Baja Testing!

Road Trip

I just got back from a quick road trip to meet up with my Baja race partner/team mates to test our race bike suspension and lighting system. The suspension testing went very well with Bob Bell of Precision Concepts suspension. He makes the bike work like most people wish their bikes would work. The guy has so much knowledge and experience he never ceases to amaze me. If you ever want to ride something as close to a “works’ bike as you can get then have him do your suspension for you sometime, amazing!

We also had to test the lighting system since this bike will be used for the Baja 1000 which requires riding through the night to cover 1000 plus miles. The lights worked very well and allowed us to ride the bike at scary fast speeds into the night. It was not a perfect test session as we ran into one problem when the lights and battery on the Honda CRF-X 450 started to fail after an hour or so of use. Bob spent the next hour and a half trying to discover the cause of the malfunction. He traced everything down from lights to connectors to fuses and finally discovered a loose ground wire.  Bob told me the late Bruce Ogilvie always said, “That is why we test”.  A very professional attitude. I am glad this guy is in our corner!

The trip down to the southern California desert and back was a blur with driving two days, sleeping about 6 hours and testing the bike. I recruited Doug as a co-driver for this jaunt to get him out of the house and to help me drive. Doug as you may remember if you have read the “3 Amigos” story is becoming better known as Senor Kirby. Doug had a mishap and is currently sporting a removable cast on his foot from a local practice day on the motocross track. So I asked him if he was up for a trip and he was more than happy to take a ride to the southern Calif desert just to get off the couch and out of the house.

We had a great time, learned a few things and boy did I get to listen to some stories on the drive down and back. You have to remember Senor Kirby is 70 years young and has been around the corner a few times!  I heard stories from motorcycles to marriages and everything in between. Some of them might have been what I like to call “whoppers” but I don’t doubt that they really happened. I will have to tell you about them sometime in a later story. But it sure made the trip go fast! Thanks Senor Kirby.

Good Times!

#33 

Time on your hands...Go for a local ride

Shake Down Ride

Well it seems the past few years of riding has put quite a few miles on my off road dual sport Honda. So naturally it seemed like the perfect time to upgrade since a buddy had a line on a seldom ridden bike with all the aftermarket accessories already installed. So I buy this bike at his recommendation, sight unseen! Thanks Little Chief! (Aka Doug Smith, one of my Baja partners.)

The bike is very clean and has some good stuff on it but not quite set up for the long haul I like to put these bikes through. So I am figuring I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 hours of prep time to make it #33 dependable. I don’t like to walk on some of these 80 to 400 mile jaunts this bike will do. The bike this one is replacing has a lot of miles on it and has never let me down except when I crash it or run into a boulder or some other kind of bonehead move.  I am looking for the same kind of dependability out of this newer mount. I took it out for the first time on a very short (60 miles) shake down ride to see if I missed anything or if it needed adjustments. What a pleasant surprise to find out in all that prep time all I forgot to do was set the rear tire pressure to the correct psi. I noticed it was a little busy and harsh in the rear with 40 psi. I forgot to let the air out when I changed the tire, oops!

It was a great close to home ride that had me come across a couple of things I have never seen before and reminded me to not take for granted the rides close to home. I was riding on some railroad tracks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and came across 3 teenage kids sitting on the tracks in a slight curve.

 I found this odd so I stopped to talk to them and take their picture. I think they thought I was some sort of Railroad Police because they were a bit standoffish at first. So we were talking about how they live close by and are in the area around the tracks a lot. They also said this was the first time anyone had even slowed down so as to not throw dust and rocks when they went speeding by, much less had anything to say to them. I found it interesting and sad at the same time. It is sad that we as motorcycle riders are looked at like that from even teenage kids. I took their picture and we wished each other well as I continued on my shake down jaunt. I was not far from home when I next came across a railroad undercrossing with a lot of colorful graffiti that I had never seen before. How was it that I have never seen this so close to home? I guess I need to get out moreJ.

The new/used dual sport bike performed almost flawlessly and I had a great time meandering around and evaluating my surroundings and the bike. Try it sometime and you may be surprised at what you find so close to home.

#33

Dunlop MX51

I just finished riding all the 2013 MX bikes in a head to head comparison and was happy to see an updated Dunlop MX 51 front tire on all the bikes.

Having ridden on the original MX 51 front tire I was less than impressed with the performance. The newest updated version is a substantial step forward and I am looking forward to trying one long term and even in race conditions. So stay tuned for an update or if they hit the dealers soon don’t be afraid to try one of the new style and see what you think.

I would like to see what the mx43.com riders think of the new version in all types of conditions.

Happy testing,

#33