Canada to Mexico Dual Sport Mortorcycle Adventure

Intro - How it all Began

When Arnie Charbonneau, my long time friend and fellow dirt bike riding & racing buddy and I get together, we often do a couple of things. Ride bikes and bench race over cold cervezas. (Ok we like to dive together and we both appreciate a good meal over a bottle of wine, but that is secondary to bikes and beer)

Arnie has a vacation condo here in Puerto Aventuras Mexico. More importantly he has a garage that houses the twin to my Kawasaki KLR 650 dual sport motorcycle. That means when Arnie is here in Puerto, we can participate in those two pastimes we enjoy sharing together most.

I am not sure if it was during a ride or a bench racing session or combination, but one day we decided it would be a good idea to have a couple more motorcycles down here in Puerto Aventuras Mexico for our dirt bike friends to join us on motorcycle rides when visiting. That of course brought up the discussion of what kind of motorcycle would be best, which then led to where could we find them, and how would we get them here.

The bikes definitely needed to be dual sport motorcycles since there is little to no true off road motorcycle opportunity here. We needed motorcycles that we could ride down the sand track to Punta Allen for the day, or take off on a weekend ride through the back country of the Yucatan Peninsula or use for a week long trip winding around the hills of Belize, Guatemala and points further south.

While we are both very impressed with the all round versatility of the KLR motorcycle as a dual sport machine. They are certainly happiest on the street or relatively easy going dirt and gravel roads. The suspension and heavy handling is just not meant for long stretches of tough going. So....we decided that the equally reliable and equally time tested, KTM LC4 - 640cc Adventure with its' much more dirt oriented design and high quality components, would be perfect.

Arnie already had a 2001 KTM LC4 -640 Adventure in Calgary so I decided to start my search there. With some good leads from KTM dual sport enthusiasts. I found a very clean. low mileage, 2003 KTM LC4 - 640 Enduro model in Squamish British Columbia Canada. While essentially the same bike as the Adventure, the Enduro was set up more for riding the back roads out to your favorite dirt bike area, tearing around some trails and then returning home the same day. While the Adventure on the other hand is perfect for a true long distance adventure trip. I figured with some modifications the Enduro model would be a perfect mix and best suited for me. I would give up the fairing, windscreen & super large tank, which would be nice on the pavement and smooth gravel/dirt roads, but with less weight and being able to actually see my front wheel, I would have an advantage in the tougher going.

So, with the small Enduro tank changed to the mid size 18 liter (4.5 gallon) providing a 400 Km. (250 mile) range, a Garmin 276C GPS installed for navigation (see CycoActive), frames built by racing friend Siggy for soft sided saddle bags, Pirelli M21 DOT legal knobby tires installed, the narrow & stiff off road seat changed to the plushest model, an Irridium Satellite phone tucked in the tank bag in case of an emergency, and my I-pod mounted & loaded with over 7500 songs, the bike was ready for some serious dual sport adventure touring.

Now we have two dirt oriented dual sport motorcycles at Arnie's house in Calgary Canada that we want to get to my house in Puerto Aventuras Mexico. Of course the only logical thing for a couple of off road enthusiast/racers to do is to ride the motorcycles down. Wanting to make the trip a little more interesting and not waste our knobby tires on asphalt. We decided to design and follow a route that would touch as little pavement as reasonably possible. AND since there are some great dirt bike riding areas between Calgary and Puerto Aventuras that we may never get close to again with off road motorcycles, we figured that we might just as well make a couple of detours along the way.... Hence the idea was hatched and the adventure began..

I took on the task of trying to figure out the route. Many hours scouring detailed maps and searching the internet, led me to eventually learn about 'The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route' The Adventure Cycling Association members had charted a route along the Continental Divide from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. The route is laid out on forestry roads, jeep trails, a collection of secondary roads and some single track. The 3950 Km (2470 miles) crosses the Continental Divide 27 times as it passes through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. The lowest elevation is 786 meters above sea level (2,577 feet) and the highest elevation is 3630 meters (11,910 feet) Thinking that if they can pedal a bicycle over that terrain, we certainly stood a good chance of being able to ride a couple of fully prepped 640 cc dual sport motorcycles, so I ordered their book and maps.

Continuing to research the route on the internet in order to learn more about the possibility of us riding it on our motorcycles, I came upon 3 different groups of dual sport motorcycle riders who had already done it. Their internet postings and some email exchanges, provided some valuable logistical insight. (a special thanks to Mark Sampson and Dave Steven) Two of the group organizers were even generous enough to provide me with their GPS way point coordinates. The planning of the first part of our route was coming together. The elevations also dictated that we needed to do this during the summer and/or early fall when the snow should be out of the mountains. (more on that later......) Since it was currently the summer of 2005 and we needed some time to get ready, it was decided that we would set off in July 2006. That gave me lots of time to research the rest of the route.

Over the course of the following year we came to decide to do the trip in 6 legs of approximately 10-14 days duration each. (we have since added more legs as we discover more things to see and places to ride) That meant we would need to store the bikes at various locations along the way, but would prevent us from being away from home and work for too long at a stretch. It would also allow us the opportunity to refine our set up and what we carried with us at the end of each leg.

Since we both like our beer cold, showers hot and the comfort of a good bed, we decided that we would attempt to end up at a motel, hotel or bed and breakfast each evening. Realizing that where we were headed might not make this possible, and a break down in a remote location, might necessitate an overnight stay with a cold motorcycle for company, we choose to pack the most basic of camping equipment. (sleeping bag, bivouac sac, therma rest pad & pillow to sleep on, some dry-high energy rations to eat and a couple of head lamps. Plus of course the means to make a fire.)

Due to the remoteness of our route, being prepared to deal with what the trail can throw at you, was a top priority. In fact the bulk of what we were going to carry were things we hoped we never needed to use. Lots of spare parts for the bikes, a wide selection of tools, first aid supplies, foul weather riding gear, and the camping equipment. Our personal supplies were very limited since we planned to be spending most of our time on the motorcycles in riding gear.

The legs were planned and completed as follows:

Leg 1 - COMPLETED: Calgary Alberta Canada to Breckenridge Colorado USA following the Great Divide trail, then slipped over to Denver Colorado where we visited friends Kim & Mona Baker and parked our KTM dual sport motorcyles.

Leg 2 - COMPLETED: Side trip from Denver Colorado USA to Moab Utah USA then back to Great Divide trail where we continued south. Early snowfalls made it difficult to follow our Continental Divide route. Rode our KTM dual sport motorcycles nearly to Mexico border before we headed southwest to Phoenix Arizona where we parked the motorcylces.

Leg 3 - COMPLETED: Phoenix Arizona USA to Cabo San Lucas Mexico zig-zaging back and forth across the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. Much of the route used was on the famous Baja 1000 race course. Snow and a broken leg highlight this part of our journey

Leg 4 - COMPLETED: Cabo San Lucas Mexico north to La Paz Mexico where we caught a ferry over to the mainland port of Topolobampo Mexico. Ride north and east to Alamos Sonora Meico, where we met up with Richard Schneider of Sierra Madre Motorcycle Adventures who guided us on a 6 day dual sport motorcycle tour of the Copper Canyon Mexico. Following the motorcyle tour we rode back to the coastal city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa state where we parked our KTM dual sport motorcycles.

Leg 5 - COMPLETED: but not written up yet... Travel from Los Mochis to Creel and then ride south into a different part of the Copper Canyon. We continued south and then west to Mazatlan. From Mazatlan we followed the coast to Puerto Vallarta where we headed inland to park the bikes at friends Craig & Sandi Rothwells home in Ajijic on lake Chapala near Guadalajara.

Leg 6 - COMPLETED: but not written up yet... Headed south and west from Ajijic though mountains eventually hitting Pacific coast near Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa. Follow the coast south through Acapulco to Puerto Escondido then over the mountains to Oaxaca. We had intended to park bikes here and then return in January 2008 to head south to Guatemals, however some motorcycle registration concerns caused us to decide to continue east over mountains to Gulf Coast. Followed Gulf Coast up to Campeche and then did back country route to Coba ruins, then on to Tulum and on to my home in Puerto Aventuras.

WE DID IT..... 16,400 Km (10,250 miles), approximately 75 days of riding an average of 8 hours per day over mostly a non paved route. We didn't get shot at, run into any donkeys, or have any bumps with vehicles. We did meet some fabulous people, see some amazing scenery and had one hell of an adventure.... We are already talking about a run through Central America next. Stay tuned....

(click on each of the Legs above to read about them as we progress)