waiting impatiently for my new bike

[slideways11]

Finally, after over a year learning to ride trails and the mx track on my xr200 I’m getting my first real mx race bike! Tim and I both ordered 2002 YZ’s. I’m getting a 125 and I’m practically beside myself. They’re coming down on a ship from Miami and should be here next week. It’s hard to type because I’m jumping up and down. Liz

 

[Yamamoto]

Its a love hate thing

 

[firecracker22]

Congrats! I went through that this spring.

 

[smoody]

Hey Sideways11,

Do you really live in Cozumel, Mex? What kind of riding is in Mexico? I have been to Cancun and Guadalajara and border towns, but I am wondering how the riding is in your area and points in Mexico. My husband and I always thought a vacation to Mexico mixed with Streed and Dirtbikes would be great.

 

[slideways11]

riding in Mexico

We really enjoy it. We belong to a club of motocross and enduro riders and ride almost every afternoon. The track is 10 minutes away and there are great trails that we can ride through jungle and on beaches. Unfortunately the island and most of the Peninsula are totally flat. Some of the more adventurous members have been taking enduro trips to the mainland up around the top of the Yucatan peninsula, on unpaved roads, trails and beaches. The only really scary thing is the medical care. Tim and I have been lucky with our riding accidents (my near decapitation and his broken leg) but another guy was treated badly when he broke his tib and fib on a ride with us and needed surgery. He ended up having to go back to the states and spend about $250,000 to repair the botched job and staph infection. That was a year ago and he just started walking on it this month! Our plan, since we have medical insurance in the states, is to fly back immediately for anything serious. Our boss is really cool and flies his own jet and has told us that he'll fly in specialists or come get us if we need him to.

 

[slideways11]

this weekend for example...

We had an adventure yesterday (Sunday). There was a race in Merida so we sent Tim's bike across Saturday afternoon with 4 others. Sunday morning we crossed on the 5am ferry (I stayed awake all night checking the alarm clock) with another rider, Alex and his wife, Rosie. The Pres of the mx club was supposed to meet us but obviously slept in. We almost turned around and went home but decided that since the bikes were already there we'd better figure out a way to get there too. We were supposed to take the bus or rent a car but since the car rental places didn't open for 2 hours and the bus would take an hour and a half longer than driving we took a taxi. Since there are no tourists we got a great deal ($100USD for a 3 hr trip) but the guy thought he was Mario Andretti and drove us at 170kph. We were white knuckled and I couldn't even read the ride was so bumpy and erratic. For some reason he avoided the well maintained toll road so we swerved around immense potholes, sometimes into oncoming traffic, sometimes onto the shoulder. He also had to swerve around the larger roadkills and several big tarantulas. It was truly frightening but we made it. That was a big surprise in itself because we didn't have much info on where the track was except what I'd glimpsed on a poster the day before.
The races were great if a little disorganized. Tim crashed in his first race but came in 3rd and wasn't able to finish his 2nd because of a pain in his ribs/back. Alex endo'd in a spectacular fashion, was knocked out, loaded onto a backboard and into a truck headed to the hospital but before they could take him, he came to and swore up and down he was OK before they let him get up and wave to the crowd. I was standing not 4 feet from the crash with my camera in my hands and didn't get a single shot of his rag doll ejection from the bike. I was trying to play it cool and keep Rosie from freaking. I felt bad because I had called and told her that I wasn’t going to race and convinced her that it would be fun to come along and be a pit ho with me. It was really mental and I did finally get a shot of him posing beside his badly twisted bike. I was bummed that I had decided not to bring my bike because the competition in my category wasn’t tough and Beatriz was racing, the only other chica, (besides a 6 yr old peewee girl) and I’ve never had the chance to race her. I’m just so psyched about my new YZ125 arriving this week that I couldn’t bring myself to haul the XR200 to another race, and yeah, I’m still kicking myself.
After the races we loaded the bikes back in the pickup that was taking them back to Coz and started wondering how we were going to get back. We didn't have any luck with a bus so we asked about renting a car or a taxi. The taxi's wanted $275 USD and a one way car rental was only $50 for the day, plus a $145 drop off fee. Tim ended up driving the rental. It was a long drive, in the dark with lots of critters darting out in front of us and huge bats hitting our windshield. It was horror movie stuff. We made it to Playa in time to grab a bite to eat (our first of the day besides the protein bars I brought) and get the 11pm ferry. The funniest thing was Rosie and I dragging all the gearbags while our strong menfolk limped along quasimodo style. The reason I'm still up at 5am is that shortly after we crawled into bed Tim's back started to spasm and I've been up warming up the heating pad and watching him breathe all night. I'm heading back down to check on him in a few minutes. I think he may have broken a rib or two. I'm going to sleep when he gets up and assures me that he's ok. I know I'm a spazz but you should have seen me a few weeks ago when I was convinced I'd given us botulism. I was hysterical and not in the funny way, in the somebody should have slapped me way. That's another story.

 

[slideways11]

They’re here!

We cleared the bikes (2002 YZ125 & YZ250) through customs on Monday and just barely made the last car ferry back to the island. We were planning to pull them out of the crate and assemble them enough to roll them on to the ferry but we got them out of the warehouse at 1:50 and the ferry left at 2pm. So we hired a truck to drive the crate the 100 yards or so from the warehouse, up the ramp to the ferry and slide it onto the deck. It was a 3.5 hour crossing so we had plenty of time to get the handlebars and front wheels on. It’s been raining almost constantly since then. We finally had a break in the showers so we could go outside and tear my bike down and grease it and fully assemble it. I got to ride for about 20 minutes in the dirt at the marina before the sun set and the giant killer mosquitoes swarmed. I love it. I just rode it in figure 8’s and played with the brakes, there’s not a whole lot of room to mess around but I got a feel for it. If it’s not pouring tomorrow we’ll finish greasing and assembling Tim’s and take them to the track. Hopefully we'll have enough good weather that I can get used to it before the race in Cancun on the 14th.

 

[Yamamoto]

Yeeehaw !!!

You like it now you will love it later !!!

By the way. I really liked your report above, but the only word that came to mine was "yeeHaw" ....lol