Martin Gastanaga

Previous Series Post
Part 1
Part 2

The last items I needed to gather and determine it’s value to weight ratio all pertained to me personally and my safety and comfort for my trip to Baja. Since it all had to fit on my back and there was no support vehicle to carrier my laptop, video camera and other electronic accessories I knew I needed to think it through. In the end this is what I ended up with and why I brought it:

Bike lock and cable -This is to keep honest people honest.
Head lamp - When it comes to needing light, having two hands free is always better than one.
Compression Straps - Just in case I found something I wanted to attach to my back pack.
T shirt - One that I could throw away and then bring a new one back.
socks - I brought one pair of socks just in case my feet got cold in my Tivas at night.
Tivas - No shirt, no shoes, no service.
Shorts - See line above they forgot one.
Ball cap - This is to keep the sun off my bald head and prevents sunburn and exposure.
Sun screen - Nothing sucks more that being burned.
Motorcross Light Jacket - In case of cold weather I brought this for warmth also I prefer to have a coat on over my chest protector and elbow pads. The coat I used also had large zippers under both arm pits to allow for really good ventilation.
Sunglasses - I am particular about sunglasses and it is what I wear when I ride most of the time.
Sunglasses Spare - In case I broke a pair I had a backup and I did end up needing them.
Aloe + Lotion - The sun is not your friend without protection against it.
Bath Kit/Plastic Razor/ Tooth paste & brush - Hygiene is important and keeps thing fresh.
Underwear - Do I really need to explain.
T.P. - When you gotta go, you gotta go and you never know where you might be.
Baby Wipes - If there is not water these things can make you feel like you took a shower.
Pepto Bismo - Take one every morning and it will help prevent Montezuma’s Revenge
Pepsid AC/Advil - In case the above doesn’t hold true and or I have a bad case of bottle flu.
Tylenol PM - I know some of the guys going are sure to snore and these suckers put me out.
Eye drops - When you ride there is always a chance that you could get something in your eye so it is good to have drops to wash it out.
Pain Pills/muscle Relaxers - With a broken neck, bad knees and many other past injuries pain is a part of life plus there are no drug stores behind cacti.
Motorcycle Sox X2 - Wear a pair wash a pair repeat every day of riding.
Razor blade - Never know what you might have to cut out your hand, arm or leg.
First aid kit - Small bag with ointments, antiseptic wash, bandages, gauze, needle & thread, super glue, sting ease, ace bandage, emergency blanket, safety ribbon and matches
Water bladder - When you are in the desert you better bring water
Water purification tablets Just in case I need to drink some nasty water this might helped to reduce risk.
Passport - So I can make it back in the country.
Digital Camera - I used a Nikon Cool Pix digital camera, I keep it easily accessible by zip tieing a small case to my chest protector with extra battery and storage cards.

So that is most all of the things I brought, however the coolest thing I brought was my GPS. The Garmin Rino 530 was a must have for this adventure. The GPS also has a 5 watt walkie talkie built in that can ping other Rino Series radios and share the locations back and forth of each radio.
GPS + Charger & Battery pack
Compass
Map bag
Baja California Map
Mexico Maps

With these Kay and I were able to talk to each other and see each other on the maps. This allowed me to be chase and him to lead which worked well to keep us moving.

Previous Post Part 1

Going to Baja for the first time can be a bit intimidating, you hear all these tales of banditos, corrupt cops, kidnapping and people just disappearing. I am here to tell you some of it is true and I have experiences to prove it. (More to come in another post) Having been a Boy Scout and a pretty avid adventurer, I figured being properly prepared was the next step in this adventure from a safety perspective since the bike was ready for the trip, now I needed to pack the bags.

Many would think packing your bags is an easy thing to do, unfortunately this adventure made it much more difficult since we were traveling with no support vehicle. This meant that we needed to carry everything we wanted on our bikes or on our backs for 10 days. There are many solutions out there for putting bags on your bike. I have owned two BMW GS’s which are well knowing for the carrying capacity but when it comes to a dirt bike, I prefer to keep it as light as I can. The terrain that you travel on a dirt bike is much rougher, regularly has steep angels, cliffs and rocks so being nimble and light is wise.

While on the trip I saw many people on bikes, some had bags mounted to their bikes and most of the time they were fussing with them, things broke through the material and they lost items or the bags just kept falling off. For this trip I had one bag that was mounted to my bike and a waist tool belt for all of my tools for repair and maintenance of the bike. On the bike I used a bag that mounts to the fender and is small that can be tightened very securely to the bike. In the bag I put 3 tire wrenches, 4 tube patch kits, extra glue, an extra front tube and JB weld. There was room for more but I don’t suggest putting much else in it.

The second bag I had was a waist tool belt, which was nothing but motorcycle repair equipment/tools. In the bag, I had the following items:

Flash Light
Tow Strap
2 Screw Drivers
Allen Wrenches various sizes
Spark Plug + Spark Plug Wrench
Pliers
Electrical Wire
Bailing/Safety Wire
Quick Steel
Rags
Sand Paper
Spare Hardware/Nuts/Bolts/Medium Hose Clamp/Zip Ties
Tire/Air Pump
Leatherman Multi-tool
Extra hand guard bracket mount
24 mm socket
22 mm socket
19 mm socket
17 mm socket
14 mm socket
13 mm socket
12 mm socket
12 mm socket
10 mm socket
10 mm socket
8 mm socket
7 mm socket
6 mm socket
12 mm wrench
11 mm wrench
10 mm wrench
9 mm wrench
8 mm wrench
7 mm wrench
6 mm wrench
1/2 inch breaker bar
1/2 inch to 1/4 inch fitting

Then there are a few other items that I had on the bike as well for repair and maintenance, WD 40 and air filter oil. All of these items, I kept inside in the air box compartment. Lastly, I had a tool for doing oil changes without having to remove my skid plate called a man funnel which I zip tied to the fender bag.

All together I suspect that the two bags weighed some where around 15-18 pounds but if you break down in the middle of no where it is pretty tough to do something about it if you do not have the tools to fix it so the added weight was worth it.

Next blog post I will talk about my back pack and all the items I had within it.

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.

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