Baja or blizzard? Looking for fellow tourists for Feb or March tour
I'm an experienced tourist looking for companions who want to escape the winter cold and ride from Cabo northward. I don't speak Spanish and would appreciate having someone on the tour who does. I'm going fully loaded but will try to pack light to avoid the dreaded overloaded torture fest.
I'm planning to fly down to southern Baja (San Jose Cabo or La Paz) and ride north. I am somewhat flexible on the dating, but would like to go before it warms up too much in the desert.
Daily distance will somewhat be determined by the distance between towns; I'm expecting to do about 50 miles a day and have time left to smell the roses. The idea is not to be racing with panniers.
Ultimately someone will be stronger; If it's apparent that we are at different speeds, the person riding ahead can put out a red plastic bag (as a flag) to indicate that they have pulled off to stop at a store, etc. I'd like to take days off here and there, depending on the towns/ beaches and how everyone is feeling, and also to sight see.
The roads in Baja are notoriously rough, and I'd like to see at least a 36-spoke rear wheel(or more), and at least 700x 28 or 26x 1.25 tires. I would like to keep away from touring with someone whose bike is too light for the task. I was a bicycle store owner/ mechanic for over 12 years, but do not want to spend a lot of time replacing spokes.
I'm looking for companions with some previous touring experience. Sections of the route may not have many amenities.
The reason for the northbound direction is that I like the idea of riding out of the airport and riding back to the US without the time pressure of having to catch a flight. It will be warm from the get go, and as we head north, the chilly mornings will be erased. (I once rode from San Francisco to Atlanta and wound up in a bit of a uncomfortable time crunch.)
If you are really interested, give me a phone call, since it's hard to cover each other's questions by email. Leave a message if I can't get to the phone right away. Thanks, Brian 520-546-1414