Hi folks.

Us working stiffs can't just point out "beaks" south and head off into the sunset for as long as we want/need so we've devised a plan on how to get a taste of retirement riding before hand.

We have two weeks for a one way ride from Northern BC to somewhere in Mexico so that we can store the bikes, fly home, then fly back and continue south. Buddy has a friend with a Hostel in Gutamala so the plan is to ride there on the second leg of the trip, store the bikes again and then use it as a hub for future year(s) riding.

We did the Baja and some of the northern Mainland of MX last year on a 42 day ride for my 50th so we have a bit of MX experience.

We figure on this trip we can get to Aculpulco in the two weeks.

So my question is, what would be the best route to ge to Aculpulco given that we prefer to ride near the ocean for what it offers.

I'm thinking of a couple of route options looking at the maps.

1) One is to cross over at say Nogales and head straight south to the coast at Guaymas and then just following the coast line on the non toll main roads all the way to Aculpulco, making a slight detour to ride the Devil's Spine again

2) or to cross over at say Douglas, ride east on the 2 then south on the 10 to Chihuahua then south on the 24 (twisites!) to Durango, and riding the Devil's Spine southwest to Mazatlan and then taking the non toll main roads to Aculpulco

What do you guys suggest....?

Two important details you need to think about first:
What month are you travelling south and how long is the storage i n Mexico ?

Summer in the Pacific coast plain can get very hot while the interior uplands will be more temperate. Other way around, winter in the northern upland can be very cold on some days and icy , not fun on bikes.
So your Durango route would be ideal for spring- summer-fall months but needs careful watching in winter.
I f it is a summer ride consider staying in the interior all the way down to ACAPULCO . The route along the Pacific is for most part not right along the water but anywhere to 30km+ inland. Of course there are some really great scenic bits east of Tecoman where the road runs at cliff top above the tide, but most of the time you need to hit spur roads to the water.

Storage in Mexico is not a problem if you will resume the ride and get to the southern border within the 180 valid period of the TVIP. If you leave it longer than that the TVIP expires, you lose your security deposit and face the trouble of having to set things right with Banjercito

Your #2 route is nice but I would suggest to not go to Chihuahua the city.
The 10 will send you south toward Cuauhtemoc and Mex 16 which is the perfect entry route to Copper Canyon country. So take 16 west, turn south onto 23 and to Creel,and you can see the CC, stay on 23 and it sends you on 24 to Hidalgo del Parral and you are back on Mex 45 ( flat, straight- ish)the fast route to Durango DGO and the Mex 40 / Espinazo to the coast CURVES
Mex 24is very nice enough but not really very twisty between Chihuahua and Hgo del Parral- it is high plains grassland and of and on a mountain ridge. The CC route will get you more curves and a number of dips down through canyons . At Creel take the side trip to Divisadero.
Other than this adjustment either of your routes is really okay, you need to explore either area sooner or later

Two weeks from PG to Acapulco is possible either route but really need to race thru the CDN-US bit to maximize Mexico time.

__________________
http://advrider.com/index.php?thread....207964/page-5 then scroll down to post #93

Two weeks is very short time. As Sjoerd says, you'll have to hustle through USA, which can be done, but exhausting. I would BEG, BORROW or STEAL another 2 weeks in order to make the trip less stressful (safer!), more fun.

As noted, time of year is key to getting route advice. In Summer ... which is also RAINY SEASON (May through October) ... it's HOT and humid. But you guys aren't new to Mexico so you probably know all this.

If Summer, I'd stay cool in central highlands, but that is slower travel ... and so much to see ... you'll not make it in two weeks unless you skip all good sites.

Coming through Copper Canyon is a good bet and riding Mex 16 is better than the Espinia del Diablo imo. Enter at Nogales, cut off Mex 15 at Hermosillo on Mex 16 (or 23), ride to Creel, visit Copper Canyon, then continue South as Sjoerd suggests. Cut West to Acapulco.

You can make good time on the Mex 15 toll roads. Not too interesting but fast.

You have 6 month TVIP ... so if you return to Mexico to continue ride, then exit Mexico before 6 months is up, you're OK. Be sure to STOP at Guat. border and CANCEL your TVIP with Mexico Aduana/Banjercito in order to get your deposit bike back.

All the above! Special care on the security deposit! Other, than that and what the other folk have mentioned, Durango is truly one of my favourite Cities of northern Mexico, I planned to stay a night and carry on riding south, I spent a week there. I've been here since September last year and I can tell you that the climate is so changeable having been here from late summer through winter and having returned to places I was at in late summer I can attest to the the climate change. Late summer in Zacatecas for example was a pleasant 20°C degree climate in September, by December we were at -3°C. And as for coastal, even in winter Acapulco was a sweat-shop, frankly one of those places you can't wait to get into AC kind of places.

I can't really add more to what the previous posts have said but in detail I can say that coastal in summer doesn't bare thinking about for me on a bike.

__________________
Neil's in... (the website)
Also you can follow me on Neil's in... on FaceBook, Neilisin on YouTube,
@NeilSnaps on Instagram or NeilisTweetin Twitter.

Since you asked ( elsewhere. )
When you leave Mexico at the south border before the 180 days of the TVIP are used up you have a choice as to whether you cancel the TVIP or not.
ONE - if you are going into Guatemala or Belize for a short time and returning to Mexico before the TVIP expires you may hold onto it .
TWO - if the TVIP will expire while you are out of Mexico and in Central America then you should cancel it and collect your security deposit refund

__________________
http://advrider.com/index.php?thread....207964/page-5 then scroll down to post #93

Ah you caught that did you....

Thanks, we will be leaving MX and spending the rest of the time over the year(s) south of MX given we hope to use the Guatemala Hostel as a hub and storage after we get there during that time.

Also, any idea what we need to do (if anything) for keeping bikes in Guatemala? Do they have the same mandatory 3rd party insurance thingy like MX for example and do they have a TVIP thingy with expirey dates or....?

Ps: can someone point me to info about what our options are if we can't get back within the 180 days and get out of MX so we can go into this ride idea "eyes wide open"?

Wow this is awesome intel folks! I live in a small norther BC town so I just can't to down to the next "biker's" meeting and chin wag with folks that have done the type of travelling you have done, so this is critical intel for planning a successful ride for the likes of us that are limited in time and $$. Of course if neither were an issue I would just head south and see what happens :0)

Hi Sjoerd, its good to hear from you again. I bought both of your accommodation books for our Baja/MX mainland ride last spring, very helpful and here you are again being awesome!

Okay back to your great replies.

Yes I agree 2 weeks is pretty skinny buy alas its that or nothing as the one fellow who knows the Hostel owner in Guatemala runs his own business and is recently married and has a 3 year old!

I'm use to beetling it through the States and am quite happy to do ~500 miles a day and then slow down once we hit MX.

The timing will be the last week of September so it sounds like the more we can stay inland the better before hitting the sticky hot coast route, which north of Mazatlan does not really seem to be much of a coastal route (ie: you have to ride off the main road to see the water and enjoy the benefits of better scenery and cooling winds etc).

In terms of the suggested routes above, it turns out we rode a good chunk of those roads when we came north back home to BC last May, yes I agree that 16 east of Hermosillo is fantastic, but I also rocked the Devil's Spine despite each one of us having a near death experience on it!!! We also rode the new by pass toll hwy and I'd highly recommend it as well just to see all the engineering marvels on display, I was godsmacked and I live in BC Canada where we have some pretty challenging topography but we have nothing compared to what I saw over and over again on that road!

Here's the route we took back last year:

Once we hit Durango after doing the Devil's Spine 2x :0) we headed north on the 23 and then northeast on the 44 through Santa Cruz De Tepehuanes. Then north on the 45 to Hidalgo, then west on the 25 to just north of Guachochi, then down into Copper Canyon and then north to Creel, then northwest on the 23 at San Juanito to the 16 (yes that is twisty heaven indeed!). We continued west into Hermosillo, then north east on the 14 and turned north on the 118 and stopped in at Turkey Creek and met with his awesome wife (Mr. TK was in Bisbee and we actually passed him as he was riding home on the 118) who was indeed very helpful with directions and such. The 118 is in pretty rough shape but on our Wee and KLR's we were find (mind you the three cement based slimy stream crossings we made were a bit interesting).

Oh and we also road west of Creel and checked out Divisadero (strange indeed to see so much recreations infrastructure in that park) and headed further west on the fantastic new pavement looking (some sort of pipeline is going in) to ride into Urique but we kind of got an icky feeling just before we left the last town on the pavement and headed down into the valley towards Urique (ie: SUV's with guys in the back with guns heading the same way we were going), so we turned around back to Creel and then headed north.

So with all that background should we just ride the same super roads south through the interior, then southwest at Durango to Mazatlan and then along the coast from there?

Also, after doing some research about how best to fly home it turns out that there are not any flights on the airline we like to use out of Acapulco back home, so instead I'm suggesting we aim for Puerto Vallarta as our end and storage point. Its about 750 miles shorter and the flights back home are more frequent and cheaper. The plan is to come back in the spring so we'll be within our 180 TVIP dates and get into Guatemala to buddies Hostel and then leave the bikes there for the next time we come back.

Any bike storage suggestions for PV?

How does that all sound..?

Ps: Rather than do the Devil's Spine southwest to Mazatlan from Durango how is the 23 south of Durango to where it meets the 15D near San Lorenzo? I would not have considered this route as both my maps don't show the 23 connecting with the 15D to the south but Google Maps does and it looks mighty twisty.....

Pps: we'll be riding a KLR a Wee and an ULY. The fellow on the ULY rides that think in places I would never go with the Wee (ie: he mounts up TKC80's and pins it).