After one of the worst nights of sleep of my life I drove today from San Luis Gonzaga all the way down to Santa Rosalia. I was super happy after being able to change the chain tensioners out last night but was bummed to find that towards the end of the ride today I needed to tighten the chain tension yet again. While I was doing so I saw just how worn down the sprocket and chain were. This spells impending disaster! This made me suuuuuper nervous and I drove slow the rest of the day dreading feeling the chain tug again.
I am now 550 km from La Paz, where I hope to keep the motorcycle for a couple weeks while I go back to work. I am dreading the next 550 km. It will take 2 days and I know I will be fighting the chain the entire way. I know it could snap at any moment. I tried to find someone here that could change out the sprocket but found no one. I know the risk I am taking by going and I reeeeeeally hope I make it there. If I do I can maybe find a sprocket in the US or order one and have someone put it on when I head back to Mexico. I should have ordered one before but I thought they would be plentiful here. There isn’t close to the convenience here as Vietnam had when driving around. I thought with all of the bikers in Baja that there would be lots of mechanics and parts around.
The mechanic I did talk to said the next part of the trip is hilly as well. I think my plan will be to go to sleep very early and get up very early so that I at least have the road to myself. I was spoiled today with long easy straight roads.
It really was a gorgeous ride today and I ended up finding a rather nice hotel for 1200 MXN that has a wonderful view of the ocean. I am utterly exhausted after the terrible sleep last night and the long day of riding today.
But I’m grateful having met a few nice travelers today. There was a guy named Doug who drove all the way down from Alaska with his wife and a couple from Oregon that were enjoying some tacos next to me.
