Customizing a XL600R into a Cafe Racer/Street tracker to ride South

[beechum1]

Hey Ger, Hope you get it shored up enough to get out the gate. I'll be driving by your place tonight on the 405. Hope all goes well!!! See you on the other side brother!

[MagneticSouth]

Originally Posted by beechum1

Hey Ger, Hope you get it shored up enough to get out the gate. I'll be driving by your place tonight on the 405. Hope all goes well!!! See you on the other side brother!

You know Daniel has been on the fence with coming down to ride down past the border into Baja for a week.
But finally he started changing the engine over to match his VIN just this afternoon... He's got one engine out, and when he gets home later this evening we plan to finish the job...

The problem was it is my kickstart foot, and anyone that has owned a single cylinder 600 knows how much fun it is to kick start them.. Im still in some pain today but we should be able leave tomorrow because...

i can get him to kick it when needed ..

[GSequoia]

Originally Posted by MagneticSouth

i can get him to kick it when needed ..

I suggest you take some time and apply liquor liberally.

[EmilianoXR650L]

Originally Posted by GSequoia

I suggest you take some time and apply liquor liberally.

Hi , i sugest one more crecomendation ......

....go to Tijuana .... look for a HUESERO and yuo will be ready !!!!!!

[SloCalSpode]

are you OKAY? Did you leave?
Jeff

[beechum1]

I've talked to him a few times. Not sure where he spent Dia de los Muertos, but he's in Baja.

[EmilianoXR650L]

Originally Posted by SloCalSpode

are you OKAY? Did you leave?
Jeff

[beechum1]

Just got a PM. he's in ensenada hanging out.

[MagneticSouth]

Sorry for the leave of absence Im back to civilisation .. Mexico style...

made it.

Let me back track 2 weeks ago..
My last post was the night before we were to leave the gentle shores of Playa del Rey LA.

Daniel had taken out his engine and i was waiting for him while he headed to the theatre to watch
'the book of mormon' with his dear grandmother... (random thing to do the day before he heads to mexico for the first time)


I guess the fact that his engine was out of the bike in the garage and i was still hobbling around on crutches the day before we were suposed to head south to a foreign land was kinda random.. but hey


He finally arrives home at around midnight... and we get to work

- Swapping engines over

[MagneticSouth]

We get the bike back together in the wee hours of the morning and mumble to eachother that we need to get up early to do a tyre change and be on the road by around noon so we can have plenty of time to take the Pacific Coast Hwy down to San Diego to stay the night at a friends and hit the Mexican border the following day.
As i lay my head down to sleep, i feel just a little closer to the finally leaving...

[MagneticSouth]

I wake early after a restless few hours in a dream like state.. I was so anxious to leave i thought i would get a early start to pack my bike before Daniel could wake up..
It took a few trips up and down the lift because i could only carry a few things with one hand on a crutch to keep off my ankle.. And when i packed up the bike i realised I had more than just a few things.



So i wait for Danny to get up, and wait some more and it gets to midday and hes still not up so i finally wake him up and tell him that i'll wait downstairs while i tinker with the bike...
He calls and says he has a problem.. something about his parents calling him and telling him he cant leave because his insurance was cancelled a few weeks ago i feel a bit numb as he tries to explain and tells me to wait some more while he tries to sort it out... I think his parents where a tad against him going down to mexico.

My mind races for ideas and tries to look for another plan b with me going alone, but the pain in my ankle tells me im not going nowhere....Theres no way i can even start the bike on my own in this state


It was later that evening that he gets the go ahead from his insurance company and the consent from his mother that hes able to go..
It was a indeed a real legitimate f-up from the insurance company who cancelled his policy by accident not a spiteful attempt by his worrying parents to stop him from leaving the country into big bad mexico...

Its too late to get our tyres changed (Sorry Sequioa Geoff) - i was suposed to leave the knobbies for you.
So i load them on my already overloaded bike. And Daniel uses a million ropes to get his load on..



Bikes all packed he kick starts mine first go and i stand there idling away feeling a bit nervous about carrying such a heavy load.
Daniel gets on his and starts kicking it over, with a little trouble (a bit unusual for him) He kicks and kicks and his bike wont keep an idle,
it just bogs and cuts out continuously, 20mins of that we know theres something wrong..


Unpacking

Basically the rest of the night we end up trying a few things, it couldnt hold an idle and the petcock was leaking..
We ended changing the petcock, the fuel tank, the spark plug, condenser the exhaust the air filter and the carbs in sequential order to try diagnose a problem.
After the second carbs still didn't work, he cleaned out the jets and voila.. it started up.. it was around 1am.



We unloaded all our gear in the boot of his truck and the next morning we were finalllllly on the road.


somewhere down the 1

[MagneticSouth]

South down the Pacific Coast Highway 1 from LA to San Diego

[EmilianoXR650L]

buen comienzo !!!!!!

[MagneticSouth]

USA - you've been good to me, oh how i'll miss you.


This Aussie rolled up while we did some roadside maintenance outside of Encinitas, rode it down from Canada.


We got to my friends place in SanDiego later that evening, i had left my cb750 with him for 3 months when i came close to crossing into mexico almost a year ago but ended up flying back to Australia for a last minute job.
It was the 3rd time i have been this close to the border in the last year.

The next day we changed some rubber.



And it took another day to build up the courage and get ready to head South..

Feeling mucho


Ha i couldnt even kick start my bike..
Heres Daniel starting her over




My friend Taylor 'suggested' it might be a good idea to bring some insurance.





Mexico here we come..

[Ford_Prefect]

Thanks for the update!

Oh I really hope you did not bring those guns with you. Most countries will take them away from you, and some might even jail you for attempting to bring them in.


Well nice to hear you are on the way! Looking forward to hearing more about the trip. The P.C. Highway sure looked like a nice ride from your photos.

Regards,