The 2018 NORRA Mexican 1000
1,362 Mile of Off-Road Motorcycle Racing over the Length of Mexico's Baja Peninsula
Allright! The road to NORRA continues.
We know of this great strip of Mexican street food stalls just before the airport entrance. This is a highlight of any trip to Cabo. This guy was admiring the bike. Heidi exclaims "es un cuatrocientos" (it's a 400)
He gladly posed with his bike. This is Baja
This is our favorite food stall. But all the stalls here look good. There are at least 7 or 8 of them.
Check put those tacos! They're called tacos de birria. Not sure exactly what they are but they are delicious.
BajaBoundMoto Tim shows up with his crew at the end of what sounds like a fantastic 8 day run of over 1,500 miles off road from Tecate to Cabo. The stories around the trailer went on and on until almost dark, Wow is all i can say. One guy is seriously considering doing NORRA on one of Tim's bikes in just 10 days from now! Everyone was so stoked from the ride they just did. And of course I'm stoked just to see the #2 loaded on the trailer ready to head to the starting line. Oh freaking yeah!
Super! Ron Tim and I get an early start from San Jose del Cabo towing a trailer with 8 motorcycles neatly tucked in along with heavy gear bags of the seven riders. These guys are pros, we tool through Cabo as if it were nothing while he headed north. BajaBoundMoto Tim has some motorcycle parts he wants to give to an old friend of his he hasen’t seen for over a decade. While we were eating breakfast outside of La Paz (the best breakfast in Baja Ron claims) Tim’s friend just swings in.
Tim has a front and rear sprocket and a hand full of other parts he gives his buddy for his recently purchased bike. What a cool dude. He’s a heavy decal equipment welder. It was fun listening to him explain these huge highway construction machines he’s about to work on next week explaining what he has to do to them and is bummed he will most likely miss NORRA because of it.
He had a sock in place of the air filter, which is one of the parts Tim gave him.
Studly trio indeed
Alright, we are tooling along starting to descend down the mountains toward Loreto when Tim claims he hears something funny. We all listen but heard almost nothing. Tim must be part Indian or something because he was so convinced the sound was serious. We all listen and listen. Tim claims the slight squeal happens only while breaking and turning hard left. We finally find an area to pull over and find the nut holding onto one of the trailer wheels was gone. There was nothing that held the wheel onto the trailer except a small grove the hub dug into the spindle after the bearing failed. We could not believe our luck the tire was still attached. As soon as we jack it up the wheel pulled right off. HS!
Tim has a natural engineering brain and instantly comes up with a solution that will allow us to limp into Loreto safely. Ron jacks up the limp axel as high as it will go while Tim tightens two heavy duty straps around the axel to a metal bar he had fabricated in the middle of the trailer. The load was too much for the metal bar and bent it. Ron and I go off into the wilderness searching for something long and thick that with do the same function and will not bend.
Ron scores an ultimate piece near some dilapidated building.
Brilliant, It works!
We still have a long way down the mountains before we are in Loreto so Tim takes it as easy as possible all the while watching the tire go flatter and flatter. He exclaims we should be OK unless he sees pieces of tire fly off, which he eventually reports seeing. Of course there is no safe area to stop or pull over for a while but Tim just keeps a super cool head while we crawl to the first slight pull over spot.
takes (These guys are so cool it’s like we share some DNA or something. I’m digging it and they seem to be digging coming up with solutions, keeping cool heads and just getting it done, like I like to think I would do if I were in their shoes) Six and a half minutes we have it jacked up, placed on a large rock I find (I try so hard to be part of the crew and be of some help) so we can jack it up some more, just enough to get the spare tire on, and off we go to Loreto in search of a more permanent fix.
(I have to stop here for now and post this sucker up. I’m running on fumes and need to stop. I will get this up to date ASAP, so hang the Flip on, the adventure will continue…!)
OK, yesterday was a busy day but I believe I have everything under control now, so here we go! The adventure continues.-->
Alright, Tim and Ron see two options for us. One: find a trailer repair shop that can repair the axel spindle that got fried, new bearings and the works so we will be 100% again. Two: If we can’t find anyone in Loreto to do this entire repair, purchase a super strong tire to replace the lonely tire on the left side, like a BFG-AT or similar and just continue rolling up the peninsula until we find a shop that can do the entire repair.
Tooling into Loreto Tim reminded me of the Terminator (tire repair shop on the right ‘computing-processing-forward’ another tire shop on the right ‘computing-processing-forward’ a tire repair shop on the left ‘computing-processing-pull in’
Tim talks to the main man at the shop. A complete repair was not going to happen here today. He then discusses scenario #2 in Spanish, a stronger tire this size “mas duro” He’s got a tire but then explains to Tim where a shop is that can do the complete repair. We head off back tracking down highway-1 and pull into this shop.
This is a nice shop and the owner assures Tim that he can get’er done. He maybe even has a spindle somewhere on site that will work. We are ecstatic.
Tim and Ron know a bar and grill a short distance off the highway that has great hamburgers and fries; I think it’s called El Baracho or something. It’s easy to miss, there is a dark sign shaped in a silhouette of a cowboy on the West side of the road with an arm pointing down a dirt road. I exclaim that I will surprise Heidi with this place on our ride back, hamburger and fries are like her middle name. I say I will have to remember it because it’s easy to miss. Ron gives me crap stating “there’s a sign pointing to it!” At this point in the trip all three of us are clicking like we are brothers freely giving each other shit whenever we have the opportunity. I feel so comfortable with these guys whom I only really meet two days ago.
Anyway, the bar was just like the bars in Northern Wisconsin, cowboy stuff hanging everywhere, animal hides, photos of Native Americans, wood beams and the works, it even has a pool table and a shuffle board table just like the Long Branch bar a short distance from our cabin home in Wisconsin. There was an American couple there that stopped by our table on their way out and asked us if we were riding motorcycles. They just finished a guided tour to Scorpion Bay. They talked and talked trying to impress us that they were hard core Baja people stating they would like to buy a place in Loreto to move here. But the guy said he has 15 motorcycles back in Washington State and wouldn’t want to part with them. Tim and Ron stayed mostly silent being good listeners. I being a loud mouth exclaim he needs to just part with them saying “they an anchor’ and suggested renting a place instead of buying. But then the guy said there’s really no where to ride down here stating there is only ‘one highway’ He obviously only rides road bikes and doesn’t think a thousand miles of pavement is sufficient. Then the STORY comes out! The woman talked about last year it took three days to get pesos for some reason. After they scored a roll they were out driving around and suddenly came upon some type of road block where the road narrows with speed bumps. They saw men in military uniforms holding big rifles waving then to come forward. They were both freaking out assuming they were about to get robbed of their roll and worse. The woman demands her husband turn their rental car around and get the H out of there, which he did just before the stopping point. He told his wife “Hang on I’m going to go fast” so he whips a shitty right in front of the military personal and floors the rental driving as fast as he could. All the while talking they kept saying they were so proud that they escaped this robbery and molestation attempt. Tim and Ron continued to be excellent listeners but loud mouth me had to say something “But those people are there to protect you!” But my words never registered to them, they must have thought Tim and Ron were with them on this, which they weren’t, because of their good listening skills or something. They kept saying how proud they were to have escaped unscaved. (And they want to move here!)
Cute puppies at the bar. Ron asked the waiter about the pig. I guess last time they had a little pig that ran around just like a pet dog :) We waited and waited for a call or a text or an email telling us the trailer is done, but nothing. The shop owner assured us that if it isn’t done today he will be working on it first thing tomorrow morning. And it wasn’t like a ‘mañana’ thing, this guy was straight-up and sincere. So once 6:00 PM came we knew we were spending the night in Loreto. Which was alright by me, I love Loreto and I love hanging with these dudes talking motorcycles, racing and Baja, it was like I was in a great dream, I couldn’t get enough of it. But these guys were on the clock at the end of a long gig and I could tell their disappointment, this was going to cost them another day trying to get home.
Loreto is fantastic as always. I head off on a long hike around town so Tim and Ron can just chill and unwind, perfect.
Around 10:00 AM Tim gets a call ‘it’s ready’. We roll in and hook up the trailer. The mechanic installed a new spindle, bearings and greased all the other bearings on the trailer, sweet! Ron spots an early 80s Land Rover in the back with no rust on it. He said if it was for sale he would come back for it, but it wasn’t. We had a nice chat with the shop owner. He pointing to an old Bronco in the back he plans on restoring to race NORRA some day. He also talked about all the pot holes North of GN that brings in a lot of business for him. He was a real jokester and a pleasure to talk with.
Alright, North of Loreto is a standard military roadblock where everyone is checked to make sure you are not a bad dude or are carrying anything illegal. Before we even come to a stop Tim spots a gentleman in a cowboy hat holding a clear plastic jug and a hose. Tim immediately says “He looks like a rancher and needs some gas” before we are even done with our inspection Tim asks the rancher if he needs some gas. The rancher holds out his small plastic jug, Tim pulls out one of his big gas cans and hands it to the rancher saying “todo” meaning take it all. After the rancher asks “Cuánto?” meaning ‘How much cost” Tim waves his hand and chuckles meaning nothing, it’s free. As if it was completely automatic. What a cool thing. OK! We are almost up to date, one more post should do it. So hang on, this adventure will continue--->
Is this good stuff or what!
Stay tuned for more fun in Baja Mexico…
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