The 2018 NORRA Mexican 1000
1,362 Mile of Off-Road Motorcycle Racing over the Length of Mexico's Baja Peninsula
After I get the bike out of the cage I tool around to heat up the oil so I can check it, thought I might as well check out what’s happen at the NORRA site. Not much action yet but things are getting setup.

With the bike back at the motel I’m sorting out all the stuff I’ll carry in the bikes storage pouch. No sense carrying stuff on my back when it will fit on the bike.

My first aid kit is kind of heavy so that’s going in as well as will the tools and tow rope.

I was going to carry my road food on my hip but with this new reorganization they are going on my little top pouch.

After, I do a final go-over of the bike. Tighten everything and apply loctite. All good.

Now time to apply the graphics. The company I work for, Rice Lake Weighing Systems sponsored me again this year. How cool is that, I feel like I hit the big time (in my own mind at least). So I am more than glad and proud to fly the company graphics on my race bike. Plus, they are way cool graphics, I’ll bet they will be the best of any bike :)

And of course ‘Moto Garage 730’ gets a good place on the bike, for obvious reasons.

OK, now comes the crises (of course there has to be a crises just when I have everything taken care of). I’m just doing a last clean of the bike, when I get to the iPhone RAM Mount holder the thing just practically falls apart. SHIT! Well that’s why I carry epoxy. Time to dig it out and get to it. F!


Once this sets up I will deploy some duct tape to make sure it stays attached to the bike. It obviously got brittle from sitting out in the sun over the past week or so. I’m cool…I’m calm….I can deal… AHHHH!

Here is the view while I type. Again, it’s like I’m in a dream.

Team Flying Pig racing has arrived. I walk down to their hotel with my oil and tool bag. I’ll get my duffel bag with the laptop to them tomorrow. Then I’ll be bare bones, nothing but my riding gear and what I’ll be carrying on my back. Wooow…
I try to fit in, two of the guys I have never met ;)

We decide to walk down to the NORRA welcome fiesta for some beer, snacks and camraderie They had to do some stuff first so I’m meeting them there. I take some pics along the way.









Team Flying Pig is so welcoming to me. It’s like we’ve known each other our entire lives.
They want to go out to eat. I say “I can’t eat at the places where you are going, thats gringo food” Loren says “we’ll follow you” So off we go...

The places I go to in the AM are all gone so we continue deep into the Mexican part of town where I know there are taco stands everywhere.

It was a long walk but we score big time!

After, while walking back toward the tourist section we come across a street hot dog stand. I exclaim “I have never had a hot dog I didn’t like” And I have to admit these were the very best hot dogs I have ever had, hands down. Or as we say in Mexico ‘manos abajo’
Tomorrow I have to start marking up my road-book with color markers and cutting them out of the booklet, taping them together and rolling them up, 5 rolls for 5 days of racing. This is serious stuff. Last year I didn’t know what I was doing and just colored away. After making sever navigation errors (I had no GPS to fall back on) I learned what is important to know on the road-book and I will color those areas accordingly this time. Like ‘make sure you read that note to turn 123 degrees ONTO THE DRY LAKE BED at mile 78’ instead of just turning 123 degrees near mile 78, which makes a big difference if there are two turns close to the same mile marker going about the same direction, one is the right way and one is the total wrong way. I know now these are important NOTES.
Seriously, Fired Up!

4:00 AM scene. Game face is on!

day one marked with color, cut and taped. I marked each transet section with how much time I have, last year I had no idea. So I can chill more to hydrate and eat.

Day-1 rolled in the scroller.

Ready to go for day-1
Is this good stuff or what!
Stay tuned for more fun in Baja Mexico…
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