November 2, 2018 – The ExhaustNotes Blog

Seriously? A 1931 Excelsior-Henderson? That’s my dream bike? Well, sort of. This was a bike that had its day well before I was born, and you might wonder: How did it come to be my dream bike?

The story goes like this: In April of 2006, my good buddy Marty and I rode to the Hansen Dam British Bike Meet here in southern California. It’s a cool event that happens once of twice a year (the next one is this weekend, as a matter of fact). The Hansen Dam meet is a photo op on steroids, as the classic British and other bikes that show up are incredibly beautiful. I’ve been going for years and I have a lot of photos to show for it.

Anyway, the events run like this: The bikes all gather (typically around 400 or so show up), and after everybody socializes and oogles the bikes for a couple of hours (that’s oogles, not Googles), most of the bikes leave for a big ride through the mountains. On advice of counsel (that would be Marty), I never went on the ride. To hear Marty explain it, these are old British bikes, and riding in that parade involves a lot of dodging and weaving to avoid oil spills and, you know, pieces of old British motorcycles. We always wait for the mass exodus to leave, and then Marty and I bail.

That’s what we had done on that April morning back in 2006. Most of the older classics had left and Marty and I were just about to saddle up and go home when this really classy old bike rode in. I was intrigued by the bike, it looked to be all original, and I snapped a quick photo when it rolled to a stop…

Most of the other classics had already left, and this old masterpiece arrived…it was magnificent!

I was totally focused on the bike and I was snapping away with my little Sony Mavica (those early digital cameras were awesome). I hardly noticed the rider…even after he took his helmet off. But then…wowee!

You know, you always think of the great things to say after the fact. I should have asked, “Can I have your autograph, Mr. Letterman?”

Yep, it was Jay Leno. At first, I was the only guy there taking pictures. I asked what the bike was and he told me: A ’31 Henderson. Where’d you find it, I asked. “I just got it. This 92-year-old guy called me from Vegas, said he was getting a divorce, and he needed cash fast…”

I thought old Jay was pulling my leg, and then I saw the video I’ve included below. I guess that was a true story. Go figure.

Jay was pretty pumped up about the bike. I think it might have been the first time he had it out. He told me the bike was running 70 mph on the way over, and he pointed out the speedo telltale to prove it (Mr. Leno talks about that in the YouTube below, too).

Hey, but that’s enough of my yapping and keyboard tapping…check out the photos!

A thing of beauty. Look at this inline four and its cooling fins.

What a cool dash! Look at the speedometer’s telltale.

The view from the left. Today’s faired motorcycles just don’t get it. You’re supposed to be able to see the motor on a motorcycle! Modern faired bikes look kind of like a washing machine when you take the fairings off. This is a motorcycle!

That’s not shaft drive, my friends. Those giant gears drive the speedo cable. That’s how they rolled in the early 1930s. And how about that rear brake!

The horn, the headlight, and the front suspension. We don’t need no stinkin’ fork seals!

With a crowd watching, it took Jay two or three kicks to get the Henderson fired up. In the video below, he does it with a single kick. The badge on Jay’s jacket is from the California Highway Patrol. I’ll bet there’s a cool story behind that, too.

I sort of remembered Jay telling me the bike was a ’36, but I guess my memory is fuzzy. I found a video online and it’s a 1931 model. The video is cool, and I’m including it here for you to enjoy…

I’ve seen Jay Leno a half dozen times or so at motorcycle gatherings here in southern California. He really is a nice guy. There’s no pretentiousness or arrogance at all, and no security entourage. It’s just Jay, a fellow gearhead. I remember talking to this nice elderly woman at the Rock Store souvenir shop and she told me Jay was a nice guy. She went on to tell me that most of the other celebs who show up at the Rock Store were (to use her words) “real assholes.”

When Jay arrives at an event, he is swamped with folks wanting photos and autographs as soon as he takes his helmet off, and he always goes along with the requests. The pattern I’ve observed is that the attention lasts 15 or 20 minutes, folks get their photos and autographs, and then the King of Late Night Comedy is just another one of the guys wandering around checking out the other bikes. I’ve got a few photos of Jay over the years, and it’s always a treat to see him. I came home and told everybody I knew about seeing Jay Leno the first time it happened, and hey, maybe he went home and told everybody he knew about seeing me. I’ve seen Jay Leno at the Rock Store, at Newcomb’s, and at the Hansen Dam events. I even bumped into him once at Warner Brothers, but that’s a story for another time and another blog.

Want to see our other Dream Bikes? Just click here and you will!

As you’ll recall from our last installment of the CSC Mustang Baja saga, we left Ciudad Constitucion the next morning and we continued south. We wanted to make Cabo San Lucas that evening. That would be the turnaround point for our journey from southern California to the tip of the Baja peninsula, and we rode the entire distance on our little single-cylinder, 150cc, hardtail Mustang replicas.

Our intent was to bypass La Paz, as it is a large city and we didn’t want to get bogged down getting through it. The map showed a bypass road, and that’s what we intended to grab. But, our plans meant nothing. We missed the bypass road, and we found ourselves in downtown La Paz. Like I said, it’s a big town, and the temperature was over 100 degrees again. We were getting goofy from the heat. It’s almost hard to describe how oppressive the heat was. We were literally in the tropics, having descended past the Tropic of Cancer. High heat, high humidity, the hottest month of the year in Baja, fully suited in our riding gear…it was tough sledding. Simon had the best idea…he started shedding the heavy riding gear.

Simon, with red suspenders flying…all the gear, all the time!

John and Arlene, suited up and sweating.

Simon wrote an entry on his blog that said it all…

La Paz is a hot sweaty city on the Sea of Cortez. We are hot and sweaty (other than J. who travels in air-conditioned splendour). We miss the bypass and are lost. I ask a lady for directions. She begins describing the route. I understand individual words, even entire sentences. The whole becomes a jumble. My eyes betray a fatalistic acceptance of inadequacy.
The woman halts her instructions. Her smile is familiar. It is the generous female’s smile of understanding when faced by male incompetence. Men are men. They have their uses. However, rational thought is not the male’s strong point (expect even vaguely mature thought and you will be disappointed). Humour them. Lead them by the hand. Such is the Latin way…

In brief, she stops giving directions and says, “It will be best if you follow me…”

A very patient woman and her daughter in La Paz, who guided us out of downtown…

Once we were out of La Paz, we were on the open road again and it was much better. Even when it’s hot, you can still stay cool on a motorcycle if you are moving. When you stop, though, it gets warm and it does so immediately. So, we kept moving. We were approaching the Pacific Ocean on the other side of Baja, and the temperature dropped a couple of degrees.

After La Paz on the eastern side of Baja, it was about 70 miles directly across the peninsula to Todos Santos on the Pacific side. It was a nice ride.

We stopped in Todos Santos for lunch. I grabbed this shot of my bike and I want you to notice the BajaBound.com decal.

Taking a lunch break in Todos Santos. BajaBound!

BajaBound was one of our sponsors on the CSC 150 run, and they are one of our advertisers now. We were very grateful to Geoff and the good folks at BajaBound for their help on this adventure.

I wish I could remember the name of the place we had lunch in when we stopped in Todos Santos. It was great.

John and J enjoying lunch in Todos Santos.

After lunch, we were on the road again…headed to our next stop and our destination for the evening, Cabo San Lucas!

Simon taking a break just north of Cabo San Lucas. He was 77 years old when I took that photo. I really admire him.

Curva Peligrosa means “dangerous curve.” I don’t know how you say “watch out for the goats.”

Just north of Cabo. This guy pulled out right in front of us…anybody who would do this has to be a real ass…

We encountered a lot of construction during our trip, which gave the CSC Mustangs a real workout. I would guess that we probably did about 50 miles or so on dirt roads where the main highway was under repair.

We didn’t intend to do any dirt riding on this trip, but we sure rolled through a lot of dirt. One of the things that surprised me was how well the little Mustangs handled in the dirt, and in particular, in soft sand. Soft sand has always scared me on a motorcycle. At the time, I also owned a KLR 650 and a monstrous 955cc Triumph Tiger. With their narrow tires, these bikes would just sink into soft sand and do their best to toss me. The Mustangs didn’t do that. They had wide tires (almost balloon tires) and they were very light. They handled the soft stuff just fine. I’m not advocating using a CSC 150 as a dirt bike, but if you find yourself on a dirt road with soft sand, these bikes handled it with grace.

And finally, the California Scooter contingent arrived in Cabo after 1100 tortuous, hot, and beautiful miles through Baja! This was the perspective from our guest villa.

Cabo San Lucas! That’s the Sea of Cortez on the left, and the Pacific Ocean on the right.

Yep, some of the toughest riding in the world…and we did it! We ran the entire length of the Baja peninsula! I will tell you that I was absolutely beat when we finally made it to Cabo. The heat was bothering all of us, my leg was giving me a lot of grief from a prior injury, and we were all feeling the burn of a long ride. But we made it.

More good Baja trips on all different kinds of motorcycles…check out the ExhaustNotes Baja page!

If you would like to get up to speed on the prior installments of our CSC 150 Mustang replica ride to Cabo San Lucas, you can do so at this link: The CSC 150 Cabo Run

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Learn more about motorcycling through paradise in Moto Baja!