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Baja California Sur Mexico Day Ride

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Mike U 
#1 · (Edited)
Howdy yall!!!

The ol lady and I went down to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon recently and rented a Harley. Resorts are not for me, the ol lady likes them but its for the birds in my opinion. I'd rather hang out with my grungy motorcycle friends and do motorcycle sh*t.

Anyhow. There is a little Harley shop in the port/shopping mall area; locally known as Centro, run by ol guy that has been there some 20-30 years if I remember correctly. Great guy. He just got hooked up with Eaglerider as of this January there and it has helped him tremendously with the bike rental business. Makes the transaction simple, we reserved online. Come in to the shop there he was expecting us and were warmly received. Filled out paperwork and took us out to the bike and away we went. Cost breakdown: rental fee is $220/day, insurance was $25 and they required a $2000 deposit/CC hold along with the $25 insurance. Eaglerider has the option of doing a $35 insurance which requires only a $100 deposit but this wasn't available at this rental location. Helmets are included in with the rental fees, no need to worry about packing your own. Unfortunately, he didn't have any shirts in stock and missed out on the opportunity of getting a shirt while we were down there. I reserved a Road Glide Ultra online but he didn't have one available, instead we rode a 19 Electra Glide Ultra Classic. I will never ride one again. It was my second time riding the batwing and I really do not like it all.

He recommended doing the loop. The loop means going up the east side of the peninsula on the 1 and upon reaching the "19" turning south and coming back to Cabo. I attached the loop we did. I recommend the loop as well. The only thing I would have done differently after getting to Todo Santos, is turned around and gone back to the east side of the peninsula again rather than driving down the 4 lane on the "19" going south on the west side back to Cabo.

Couple of warnings right out the gate, they have these nubbed road sections especially in corners. The nubs are steel discs that are littered in a linear fashion on the road that have a rumble effect. These discs are probably 2-3 inches in diameter and there isn't room in between them to miss them so you're forced to slow down. Second, the speed bumps in the small towns along the way, you'll definitely want to slow down for those. You hit one of those at speed the ol lady may end up sitting on top of the tour pack. Another, the roads mainly don't have any shoulders and washouts on the edges in corners and parts of the road are common. For the most part the roads are exceptionally good, I guess if you don't have winter your roads last a lot longer. Finally, when on the two lane roads going through tight blind corners try to stick to the right portion of the lane. The roads are often not big enough for trucks or tractor-trailer combos, and they will use half of your lane just because the road wasn't designed for the truck. It happened to us, but I was able to see him coming when I looked ahead 3 or 4 corners. Finally, the livestock, although we didn't encounter any on the road there was a fair bit of livestock in the barrow pit as most of the land there is free range. I'll get the to cops in a bit. Driving is a ton of fun, its a blend of aggressive and defensive, stop signs and yields are one and the same. The only thing they respect are the stop lights. I just suggest that you just not be too defensive as you'll just get run over and probably honked at. Just go with the flow.

The "1" is a 2 lane beginning right outside of San Jose del Cabo. The view is spectacular. The Mountains tower to the west and you ride through the desert crossing numerous major dry drainages that come off the mountain. They looked as though during the rainy season they could move a lot of water. We did unknowingly stop at the monument for the Tropic of Cancer. A local was impressed by the bike there and wanted his picture taken with it which I obliged him the pleasure. Just west of Los Barriles, you start climbing into the mountains. For being this far south the mountains are exceptionally abrupt and the road gets fun with plenty of twistys. Descending back down the west side of the mountain you will intersect the "19". Heading south towards Todo Santos is when we had our first sighting of the terrifying federal police. I spotted him in the mirror a long way back with his party lights on. The speed limit was 90 Km/h roughly 55 mph, and there were cars passing me going at least 120-125km/h or 70-75 mph. The Federal Police passed me along with people that just passed me. If it weren't for the wind in my ears, I'm sure he was blasting mariachi music, sipping on tequila and eating tacos with his amigos he was riding with. It wasn't 5 minutes down the road that we spotted him and his amigos again going back the other way party lights still going. We stopped in Todo Santos, filled up the bike. We looked around the "Hotel California" which some people claim is where the Eagles wrote their album and others that say its a total sham. It's still a neat place to stop which I recommend as a must. After Todo Santos, I set the cruise at 130 km/h and just enjoyed the scenery on the 4 lane. I made a wrong turn instead of taking the bi-pass I went straight down town to get back to the port. But we made it back in time and without incident.I was really thankful for the GPS upon arriving in Cabo. I was able to navigate the maze of one way streets in Cabo flawlessly. The ride took a total of 6.5 hours total with the stops.

After this trip, I was estatic. I really really enjoyed riding down there and getting to see a totally different manner of driving as well as laying my eyes on new scenery. I'd like to do as much research as I can, before making the 2000 mi trek back to Cabo on my own motorcycle. This would allow me a lot more freedom to explore little roads that go from here to there. If anyone reading this has ever made the trip down by motorcycle I would appreciate it if you PM'd me. Hopefully I could get pointers as far as the best places to stop and if you could camp at beaches, etc.
 

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