Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

tions. Baja Designs was the first to sign up, providing uS with their "house" Honda XR600. Yamaha's hot YZ400F was represented in two incarnations: a WR model from. White Brothers and an F model that came from Fineline Motorsports. Desert ace Larry Roeseler's company, Straker Performance Inc., set us up with one of its Kawasaki KLX300s. We also had a couple of st.ockers along just for comparison's sake, or in case we might need them in order to perform some deranged version of the Victor Mclaughlin motorcycle troop to get the hell out of the dez if all of our souped-up steeds took a poop. As it turned out, we would lose only one to permanent and catastrophic mechanical gremlins, but in the process we would learn a very valuable Ie son about several of them, to be imparted herein later. The plaLUled route for our. 48-hour bomb run led us from Barstow, California, through the East Mojave Scenic Area to Laughlin, Nevada, and the Avi Hotel and Casino. It would finish up with a return blast down the Mojave Road, a trail through the Southern California desert that dates back to the mid1800s, when Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple more or less mapped out the route that he followed while conducting surveys for the railroad. In fact, the Mojave Road has since gone on to act almost as a marker of time, playing a significant role as an undisturbed passageway through the desert, hosting everything from foot soldiers to horses, mules and camels, and through the dawn of the motor era to its role today as an eclectic, well-chronicled route tha t is traveled by history buffs, nature lovers and recreational-vehicle users the latter two proving that, sometimes, the lion can lie down with the lamb. Along the way, the road also made some history of its own. Did you know that the. last real gunfight ever to occur in the Mojave Desert over something more noble than a crystal-meth lab took place on the Mojave Road? We'll get to that later, too. The Mojave Road is also a personal (left) Wide open, heading toward Kelbaker Road. (Above) Goff's General Store, lanfair, California. favorite of well-known motorcycle photgrapher Kinney Jones, who we promptly invited to join us, lead us, and then assigned to handle much of the arrangements to ensure that once we got in, we could get out. We extend our utmost thanks to K.J., without whom this trip might have been possible but nowhere near as much fun. The least exciting part of the trip was the beginning, as we trucked bikes and equipment to Barstow from our Orange County offices after putting an issue of Cycle News to bed on a Monday night. The most interesting part of the trip was probably experienced in the Jeff Hain/Dan Gunter/Scott Rousseau truck, where our Baja Designs XR600 would inadvertently light up its intense PIAA headlight, seemingly attempting to melt everyone in the cab of the truck. Other than that, the whole crew reached the Barstow Holiday Inn without incident and quickly turned in, as we wanted to get in as much shut-eye as possible before tackling the first all-day _ _ _ _......;Th;;;".;;;,,;;;;..;;e~b~I.~S=;..,;;tI=..;;;c;;..;k;;..;;;:.. • portion of our trip, which was to begin at7 a.m. DAY ONE Well, that's when it was supposed to begin. Everyone made it to the parking lot on time, but that's when the delays started, as a couple of the bikes got a little cranky in the morning chill. Most notable was the Husky, which, no matter what we tried, would do little more than pop and fizzle. We spent over two hours fiddling with the choke and the air screw, pushing the bike, flipping it upside down to drain out the cylinder after we'd flooded it, but our efforts were in vain until we con idered abandoning it. Then it fired right up, of course! We would repeat the starting shenanigans to a lesser extent on day two and yet, ironically, once the Husky was warm, it "never failed to start on the first or second kick. It was almost 9:30 a.m. and Cap'n Jones was more than almost agitated when we finally hit 1-40 East toward Dag'gett Road. He was wound up tigh.! and seething about how we were so far behind, so in order to calm him down, CN editors Mark Hoyer and Matt Freeman promptly took a wrong turn and took several more minutes to rejoin the group. all. yeah, that worked. Funny thing is, that first five miles of pavement turned out to be the most difficult, as we soon made the Daggett exit and checked in with Marv Neerman, who signed on to chase us through the Mojave in Jones' pickup for the next two days. Some job. Our guess was that Jones must have some incriminating pictures of the guy. After all, he would. Anyway, that was the last that we saw of our support vehicle for tha t next 80 miles. Daggett Road turns into a two-track Jeep road which then leads to a mining road that runs toward the Camp Rock Mine. If you've never been on a mine road before, some words of caution are in order: Mine roads are wide, fast, wellgraded thoroughfares that are traveled by wide, fast, 85-ton haul trucks that would just as soon strain you through their grills like a bug or steamroll you .under their tires as stop or yield. You don't own the road. They do. Enough said. Fortunately, we only encountered one of the leviathans before cutting down a sand wash that took us through Box _ Simply stated, Baja Designs is ~e original. Alan Roach and his San Diego-based crew' have been leading the way in clean dual-sport conversions since 1992. In fact, it came as no surprise that three of the five modified off-road machines used on our Mojave trek were delivered with Baja Designs dual-sport kits. Baja's own '92 XR600 shopster was no different, but it featured quite a few more tricks. The Baja crew tore their lowmileage stocker to the frame, reinforcing it, nickel-plating it and adding an Ohlins rear shock in the rear, along with Baja's own suspension revalving up front. Further shoring of the front end came by way of the Scott's steering stabilizer, the Applied Racing top triple clamp and Answer Pro Taper bar mounts and a Pro Taper CR Hi handlebar. Lighting chores were handled by a Baja Designs High Intensity Discharge lighting system with a quick-mount PIAA 8-inch reflector headlamp that was designed to proviae 250 watts of lighting power while consuming a mere 50 watts of juice from a rewound (for 250 watts) stock stator. Turning their attention to tM engine, the Baja Designs team added a big fin head that was ported and matclled. HRC parts included a camshaft and a modified piston, and the carburetor was rejetted and fitted witl1 a billet one-piece choke plate in place of the stock unit for increased reliability. A Yoshimura tapered stainless header, Yoshimura TEe serie muffler with spark arrestor and a midflow baffle evacuated the spent gases. The machine was completed via a et of aftermarket controls, including an easy-pull clutch arm and throttle plate, a full complement of Baja Designs and Acerbis skid plates and guards, Excel rims laced with Buchanan heavy-duty spokes and nipples, and a Talon hub in the rear. Fuel was supplied by an IMS 4.7-gallon tank sporting One Industries graphics. The XR outweighed the more lithe machinery in our band, forcing the rider to be aggressive in the tighter and/ or sandier parts of our trip, and we were also rather surprised that it didn't feel all that fast despite the many engine mods on the dope sheet. But no matter, the Baja Designs XR was the absolute Cadillac of the group. The long fire-road "bomb runs" across the numerous valley floors that we encountered were best negotiated aboard the XR, which offered a primo seating position to go along with uspension tllat was decidedly cushy - but controlled in almost every situation - and a perfectly geared motor that simply droned out its power dollops without a hint of agitation. The bike remained rock-stable no matter what we threw at it. Maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise, but our burliest te ter gave the Baja XR top marks. As for reliability, the headlight problem we encountered was tl1e result of a short in the tailbag-mounted prototype electronics - a malady tllat the Baja Designs guys have promised us they've cured. Other than that, we'd have to say that when the terrain opens up - like all the way to Mexico - this is the type of machine you'll want to be aboard. Call Baja Designs and have them work some new magic into your XR. Baja Designs· 7558 Trade St . • San Diego. CA 92121 • 619/578-9111 a> a> a> a> >0- m == 25

• Cover