Topic: Baja on a cb400f

[roadracer]

Hey guys,
  I just stumbled across this forum, looks like an active bunch. I just wanted to post some pictures of a ride I took recently with my two best girls. I hope you enjoy it:

We drove to a friend's house in san diego and stashed my van there for the week.

Here's us about to pull the trigger


We went straight to ensenada and picked a hotel to make us feel at home


Just to be safe though

[roadracer]

our first taste of the dirt off of 1d


led us to this


and the girl


we stayed the night in el rosarita, but apparently I didn't take any pictures

[roadracer]

at our first pick-up truck gas stop, we got ripped off 100 pesos by not having exact change and being in too much of a hurry to pick a fight. After that I carried exact change.

we took pictures in the busted up building though




while using the bano, I found a cactus with my inital cut into it


basically everywhere we stopped alongside the highway had huge piles of trash. It's unclear if we just stopped at all the trash piles or if the entire highway is lined with trash

[roadracer]

we had to go down to guerrero negro to find a bank and we stayed at this hotel



Not recommended. Tom Bodet would definitely not stay here. We found a hypo needle cover on the couch, the music played late, there may or may not have been some whores upstairs to service the military base across the street and the room next to us had 7 day laborers engaged in god know's what.

I think this was at the gas station 20-30 miles north of guerroro negro the next morning. First free wifi all trip!

[roadracer]

We took a right on our way north and headed towards gonzaga bay

here's the rtw_doug shot


the fender made it about 8 miles before it fell off. Here I attempt to reattach it (essentially in vain)


We spent about 45 minutes at coco's corner. We met Kurt from one of the other threads after he had split off from his group. Coco didn't want his picture taken unless my GF was in it

[roadracer]

a little later on we kept on keeping on towards gonzaga bay



the dirt roads were just brutal 2 up on my old bike. Both shocks and one fork seal were blown at this point, my passenger pegs are attached to the swing arm so my gf is basically holding on with her hands and her feet are dangling when it gets rough. We averaged 15mph moving. The most frustrating part for me was how fast and how trivial they would be on a bike with more than 3" of travel.

I tried to drive right into the sea of cortez but got stuck a hundred yards away


no sidestand required

[roadracer]

we stayed at alphonsina's hotel. We were literally the only people there.

We ate amazing fish right off the boats and I wish we could have stayed for at least another day

Laundry day


enjoying a break

[roadracer]

But, we had to head to san filipe....

along the way, I decided to do some fishing

didn't catch anything


the wind was really howling that day. enough that the guys on the hellride ditch the dirt and hit the highway. We saw them a little later on.

The fender fell off one and for all. I just strapped it to my tank bag since we're in mexico and who needs tail lights and license plates

windy


gf is tired of holding on


but still happy...

[roadracer]

oh sweet jesus we found a highway!


we play around for a while


I also apparently didn't take any pictures in san filipe. Nice enough town. Empty hotel again. I found some hardware to fix my fender and we were as good as new in the morning.

We took the 3 from north of san filipe back to ensenada for our last night in mexico.

In honor of that, we went to the touristiest bar we could find and ordered a pair of enormous margs and what was claimed as the "largest quesadilla in ensenada"

[roadracer]

we walked around a bit and found some big gold head




we considered renting a buggy and doing a little faster dirt stuff, but we were too tired. After a little siesta we had one last nice dinner in mexico.

I didn't let my gf buy anything we couldn't eat or drink or burn while we were underway, but she insisted on getting a little heh-zoos kreeesto bracelet for whatever reason

I don't ask


we exited mexico via tecate. The road was windy and interest on both sides of the border and the border crossing took literally 3 minutes. I didn't even shut the bike off.

we loaded up around 1pm


after that it was just 8 hours of slab until we made it back to SF.

We ended up riding about 1100 miles, 150 or so of it off road. It was an amazing week and I can't wait to head out with her again. Now we just need to decide if we get a bigger bike or two. She's happy on the back, but she seems interested in an xt250 or super sherpa.

We both have the month of june off, so we're going to go somewhere far away. I suspect for only 4 weeks of riding we will just rent instead of buy and ship though.

Anyhow, one last shot of us

[roadracer]

Aaaand that was our trip.

So, yeah, now I have a bunch of repair questions I'm going to take to the technical forum =)

[Stev-o]

Sounds like a great trip!  You're gf is a real trooper, my wifey would never go for not buying anything!

Thanks for sharing.

[flybox1]

Right On RR!  Nice photos.
Glad you had a safe trip.
I love baja. Heading to Cabo in 10 days.

[bill440cars]

   Yeah, great stuff you've posted. So, are we gonna see more of this or was that just a teaser?

[domer]

friggin awesome.... where you at in the city?

[noahspop]

Great shots!
Very motivational.

[BIKE]

Great post.  Great little trip.  Wow!

[roadracer]

Hey guys, thanks for the kind words.

Those are the best of the pictures I took. I probably hurried us a little too much to our daily destinations and didn't stop to take too many pictures.

My gf is indeed a good sport. I think next time she wants her own bike. Maybe a little dirt bike or something so we can do more offroad stuff. The CB was not very happy with the washboard dirt roads, especially 2-up.

I live in SOMA. The CB is my main way of getting around when its not raining, so say hi if you see me. I've seen a few other 400/4s around, but never with people on them.

[andy750]

Excellent RR and I liked the rtw_doug mention . BIG question to ask - what fairing do you have on there? Thats exactly what I am looking for my 750. And....what tires did you have? This will make a difference on dirt obviously....thanks!

Very cool g/f - you are a lucky man

cheers
Andy

[roadracer]

the tires are dunlop d404s (I had to go look at the bike).

they are *terrible* in the dirt and sand. do not use those if you're doing any off road. =)

[Alan F.]

That's a great writeup, we need to have more posts like this here.  Seems like all of the adventurous people post on that other forum...

[cb650]

Very cool !!!!!!!   Does she have a sister?