More Hotel info for Ensenada

Anyone still needing hotel reservations in Ensenada, here's a giant list of hotel phone numbers poached from the SCORE international Baja 1000 list.

EDR HOTEL LIST:

All phone numbers begin with: 011/52/646

America 176-1333
Aztec Inn 172-2471
Bahia 178-2101
Baja Inn 177-2255
Casa Del Sol BW 178-1570
Corona 176-0901
Costa Baja 177-2255
El Cid BW 178-2401
El Cortez 178-2307
El Presidente 176-1476
Ensenda Inn 176-1361
Estero Beach 176-6225
Posada del Mar 174-6335
Hussong's RV 174-5101
Joker 176-7201
La Pinta 176-2601
Las Dunas 176-2771
Las Rosas 174-4490
Marina Coral 175-0000
Papagayos 178-3675
ParaisoLasPalmas 177-1701
Punta Morra 174-4490
Sahara 176-0207
San Nicolas 176-1901
Santa Isabel 178-3616
Santo Tomas 174-0301
Sauzalito 174-6145
Travel Lodge 178-1601
Villa Fontana 178-3434
Villa Marina 178-3321

Progress on "te Chingas"

Affectionately named "Te Chingas" my 650 is finally running. Not many original parts survived the motor rebuild by Andy Dunn in Garden Grove. After seizing the little sucker last summer, I sent the motor to Andy and started working on the chassis. Parts were stripped, a few powder-coated. An old Triumph front end from Wes at Four Aces got rebuilt and coated, chromed slip-over plumbing pipes make it about the shiniest thing on the bike. Some early prototype Biltwell Keystone bars keep things low up front. I welded tabs onto an NOS Wasell tank and secured it with a safety-wired brass wing nut up top, and button head allens below. Wes at 4A supplied the oil tank too. A 36 Ford donated the spare tire ring for the rear fender, and fender struts and bungs are modified Bung King units. An Anvil Customs seat bought on eBay years ago sits right on the bolt-on hard tail. Stylish, if not exactly plush. Headlight mount I made from some scrap and a couple of bullet-shaped bungs. Andy's dad did the cloth wiring job, and it's clean and tidy. One fuse under the seat and everything runs through the frame. The magneto came from Oklahoma Chris' Triumph 500 that threw a rod just outside of Ensenada last year. Works great on mine, thanks Chris!

Lots to do still:
• Build/install some head steadies
• Mount new tailight/license plate with LED bulbs (less drain)
• Trim up a Biltwell seat pan and then recover it in something?
• New Amal clutch lever on the way
• Rewire to negative ground, so LEDs will work
• Find a mirror that doesn't completely suck
• Make a proper breather set up
• Relace new back wheel after powder coating hub and modified backing plate
• Find petcocks that don't leak
• Fab up a new mount for under-seat document carrier
• Paint? If there is time Mitch Maciel is going to lay down some Lime Gold
• Change out front tire to new knobby unit from Engelbrecht
• Bend up some custom foot pegs

There are probably a hundred other little details left, but at least she's running! Break-in miles are happening this week, with daily re-tourques, then the wheels are coming off and the To-Do List gets assaulted this weekend...

-Bill

Hey Magazine Editors & Photographers...

Welcome to Mexico!



Please consider this blog your offical invitation from EDR organizers and sponsors to join us on this year's ride. Last year about 50 dudes and chicks (90% of whom we'd never met) joined us on our inaugural Mexican freakout hellride. If threads on the Jockey Journal are any indication, there will likely be four times that number of riders blazing a path to Baja next April.

If you're tired of shooting billet barges on white backdrops, San Felipe, Baja on April 19th and 20th will be the place to be for fresh iron and interesting environments. Matt Davis of DiCE magazine is so confident in the quality and quantity of bikes that will be on hand this year, he has graciously volunteered to sponsor trophy production for the three classes in our El Diablo Bike Show in Ensenada Sunday, April 22. We're keeping the nature of these amazing first-place prizes a secret for a few more weeks, but we'll tell you this: they're hand made, they're classic, and they're coming straight out of Hawaii (don't ask...)



If you're a magazine writer who likes to ride, or a chopper rider who likes to write, the 2007 El Diablo Run will provide enough color, controversy and drama to fill a book. And let's face it: covering a story in Mexico has GOT to be more fun than writing about another fucking wet t-shirt contest at the Rusty Trombone Saloon at Biketoberfest MCMLXXVII. Every chopper rag from A to Z has covered those saggy titties and bearded wierdos till the cows come home! Isn't it time to give some modern chopper pioneers their 15 minutes of fame?



Last month Bill, Chris and I had lunch with Ernie and Courtney from Primedia Publications. These are the guys who bring us Hot Bike and Street Chopper. Both gentlemen seemed intent on riding with us this year, but poor Courtney got stuck driving the Street Choppers sag wagon so he can haul all his high-tech camera equipment. How's that for dedication.



Word on the street is at least one guy at Iron Horse magazine is coming on this year's run. Mr. Snow covered the first annual EDR on the pages of his resurgent periodical last year, so we're excited about actually meeting the guys who showed us so much love last spring.

Of course, I'm personally inviting Hammer, Chris, Alan and Geno at The Horse BSC to join us for the ride. If any magazine guys need help, please contact us directly.

To everyone who has already booked palapa huts, built custom El Diablo bikes, reserved hotels and bought t-shirts from our fantastic sponsors, thanks for all your support. See you in 63 days...

April 18 EDR Pre-Party Plans Confirmed

There are exactly two bars in Temecula, and roughly a hundred theme and chain restaurants, none of them worthy of our hard-earned dollars. Consequently, we're taking matters into our own hands and throwing the EDR pre-party at Revolution & Biltwell HQ in Jefferson Court. If you're planning to stay in Temecula on Wednesday night before our Thursday 8:00 a.m. departure, please come to the EDR kick-off between 4pm and 9pm to have a beer and a chicken burrito with fellow El Diablo Runners. Juan Pollo Chicken will be catering the low-key affair, and we'll have Newcastle on tap as well as standard sodas and whiskey in the warehouse refrigerator. If we get our shit together there will be a slide show from last year's EDR on the outdoor warehouse wall. Accommodations in our warehouse parking lot consist of a hip-high retaining wall for sitting and plenty of pavement for parking your bike. If you desire more comfortable seating, please bring a lawn chair. To avoid pissing off our landlord we will be chasing everyone out of the parking lot promptly at 9pm, but you are welcome to ride with us to Madeline's/Texas Lil's in old town Temecula, which was the site of last year's impromptu EDR booze fest. For full details, check the EDR pre-party thread on the Jockey Journal.

Idle Chatter

I've heard some chatter over the last week or so about some big names in the MC industry coming on the run this year.

Probably just speculation, but just in case I wanted to make a couple things clear. The event is open to everyone on any bike.

Since Day One we've sworn that we woudn't measure cuffs or put a year limit on bikes or anything else. This includes Master Builders, real or imagined. You ride, you are invited.

This run is about riding your bike, meeting other like-minded riders and bike builders, seeing cool bikes and of course, Tequila and fire pit wrestling.

Also, please note there is NO vendor area, no planned activities (except the bike show on Sunday morning which is as casual as walking around a parking lot with bikes) and very low expectations. The road to San Felipe has giant potholes, the showers at Ruben's suck, the weather and policia are both volatile and unpredictable. In all, it's hell on earth if your expectations are out of whack. If your standards are as low as ours, you'll love it.

PLEASE do yourself a favor and leave giant toy haulers and complicated TV crews behind. If you bring a chase truck, make it a pickup--easy to park, less conspicuous and way more manageable. Also, please make your own reservations and be self sufficient. We're doing this for fun. The fact that some big names even know about the run is kind of flattering, but just like the Special Olympics, on the EDR, everyone's a winner, not just the superstars...

Sponsorship. We've had several requests for sponsorships for 2007 and have had to gratefully decline. All of our sponsors this year were on the run last year (except Wes, you pussy!) and volunteered their continued valuable support before the end of last year's ride. We promised them we wouldn't let their shops/brands/whatever get eclipsed by bigger guys coming in late to the game. We have spent all of our sponsors' money on beer, tacos, palapa huts, firewood, gasoline and hotel rooms anyway, so we don't really need anything else. If you want to pitch in some stuff for the bike show winners, feel free to drag that stuff down there, just keep in mind that most guys are riding with a bed roll and don't have room for a lot of junk. To those who inquired about sponsorship, just do the run, see if you dig the spirit of the event and we'll figure out a way to take some of your money next year.

Can't wait for April...