit the rest of the crew was rehydrating and resting from the rocky adventure we had just encountered.

Just up the road we stopped at a really nice little restaurant and had lunch. This guy and and I assume his wife were very accomedating and put up a spread like no other. Yamacati Bob and I had asked for orange soda's and somehow lost in the translation the owner thought we wanted orange juice. He had gone out to his orange tree and picked some oranges and was squeezing them for us. Now that right there is first rate service, I don't care where you are. The walls of his place were littered with people that had ate there. Famous racers from the Baja. So I had to put my decal on the front window as well. Very nice people for sure.


We left the town behind us full and ready to put some miles down. After about an hour or so of some highspeed sweepers we made a militay checkpoint and headed north towards the border town of Mexicali. We really did not want to enter the town as we could avoid it by going around it and exit the country just a bit farther east in Algodones.After trying for a little while to find the import office we realized we needed to go over to the next town to do this. We cut into the extreemly long line to exit the country to get int othe good ol' USA to the displeasure of a few people for sure. I was not going to wait in line for what would have been a couple of hours for sure. The rest of the crew was with me on that one, thank god, strength in numbers.Now we still had to turn in our vehicles permits and there was no import office in this town so we headed over to San Luis a bit farther east. After we crossed back into Mexico and gotten our vehicles permits turned in we were ready to put Mexico behind us for good. After cutting in line again, we were experianced after all, we made the crossing again for the final time on our trip.

After a bit of greasy hambergers we did a 100 miles into the town of Gila Bend from Yuma to finish off the day. We found a room at a couple of motels as we were late getting into town for the night.

The next morning we assembled at the local Micky-D's for breakfast and I had a cold. I had been feeling something coming on for the past several days but it didn't hit till I had worn myself down. The crew had about 500 miles to go to get back to Alomogordo and the transport vehicles. I decided to make my own way and ride all the way back to Colorado. The weather was forcasted in the mid 50's and I will always opt to ride rather than drive. I also had a little bit of unfinished business in the town of Casa Grande.

Back in July Dallas and I delivered a bike to this town for a CSC member who was in the army close to here. It was his uncle's house. When we were here in July it was dark and we did not get the oppertunity to photograph this little slice of history. So I left the others to continue south and east to Alomogordo and I went by and got my picture. I continued on the two lanes thru the Salt River Gorge and up into the mountians of eastern Arizona. If you ever get a chance to ride here do. Very nice for sure. I made the New Mexico border and blasted my way thru the reservations. I hooked up with the interstate system in Grants and into Albequerque. North on I25 all the way into Colorado Springs making 900 miles for the day. I was beat and ready for a hot shower and my own bed. Not a bad ride for it being January in Colorado.

In retrospect I would do some things different and some things the same. First I would slow down the schedule and see the places we stopped and went thru. There was many times I would stop to take a picture and then have to hurry to catch back up to the group. A few x-tra days would of been much more enjoyable, even to just kick it on the beach for a few hours.
The roads were quite a pleasent suprize, as in some areas they rivaled the best roads I had ridden anywhere.
I already have my eye on next years route, so if any of you CSC'ers are up for a little sportbike riding in winter we might makethis a annual event.

Oh, and by the way, thanks to all the SOCO crew who went on this trip, I enjoyed the commradery and give you all props on your riding skills and ability to adapt to the country and events whch made the trip that much more better for all. SOCO RULES!

Till next year, Bash

[Bashed]

A few random pics.

[Bashed]

The single wide stucco!
I think it is scarier in the daylight.

[Dave]

At one the SoCo bike nights, OldKneeDragger told, as I think he was fond of this roadway that he had traveled before, that this highway was world class twisties, and it did not disappoint! On my map this roadway is called the Espinazo Del Diablo.

Info about the highway from Mazatlan to Durango

On this 4th day of riding, the highway out of Mazatlan eventually leads us through to the Diablo, a mountain pass highway that was incredibly technical and scenic. Most of the corners were slow 2nd gear types that allowed no room for error. Blind decreasing radius downhill corners, and every other type of challenging corner that a race track designer could dream up were found here! The turns were very close together which kept the speeds low, and there were few to no curve ahead warning signs, so one’s concentration had to be totally focused on the road if you wanted to maintain a sporty pace.

And add to those challenges, cliffs, rock walls, little to zero shoulder run off, on coming 18 wheelers that used nearly both lanes to make the corner, donkeys, and God only knows what else. And so what we had here was the Devil of a roadway- and wow was it great! Even though there were many hazards, traffic was minimal, and the pavement was smooth, clean and sticky!

About halfway though this area I was having too much fun and became over confident, and used every bit of ground clearance that the Ducati had to keep from getting burned in one left hander. Actually the Ducati dragged the header pipe around this corner.

This roadway reminded me a bit of US highway 129 in Tennessee- Deals Gap.

[Dr. Joe Siphek]

Great Ride Report Bashed & everyone else. The CSC needs more of these.

[Bashed]

BUMP!