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Big Bikes at B A J A R A L L Y!


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I'm proud to see some great magazine coverage of the BAJA RALLY from Upshift Online; even more proud that I wrote it! ;)

 

Check it out!

 

attachicon.gifScreen Shot 2016-11-01 at 9.33.20 AM.png

 

FYI, I tried to tell this guy you can't start a bike uphill in deep sand but he was adamant at figuring that out himself.

Very cool.

Any of your photos make the magazine?  

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

They dropped that whole abbreviated course thing after the prologue (which everyone raced) when they saw the big bikes could hang.  Scotty and his team are all about safety and the last thing they wanted was a bunch of big bike riders stuck/injured.  What's interesting Casey, Chris and Keith all said they probably not do it again on a big bike which kind of validates what Scotty was thinking (a bit).  I kind of feel the same way.  There's lots of things I've done on a big bike and come away saying "well I did to that but I probably shouldn't have."  I think it would be nice to have something geared more for the bigger bikes but that's just not really feasible without a lot of work.

I would be UBER upset to learn of a abbreviated course! Glad to find out that it was released and no "special treatment" given. 

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I can't really talk that much because I didn't finish. However, there is no way in hell I would have wanted to do an abbreviated course, just for big bikes.  That goes against the entire point of showing up.  That's not what I signed up for.  I was trying to be diplomatic when that first came out and the rumor kept circulating, but I think we all know what my less-reserved response was.  When Scotty floated it after the prologue and it sounded like it was going to happen, I argued against it.  Otherwise, you finish the race and everyone says you didn't do "Baja Rally", but rather, "Baja Rally*"  That * always gets appended.  Screw that.  I was also kind of irritated hear that discussion after I'd already committed a ton of funds and preparation to the race.  Thankfully, none of that ever came to pass.  The terrain I got to experience in the prologue and day 1 isn't anything harder than what we do up here--it's just at speed and there's a lot of it.

 

As for the collar bone and the road trip (most uncomfortable ever!), I'll recover.  It's the night of 18OCT and I have a plate and screws going in in the morning.  Should be back on a bike for light duty around New Years if not sooner  I've got plans for big stupidity on big bikes in the spring, and I sure as hell want another swing at Baja in 2017.  Had an incredible time, but no one wants a DNF next to their name!  

 

BTW, I'm pretty sure I said I didn't want to do Starvation Ridge again on a big bike again after that crap-fest last year.  That said, I sure was planning on going and running it again next weekend...on the 950SE again...in the slop.  Give the others some time to forget the bad stuff! ;-)

 Well said, Brian! I cannot fathom what reaction I would of had, had I actually convinced Scotty in 2014 to allow an ADV Class, and learn tht it would be a "Special" course! Same course for ALL bikes, Product Realization and rider skill are only determined via NO variable in course.

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  • 4 months later...
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Ray and I had such a great time.  We really enjoyed getting to follow the photographer pool around and get such great shots but one day they left without us so we just had to kind of improvise.  So as we're driving down the road in Chris Scranton's Ford Raptor, who do we see but leader Steve Hengeveld blasting down a dirt track parallel to the highway and we find ourselves recording video of him from the truck!

And then later I say to Ray "you know what?  I know these dunes out near Colonet I bet the course goes through and I bet that photography van (Toyota micro something or other) would never make it out there.  Let's head out there and see what we find."  We got out there, got out of the truck with the cameras and thought "this may have been a huge waste of time" and then all of a sudden we hear a "whop whop whop whop" of the rotor blades of a helicopter and sure enough here's Steve Hengeveld popping over the top of the dune and we end up getting EPIC photos and video of that.  I'm sure the professional photographers were quite jealous.  We were very proud of ourselves that day.  The other photographers, being the professionals and great people they are, were actually quite stoked to see what we'd captured that night.  And then by Cataviña we were best buds and doing tequila shots.

I probably already told that story though yeah?

Then that morning start out of San Quintin the dunes was so amazing, if painful for a lot of the riders.  The dunes were thankfully wet but they had these little 5' drop offs that cause quite a few some trouble.  This one rider I won't mention got stuck and then spent the next 20 minutes trying to get underway again... uphill.  Um....  maybe you should point the bike downhill?  He was so upset as well.  Well that's the thing about riders from around the world; not all of them are familiar with the terrain.

It all was such an amazing vibe like I kept asking myself "is this really happening?"

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1 hour ago, Eric Hall said:

Ray and I had such a great time.  We really enjoyed getting to follow the photographer pool around and get such great shots but one day they left without us so we just had to kind of improvise.  So as we're driving down the road in Chris Scranton's Ford Raptor, who do we see but leader Steve Hengeveld blasting down a dirt track parallel to the highway and we find ourselves recording video of him from the truck!

And then later I say to Ray "you know what?  I know these dunes out near Colonet I bet the course goes through and I bet that photography van (Toyota micro something or other) would never make it out there.  Let's head out there and see what we find."  We got out there, got out of the truck with the cameras and thought "this may have been a huge waste of time" and then all of a sudden we hear a "whop whop whop whop" of the rotor blades of a helicopter and sure enough here's Steve Hengeveld popping over the top of the dune and we end up getting EPIC photos and video of that.  I'm sure the professional photographers were quite jealous.  We were very proud of ourselves that day.  The other photographers, being the professionals and great people they are, were actually quite stoked to see what we'd captured that night.  And then by Cataviña we were best buds and doing tequila shots.

I probably already told that story though yeah?

Then that morning start out of San Quintin the dunes was so amazing, if painful for a lot of the riders.  The dunes were thankfully wet but they had these little 5' drop offs that cause quite a few some trouble.  This one rider I won't mention got stuck and then spent the next 20 minutes trying to get underway again... uphill.  Um....  maybe you should point the bike downhill?  He was so upset as well.  Well that's the thing about riders from around the world; not all of them are familiar with the terrain.

It all was such an amazing vibe like I kept asking myself "is this really happening?"

Eric, that was an epic trip!!!  I would not have been able to get any of the stuff I did had it not been for you!  Mucho appreciated amigo!!!!  Looking forward to doing some riding with you...at some point this year!!!!

What an amazing time we had down there!!!!

 

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