Matthew ( Cheech’s brother) Just made this vid of the stuff he is taking for his trip to Baja.

It got me reminiscing of the first time I rode Baja. I believe it was 2011, maybe 2012.

The bike was a custom made Bilenky long tail modeled loosely off of the one my now friend Goat had for his epic trip from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. I chose a longtail bike due to the amount of shit I was planing on having. Being that it was more of a surf trip than a bike trip, (well at least in my delusional mind.) I needed to be able to carry days worth of water and food. Being that resupply in places could be days away, the food is not the problem, the water on the other hand was a huge problem. I was carrying up to 40 liters at any given time and I still ran out a number of times. That 40L is 40kgs in weight right there, it’s crazy to think back on it.

If I could not ride my bike up the hills, then the chances where I could not push it up the hills with out unloading it and doing multiple trips up and down the same hill, the bike was that heavy with the load, it was kinda insane. On multiple occasions I would just sit on the side of hills thinking this is it, there is no fucking way I am getting outta this stupid situation I have put myself in

You see, the main problem was my obsession with seeing as much of the coastline as possible. At times I was just dragging my bike up headlands or trying to swim around them with all my shit if there was no road hugging the coastline. I wanted to see every potential surf set up I could.

The random shit I did to the bike while on the road, to make it work for this very specific journey was ridiculous! For example the tyres and rims were not tubeless back then for fat bikes and I was constantly getting flats, I think 11 in one day was the record. So I ended up lining my tyres with leather belts that I bought at a road side market to stop getting puncture from all the thorns. I think my back wheel weighed in at over 7kgs! The Rohloff was part of that weight, but if I remember right the tubes I was using were over 1.5kg each The whole set up was about as far from weight weenie as one could get I reckon, I mean I carried a full size floor pump! who does that?

This trip is so crazy to think back on, there is no way on earth I would try and do a trip similar to this now, but the memories of this one will last me my lifetime.