Fatboy
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Posts: 750
Registered: 6-28-2005
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Another Mainland Story.
Here's a story about a trip to Mexico around May 1992, could be off a year or two, to lazy to get up and get my journal. We started in San Diego on
Dual Sport motorcycles, down Baja To La Paz. Feery ride to the mainland, southwards to Acapulco and on...
Background... The wholesale motorcycle accessories warehouse was closing up in Sacramento when my friend and former coworker said lets ride our bikes
to Central America! This little episode takes place somewhere north of Acapluco along the Pacific coast about 10 days into our month long trip. We
were riding XT350's that got about 20 miles less per tank than the distance between Pemex stations. So with out further ado...
I swerved for no real reason except it startled me to see such a large tarantula crossing the road as I rolled the throttle on up the long incline
along the coast. I was less than 100 feet from the top when the bike first hiccuped signaling a switch to reserve was in order, looking down at the
map in my tank bag I was a little concerned that there was no town close by that looked large enough to have a Pemex station.
I quickly caught up with Matt and we both saw the large piece of plywood with one word on it ..."GASOLINA". We were feeling good when we pulled up
to the shack and was greeted by a pack of dogs and 5 or 6 year old girl. We said "Hi" and asked for some gas. She replied that there was none. Matt
and I could both see the 55 gallon drum with the pump on it less than 30 feet away.
Thinking that maybe she did understand our whopping 8 words of Spanish(that was combined, I knew 2, Matt 6!) we asked again. She again replied "No"
and walked over to the barrel and precede to tip it to show us it was empty. She asked if we wanted some soda's and while she went to get them we sat
down at the table out in the yard.
At this point her little sister, I would say 3 or 4 years old, peeped over the fence at us. As of yet we still had not seen an adult anywhere
around, so we sat discussing what to do. Matt decided to go on since he had not switched over to reserve yet(we could go about 10 to 12 miles on
reserve) and see if he could make it the 30 or so miles to where we BELIEVED there might be a Pemex station.
Matt strapped on his helmet, fired up his bike and headed off. As he reached the bottom of the valley and started up the other side I could faintly
hear his XT power up the road. With nothing else to do but wait I sat there and sipped my soda and watched the 2 kids play. Surprising, less then 10
minutes later I hear a bike and Matt pulls up and tells me that he didn't even make it to the top of the hill before he was reserve also.
We order another soda and are trying to decide what to do when a truck pulls up across the street, we head across to see if we can bum some gas.
Luckly the guy spoke a little english and let us siphon about a gallon and half of gas. After splitting it up make Matt takes off while I finshing
putting my gear on and I take off about 2 or 3 minutes behind him.
It felt good to be back on the road again and I was pushing it to catch up with Matt when I started to worry. I had put 20 to 25 miles and I should
have caught him by now. As I powered around a 30mph corner the bike runs out of gas again just as see a line cars stopped by the POLICIA as a wrecker
was moving a wrecked pickup off of the road.
I had just restarted my bike when the cop started waving everyone around, I was able to get up to him when it died again. I tell him "No mas
Gasolina" he replies with "Gasolina 15 Kilometers", so with my complete command of the spanish langague I tell him "NO MAS Gasolina".
At this point he waves me over and walks over to his car and returns with a piece of hose and points to the wreck and says "gasolina". ALLRIGHT!!!
Like to see our friendly California Highway Patrol do that!
I walk over to the wreck and it is totaled! I find the gas cap and it is just my luck that it is a locking cap. I show it to the officer and once
again he walks to his car and this time returns with a prybar.
With the cap off it is only a matter of minutes before my tank is half full and my long lost buddy pulls up and says "Hey, I got some gas!"! Yeah,
so do I, I told him! It turns out that about 8 miles back there was another local selling gas out of barrel and Matt had pulled over to get some when
I passed him without even seeing him.
So went another day south of the border
Now, let's hear YOUR story...
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6886
Registered: 10-4-2004
Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
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Great story, Fatboy.
Did you see the diet thread?
just kidding
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Bob and Susan
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8813
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Mulege BCS on the BAY
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Mood: Full Time Residents
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Nice story...
I think FatBoy needs an avatar to avoid confusion....
[Edited on 9-27-2005 by Bob and Susan]
[Edited on 9-27-2005 by Bob and Susan]
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Corky1
Nomad
Posts: 416
Registered: 11-22-2003
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Fatboy,
You will be glad to know their are still some XT 350's still going strong and in Baja.
http://www.pbase.com/corky1/xt_350_project_bike
Corky
 
\"Keep The Rubberside Down\" |
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Fatboy
Senior Nomad
Posts: 750
Registered: 6-28-2005
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I really enjoyed my XT. One comment though, you really do not need to go to a 520 chain. New sprockets and a RK 'o' ring chain and it will last many,
many miles.
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eetdrt88
Senior Nomad
Posts: 986
Registered: 2-20-2005
Location: Az/Ca/Baja
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hey corky1 i'm considering buying a used enduro..
living in oarnge county means theres plenty to choose from,any particular bike you would reccomend??
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