Joe Berk

Phavorite Photos

Good buddy Python Pete wrote to me with a suggestion a few weeks ago. His comment and idea was that I probably had thousands of photos (which I do) and I probably had a few favorites (which I do). His suggestion was to share those here on the ExNotes blog. I thought that was a sterling idea.

I shot the photo you see above on a sultry night in Bangkok’s Arab district (every night is sultry in Bangkok). The street is unofficially called Soi Arab; officially it’s Sukhumvit Soi 3/1. That road (and sidestreets off it) are lined with Middle Eastern restaurants, a cuisine I love.

Bangkok’s Arab district attracts many folks from the Middle East partly due to its proximity to those countries, partly due to a vibrant nightlife, and partly due to a world class hospital that treats people from that part of the world. Me? I was in town to teach a couple of engineering courses and enjoy Bangkok. It’s one of the world’s great cities. Take it from me: Never say no to an opportunity to visit Bangkok.

So as I liked to do, I walked to Soi Arab and sat down at a sidewalk cafe and ordered a plate of hummus and chips. While I was enjoying my dinner a group of several Middle Eastern types entered and sat at a nearby table. All but one were burly guys dressed in dark business suits. The exception was an elegant older gentleman dressed in traditional Arab garb. Distinguished would be an appropriate but not quite adequate adjective. Majestic would be more on the mark.

I kept stealing glances at this fellow, thinking it would be great to grab a picture. I guess I was a little too obvious. I noticed a couple of the dark suiters with him (obvious security types) were looking directly me. One of them stood up and walked over to me.

“Uh oh,” I thought.

“Is there a problem?” the man asked.

“Uh, well, no,” I said with mixed emotions. I wanted to get what I knew would be a great photo, but I also wanted to continue breathing. “It’s like this,” I said, “I’m an amateur photographer and your principal would make for a very dramatic image. I don’t wish to offend or insult, but I’m wondering if there’s any way I could take a picture of your distinguished protectee.” As I said it I realized how stupid that sounded. Anyone who travels with bodyguards doesn’t want to be photographed. But the words were out there. The words “rendition” and “beheading” crossed my mind.

The security guy looked at me. He didn’t know what to think (I’m told I sometimes have that effect on people). He walked back to his table and leaned over to whisper to the man you see above. The flowing headdress turned my way, I saw a smile and he motioned me over to his table. I had my Nikon and I got the photo you see above in a single shot. I have no idea who he is, why he was in town, or exactly where he was from, but that photo is one of my all time favorites.

Tulsa and Oklahoma’s Green Country

You may recall that about a year and a half ago I did a blog on our visit to Oklahoma and the great riding in the eastern half of the state around the Tulsa area. I wrote a piece about that for Motorcycle Classics magazine and you can get to most of it online here. You can pick up a copy of the latest issue at your local newstand. Better yet, subscribe to Motorcycle Classics.

Your two blogmeisters (yours truly and Joe Gresh) have been published in several motorcycle magazines and other publications both in print and in the digital world. You can get to a partial compendium of our articles by clicking here for me and here for Gresh (or by clicking on either of the above photos).

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Favorite Baja Hotels: Guerrero Negro’s Malarrimo’s

This blog grew longer than I had planned. I thought I would touch on Malarrimo’s (one of my favorite hotels in Baja) and that would be it, but I realized once I got into it that there’s a lot more to the story and Guerrero Negro.

If you’re headed into Baja, especially if you’re headed there to see the whales, you’d be hardpressed to find a better hotel than Malarrimo’s in Guerrero Negro. Guerrero Negro is at the halfway point when headed down the Baja peninsula (it’s about 450 miles south of the border). It’s located along the 28th Parallel, the dividing line between Baja and Baja Sur (Baja’s two Mexican states).

Although some might be inclined to dismiss Guerrero Negro because as little more than a gritty industrial town, it’s actually a pretty cool place to visit and a good base for further explorations. There’s whale watching, the ecological preserve, salt mining, the nearby cave paintings, the food, and more.

Ah, the food. As Gresh so aptly put it, no one loses weight on a Baja ride with me. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Don Enrique Achoy founded Malarimmo’s about a half century ago, and it has remained a family business. He was ahead of his time, offering eco tours to see the whales, the ecological preserve surrounding Scammon’s Lagoon, and more. There are other hotels in Guerrero Negro, but I always check Malarimmo’s first. It’s not fancy and at around $65 per night it’s a tiny bit expensive for Baja, but it is inviting. it’s clean, and I just feel good there. The restaurant is arguably the best in town, and I love the bar (more on both in just a bit).

Getting There

Malarrimo’s is easy to find. Just head south on the Transpeninsular Highway from the border for 450 miles. You’ll see a huge metal eagle at Parallelo 28 and a Mexican military base. Shortly after that, you’ll see a sign pointing to the right and Guerrero Negro.

Take that right, and Malarimmo’s will be on your right as you enter town. You can’t miss it. Incidentally, the lagoon you see in the satellite photo above is Scammon’s Lagoon. It’s where the whales will be, which takes me to our next topic.

Whale Watching

Whale watching tours are available from January through March when the California gray whales are in town, and it is a life changing experience. Those are strong words and you might be tempted to dismiss them as hyperbole. Take one of Malarrimo’s 4-hour, $50 whale watching tours out on Scammon’s Lagoon and then you tell me. I’ll bet you come away feeling the same way.

We have a lot more on whale watching on our Baja page, so I won’t spend too much time here on it. Trust me on this, though: It is like nothing you have ever done.

The Ecological Preserve

When you get a whale tour at Malarimmo’s, it will take about a half hour in a Malarimmo van to get to the where the pangas (the small boats that take you out to see the whales) are docked, and on that ride, you pass through an ecological preserve that is home to more than 150 wildlife species. You’ll see many nesting ospreys (a bird of prey), and if you’re lucky (like we have been) you’ll get to see an osprey enjoying a bit of sushi. It’s a fun thing to encounter.

Salt Mining

Guerrero Negro is a company town, and the company is Mitsubishi, which owns (along with the Mexican government) the salt processing operation. It’s one of the largest salt producing regions in the world. They use an interesting approach: Flooding the coastal plains near the town with seawater, allowing the water to evaporate, and then using earth moving equipment to scrape up the salt that remains behind.

Guerrero Negro Cuisine

No discussion of Guerrero Negro would be complete without a discussion of the cuisine down there. In a word, it’s wonderful. My favorite meal? Fish tacos, served right off the truck (caught fresh daily) by my good buddy Tony. No one I’ve ever taken there has had anything but high praise for these incredible treats.

Another place I like is San Remedios, a restaurant a block or two north of the man drag through Guerrero Negro. Just head west a few blocks from Malarrimo’s, turn right, and you’ll find it. The food is awesome and the young ladies who serve it are stunning.

I’ve already mentioned the restaurant and bar at Malarimmo’s. You can’t have a bad meal at the Malarrimo’s restaurant, and the bar…wow, it’s interesting. The Guerrero Negro area forms a big hook out in the Pacific Ocean with the hook’s U facing north (you can see that in the satellite photo above). As a result, a lot of interesting stuff washes up on shore in that area, and Malarrimo’s has a collection of it hanging from the roof in their bar. It’s pretty cool.

There are other restaurants in Guerrero Negro, too, and I try to make it a point to try a new one each time I am there. Baja John and I enjoyed an amazing Chinese dinner in Guerrero Negro on one trip; try Lucky’s if you feel like something different.

The Cave Paintings

There are several cave paintings located throughout Baja. This is real Indiana Jones stuff; the cave paintings are estimated to be about 10,000 years old and not much is known about the people who put them there. They are all relatively remote, too, but one of the easier (I’m using that word in a comparative sense) ones to get to are the cave paintings in Baja’s Sierra San Francisco Mountains.

The cave paintings near Guerrero Negro are further south and east of the Transpeninsular Highway (Highway 1, the main and often only road running north and south in Baja). You take Highway 1 south and then turn left after passing through the town of Vizcaino to head east and up into the Sierra Francisco mountains. It’s a magnificent ride with an awesome climb into the mountains, then the road turns to dirt and then it becomes, for lack of a better word, gnarly. You buy tickets and secure a guide in a small village, and then double back for maybe a mile to see the paintings. If you have a 4WD car or a dual sport (or ADV) motorcycle, you can get there on your own; if you don’t, you can grab a tour that leaves from Malarimmo’s. It will take most of a day to get out there, see the paintings, and get back to Guerrero Negro, but it’s well worth it.

There’s a lot more to Baja’s cave paintings, but it’s too much to include here. Watch for a future blog on this topic.

So there you have it: Guerrero Negro, Malarimmo’s, and a bunch of things you can do while in that area. I love everything about Baja, and I especially love the Guerrero Negro area. You will, too.

When you head into Mexico, make sure you insure with BajaBound. They are the best, and they are the only insurance company we will ever use.

More Baja, including a list of our other favorite Baja hotels and things to see and do, is here on the ExNotes Baja page.

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Enfield Recall and First Service Quotes

Things happen, I guess, and one of the things that’s happened to me lately is my new Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor was recalled. As recalls go, it’s not that serious, I suppose. It has to do with brake caliper corrosion, and from what I’ve read, it might be related to road salt as used in the snowy parts of our country. Ain’t no snow in So Cal unless you get way up in the mountains, and we don’t use road salt. Eh, I don’t know…if all the dealer is going to do is look at it and tell me it’s not corroded, hell, I can do that. Maybe they’re replacing all of them. I gotta look into this more. I have had bad experiences on product recalls (including with my Henry 45 70 rifle), so unless the concern is real, I tend not to act on these things.

I thought that as long as I was going to be making an appointment to have the brake calipers checked out, I might as well go ahead and schedule the first maintenance. Whoa, was that ever educational. The first service is basically a valve adjustment, an oil and filter change, tightening the chain, checking the nuts and bolts for tightness, etc. You know, basic stuff.

I started by calling the dealer closest to me (Southern California Royal Enfield), and they quoted $580 for the service. Wow. There’s no shims and buckets in the valve adjustment (it’s just threaded locknuts, like on the CSC bikes or a Moto Guzzi), so the valve adjustment should go pretty quickly. $580. Wow, that’s steep, I thought. Especially for a service that I doubt would take even two hours. So I called Pro-Italia over in Glendale. They came in at $110 less than the boys in Brea ($470 for the first service, after they first told me it was $440, then $450, and then finally when I asked if they were sure about the number, the kid looked it up and told me it was $470). Wow, that’s quite a swing, and I’m not too sure about Glendale’s competence. They’re the same boys who sent Gresh and me down to Baja on a Bullet with nearly no oil, a rusty chain, and a battery that died on Day 3 (you can read about that here).

Then I got interested in how much price variation for the same service I could find, so I called the Royal Enfield dealer in San Diego (Rocket Motorcycles). They won the prize for the lowest quote at $368.55, which almost seemed sort of reasonable to me. San Diego is 120 miles south of here, though, so it’s really a nonstarter for me. I thought I would try one more, so I called the Royal Enfield dealer in San Jose, and not surprisingly, they got top billing at $600. Hey, those Bay Area and Silicon Valley entrepreneurial types are rolling in dough.

If I lived in San Diego, I’d think about heading over there, but I’m not going to do that. I’m the guy that wrote most of the service manuals for CSC (with a lot of the “how to” demonstrated and explained by Gerry Edwards), and the Royal Enfield service manual is a free download.

The biggest part of the first service is adjusting the valves, and I doubt that would take more than an hour. I can change the oil and the filter, and I can tighten and lube a chain. I know which way I’m going on this. I may bring the Enfield in for the caliper recall because that’s a freebie. As for the first service, I’ll pick up the synthetic oil and a filter, do the valve adjustment and the rest, and keep that $368, or $470, or $580, or $600 where it belongs: In my pocket.

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Read the entire Enfield Baja trials (for both the Bullet and the Interceptor) here!

CSC’s New 400 Twins!

Boy oh boy, the 400cc market segment is hot. It was the RX4, then we learned the Janus 450cc Halcyon is coming, and now, CSC just announced two stunning 400cc twins! Check this out!

I’ve seen both bikes in person at CSC, and I can tell you the bikes look even better up close and personal than they do in the photos. CSC has quite an extensive line of motorcycles, electric motorcycles, and ebikes, and now these new 400cc twins will broaden their appeal even further. Check them out at the CSC Motorcycles website!

Model 60 S&W Load Test Results

A week or so ago I posted a load development plan for my .38 Special Smith and Wesson Model 60, and I recently finished the Model 60 load testing. The Model 60 with its new Altamont grips and the custom work good buddy TJ did for me is surprisingly accurate.

Altamont grips on the Model 60. They improved accuracy significantly.

I tested four bullets and four different propellants at two different levels, and I fired two 3-shot groups with each load combination. The one exception was the Hornady 148-grain swaged hollow base wadcutter bullet, which I tested with one propellant (Bullseye) at one level (2.7 grains). I did that because the wadcutter load is my standard target load (and it’s what my Star progressive reloader is set up to produce). The other bullets were the Hornady 110-grain jacketed hollow point, the Hornady 158-grain jacketed hollow point, and a cast 158-grain flatpoint bullet a local caster produces.

The four bullets used for this test: The 158-grain cast flatpoint, the 158-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point, the 110-grain jacketed hollow point, and the Hornady 148 grain hollow base wadcutter.

Four propellants used for this test: Unique, Power Pistol, Bullseye, and Winchester 231.

The propellants were Bullseye, Unique, 231, and Power Pistol. As I mentioned above, all groups were 3-shot groups, and I fired each from a bench at 50 feet. I tested for group size and for deviation from the aim point, and I used the standard NRA 50-ft slow fire bullseye target. Point of aim was at 6:00 for all loads.

A few of the NRA 50-foot slow fire targets. I fired several groups on each target, marking my shots as I progressed. I took about 3 hours to test fire all loads included in this test.

The group size/accuracy results follow.

In addition to recording group sizes, I was also interested in where the groups printed with respect to my point of aim. I held my aim at 6:00 on the bullseye. Here’s what I found.

With regard to the group size testing, some of the loads were consistent, and others had some variability I think was mostly due to me. Many of the groups that went above, say, 2.3 inches or so in group size had two of the three shots right next to each other and then one was a flyer that opened the group up. I attribute that to pilot error. Yeah, I know, if I used a machine rest I could have eliminated that, but I don’t have a machine rest. You get what you get with this test, and that’s me.

The 110 gr Hornady JHP shot significantly low with all loads, and its accuracy was okay but not great. It was close enough, I think, for a defense round, but this bullet shot 4 to 6 inches low pretty consistently. That’s because the lightweight bullet squirts out of the barrel before the muzzle has a chance to rise much in recoil (so it hits lower). You might think that these 110 grain bullets would offer a significant recoil reduction, but if that occurred, I couldn’t feel it (the recoil felt about the same as the 158-grain loads). My conclusion is that, for me, 110-grain bullets are a nonstarter for the Model 60.

My standard target load (2.7 gr Bullseye and wadcutter bullets) grouped relatively well, although for me it shot about an inch to the right in the Model 60. That’s probably close enough for government work. It’s good to know this load works, because that’s the load my Star reloader is set up to make (and I make a lot of them).

The 158-grain bullets are obviously what the Model 60 is set up to shoot, and of the two tested, the best accuracy occurred with the 158-grain cast bullet and Winchester’s 231 propellant. It’s a sweet load at either the high or low propellant level, and it shoots essentially to point of aim at 50 feet.

I can also load the 158-grain cast bullet with Bullseye on the Star reloader, and that load did okay at 2.8 grains of Bullseye. The Star reloader has a small amount of adjustment in it for powder throw, but I would leave it at 2.7 grains (the same as the wadcutter load) if I loaded the 158-grain cast flatpoint bullets on it. That’s close enough.

Overall, I was surprised at how accurate a little snubnose can be. It’s not dramatically different than larger target handguns. Some of this is undoubtedly due to TJ going through the gun and making sure everything is perfect. And some of it is due to the Altamont grips. I sure enjoy shooting this handgun.

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A New BajaBound Atlas

Wow, check this out…a new Baja road and recreation atlas brought to us by the folks who know Baja best: BajaBound Insurance!

I ordered mine already and I’m looking forward to getting it. You can be sure I’ll put it to good use. If you want to order yours, you can do so here!

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TJ’s Bulldog

What does a professional, world-class pistolsmith use for his personal weapon of choice?

I asked good buddy TJ (of TJ’s Custom Gunworks) that question, and the answer was surprising. This is a man who knows handguns inside and out, and a guy who is one of the top men in the world for custom-crafted combat handguns. SIGs, 1911s, Colt and Smith revolvers and autos, and more. A guy who could have just about anything he wanted. His guns are carried by law enforcement officers, special agents, and others the world over. So what is TJ’s personal sidearm?

It’s a highly-customized Charter Arms Bulldog, chambered in the mighty .44 Special cartridge. It’s the one you see here and in the photo above:

As you might imagine, TJ did not leave the gun stock. These are the custom features TJ’s personal .44 carries:

- - Satin brushed hard chrome finish
  - 1.5-inch barrel (cutdown from stock barrel)
  - Radiused and polished trigger
  - “Melted” (rounded – sharp edges removed) contours throughout
  - Night sights with orange DayGlo highlighting
  - Custom-contoured front sight
  - Level 1 action work
  - Action modified to double action only
  - MagNaPorted barrel
  - Bobbed hammer
  - TJ custom prototype laser grips (modified from Crimson Trace S&W grips)

TJ explained that double action is the only way he uses revolvers. You know, there’s a school of thought that a good man with a double action revolver can fire faster than can one with a semi-auto handgun. You can read more about that in Ed McGivern’s Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting, a good read for anyone interested in improving their handgun shooting with a double action revolver.

TJ’s Charter Arms custom Bulldog is a very impressive weapon. You can see more photos of it, and a few of TJ’s other custom guns, on the TJ’s Custom Gunworks website.

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Tough Rides: Brazil

We recently wrote a review of Tough Rides China, and as it turns out, that was one of three rides Ryan Pyle did that are available on Amazon Prime. A couple of days ago I watched Tough Rides Brazil, one of the other two. It was a six-part series about a circumnavigation around Brazil, and Ryan did this one without his brother Colin.

Although I enjoyed it, I didn’t think Tough Rides China was as good as the Himalaya Calling series about going overland from Germany to India, and I said so in my earlier review. Tough Rides Brazil, however, was stellar, and it was every bit the equal of Himalaya Calling. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A gold-lined church in one of the mining towns in Brazil. Pyle took us into many worthy destinations on his Tough Rides Brazil series.

You know, it’s a funny thing. I’ve been down on motorcycle adventure stories that focus too much on mysticism, philosophy, and other wordcount-inflating bullhockey and not enough on motorcycle riding (which is why I didn’t think much of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but I loved Dave Barr’s Riding the Edge). Somehow in Tough Rides Brazil, Pyle focused only a bit on the riding and spent most of his time on the things he did in each of perhaps a dozen destinations on his 14,000 kilometer journey around Brazil, and it worked. I watched all six Tough Rides Brazil episodes in a single sitting (it was that good). It’s easy to do; they are each not that long and the story line and photography are superior.

You might check out Tough Rides Brazil on either Amazon Prime (by buying each episode) or by joining Amazon Prime and watching it on your TV or your computer. Tough Rides Brazil is included with Amazon Prime. Trust me on this: I think you will enjoy it. It’s got me thinking about visiting Brazil. This is heresy, but I don’t think I’d want to do it on a motorcycle. I’d like to fly there and see the place as a regular non-moto-borne tourist. Brazil looks like a fascinating place and the Tough Rides Brazil series has me thinking deep thoughts in that direction.

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Let My Turtles Go

Hey, it’s a guest Baja blog from good buddy and fellow former US Army paratrooper Mike! Check this out, folks.

As you travel through Baja Mexico and encounter so many beautiful and unique experiences that you just won’t find anywhere else in the world you really begin to appreciate all this area has to offer. This beauty arrives in the form of not only the people and their culture, but the form of raw nature that thrives on this magical peninsula. This rugged and hostile environment at first glance may not seem that inspiring but once you look closer and begin to absorb your surroundings you quickly realize how fragile, yet adaptable this ecosystem is.

This is true from plant life surviving in the driest of deserts to the sea life along the rugged Pacific Coast having to overcome predators and violent ocean conditions. It seems the challenges of nature never cease here. The encounter I am about to share with you highlights these conditions as well as the resiliency of nature in Baja.

Every day from around the 1st of December through the end of February there is a small, greenhouse-looking hut along the beach just north of Todo Santos, where the waves from the Pacific Ocean crash with such a concussion you almost feel nauseous from the vibration off this massive surf relentlessly slamming into the white sand beaches. This remote beach is where you can experience a magical wonder of life, baby sea turtles crawling into this violent ecosystem as their first test in their new world.

The turtles hatch in the early evening and four or five are placed into plastic buckets to await their release just after sunset. Timing is critical here as any earlier predatory birds are still out and will likely swoop in to gobble them up.

Once the sun begins to set it is time to set these little creatures free. We each take a bucket and walk about 20 feet away from where the surf is crashing and tip the bucket, thus releasing the sea turtles to crawl out onto the still sun-warmed sands.

Once these little guys exit the bucket it is difficult to imagine what they are thinking as they scurry towards the water with waves between 6-12 feet pummeling towards them. Some are fortunate and will hit the tide correctly and the water will suck them out to safety in the ocean, while others miss the tide, and it will toss them back violently 10-20 feet where they will start over. When this happens, you can hear a collective “Awwwww nooooo!!” from the group of us releasing them.

Ultimately (after three or four tries for some) all the baby sea turtles make it into the mighty Pacific Ocean just as the sun is fully dipping below the horizon. This is a beautiful piece of Baja life that should not be missed. We are very thankful to the Todos Tortugueos Volunteer organization for making this nightly event possible for the public.

Mike, that’s just awesome! Thanks very much. As always, we enjoy reading about your Baja adventures. You wrote a fabulous story with amazing photos. Ride safe, my friend.

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