Martin Gastanaga

Several months back my wife suggested that I take my friend Kay Vetter up on his offer to take me through Baja on my dirt bike, to which I of course said “I would love to do that”. Thus began the adventure. The first thing that I needed to do was purchase a new motorcycle, after all my 2000 Yamaha WR 400 was worn but still a great bike with 8,000 mile and 8 years of riding on it. I just did not feel comfortable about taking it, after all, during much of the trip I would be hundred of miles from a road, civilization or even water, so it was decided it was time for a new bike.

After selling my bike, I was off to Sierra Yamaha in Chilkoot California to purchase a new 2008 Yamaha WR 450. Of course, when you get a new bike you also need all the accessories for it too. I proceeded to purchase a new helmet, goggles, hand guards, GYTR AIS kit and a larger fuel tank from IMS for the Baja trip. I was stoked, the shop gave me a great price on the bike but that came at a cost off course, I guess it was a wash. (More on that in a future post)

Once I got home I also proceeded to get some additional accessories for the bike such as a skid plate and a RAM mount for my Garmin GPS. With the bike now in the garage the preparation began. I started with the easy things first like the hand guards and skid plate. After that I headed over to Kay’s house where he has a lift for motorcycles which made the next job of the GYTR AIS kit much easier.

The GYTR AIS kit was no small job, requiring the removal of the rear wheel, sub frame and shock of the bike just to get to the carburetor, 5 hours later, the bike was back together and started first try. I proceed to test refine and do shake down on rides with the new bike over the next several weekends leading to the departure. On every ride the bike ran great, it had a small stutter/stall if I hit the gas to fast at idle. Heck if it did hit when I wacked it wide open I would be on my back so that is a safety feature I figure.

____________________

____________________

So that sums up the bike prep, next post will be the carry along items.