12/30/09

Biltwell 500




Well, when you are hip deep in snow it's probably hard to think about riding motorcycles to Mexico. Fortunately we're not snowed in and riding motorcycles to Mexico is exactly what I'm thinking about. We'll put up a little micro site sometime in the next couple weeks with all the pertinent info, but I wanted to get the rough idea and solid dates out there so people can make plans.

Date: June 13-16
This is the day after the Born Free show in Long Beach. We've got several friends planning on coming in from out of town to hit the show already, so why not throw some riding into the mix.

Schedule:
Day 1 - Ride from So Cal to Rancho San Antonio Del Mar (beach about 100 miles south of Ensenada) We will publish a map and a start time but there is no way we're leading an organized group the whole way. If you ride like we ride and stop when we stop, you can go with us. There is ample gas along the way.

Day 2-3 - Screw around, it's really remote and we'll be right on the beach. If you can get your bike through 100 yards of dunes and down to the beach, it is several miles of perfect flat sand with a few local clammers and that's about it. Wide open. Bring a fishing pole or a girlfriend in a truck with dirt bikes, quads, rocket ships, whatever. It's about an hour trip to Quatro Casa's where there is a right point break and a hostel with a skateable pool. We'll probably ride down there for something to do but there is no organized event/ride/whatever.

Day 4 - Ride home. It's about 500 miles of riding, round trip from Temecula, CA.

Things you should know:
I'll post up a little FAQ on the whole traveling to Mexico issue soon so please don't email and ask a bunch of questions until I try to answer them en masse first.

Rancho San Antonio Del Mar is a remote beach area with a handful of gringo homes. Some people live there full time and many just come down when they can. I'm lucky enough to share a little place down there. I'll ask that you respect my neighbors and if you really want to raise hell, just go down to the beach and get it on, no one will care. If you start doing donuts in the dirt in front of my house, my 80 year old neighbor John will likely shoot you. If he doesn't, I might.

The riding includes about seven miles of dirt road, mostly washboard, from the highway to the beach. We'll turn off in the little town of Colonet. The town has all sorts of services, gasoline, food, beer, ice, etc. It's not a real happening joint though, just a bunch of tire shops and beer stands on either side of the highway for the most part. This means you will need to be prepared to bring in whatever you need to eat and drink for at least two days or plan on the rough ride back to town for a taco. We've got two outhouses for old skool crappin'. My place runs on kerosene, solar, two twelve-volt batteries and Pacifico. The house only has three small bedrooms and those are taken, but everyone is invited to hang out on the porch, in the "cantina" (small screen room on porch" and the whole beach and cliffs area is wide open for camping. I'll do my best to be an accommodating host and make coffee in the morning and open up the shower, etc, but realize this depends on how many people we get. Our house gets overwhelmed pretty quick with two families, so we'll all mostly be hanging outside. Obviously you will have to ride the dirt road to get back to the highway too. The Quatros trip will include another, slightly rougher and sandier ten mile trip in from the highway. I've done it on suspended HD's no problem and Rob Rouser rode the dirt road into my house two years ago with no issues on his super low rigid. It took him a while but he made it without any drama.

The ride is open to anyone with the right attitude. We won't be providing chase trucks, but will probably have someone in the team van, possibly with a trailer and we'll do our best to help anyone out, but please be self-contained and have a back-up plan for yourself and your buddies.

The surf right out in front of the house generally sucks. It's a beach break and is always closed out. Shore fishing isn't bad. Fireworks down by the water are great at night. Bonfires are no sweat and there are fun dunes if you can have your OL drag down some toys. Think of this as a ride/camp out with friends not a big organized deal as we won't have vendors or sponsors or any of that sort of stuff going on. Biltwell might donate some beer or BBQ but haven't really gotten that far in the planning stages.

Hope to see a few of you make it!


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