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7 Days in Mexico

copb8

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Location
Highland Village (Dallas) TX
First Name
Bart
Last Name
Nale
I'm not much of a writer, probably because I lack the skills and patience, but I thought I'd post this up.

On Saturday May 6th two friends, Mark and Roger, and myself headed down to Mission, TX to kick off a 7 day ride through Mexico. Our agenda was Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato (2 nights), San Miguel de Allende and Tula. Our total loop within Mexico was about 1200-1300 miles. It was ambitious and didn't leave us too much time in each location but it allowed us to see where we may want to come back to and spend more time.

We trailered down 2 KTM 690 Enduros and a KTM 500 EXC. These were great bikes for the trip. The 690's were great for the longer legs but the 500 with a Rekluse owned the more technical parts of the ride. The bikes ran flawlessly and the weather couldn't have been dialed in any better even if I had my hand on the knobs.

My bucketlist was doing a west approach to Real de Catorce, Mark's was San Miguel del Allende and Roger's was Guanajuato. In most of our stops, with the exception of Tula, Roger booked beautiful airBnB's. In Tula we stayed at the official TWT hotel.

Day 1 339 mile ride to Real. Mostly heads down commuting except the last 20 minutes. But oh what a 20 minutes it was. Heights give me the heebie-jeebies and I got them in spades here. For some it may be no big thing but for me it was exhilarating and a little terrifying. Video just doesn't capture how steep it is, how loose and bumpy the road is, or how far down it is if things go wrong.

West Approach to Real de Catorce

Day 2 138 miles to San Luis Potosi. Thanks to Roger's sense of adventure we took an uncharted way out of Real. But before we left we quickly did the tunnel back and forth just to 'do it' and then headed up the mountain towards the ruins. Steep and rocky to start, followed by some nice trails and the occasional big rock stuff. San Luis is a big city and we really just used it as a stop-over for our ride to Guanajuato. Ate at a nice restaurant and walked the town center.

Leaving Real de Catorce

Day 3 118 miles to Guanajuato. We did some class 1 dirt roads but overall the ride was just a cruise. G'town was picture perfect with beautifully painted buildings and cathedrals everywhere. Had the pleasure (misfortune) of being caught up in a parade. It was LONG AND LOUD! Toured the city for a couple of days.

Day 5 48 miles to San Miguel de Allendre. The "easy" day. Or that's what we thought. We headed out of G'town the back way and decided to climb up to a monument we saw at the top of a steep hill. It wasn't on our planned route but looked awfully tempting. We made it up the loose rock steep trail to the monument and enjoyed the sites. Moving along we picked our way along the ridges to find an interesting way down. Up one steep rocky trail I dropped my bike. It was fully loaded and had it's wheels up the hill. It was HEAVY. Thankfully the guys noticed I wasn't with them anymore and helped get it upright. Off we went.

Hunting and pecking we found a road that looked like it was going where we wanted to go. It wasn't scary looking but did have baby-heads and some big ruts and rocks. Roger was in front and suddenly went down when his front tire washed out on a slick off-camber rock. Didn't look to bad but he laid there for some time. It turns out he injured both his wrists and banged his elbow. We hung there for an hour or so to let the pain-killers kick in and then found an alternate way off the hill to a more groomed road. Roger was riding in a lot of pain but we managed to get to San Miguel. Long story short, Roger ended up in one real cast and another temporary cast. His ride was over. We found a place to store his bike and he flew home from Mexico City.

All of the above took a lot of time and we basically didn't see anything of San Miguel. That was a bummer. But we did see just enough to know that we'll be returning to do it right.

Day 6 238 miles to Tula. Our brand new rear tires (Pirelli) had been chunked really badly and even lost a couple of knobs so we decide the rest of the trip was pavement. The wind and wind gusts were NUTS. Killed our gas mileage and blasted sand in our eyes. Was very happy to hit Tula and enjoy a cold beverage.

Day 7 294 miles to Mission. Just boring and very hot. Was happy to see the border until we realized we had to spend 1 hour and 45 minutes waiting in line on the US side. Zero shade and sucking car fumes sucked. Once over we decided to just beeline to Dallas and got home at 3am.

That's it. As I get more video or photos I'll post them up.
 
Nice report. I wonder how you would have done on the trip if you would have taken the Adventure R.
 
Nice report. I wonder how you would have done on the trip if you would have taken the Adventure R.

Terribly. Even the 690 loaded down with luggage was a lot of weight in the really rocky tight stuff. I'd have loved the commute on it but hated when we hit the technical stuff.
 
RG, did you watch the Leaving Catorce movie?
Remember we rode up that trail and turned around at the gate and sign that said no motor vehicles that used to be at the spot at 9:16 on the video.
Now I wish we had continued.
 
RG, did you watch the Leaving Catorce movie?
Remember we rode up that trail and turned around at the gate and sign that said no motor vehicles that used to be at the spot at 9:16 on the video.
Now I wish we had continued.

RG has been to Mexico? Didn't know .
 
RG, did you watch the Leaving Catorce movie?
Remember we rode up that trail and turned around at the gate and sign that said no motor vehicles that used to be at the spot at 9:16 on the video.
Now I wish we had continued.

Good thing that sign was gone when we arrived otherwise we may have turned around as well. We actually got stopped from going the first route out we tried. You can see it in the video at 7:28 where a guy is telling Mark we can't go up there. We never really knew if he was saying it wasn't allowed or that it wasn't passable.
 
Nicely written Bart! That ride was epic/ obviously the Readers Digest version~I'll post some pics soon/ I highly recommend that right to wayward adventurers! I'll go back for sure!
 
RG, did you watch the Leaving Catorce movie?
Remember we rode up that trail and turned around at the gate and sign that said no motor vehicles that used to be at the spot at 9:16 on the video.
Now I wish we had continued.

That explains why I was watching the video and thinking we'd been there but dang it didn't really look familiar till close to town. Looks like a jolly good bit of path to me. Cool way to get into RDC.
 
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Great report and videos. Been thinking on a side trip to RdC during MexTrek in a couple weeks...this report makes it more tempting.
 
I floated that idea the last mextrek I went to but got no interest. It was on my bucket list after that and didn't disappoint. I'm glad I did the West approach but now I've done it I'll take the traditional route in the future.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
We wet to RDC on the last Mextrek, as the after party, about 20 of us. It was Day of the Dead and it was epic!!!

Nice report. I have no idea how all you guys spend that many miles in the saddle. I just find too many cool things to do!!!
 
Thanks for the report, Bart. Glad you guys had a good time and I am sorry Roger got injured. Hope he is recovering well. Offroad Mexico still scares me because of the complications if something goes wrong... But I see a tour of paved México in my future! Until then the wife and I are flying to Chiapas on Thu to visit the region. Nice of you to share your adventure!
 
But I see a tour of paved México in my future!

Mexico on pavement is sublime. And then horrible. And sublime again. Then horrible. I rode 1600 miles on a cbr1000rr sportbike and it was all of those things. I'd go again on streetbikes, but on something with 6 plus inches of suspension travel!
 
Mexico on pavement is sublime. And then horrible. And sublime again. Then horrible. I rode 1600 miles on a cbr1000rr sportbike and it was all of those things. I'd go again on streetbikes, but on something with 6 plus inches of suspension travel!
That's when a big adventure bike shines. It turns the horrible sections into fun. And the "horrible" sections never go away they just change location. The roads are in perpetual repair.

_
 
Mexico on pavement is sublime. And then horrible. And sublime again. Then horrible. I rode 1600 miles on a cbr1000rr sportbike and it was all of those things. I'd go again on streetbikes, but on something with 6 plus inches of suspension travel!

Mexican roads have improved significantly since I started driving in Mexico 20 years ago. But topes and broken pavement probably remain as features of many minor roads, the ones you'd want to take when riding. So your assessment is probably accurate! When I am ready I will take my wr250r - reliable, long suspension travel, light and uses up little gas.
 
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