where did you buy your

dyneema composite

fabric? 

the google route map in the middle of the page shows roads not on my National Geographic map.
Example-  They have a route east of El Arco, on the other side of the mountains.
https://sites.google.com/site/gpskevin/gpskevin-ride-calendar/baja-california-discovery-route-2016

http://www.murdocknav.com/mapsmex1.php

photos

there should be photos

Suntour power thumb shifters

They work with all size cassettes and last forever.
I have used 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 speed cassettes with my thumb shifters.  I lost count, but perhaps 7 bicycles they have been on now.  

I vote for a 26 inch wheeled bike.  More important than if you choose the 2017 troll or a 1995 mt bike, be able to take it apart and put it back together.  Can you build your own wheels?  Are you able to install canti brakes correctly?  Can you install and remove the bottom bracket, and replace the chainrings?

Why not buy an old mt bike, build new wheels, and get a 9 speed XT drive train.  9 speed because you can squeeze in a 7 or 8 speed chain if you have to, somewhere along the way.  To hell with carrying spare chains or spare parts or mail drops.  Get a bike you can buy parts for along the way.  If you need 29 inch wheels,  you may also need a long bus ride to a big city.

Where to start?
Bike fit.  Decide what handle bar you want for comfort, then figure out what the bike dimensions should be.  This could be the most important thing, (proper fit).  Many a person ended their tour over pain from a poorly fitted bike.

here is one mans thoughts, he may be right about many things
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1fs&doc_id=5094&v=2w

I just reread this thread.  Seems there is little agreement.  What did you decide?

Come June first I will be starting an around the world bike tour in Alaska. Ridining a Jones 29+. Because I want to. It's built tough. Yeah I might have trouble finding a tire or spoke or? Somewhere. Not a big deal. It's the bike I want to ride. So I am riding it. Do what you want. It's your tour. You will enjoy it more on the bike you want to ride. Give your mom some spare parts in a box. It's a tour not a race . the fella going with me will be on a fatbike. Have fun. I will
Harry

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/question-and-answer/26-vs-29-touring-internationally/msg69219/#msg69219

Feb 26 Ensenada

feb 27 Ensenada

Anyone know how to read pictoglyphs?

There are plenty of them, know and unknown.
The Cochimí Indians have a story of dos soles.  Seems that one morning 2 suns rose in the sky.

The Baja bike route passes about 100 yards from an unknown or unpublished rock art sight,  or perhaps hundreds of such sites.

Some sites are well known and 200 yards from the road

Baja is not the easiest place to ride a bike.  What do you do if you need 18 liters of water?
What do you do if it is too hard to push your bike through soft sand while it is over 100 degrees (second week in March)?
(18 Liters = 39.68 Pounds).  Make camp between two pointed hills and walk the last couple of miles.  


Wondering in a daze I could not find the rock art.  I drank 16 liters of water in 40 hours.  I searched all afternoon.  Exhausted, I decided to take a nice nap on a flat rock.  When I woke from my nap, there were rock paintings above me, and beside me.  

According to the University of San Diego, the oldest archaeological site in the Americas is on Isla Cedros.  14,000 years ago people lived on a large island, 100 or so kilometers west of Guerrero Negro.  My first friend in Mexico was a girl from Isla Cedros.  

Stay off of mex 1 after dark

I pushed the last 15 miles up to Ensenada after dark lasat night, and nearly got hit by 3 trucks and a bus

Is there a 26 inch rim with or close to 30 mm internal width? (rim brakes)

Y cruzare el desierto

Vere estrellas sobre mi



Y asi, mas dias de color


I was able to get a little look at a big route
times have changed
in the old days, I took a guess and went that way, and often had to turn around
nowadays they post maps on the web, and take the guesswork out of it

http://www.bikecalc.com/gear_inches

Maybe this will help decide the chainring size.  Kind of hard to switch from a 34 to a 46 and guess what chainring = the same gear.

I knew I forgot something.  No big deal, they sell it in Mexico, Right?  Wrong.  Who needs it anyway?  It is 65 with a couple of clouds in San Diego.  Before you get to San Ignacio you will wish you had some.  You can not buy any, hard luck.

The Latitude of LA PAZ BAJA CALIFORNIA is 24.1467.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7zK2qaP4iE

First time i have ever bought a bike that wasn't some sort of discount deal (end of season, clearout etc...) ...

Bail!  At full price you get to act like a cat, and be finicky.  In about 6 weeks something will be on sale for 40% off.   
29+ sounds good better anyway.  ¿Aluminum?

I guess you have to take a photo like this, to like a photo like this.

Run out of water in the desert, crash on the lava rocks and bend your bars and derailleur, keep going for three weeks on a gravel path, and one lousy photo is all there is to remember it by.

Your last chane to spend gringo dollars is in Tecate.  There is a Calimax and a Soriana in Tecate.  They both take dollars, And give a better rate than the casa de cambio.  Calimax and Soriana are major supermarkets.  They are cheaper than the San Diego stores.  I like to say, the price is the same, but you get a kilo instead of a pound.  Stock up, you will be shopping at small ma and pa markets for a long time, and paying with pesos.  They will take dollars if you have no pesos.  Do not expect a good exchange rate.  The old women at the market will not get a good rate when she goes out of her way to change your dollars for pesos either.

Gas canisters are available at Walmart in Ensenada and La Paz.  Not always, just sometimes.  They cost a few dollars more. As do most imported things.  Pringles are 99 cents at the 99cent store in San Diego.  They are $2.75 at the Soriana in tj.  Shop local, skip the imports.

If you need a stove, get a stove that burns unleaded.  Green Colemen canisters are sold here and there in Mexico. Kovea LPG Adaptor, Kovea makes an adaptor so you can use green colemen propane canisters on your snow peak stove.  They do not work on all stoves, do your homework before you buy.

The (La linea), to get across the border to the states is a nightmare!  Sometimes the line is three hours long.  That was before they started to remodel the building.  A project which is estimated to take 10 months from August 2016.  

There is a temporary border crossing 10 yards east of the Rio Tijuana.  Before lunch on a weekday the line here is not so bad.  I often use the Otay Mesa port of entry.  The pedesterian line here is short on a weekday. (I do not pedal through the tj slums after dark.) These two pedesterian lines are more heavily used on weekends, by day trippers.  

Most people wil fly or bus back north. (Do not arive at the tj central bus terminal after dark.) Few will brave the wind, and pedal north bound across the Baja.  Volaris, the discount Mexican airline has a direct flight from La Paz to Tijuana.  Alaska air has direct flights from San Jose Del Cabo to San Diego and other citys up the west coast.

I paid $68 and $35 for a bicycle on Volaris. $102.99 from La Paz to Tijuana.  At the counter in the airport it is $100 for a bike or an oversized bag.

Will at least one person use Baja Ferries to connect with the Tren Chepe?  Copper Canyon is waiting to be explored.  Who wants to pedal north and turn this into a loop?

Alcohol stoves seem to be a favorite among bike packers.  Ultra Magnus posted a link to one that works as good as any outdoors.

I posted the details over on backpacking light, since I got the inspiration from one of the members on that message board.  Here is the thread-
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=57486

BM

What is different in Baja?
The alcohol you use.  Alcohol desnaturalizado is sold in pharmacies and grocery stores.  Ethyl alcohol is what it is.  Most of the time it is 70%.  

How do you make it work in a stove made for 95% methanol ( heat, paint thinner, ) alcohol?
Poke more, or bigger air holes in the side of the stove.  The stove in the link seems to have one hole in the side.  Mine has a hole at the base of each groove, and is just a little taller than the one in the linked video.  Rocks are plentiful and make a good pot stand.  The alcohol you buy at Soriana or Calimax has a second use.  You can use it to clean your hands before you eat, or clean any part of your body that makes contact with the bicycle.  Good way to prevent saddle sores.  (do not use methol alcohol for this).  There is not always enough water to wash up in the desert.  

Personally, I cook on a fire.  Mexican people build small fires.  Why?  They do not want to start a wildfire, or draw attention to themselves.  This is a desert, remember.  A cooking fire uses sticks no thicker than a finger.  I cook on red coals not a yellow fire.

I use my alcohol stove in hotel rooms.  Unlike paint thinner, medical alcohol burns clean and can be used indoors.

The sell ethyl alcohol at Wallgreens if you want to dial your stove in before you depart.

At times it is hard to find water in the desert.  Many a time you see a creek bed, walk over to find dust and rocks, no water.  Try this; walk up and down the creek bed.  Many a creek runs underground and is on the surface only here and there.  If there are trees growing and or green vegetation, there is a good chance there is water down there somewhere.

Barrel cactus.
I dont know, but I have been told:
the barrel cactus will keep you alive.  Cut a chunk out of it, and eat it.  It should have enough water in it to keep you alive.  They say it will taste really bad.  This is not a way to get water, it is a way not to die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxAQwMNXlic

For less than the upgrade, you could buy a plane ticket to South America, or Greece, or the North Pole, or the equator.  Maybe even visit someplace nice. 

Upgrade your flight to bring along a bicycle.
Could be better to fly with an older bicycle.  remember the Samsonite lugage monkey?   

You need to stop at the migration office.  Most of you will never be asked to see your migration documents.  A few will be asked to see them.  Do not take a chance, stop at the migration office.  Sometimes you have to ask for a receipt.  A few people will be asked to pay again if they do not have the receipt.  You pay at a separate window from the one where you fill out the papers.  

If you are using a Mexican airport, your documents need to be in order.  Including your offical receipt.

http://www.gob.mx/inm

The first thing you need for a trip down the Baja is some Pesos.

If buying pesos, you get a better rate on the gringo side of the border.
If selling pesos for dollars you get a few cents more on the Mexican side of the border.

Tecate is not the best place to change money. In San Ysidro you get a few more pesos for the dollar because of the competition.  I avoid the places right next to the border.  Hundreds of yards north of the border near Churches Chicken is a little better.  Costco gives a peso or so more than the casa de cambios, but you need a Costco card.  If you plan to change a lot of money, change smaller amounts at 3 or 4 differant places.  The limit is $900 per transaction.  I would suggest changing less than that in any one place at one time.

A Mexican atm will give the best rate.  The risk of failure or card skimming does exist.  If you plan to use atm machines,
1. Tell your bank ahead of time.
2. Have a few thousand pesos as back up.

Do not keep all your money in one place!

San Ysidro, perhaps the busiest border crossing in the world, is the last stop on the San Diego blue line trolley.

Started to respond then realized that I don't know diddly about what's available in 26" these days.

Good luck.

Another one for the famous quotes page.

I convinced myself to get a 26er back on this thread.
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/question-and-answer/26-vs-29-touring-internationally/msg69219/#msg69219
I got a Ritchey breakaway Dahon Flo.  For travel to 26 tire kinds of places.

In the mean time, the bike shop near lake Tahoe, has a wall full of 27.5.  He had to go in the back room and dig out a 29er tire this morning.