02/162008
On the 3rd of January, Jay Bass, Elden Carl and I took off for a whirlwind 7 day Baja ride
to San Borja, San Francisco de la Sierra, Mulege and Rancho San Isidro near San
Jose Magdalena, Baja Sur.
Sunset near Catavinia
The highlight of the trip was the time we spent eating Elsa’s great food and watching hubby
Jose Luis work his goats at the 150 year old Rancho San Isidro. It appears that Elsa will
soon be able to accommodate a limited number of tourists, including over-nighters.
Watching Jose Luis work a couple of hundred goats was more fascinating than we could
have imagined. Hopefully more riders will soon be able to experience what we have
enjoyed for the past 15 years of visits.
Jay, Rod, Jose Luis and son with
new baby goats at Rancho San
Isidro.
On the bike front we have just a few things to report. First, both KLR650s (a 12,000 mile
95′, a 48,000 mile 96′, and Elden’s 36,000 mile 2002 DR650) weathered the dirt, rain
and the stiff head winds without missing a beat. Miles per gallon figures on the stock-
tuned and properly geared trio of motorcycles was close to 50mpg, but it’s hard to tell
exactly due to the habit of Pemex gas pumps delivering less fuel than the meter indicates.
We only had one rear flat (mine). Oil consumption for the 1390 mile, 30 hour
engine operating period (the DR has a Top Gun tachometer/hour meter) was as follows.
Jay’s 1995 KLR650A went approximately 2,000 miles per litre, Elden’s 2002 DR650SE
used almost no oil at 16,000 miles per litre, and my 49,000 mile 1996 KLR650A burned
the slippery stuff at a rate of approximately
3,000 per litre.
The DR650 that Elden was riding is experimental with a re-coated Millenium liner,
stock piston, and stock rings (with the chrome stripped off). Oil consumption is still improving
with more miles and may reach the norm for a properly broken-in DR650.
Jose Luis showing us some of the
natural herbs in the area. This one
is used for upset stomach.
All but one of the 8 DR650s in our group, all broken in on full motorcycle synthetic oil from
first start-up, are believed to be traveling more than 20,000 miles per litre. Yes, that’s
just the norm for stock tuned DR650s as far as we can tell. The best KLR650 I know of
was Elden’s 2005 which was going 7,500 miles on a litre of oil when it was totalled by a
reckless teenage driver September 2, 2007. There’s a fascinating story we’ll tell you about
Elden’s first collision with a car since he began riding 53+ years and over 750,000
miles ago, but we must first wait until pending litigation has been completed.
This is the 150 year old kitchen at
the goat ranch with wood stove
that is still used today.
The most important advantages of the KLR over the DR for long rides boil down to three
things:
- A.
