Adventures in chronology presents…

The 2007 Baja 500 pre run posted post the Baja 500 post run.


The backwards reporting ain’t gonna end here … will be posting another report with photos pre-pre run photos. But that’s later … back to the present, um… past.

Prepping for Baja requires spending some time in the garage. Dustjunkie's lair:







This particular trip saw quite the spectrum of KTMs … I took the minibike (450 XC-W :thumb (!), Flyingo on the 625 race machine, & Dustjunkie trying out the 950 beast (pretty sure there will be a new addition to the stable over there soon :D).






We spent something like six hours in Ensenada riding around Canyon Dona Petra & getting stuck in new housing developments back there. DJ was running the GPS, so he probably has a better idea of what was going on … regardless, it was taco time when we finally rolled into Ojos…






Rolling on from there it was straight down Uruapan …







and over to the coast…







[Note the rider in this photo … upper left quadrant-ish…]







No place I’d rather be.



















From there we hit the coastal dunes…


Flyingo:




Dustjunkie:





Me:




Flyingo getting the 950 unstuck:

























This whole area is a pretty unique place to ride – not too many … scratch that, not any places in CA like this I can think of…







We made “camp” of sorts renting a house in Erendira.

This is “Bolo”. He pees brake fluid.
I’ll let the others chime in on that…






Next day more coastal playing with the crew:


Dustjunkie:




Flyingo:




And yours truly:














Dave eyeing the exit:





…and riding it out:




my go, different line:




Dustjunkie, yet another line:





Up the coast we were headed back up Uruapan, first the shortcut:





…then another shortcut:





Flyingo taking it all in…





Then it was up & over Uruapan … literally.


Dustjunkie:




Flyingo:




and the minibike:





And … the painting …


...eh?































Up next … the previous week’s ride …

Anytime you learn something new, it’s a good trip.

[ Click any photo to see full-size version ]

Well, this was a really great trip in any case … aside from that sinking, disastrous feeling of impending doom.

Not sure where to begin – the past few weeks have seen several endeavours south of the border … the previous post on the Baja 500 offers some insight...

From this...





…to this…











…to this!







I was back down in Baja the week following the race to do the camera bike thing, and G.Kennedy + LKN4DRT were looking to do some training for upcoming race(s) … no better training opportunity than to run the 500 course the week after the race went through … plans do change, but that was the idea.

After packing up the 950, the next morning out came the 450.






I started the day with a quick 35-mile run into Ensenada to meet up with Glen & Russ for breakfast at San Nic. I was already noticing a relatively significant oil leak from the anerobic gasket material I tried out on the HT Cooler (fit isn’t perfect to the case – gap is too much for the anaerobic stuff to cure … more on that later).

We sat around at breakfast & discussed route selection, what trails we wanted to do. We knew there would be silt … but C’MON!. However-many-hundred Baja 500 entries plowing through this canyon did not improve things by any means…










We were 3 for 3 as far as going down in the stuff :D



LKN4DRT found silt & described it later.






A cattleguard for naught.






It was in this silt bed I realized two things – 1st I was leaking oil like crazy. 2nd the 450 was running horribly. I would later realize that sealing one’s airbox with silt does no good for a motor’s power.

After riding over the beginning portion of the course that ends up in Ojos Negros earlier, we made a quick stop at a parts store there in town & I picked up a bottle of oil to have handy, just in case, plus a roll of gasket materials & sealant – there was a project in mind for later in the day. Now that we had been through the nasty wash & fueled up in Trinidad, it was time to hit the road up toward Mike’s.





Glen had a sticker sent from out of state & specifically to bring down here…









More trails up near Mike’s:







Motors don’t run well like this (thank goodness for lithium grease & filter skins … the seal wasn’t broken & no silt on the inside of the filter…)






Now at this point it was only around 2-3pm. I had a project to get to work on, so the other two went out to get a bit more of the Mike’s loop in – I’ll let them chime in on that. I was busy with other things at the time…











The gasket came out great – shot a pic of the initial fitting before fine-tuning …






Building gaskets by the pool, everything was going swimmingly, until…





Really, really diffictult to attach oil lines without … bolts.


AND…


I learned that the longer of the two oil lines for the cooler is just shy of being able to connect the sump to the top end in an emergency like this.

Um…

Crap.


At least it all happened in a nice spot.





So I start scouring around for my options. Maybe there’s an old motor carcass with a banjo bolt that would fit a 2007 KTM ….


… or not.


Oil line won’t reach – that’s out.


About that time Russ & Glen rolled in & Russ was rummaging through my bolt pack & found the solution!

A bolt of just slightly smaller diameter than the inner diameter of the oil line ends … use the washers off the original banjo bolts, a little Teflon tape for the nut … and attach the two oil lines. On Glen's suggestion, we turned the motor over a few times with the new setup and the top oil jet removed … sure enough, good flow!

Oil cooler bypassed, bike was essentially back to stock! Given the extra amount held by the cooler, I didn’t even have to add any oil in spite of the leak!





Next morning we take off … I’d been shooting all the photos because Glen forgot his camera. Something about many of his cameras ending up like this after rides :D











I’d heard it was relatively hot up north of the border past few days … weather was perfect in Baja!






All the better when you have to remove stuff like this from your wheel…









Was a fun, educational trip. Next one coming soon!

From one event to the next...

From last week...




To this morning...





















PLUS...

For those of you that were in town last week for the 500 ... a new obstacle fell into place on highway 1 just outside of town the other day ...

... literally.








AND ...

no pics, but on the way back out of town, there was an MX event happening just outside of Guadelupe! This place has it all ...

2007 Baja 500

This might prove to be a chronologically interesting post. First will come some info about the race that just took place last weekend ... then will most likely come a post-race training run over the course (a few days from now), following that will be the "prequels" of the 3-4 weeks of pre-running/prep leading up to the 500. So here goes...

The machines...

















The men...











The madness...







The meeting...






My transportation...







First off – for those of you that think your bike stable is relatively complete, start saving up… :)












You might want to set aside something for a new tool roll too…




































These guys had meetings discussing … well, going really really fast I suppose.





















Probably no better way to run a new bike than with top mechanics & the bike’s designer there.












The team needed some welding & a couple small parts fabbed up – called a friend of mine in town & he came over with an employee who knew some local guys that could to TIG work – that’s Hans Trunkenpolz talking with Eddie & one of his employees about what needs to be done.






That name should be very familiar to most… here’s a hint just in case:
Kronreif, Trunkenpolz, Mattighofen

Eddie is a huge racing fan. For any long-time Baja people out there – his dad had a team way back that raced Edsels in the Baja 1000!

Don’t think this is him, but a cool photo of an Edsel in Baja nonetheless…






So … parts welded/made, the bike was ready to race.







Meanwhile, just across town …

Another team was prepping their gear. Flyingo!!! Setting up the comm. System in his helmet.





A few blocks away, Cyril Depres was doing the same.





I was out with these guys:





The Austrians were relaxing:





And 304x was getting bedded down:





Tomorrow was going to be an early start.

Actually, earlier than anyone expected…



Everyone probably got to bed a little later than would be considered wise – moot point. About 3 AM there was a huge crash just outside our window.

The noise of course woke us up … after a few moments of processing, Dave’s first words … “that’s not good!” summed up the situation. Based on the closeness of the sound there was a good chance someone had blown a corner & plowed through the parking lot, taking out vehicles & motos along the way…

Turns out is was a wrong turn, right in front of the hotel, just not into the parking lot.





Police were on scene really quick – EMT’s a bit later, fortunately it seemed all the occupants were relatively ok as far as we could tell. Between the crash, sirens, & general commotion that followed, there wasn’t much more sleep to be had.


Next morning Dave & chase crew headed out to their spot & I went to the start with Jake. This guy was already in place waiting:





Then 304x got set up.






Surfphoto wasn’t there just yet…












I went back to the start as the bikes got lined up.





















After 304x took off, walking back the line & found Antonio with 421x:






And then they were off … I spent the rest of the day meeting with a few other teams around town, so no pics of the course … in fact next time the camera came out was for the relatively brutal border wait…










Just got back & already looking forwarded to going down again (leaving Friday… :)