Personal stuff for the Baja ride..

Wow, another Baja prep blog, and this one is on clothing and other personal stuff.

My first bit of advice here is to pack light. Folks who have never been on a big ride tend to bring way too much stuff with them, with the result being an overloaded bike and their always taking too long to get ready in the morning.   Bring what you feel is necessary, but understand that we’re leaving at our scheduled departure time each morning, and if you’re not ready, you’ll have to rejoin the group later that evening at our next destination.  (I know that sounds cold hearted, but it’s the only thing I’ve found that works to get everybody moving on time.)

With the above in mind, here’s what I bring on these trips:

• Tools. I bring enough tools to maintain my bike.  I don’t bring a complete tool kit and I don’t bring enough stuff to rebuild the engine.  I’ll do a blog later in this series on what’s in my tool kit.  Don’t plan on borrowing tools; do plan on bringing only what you need.
• Toilet paper.   Yep, I bring a roll.   You just never know.
• Immodium. I always have it; I’ve never needed it.   It’s an approach that’s worked well for me for the last 25 years.
• GPS and phone.   Thought I’d have a little fun on this one.  I don’t bring a GPS.  I do bring a cell phone, but I don’t use it while I am in Baja.   There’s only one way down and it’s hard to get lost in Baja once we’re past Ensenada.  The only reason I mention this is that I’ve seen guys get absorbed in using their cell phones and their GPS on these rides.   Leave them home, folks.   You won’t need them in Mexico.
• Spares.   Please see my earlier blog on this.  I keep a few spare parts with me.  I’ve never needed anything beyond the chain lube and a little oil, but I like having them.
• Helmet.   Yep, absolutely.   You can ride without a helmet in Mexico, but you can’t do so with us.
• Gloves.   You’ll need these.  I bring an extreme cold weather pair and a regular leather pair.   You don’t want to ride without gloves.
• Boots.   I wear Haix boots.   Boots are important and you should wear a good pair.
• Motorcycle jacket and motorcycle pants.   Absolutely.   I never leave home on two wheels without them.   You’ll want the jacket to have a liner.  It can get cold down there.  If your jacket and pants are not waterproof, you’ll want to bring rain gear, too.
• Sweatshirt. I bring one in case it gets really cold.
• Jeans. I bring one extra pair and I usually never need them.  By the time the ride is over, the jeans I wear can walk home by themselves.
• Underwear. I’ll bring two pair.   I wash one pair each night and alternate them.
• Socks. Same deal; I bring two pair and that’s enough.
• Papers. I carry my Mexican insurance papers and my bike papers in the top case. I keep my passport and my wallet on my person.
• Camera gear.   I’ll bring a Go Pro and my D3300 Nikon DSLR with the 18-55 kit lens (along with a spare battery and a charger).   This gear is good enough for the CSC blog and for magazine work,  and it’s for sure good enough for our ride.   You don’t want to bring a camera store’s worth of inventory with you.   Bring just enough to capture the ride.   I’ve found that you can do world class videos or you can have a motorcycle ride, but you can’t do both.  We have a lot of miles to cover.  I’ll do my best to get you to the best spots for the best photo ops, but we are not going to modify the ride to optimize the videography, and we are not going to delay the ride or redo portions of it to get another take.   One last thought on this:   Safety will always take priority.  Don’t ride dangerously close to others to get a better shot or a better video.
• Toiletries.   I have a small pouch that holds toothpaste, a toothbrush, the pills the docs tell me I need to take now that I’m a geezer, and one or two other small items.
• Laptop computer. I have a small laptop, its power supply, and a mouse.  These things have traveled all over the world with me.  Many of the places we’ll stay at night have wireless service (it’s not lightning fast, but it gets the job done).

On these trips, I carry all of the above in the three stock luggage cases on my RX3 (and I have the stock plastic ones, not the larger Tourfella aluminum bags).  I don’t have any extra bags or other stuff strapped to my bike.  This approach makes it a lot easier if I need to leave the bike (there are no bags bungied in place to fall off or tempt thieves).