Oh, Hate!

(Click the above image to watch the wad-up.)

SHIRTS

Thanks for all of the recent orders of t-shirts. We are now out of stock in LARGE size shirts. We will be doing another run, so expect some more at the end of January. We will have some at the actual event too, so if you just want to wait until then, it'll save all the shipping hassles.

ATTN: John Speerstra in the Netherlands, I've tried contacting you about your lost shirts, and your email address gets kicked back to me. I have your original order and your address so I'm just going to send you out another package.

Thanks again to all the supporters out there.

Operation Long Way 'Round

A guy on the Jockey Journal planning on riding the EDR in '08 from St. Louis had a splendid idea a couple weeks ago. How 'bout riding down into mainland Mexico and taking the ferry across to La Paz and then up to meet the rest of the EDR crew? This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time so while we are going to drop in west of where Mark and his crew are going to, hopefully we can still meet them in Los Mochis for the ferry ride and the 900+ miles of riding up baja to Ensenada and then over to San Felipe to join in with everyone else.

Total iron-ass rider Brooks Manbeck is down to do it on his trusty Guzzi. Nick from AZ might join us as well but not on last year's green flaked Shovel, most likely on something a bit more modern. I'll be doing it my '06 Triumph T100 (the one Wes White borrowed last year). I've got a few mods in mind to make it handle a little more gear, but nothing outrageous. Brooks is a great photographer, so our misadventure should be well documented.

Geriatrics on Gold Wings do this kind of thing all the time, why can't we? Well, hopefully I'll have that answer in San Felipe on the night of the 17th.

McGoo and Chris have agreed to organize the first day of the run without me and my faithful friend and long-time baja vet Matt Frick will be driving the new Biltwell van. Thanks guys, for pulling the slack while I go screw around instead of being responsible.

-Bill

Here's the basic route:

4-11 LA to Tucson (453 miles)

4-12 Tucson to Nogales border crossing to Guayamas (317 miles)

4-13 Guayamas to Los Mochis (211 miles)

4-14 Screw around El Fuerte, Copper Canyon area (This needs more research) Also a flex-day for mechanical issues.

4-14 Get on West bound ferry at night

4-15 Arrive La Paz, ride to San Ignacio (393 miles, must visit the mission)

4-16 San Ignacio to San Quintin (349 miles dinner at the Old Mill)

4-17 San Quintin to Ensenada to San Felipe, Meet EDR riders, fall in with the rest (299 miles)

Jersey to Temecula or Bust!

Walter at Kickstart Cycles is spearheading an effort to truck as many east coast choppers as possible to Temecula on April 16, 2008 for the third annual El Diablo Run. Here's what Walter himself has to say about his service and participating in the process:

Step one:
There will be a Bike hauler at my house (Bergen County, NJ) on or around April 10th.
You show up in the morning, Load your bike and supplies then the truck goes on it’s merry way to Temecula, CA. The truck will arrive on April 16th so you can unload your gear.

Step two:
We all go to Mexico and prove how the East Coast is far superior to the Left one.

Step three:
We limp back to Temecula and load the bikes on the truck and make our way back to the now indisputable superior east fuckin’ coast! The truck departs Temecula on April 22nd. and will arrive in New Jersey on or around April 28th.

The Bike Haulers
The trucking company we are using is incognito express. I spent a while working out shipping These guys had the best deal and reputation. You can check them out at
http://www.incognitoexpress.com

The Cost
I have worked hard at getting the best deal for all of us, I think you would have a hard time beating this.
Depending on the number of bikes (the more bikes the cheaper it gets)
• It will cost between $700 to $800 per bike round trip.
• To reserve space you need to post a NON REFUNDABLE deposit of $250.
• The deposit needs to be in by February 1, 2008.

The People Hauler
In order to get the cheapest flights I have a Travel Agent doing flights from Newark to Temecula for my group. If you want in I’ll put you in touch with the agent so you can get in on our fuckin’ cheap flights.

The Options
• We will have some open spaces on the truck on the return trip. So if you need to get a bike from California cheap give me a call.
• If there are enough guys in one area on the way to california we will set up a second pick up / drop off point.

Reserving a spot
Please Email or Call me first. that’s it, I’ll give you the rest of the details you need.

Questions
Email or call me and I will try my best to answer all your questions.

Walter Gemeinhardt
kickstartcycle@mac.com
(201) 696-8713

Not much to add to Walt's very thorough explanation except this: if you live in NY or NJ and you miss this opportunity, don't blame us!

Lids for Life

Our friend Mike at Detox in FLA got some bad news. His friend Brian went down with no helmet and is in a coma. Mike has set up a recovery fund through his shop and is selling stickers and taking donations to help out Brian and his family. You can buy straight from his shop: DETOX or simply paypal some money to him to help out mickeysauto@cfl.rr.com Good luck Brian!

Less talk. More ride.

The Baja Perspective

There has been a lot of dramatic press lately about the lawlessness in Mexico, specifically Baja. My personal opinion is that it's probably only slightly worse than it's even been, but with more and more stupid gringos heading south making themselves easy targets it seems like the place is being overrun by banditos if you read the newspapers. I tend to think thats a bit of an exaggeration. If you are new to traveling in Baja please take the time to read the Questions section on this site. Read it all the way to the bottom. A friend that I have been traveling to Mexico with for about 25 years forwarded me the email below from a fellow desert racer. I don't know the dude, but I sure like his perspective. Why all this race-talk on a website dedicated to a motorcycle run? You can replace the words "racer" with "biker" and see that it's very relevant to us and what we do. I'm not trying to scare anyone off here, a big part of the reason we go down there is because of the lack of rules and regulations, just don't forget to keep your head on straight or you might find yourself in a world of shit. Can't wait for April!

-Bill


Big Picture, by Kent Kroeker

About five years ago I hobbled into the Emergency Room at Balboa Naval Hospital with five broken bones in my left leg. I see my friend, Steve in the waiting room, hunched down in a wheel chair.

We looked at each other for a second and then he asked, "Baja?"

"You too?" I responded.

I had high-sided my KTM in a CODE race and he had been stabbed in the kidneys with a rifle barrel while being mugged and was getting checked for internal injuries.

Neither of us was surprised about the circumstances.

Oddly, we've both been back to Baja about a hundred times since. So has one of KORE's best drivers, Rodolfo Iribe, despite his pelvis being snapped in half, due to "Baja circumstances" beyond his control.

And we dont' go back for the trails.

We've got plenty of great trails here in the States. We go to Baja for everything that comes with it - the life experience you can't get from dinner and a movie.

And the experience isn't all negative. I don't care what people say. For every corrupt, piece of crap Mexican cop I've had to pay off and every kid I've had to chase down for stealing tools or parts, I've also got a story of incredible generosity and kindness shown by Mexican locals. Going to Baja to race is like turning up the volume of your life to #10- because, until you get back across the border, it's everything, all the time.

It's still the Wild West and that's precisely why we continue to go there. A hundred years ago it was the same - people got gunned down in cold blood, but the reasons were different - cattle, land disputes, women. Look at the history of our American West; it's filled with violence, frontier justice and mayhem.

It's dangerous and gnarly down there. I'm not saying it's right or it's good. I'm just saying that if you're going to Baja to race, it's all or nothing. There's no "reset" button on this video game and the rollercoaster you're riding might not be up to code.

So don't bring the wife and kids.

Bring your henchmen and your war face.

Like most Third World countries, there is no Rule of Law and there are no safety standards in Mexico. You're pretty much responsible for your own security. Personally, I like the way it feels to be in a country where there is nobody you can blame for anything, and you have to pay attention all the time.

Fifteen years ago, my Dad showed up to a prerun with a SCUBA spear gun strapped on the back of his bike in plain view – like he was going to pull it out and spear banditos on the move. “I ain’t takin’ crap off nobody on this trip.” He said. It was dangerous back then, and it’s dangerous now.

But for racers, I don’t think guns are the answer. A little humility and common sense are. I’ve seen Rudy get us out of big jams down there just because he knows how things work and how things are. It’s not because he uses force – he doesn’t weigh 150 lbs. It’s because he knows the culture, knows the code of ethics and common sense.

A little common sense goes a long way. I've been to a lot of countries that make the most dangerous, nasty parts of Baja look like Club Med. Only a Level Nine retard would tow a race trailer at 80 mph at night on some desert road in Djibouti, Egypt or Bahrain. Why would you do the same thing in Baja? Because it's closer to the border? Because a "sanctioned" race is taking place? Because you drive like that in Nevada?

On the way back from La Paz in ’98, my crew got run off the road by the Duralast Semi Truck. This year it was the same thing twice – once by whoever was towing the Herbst race vehicles and once by some jackass with a toy hauler. I’m talking about inches from death. Why are we doing a conservative 60 mph in the middle of the day, getting passed by Americans on the One who are easily doing 80? The biggest problems we have seen have always been from Americans. Get a clue. Narrow, raised road, no shoulder, low visibility, no medical, bandits, saboteurs, smugglers and 15 year old kids with automatic weapons . Is it prudent to drink ten Red Bulls and try to make it to the border non-stop? I’ll bet that “smelling the barn” has killed more people than anything else in Baja.

How is it that there are millions of decent people in Mexico living long, happy, productive lives without experiencing any of the problems Americans face when we're down there for two weeks? They don't have radios, sat phones, spare parts, big teams – or spear guns. They don't even have extra money. How do they do it?

Fundamentally, we race for the thrill of going to the limit - for the barbaric pleasure of keeping it pinned when everything inside you is telling you to lift. By these standards, the second you cross the border, you’re racing, whether you’re in a caged vehicle or not. But you’re not a very good racer unless you survive. So have a safety plan. Assign a safety officer. Do what he says. Follow the rules. Be humble and low key. Drive only during the day. Use static pits. Our team has a five page document that revolves entirely around safety. It is strict and absolute and has kept us safe for many years.

Mexico ain’t gonna get better because there’s nothing wrong with it.

Racers can boycott, write letters and complain, but until Americans stop using drugs, Mexico will remain as is. Just like Iraq and the Middle East in general, the situation won’t change until we stop using oil. But like we do with our foreign policy and everything else, we address symptoms instead of causes. In all these negative threads about Baja, we’re pointing fingers at the wrong people.

The point is that BIG PICTURE we, collectively both as Americans and individually as racers, we are responsible for everything - the political situation, for the tragedies, accidents and mayhem that takes place when we race. Sometimes it might not seem that way, but any mishap investigation will always point to a series of human decisions or mechanical failures that ended up in tragedy.

I apologize if this doesn't sound nice or sympathetic.

And Sal Fish is not responsible for your well being. If I stumble out of Hussongs, trip on a crack in the sidewalk and land on a rusty piece of rebar, should I call Sal and complain that the streets are not up to OSHA standards?

Despite what people say on these threads, Sal is a good man and he cares about racers. But fundamentally, Sal is responsible for organizing bad *** races that take place on dirt roads that go right through the middle of private ranches and small towns with live people in them. And for the most part these are decent, good people who happen to have been born in a wild, savage country.

And the lawless anarchy that prevails south of the border is precisely why, in the 21st century, a race like the Baja 1000 is even possible.

Someone in another thread asked the question, “Baja, yes or no?”

Well, Big Picture, for me and my team, as long as there are races we will go to Baja.

And, one day, if there are no more races, we will still go to Baja.

Dream Girl.

Cro Kills It!

Check out Caleb's coverage over on Bikernet. Ol' CRO was one of the first guys to say he was "in" on the first ever EDR, and one of the first to ask if he could be a sponsor. We liked the dude right off the bat and his soulful approach to things defines the EDR spirit. His skills and DicE Matt's style sure combine to make one bad ass bike, even if it is green.

Putting the "Sport" back in "Sportster"

Rad.

I couldn't figure out how to embed the video so click the link if you want to see a Sporty get ridden in a two hour MX race.

Good work, Guy B.

Palermo, you should go on the EDR with us.