Baja ride! August 23-24, 2014

I'm hosting a group of riders from New Mexico and Arizona for a weekend Baja ride .

These are guys I've ridden with in Arizona.

The 6 of us (5 of whom will be on KLRs!) will ride from San Diego, through Tecate, to Camalu, Baja California and retutn via Tijuana. We will camp on the beach on Saturday night.

UPDATE:

Hooo, boy. Just back from a weekend ride down the Baja coast, mainly from Santo Tomas to Camalu. Wow, why didn't I know that the coast road was washed out in several places? I gotta do better research...



I hosted a group of KLR riders from New Mexico and Arizona. And my little brother tagged along on his Gen 1 KLR.



All went really well, but there were some areas that were not big bike friendly. A couple of drops but no injuries.



We hit the coast just north of the Punto San Jose lighthouse and spent time at Coyote Cal's; I'm pleased to say that there's a Kug sticker there now. We camped on the beach at the volcano south of Erendira.



The next morning (Sunday), we headed south with breakfast plans in Camalu. After two pretty serious wash-outs and detours that were not feasible, we hit the pavement, then Hwy 1 North.



I had a hook-up at the San Ysidro border and the crossing took 8 minutes total.

IMS ADV Footpeg review

A few days before departing for a 30-day ride through Canada and Alaska, a friend of mine had a chance meeting with Chris Hardin from IMS Products. Chris thought that his new IMS Adventure footpegs would be perfect for such a ride.

I reluctantly removed my Fastway pegs, a set I was quite fond of, and installed the larger (wider, longer, heavier) IMS ADV pegs on my KTM 990. Hmmm, not bad at all.

I was immediately drawn to the quality of these pegs. They looked and felt as if someone had designed these things to be bulletproof. They are solidly constructed of 17-4 cast stainless steel and fit perfectly where the stock pegs would go.

I called Chris to verify a point of installation and found that the guy knows his products. I told him that I was a little concerned that a new product would be tested on such a brutal ride. He assured me that IMS had been around quite a while and he was confident that the pegs could withstand anything the Great White North could throw at them...even a drop, should that occur.

I should've knocked on wood right then.

After returning from 24 days of riding in Alaska and Canada (9600 miles--close to 1800 of that was on dirt or unimproved roads) I can confirm that these footpegs are as tough as any on the market.

We routinely updated our RR on ADV Rider (It's Pronounced In-You-Vick. I think. http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=988579&page=6) if you want to see what we did and where we went.

I used the IMS ADV pegs the entire ride and they held up well. I liked the pegs from the moment I installed them.

The bottom line is, I had already installed some pegs I liked but gave the IMS ADV pegs a try. They were sturdy and comfortable and held up extremely well in some very challenging circumstances. I do not baby my bike.

The best feature of these pegs, in my opinion, is the size: they are wider and longer than probably any other footpeg on the market. This is a huge plus for those riders who plan to put in a lot of miles or have big boots.

The quality is unchallenged. I "may" have dropped my bike a "couple" of times (no photos=no proof! ) and the foot pegs remained unscathed. They are solidly built and stood up to some serious abuse on this ride.

I can attest to the durability and comfort of the IMS pegs. On top of that, they look good! I highly recommend them and have decided to keep them on my bike instead of replacing them with the pair I had previously installed.

And we're off...Destination: Arctic Circle and Beyond.

Oooooh, eeeeee! What a ride. I've returned from 24 days in Canada and Alaska. Here is the ADV RR link:
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/its-pronounced-in-you-vick-i-think.988579/#post-24459335

You've been warned.




Inuvik. It's pronounced I-New-Vick. I think...

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/its-pronounced-in-you-vick-i-think.988579/#post-24459335

As mentioned over the past few years and in at least three previous posts, I am heading into the Great White North this weekend. That part of the world continues to call to me like a mentally unstable lover...

My friend Dan and I will be departing Sunday, June 29, for the town of Inuvik, in Canada’s Northwest Territories. I’ll also try to squeeze in a visit to Alaska’s Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay (just an extra 2,500 miles). We aren’t retired, we aren’t riding for a cause, we aren’t attempting to commit any acts of badassery...we just want to ride to the northernmost possible point, meet some nice people, drink some interesting beverages and return with some cool stories -- virtually unscarred .

We have every intention of riding our big motorbikes from San Diego all the way north and crossing back into the US near Blaine, WA, in late July. I will be riding a KTM 990 Adventure; Dan will be on his BMW R1200GS. We plan to camp most of the time and stay in hotels when we can’t stand our own musk. We’ve mutually agreed not to be eaten by Grizzlies if at all possible. The bear spray we bought at REI has a “no maul” money-back guarantee, so that’s good.

We have a very flexible agenda. There are many things we’d like to see in 30+ days, but we’re playing it by ear. It’s 3,800 miles each way, with lots of side roads in between, and we expect to ride over 10K miles. Neither of us has a particularly remarkable attention span so the possibilities are endless. Dan’s bringing along a fairly nice SLR camera, and we both have small video cameras, so we'll do our best to document the experience.

Here are two GPS map trackers so friends and family can follow our progress:

Where Am I Riding Map (Works in Chrome, Safari, FireFox, and IE9): http://www.whereamiriding.com/my-profile/userprofile/DanDiego

SPOT Adventures Map: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0GOrQRdjM0Y1M7p9gWdJJU8oP3zJ5ubA1


I will try to provide updates on this blogsite as I travel along, but I'm unsure how that'll go...

Share in the adventure as we go a couple of degrees north of the Arctic Circle in search of...well, we haven't really identified a purpose yet. It's likely just a midlife crisis. But come along, anyhow!

Your humble sojourner.

Danny

Notes about the people we met and interacted with in Canada and Alaska: Inuit Or Eskimo?





Many believe the word “Eskimo” is an unacceptable word to describe Inuit people, and in Canada and Greenland that is broadly correct. In Alaska, “Eskimo” is preferred, because it is inclusive of both the Inuit and Yupik peoples.