Archive for April, 2010

What is a Dirt Bike or Enduro?
The name Enduro comes from mixing two words: endurance and the Spanish word for hard = duro.

First, what makes a dirt bike different than a street bike?
The most obvious distinctions of an off-road bike are the tires, suspension, and seating position. Off-road bikes tires have very big knobbies. They also have long suspensions making the motorcycle sit up much higher with a big space between the tires and the fenders. While a street bike has a low seating position that sometimes makes it uncomfortable to ride, a dirt bike seating position is upright with a comfortable knee angle. Although when you ride an Enduro, most of the off-road riding is done standing up on the foot pegs while the rider holds the bike firmly with his knees and directs it with the handlebar!

The first Enduros were created in the early 60’s by simple modifications to street motorcycles by raising the exhaust pipe and using knobby tires. Some knobbies were carved by cutting more treads into the tire with a sharp or hot knife. Ironically as more and more streets were getting paved the Enduros became more popular. My assumption is when Gottlieb Daimler (founder of Mercedes) built his Reitwagen (riding wagon), the very first motorcycle, there was no pavement. So the first bike must have been an dirt bike or Enduro by default.

Enduros have a similar suspension geometry as a motor cross bike, but the engine performance characteristics are designed to run smoother, and with less RPM. This offers a more comfortable power-band and a longer engine lifespan for short-term performances. Two great examples are the Honda XR400R, 1997-2003 (she’s still alive) versus the Honda CRF450X 2005– 2010, which is actually the replacement for the XR. The XR has a very low RPM engine with a long engine stroke, and the CRF has a higher revving engine with a small piston and a very short engine stroke (engine stroke = distance piston travels from the bottom of the cylinder to the top). The XR is known for its endurance, and the CRF is known for its shorter lifespan and much stronger engine–I guess that is what is popular now–a flashy high performance bike that needs much more attention than its predecessor.

In 1975, the Japanese introduced the Yamaha 500 Enduro. This concept bike is probably the best known by the general public. In 1977, it was the first large-scale production machine that won the 1st two editions of the Rally Paris-Dakar which made sales skyrocket. Suddenly, owning an Enduro was the new cool thing. Modern competition Enduros, and the related motor cross machines, are special interest motorcycles only bought by a small group of people. The requirements for such a bike are among the toughest for motorized vehicles: hill-climbs, river crossings, deep mud, deep sand (sometimes the engines suck in sand), hot and very cold operating conditions–these are just some of the obstacles to overcome. These and the small scale production made dirt bikes are relatively expensive compared to a flashy street bike which seems to have so much more equipment included…but of course, they aren’t as much fun in my opinion.

Today, in addition to the usual Travel Enduros, many manufacturers offer specially adapted competition sport bikes. In Europe, some smaller companies have a big market share producing the KTM 525 EXC, KTM 450 and 400, the Husqvarna TE 510, and also the Spanish manufacturer Gas-Gas has the hard-Enduro EC 300. BMW entered the hard-Enduro market with a BMW 450X. In the U.S. off-road market, Honda has its CRF 450 X, Suzuki has the DRZ 450 and so does Yamaha with the WR 450 and Kawasaki with KLX 450 and KTM is well present and winning races left and right. These Hard-Enduro machines are not really suitable for road driving, but perform like a motocross bike (comes from moto, the Spanish word for motorcycle and not motorcross)–eating and spitting the dirt and loving it. In relation to our motorcycle enduro vacations you may want to know that Our guests will be grinning from ear to ear because they get to use the hard-Enduros on endless off-road trails while our guides mount-up on the XR 400s.

We really want to give a shout out to all our ATV Riders and Motorcycle Enthusiasts that keep us busy with tours and rentals. It is now 2010, our 12 year running. We have not posted any feedbacks on our San Diego day trips lately. We have been getting so many this Spring that we had to take a moment and reflect and post them here on our ATV-Tour-Website.

Nicloe, Just want to say we all had a great time on the ATV tour, it definitely topped the deep sea fishing trip we had the next day. Also, the guides were extremely professional, did a great job and made the trip what it was. We had a samll range of riders from beginner to somewhat expericened and they worked well with and accomidated everyone. Again, thank you very much. Bernard Herrman

Myron M. had booked a Half Day US Bachelor Party Tour and had this to say after he got back from the adventure with his friends: “Awesome! Thanks for email Nicole! Yes it was frickin great! Andrew and Gus were awesome tour guides! My wedding shall be in July so I’m sure we’ll set something up with you guys again! Have a great week”. His friends said: “Good afternoon Nicole! Thanks again for all your help setting up my boy’s bachelor party. We had a great time!”.

Judy V. had a Half day US Motorcycle Trip in the San Diego mountains…she said: “Thanks, Nicole. That sounds great. What is Andrew’s last name? He was absolutely great and we forgot to tip him! I’d like to send him something.”

Vegard L. did our classic Full Day Baja ATV / Dirtbike (Mexico) trip. Which used to be so popular before the whole swine-flew and gang violence is all over the news now. He had a long tour and a short comment: “We had an awesome time!”

The pressure is on, when somebody wants to do their honeymoon with you as a our outfitter. They could go to the Bahamas instead they are riding on dusty trails in mexico’s Baja Peninsula.

Deb W. (3 Day Destination Ride) called in to personally tell me how great, amazing, terrific etc. Andrew was AND he got her to book a 5 day dirt bike tour to Gonzaga Bay for her honeymoon!

Sarah T. called CMA the Monday after her tour (1 Day Baja ATV Tour) to tell me how much fun she had during her dirt bike tour with Felipe and Waldo IN THE RAIN! She said Felipe was a great guide and made her forget how freezing she was the entire tour. She was extremely enthusiastic!

What nobody mentioned in their feedbacks is the fact that we have many new KTM motorcycles on our tours now. This is great news if you are a motorcycle rider and want to explore Baya with us or just one of our bikes that you could rent.

With so many new fans we are assured that what we are doing is still a very fun thing to do in San Diego.
This is all the News from this 2010 Spring. A big THANK YOU, Ride on and See you soon.

PART 3 – My impression on maps and my current height As I’ve established, there were no Baja maps back then, and the AAA map caused way more pain than not. The small village of Sawmill, aka Aceradero, near Laguna Hanson was still turning out lumber back then and I remember it was one of the most picturesque places I’ve ever seen. It’s just about all gone now, but then, as now, it wa a place to might be able to get gas, so we were determined to find it. The only problem being good ol’ AAA placed it about thirty miles from where it really was. Making it hard to find Sawmill was only part of the problem, because it then put everything else in the wrong place, at least in our minds. Navigating Baja has always been trouble, and AAA did nothing to help. Remember those days, and those places, makes me think more specifically about the trails. They were consistently gnarly, washed out, and if you were lucky a truck or two used these trails. That meant the tires rounded off the nastiest segments just a little. Add to all of that that bike suspension back then wasn’t more than four or five inches. No wonder I am two inches shorter than I used to be.

PART 4- Who needs suspension when you’re young? The old Puertocitos road from San Felipe was about forty miles of continuous whoops and rocks – but it was straight, so we’d fly. Now my friends and I are lazy, so for years now we have used the paved road that parallels the old roads by about one to five miles. One time we had decided to ride on the old road and since my friends had never used it, they really didn’t know what they were getting into. We had gone about three quarters of the way and inevitably someone started bitching, so I led the group left and we picked up the paved road not far away. THEN they were bitching because we had been riding over that nasty old road when the good one was so close. It’s been a good reminder to me of how well youth could offset the lack of suspension. I don’t remember that road being anything but fun and a good challenge, but on this modern day ride we were all eager to get off of it. Keep it tuned for part 5 of these Baja Trips stories.