Any of you guys done the San Pedro hill climb ?

Looks super cool but I didn't see a single corner worker, and only two or three observers. If you crashed.. how would they know?

 

Welcome to Mexico, amigo.

 

Yep. When somebody runs out of the bushes to steal your boots, just ask them to call nueve-uno-uno.

 

That's a huge issue. There were 2 vehicles at about 6:40 and one or 2 spectators up top. At PPIHC they have course monitors and corner workers. They monitor each vehicle's progress up the mountain and keep a running report. I was 3/4's of the way up when Bobby Godin crashed at the top. I got a red flag at Boulder park and had to return to the start. It worked well, for me, as that amounted to a practice run on race day, and I was able to start again. Not so good for Bobby. RIP.

The layout is wicked fast. Dunne did it on a 450 single and he was flatout a lot - particularly in the lower sections. And, he only dropped a gear several times, 2 gears up toward the top. On superbikes, it would be incredibly fast. Not surprisingly, there is considerable sand on the road.

I'm curious as to how they handle practice. Also, what about race starts? What is the vehicle interval and how do they monitor, if at all?

Cheers,

Dave

 

Intervals are anybody's guess. Last year the motorcycle winner, who was considerably slower than Carlin, caught and passed the car in front of him. No bueno.

I think the move is a hyper or even a 690 SMC. It was clear the 450 was giving up time on top end but the sand and sketchy pavement and slow corners might make a full on race bike scary as fuck.

 

Ya no way you’d catch me on a superbike - maybe a sumo
Kidding aside , I’d do it on the Ohvale gear it down a bit but at least it hurts less from
Falling off when you’re already close to the ground

I don’t think it would
Be much slower than a 250 sumo ‍♂️- Id throw some supermoto wheels on the ktm and feel it out when I got there but not super keen on dying in Mexico. Did you see that 1 jump
That kind of comes out of nowhere in Carlin’s video ? That’ll keep you honest ! If anyone is serious about doing it I’m game to talk about a gameplan getting down there and sharing stuff.

 

the Superbike rules looked like a only lightweight bikes, no 600 or liter bikes-Thankfully.

The other thing about Baja and roads is the fucking cows! Literally coming around a corner and some 2 ton cow laying down in the middle of the road, all the time!!

 

Classes are as follow:
SUPERMOTO / No Full fairing, upright riding position.
SM1 Up to 250 c.c. Numbers 10-19
SM2 251 c.c. to 450 c.c. Numbers 20-29
SM3 above 451 c.c. Numbers 30-39
SUPER BIKE / Full fairing, leaned forward riding position.
SB1 Up to 250 c.c. Numbers 40-49
SB2 251 to 600 c.c. Numbers 50-59
SB3 Unlimited displacement. Numbers 60-69

Sorry, can't figure out how to attach current rulebook. It was just out out on their Facetube page a few days ago. I believe the first year or two they said you had to be under 600cc, but not anymore.

I'm hoping to do it on a 2016 FZ09 and my buddy is coming from Ireland on his S1000, not sure if he's doing his RR or the R setup he raced at Pikes

 

Raced it last year on my 939 hyper, which I also raced at Pikes. Fun course but lots to learn in 18 miles, 150 turns. I felt I had the right bike but top speed indicated was 125mph (which I’ve recently learned is around 110mph actual). I should’ve spent a week down there learning the course but it’s a 30+ hour drive from Iowa... I showed up on Thursday and rode the course a couple times. Only got 3 practice runs on Friday and the 2 race runs on Saturday. I wanted another run and was certain I’d been in the 15s... ended up with a 16:35...that time really put Carlin’s time into perspective for me. He was special and he’s the reason I made the trip in the first place. San Pedro is a great event, put on by great people. It’s very low key so if you’re planning on going just go to have fun and don’t ride over your head. The road is amazing and I could ride it all day.

 

yup, considerably slower but Carlin did get a lot more looks at it and he IS Carlin Dunne so I’ll take it. Also, I asked 1 question in the riders meeting, “can you guarantee me there won’t be any oncoming traffic?”... they couldn’t guarantee me that being it’s an open highway with several locals that know the ins and outs of getting on the road so it changed my race line. I never put myself in harms way so it cut my lines in half although I did move closer to the real race line during my last run. The car I caught was the pace car/sweep car which left 10min ahead of me, thankfully I caught him on a short straight away but when I saw him it did raise an eye brow. Haha

If anyone has any questions about the event or what’s needed to get there, don’t hesitate to ask.

 

The entire park is really cool, and over the last 25 years has provided a counterpoint example for mixed-conifer fire ecology research and the impact of fire suppression on forest structure and fire regimes. Basically (somewhat oversimplistically), we've (the US) been doing it wrong.

 

and with that, i'm out. hard no.

 

Everybody needs to work this one out for themselves. All I can say is, many years ago, I crashed pretty hard on the east banking at Daytona and was taken to the on track emergency room, about 1/4 mile from where I hit the pavement, maybe two minutes after the ambulance got there, before being taken to the hospital. Years later at Sears, sort of the same deal, the ambulance was right there, but without the aid center on track property. Of course, there is nothing like this down in Baja. The factory guys that race the 500 or 1000 in Baja have, or have access to, helicopters to take them to hospitals in the States if they get off hard, so it is sort of, provide your own safety net if you can. How does it work for this event? I don't know anything about the safety arrangements at this event, but what I do know about riding down to Mike's, horizon to horizon there is nothing out there for you most of the way, so it is up to you.

 

they are working to get more eyes on course and keep the course clear for this year. The locals/farmers are paid for their inconvenience for the 2 days we are there and know there’s a race going on.

 

Awesome I will be following with interest, for sure. But I'm non-negotiably out unless I can treat the course truly like a racetrack.