Motorcycles, Scooters, Guns, Adventures, Opinions, and More
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Here’s another Amazon Prime television show and video review. This one (as the blog title suggests) is on a series titled Tough Rides China. It’s about two Canadian brothers (Ryan and Colin Pyle) who circumnavigated China on BMW F800 motorcycles, and you can either watch it on Amazon Prime (if you have that streaming service) on your TV or on your computer.
The bottom line first: I enjoyed this 6-part series. A big part of that was because Joe Gresh and I rode around China with the cult of the Zong and we had a whale of a time, so it was easy to relate to what these two fellows did.
I didn’t think this series was as good as the one I reviewed recently about the two German dudes who rode from Germany to India (Himalaya Calling, which was a stellar production), but I still enjoyed it.
Surprisingly, the Pyle brothers’ BMWs broke down a couple of times during the trip, which suprised me. They were concerned about how long it would take to get parts and the lack of a strong BMW presence in China (now there’s a switch). For the record, our ten Zongshen RX1 and Rx3 motorcycles didn’t have a single breakdown during our ride. The Pyle brothers had breakdowns that mandated trucking the bikes significant portions of the trip (does GS actually stand for Go Slow?).
The Pyles also put their bikes on trucks when they wanted to get on the freeways because motorcycles are not allowed on some Chinese freeways. When Gresh and I were over there with the Zongers, we rode them anyway. It made me nervous that we rode around the toll gate arms (without paying the toll) and I asked one of our Chinese brothers about it. “We’re not allowed on the freeways, so if we tried to pay, they wouldn’t know what to do,” he told me.
Tough Rides China has a long introduction at the beginning of every episode, and it was the same in every episode. That became a bit distracting, and I blitzed through the lengthy and redundant intro after watching the first two episodes.
Tough Rides China featured the giant sand dunes and camels in the Gobi Desert around Dun Huang. Gresh and I were there. It was an awesome place, as was all of China. It really was the adventure of a lifetime.
Tough Rides China is part of a series. The Pyle brothers have done similar series in Brazil and India, too. I’ll have to look for those. While I didn’t think this series was as good the Himalaya Calling adventure ride we recently reviewed, it was still good and I recommend seeing it.
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This is a blog that is sure to be controversial and elicit a few comments. It attempts to answer a very specific question: Which motorcycles are best for Baja?
As a qualifier, let me mention a few things up front:
With that said, here goes:
CSC’s RX3
Say what you want about Chinese bikes, and say what you want about smallbore bikes, I’m convinced my 250cc CSC RX3 was the best bike ever for Baja.
The RX3 tops out at about 80 mph and that’s more than enough for Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway (the road that runs from the US border all the way down to Cabo San Lucas). The bike is comfortable and it gets 70 mpg. The fuel tank holds over 4 gallons. I could carry everything I needed (including a laptop, a big Nikon and a couple of lenses, and clothes) in the bike’s standard panniers and topcase. I also carried tools and spare parts, but I never needed them. It was superbly well suited for Baja exploration, as I and more than a few others know. One more thought…before you pummel me with the inevitable “Ah need at least a thousand cc” comments, take a look at our earlier blog, Why a 250?
Kawasaki’s KLR 650
I owned a 2006 KLR 650 Kawasaki for about 10 years. I bought it new and I loved the thing. I think it is one of the best bikes I’ve ever ridden in Baja. Yeah, it was a little tall, but once in the saddle I had no problem touching the ground.
The Kawi didn’t come with luggage, but I bought the cheap Kawasaki soft luggage panniers and a Nelson Rigg tankbag and I was good to go (I didn’t need the obligatory KLR milk crate). Although the KLR was heavy, it did surprisingly well off road (especially running at higher speeds over the rough stuff), and I did more offroad riding with the KLR than I have with any of the other motorcycles I brought into Baja. It averaged 56 mpg, and with its 6-gallon gas tank, I could make the trek between El Rosario and that first Pemex 200 miles further south without stopping for fuel.
CSC’s RX4
I’ve never owned an RX4, but I’ve ridden one a fair amount and I’ve done detailed comparisons between the RX4, the RX3, and the KLR.
I’ve never taken an RX4 into Baja, but I’ve ridden both (the RX4 and Baja) enough to know that it would do well down there. Think of the RX4 as an RX3 with more top end, more acceleration, and a bit more weight. It’s got the luggage and the ground clearance for extended travels with some offroad thrown in, and it also gets about the same fuel economy as the RX3. Fit and finish on the RX4 is superior (it’s almost too nice to take offroad). The RX4 is a lot of motorcycle for the money. The pandemic hit our shores not too long after the RX4 did, or I would have seen more of the RX4 south of the border.
Genuine’s G400c
I rode Genuine’s new G400c in San Francisco, courtesy of good buddy Barry Gwin’s San Francisco Scooter Center, and I liked it a lot. It’s compact, it has adequate power, it has an instrument layout I like, and it’s a fairly simple motorcycle.
I think with soft luggage, the Genuine G400c would make an ideal Baja blaster, and the price is right: It rings in right around $5K. With its Honda-clone 400cc motor (one also used in the Chinese Shineray line and others), it has enough power to get up to around 90 mph, and that’s plenty for Baja. I rode a different motorcycle with this powerplant in China and I was impressed. I think this would be an ideal bike for exploring Baja.
Royal Enfield’s 650 Interceptor
Yeah, I know, the new Enfield Interceptor is a street bike with no luggage. But with a Nelson Rigg tailpak and Wolf soft luggage, the Interceptor was surprisingly in its element in Baja. Gresh will back me up on this.
We had a whale of a time exploring Baja on a loaner 650 Enfield (thanks to Enfield North America and good buddy Bree), and I liked the bike so much I bought one as soon as I could find a dealer that didn’t bend me over a barrel on freight and setup. There’s one parked in my garage now. The bike is happy loping along at 65-70 mph, it’s comfortable (although I’ll be the first to admit it needs a sheepskin cover on that 2×4 of a seat), and it gets 70 miles per gallon. I wouldn’t take it off road (except maybe for that 10-mile stretch to go see the cave paintings in the Sierra San Francisco mountains), but like I said at the beginning of this conversation starter, I’m mostly a street rider.
Royal Enfield’s 400cc Himalayan
I’ve seen these but not ridden one yet. Good buddy Juan Carlos, a great guy with whom I rode in Colombia, has gone all over South America on Enfield’s new Himalayan and he loves it (that’s his photo below). Juan knows more about motorcycles than I ever will, and if Juan says it’s good, it’s good.
I like the look of the Himalayan and I like its single-cylinder simplicity (come to think of it, with the exception of the Enfield Intercepter, every bike on this list is a single). 400cc, I think, is about the right size for Baja. The price is right, too. Royal Enfield is making fine motorcycles that won’t break the bank. I think the Enfield Himalayan would be a solid choice for poking around the Baja peninsula, one that probably has the best off-road capabilities of any bike in this list.
I’m sure I’m ruffling a few feathers with this piece, and I’m doing that on purpose. I’ve been taking pot-stirring lessons from Gresh (that’s him in the photo at the top of this blog). We’d like to hear your comments if you disagree with any of the above. Do us a favor and leave them here on the ExNotes blog (don’t waste your time posting on Facebook as that stuff will scroll on by and be gone; ExNotes is forever).
All the above notwithstanding, I’ll add one more point: The best Baja motorcycle for each of us is the one we have. You can ride Baja on just about anything. I’ve been to Cabo San Lucas and back on everything from a 150cc California Scooter to a Harley Heritage Softail cruiser. They’re all good. Don’t put off a trip because you don’t think you have the perfect motorcycle for a Baja adventure. Baja is the best riding I’ve ever done.
I’ve done a lot of riding on a lot of different motorcycles in Baja. You can read all about that in Moto Baja!
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Sometimes people ask me about writing a book. It’s easier to get a book published than you might think. Basically, there are three approaches. You can go with a vanity publisher (not a good idea, in my opinion), you can go with one of the big publishing houses (tough to do, and I’ve found this doesn’t work very well for reasons I’ll explain below), or you can self-publish through Amazon.com or any of several other publishing outfits (this it not vanity publishing, and the self-publishing approach offers several advantages).
Vanity Publishing
The idea of a vanity publisher is that you pay a company to publish your book. You have to do all the marketing, and you have to print a minimum number of copies, so this gets expensive fast. I’ve never done this and everything I’ve heard about these outfits is strongly negative. My advice would be to not go this route. Yeah, doing so will allow you to say that you wrote a book and had it published, but that little bit of bragging rights will probably cost you $10,000 and it’s not likely you’ll ever recover it. I’ve never taken this approach, and I’ve heard from others that it doesn’t work out economically for the author. You will have a lot of copies of your book, most likely taking up space in your garage.
A Traditional Publishing House
You can market your concept to a publishing house and have them publish and market it and pay you a royalty on copies sold. This has been the traditional publishing route for more than a couple of centuries in the US. The first several books I wrote went this route.
The traditional publishing route is okay and if you play your cards right (which is to say, you are a skilled negotiator), you can secure a healthy advance against royalties. But it’s an approach with disadvantages that far outweigh the advantages:
I’ve written 15 books, and I went the traditional route with established publishing houses on the first 9. I’d never go this way again. My good buddy Simon Gandolfi put it best when I asked him about publishers and, in particular, using an agent to promote your work. “Most publishers are incompetent crooks,” he said, and then he added “and most literary agents are competent crooks.”
Self-Publishing
About 10 years ago I was on a press junket promoting Lake Tahoe as a motorcycle destination (good buddy J Brandon was one of the organizers). I rode up there on my KLR 650 Kawasaki. It was a good time and good riding (the roads in the Sierra Nevadas around Tahoe are some of the best in the world, and I got a couple of magazine stories out of the deal), but the thing that really made the trip worthwhile for me was meeting Carla King (that’s Carla in the photo at the top of this blog). Carla rode a KLR 650, so I knew she was a smart person. I had read Carla King’s book about her Ural ride around America (American Borders), and this was the first time I actually met her.
Our Tahoe group stopped for lunch on one of the organized rides at Walker Burger (it’s on Highway 395), and Carla and I talked shop. I told her the story about Wiley and how terrible their marketing department was, and she told me I was wasting my time if I wasn’t self-publishing.
I never heard of self-publishing until I met Carla, so I took one of her classes and I never looked back. My next seven books I self-published through Amazon using the tools Carla shared with me, and I made more money with them than I have on any of the other books I previously wrote.
Self-publishing has a lot of advantages:
Carla offers self-publishing training and has written extensively on the topic (see www.CarlaKing.com and www.selfpubbootcamp.com). I attended one of her seminars several years ago and it was a very worthwhile experience for me. If you have thoughts about writing a book, you might consider doing the same.
Ah, the Negro Modelo flows freely at the Old Mill Hotel. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll start by simply saying if I’m going to spend the night in Bahia San Quintin, it’s a sure thing it will be at the Old Mill Hotel, another one of my all-time favorite Baja hotels. In fact, as I write this, I’m thinking it’s worth a Baja ride just to stay at the Old Mill in Bahia San Quintin. I usually take a full day to get down there, even though the map says you can do it in a little over four hours. I’ve done that, but then the question is: Why? I think it’s best to take things at a more relaxed pace and enjoy the ride south as you enter through either Tiajuana or Tecate (Tecate is a much nicer town and the ride to Ensenada from there is a much nicer ride).
San Quintin is a good 200 miles south of the border, near the southern end of the agricultural fields that put much of our produce on the table. Susie and I once got got in a farm worker labor riot in San Quintin, but that was an isolated incident and all’s cool now.
Bahia San Quintin is the bay on the Pacific Ocean west of the Transpeninsular Highway (that’s Mexico Highway 1, which runs the length of the Baja peninsula). To get to the Old Mill Hotel, watch for the sign on Highway 1 (it’s the one you see in the big photo above), and turn west toward the Pacific.
Once you turn off the Transpeninsular Highway, it’s about a four-mile ride to get to the hotel, and it’s a much better ride than it used to be. I don’t mind telling you that I used to be completely intimidated by that road (it was a dirt road that was either powder-like soft sand or a mud bath, depending on the weather, and it was hell on a motorcycle), but the road is paved now and it’s a pleasant ride to the bay.
As you approach the end of the road, you’ll see another sign on your left for the Old Mill Hotel. Make a right turn, ride a hundred yards, and then a left will put you there. The hotel is sort of shaped like a U, with comfortable rooms on either side of a parking lot that is frequently filled with motorcycles. As you might guess, the Old Mill is located on the site of what used to be an old mill, and there’s still milling equipment left around the area. It’s a pretty interesting place.
The office is on your left as soon as you enter the hotel area, and they are nice folks. They usually offer a complimentary beer when you check in (and if they forget to offer, just ask), which usually leads to quite a few more. It’s a great way to start your visit to a great place.
If you walk west just past the hotel parking lot, you’ll be standing on the edge of Bahia San Quintin. It’s a cool area.
Motorcycle travel through Baja is not without its risks, the principal one being that you’ll weigh more when you get home than you did when you left. Nowhere is this more true than in Bahia San Quintin. When you stay at the Old Mill Hotel, there are three outstanding restaurants just a few feet from your door. The first is a relatively new one, the Eucalipto, headed by Javier, a world class chef from Mexico City. The Eucalipto is part of the Old Mill Hotel (it shares a wall with the hotel office). I’d say it’s one of best in Baja, and it’s open for dinner and for breakfast (handy when you are leaving the next morning).
The Molino Viejo (the Old Mill) is a larger restaurant next to the Old Mill Hotel. It’s has a bar and live entertainment, and widescreen televisions for sports and other events. The food is outstanding. Just turn left on the boardwalk at the end of the hotel parking lot. I’ve had many a fine meal here.
Don Eddie’s is a third dining option. Turn to your right when you walk to the bay, and it’s right there. It’s not as hopping as the Eucalipto or the Molin0 Viejo, but the food is absolutely outstanding.
Once when I was leading one of the CSC Motorcycles tours and we stayed at the Old Mill, Don Eddie himself told me that if we wanted breakfast there, just let him know how many and he’d have a buffet set up for us the next morning. I think there were about 15 of us on that ride. I took the suggestion and it was beyond amazing, with a variety of Mexican breakfast delights and quantities that were astounding. When it came time to settle up, Don Eddie gave me a number that was embarassingly low. I doubled it, divided it by the number of guys in our group, and it was still cheap.
The last time I stayed at the Old Mill Hotel I recall it was about $40 for a room. You can see more at their website (HotelOldMill.com) and the email address is Oldmillbaja@gmail.com
They are reachable by phone at 01 (616) 165-6030, and they have a US number 185-5690-9272.
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Joe Gresh raised an interesting topic with his recent blog on motorcycle quantity. You know, how many motorcycles are too many? That blog got a lot of hits and tons of comments on Facebook. It seems like he struck a nerve.
The most motorcycles I ever owned at one time was five, which pales in comparison to Gresh’s shop full of motos and maybe the collections of a few other people I know. When my collection hit that peak, I had a Triumph Daytona 1200, a Harley Heritage Softail, a Suzuki TL1000S, a Honda CBX, and a KLR 650. That was about 20 years ago. There was no rhyme or reason to my collection and no central theme guiding the contents of my fleet. I just bought what I liked. In those days I had more money than brains, but don’t interpret that to mean I was rich. I just never had a lot of brains. Most folks who know me recognize that pretty quickly.
I seemed to hover around that number (five, that is) for a while. Other bikes moved in to displace one or more of the above, most notably a Triumph Tiger and then a Triumph Speed Triple. Those were fun, but they’ve gone down the road, too.
Which one did I enjoy riding most? That’s easy. It was the KLR 650. The KLR 650 was the bike that led me on an arc toward smaller motorcycles, like the CSC RX3 and then a TT250. I was a bit player implementing Steve Seidner’s decision to bring those motorcycles to America. The 250s were a lot of fun. I sold off all the big bikes and only rode 250s for a few years, then I fell in love with the new Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor when it hit the market, and suddenly I was back up to three.
But three, for me, was too many. I haven’t been riding much in the last few years for a lot of reasons. The pandemic put a dent in any big travel plans (YMMV, and that’s okay), and constantly moving the battery tender around and cleaning the TT250’s jets was getting old. I couldn’t move anything in my garage because there was so much stuff crammed in there, and I had to park the TT250 under the rear porch awning. I don’t have a separate workshop area and I don’t pour concrete (I don’t have Mr. Gresh’s talents, but even if I did, it looks like too much work to me), so hanging on to a big motorcycle fleet was not in the cards.
Badmouthing Facebook has become trendy, but I’ll tell you that Facebook Marketplace came to the rescue. I already had a ton of photos of my motorcycles and whipping up ads for the TT250 and the RX3 literally took only seconds. I checked Kelly Blue Book values, picked prices only marginally below what a dealer would charge, and both bikes sold quickly. The TT250 sold the day after I listed it; the RX3 took one additional day.
All the China haterbator keyboard commandos said Chinese bikes had no resale value. Like everything else they posted, they were wrong. The haters said Chinese bikes were unreliable (they were wrong), the haters said you couldn’t get parts for them (they were wrong), the haters said they were built with slave labor (I’ve been in the factories, and they were wrong), and they said they had no resale value (and they were wrong about that, too). My 6-year-old RX3 with 20,000 miles on the clock went for 69% of its original MSRP, and my 5-year-old TT250 with 3,000 miles went for 74% of its original MSRP. That’s pretty good, I think. And both sold right away. Not that I was in a hurry to sell. I probably could have held out for more.
So I’m down to one motorcycle, and that’s the Enfield. For me, at this point in my life, one motorcycle is the right number (your mileage may vary). I’m on to other “how many” questions now, like how many guns are too many, and how many bicycles are too many. The answer to both of those questions is something south of my current number, but those are topics for future blogs.
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There’s lots of Baja photos in this blog, and for good reason. Baja is one of the best places on the planet for poking around on a motorcyle. Check out our updated Baja page, and pick up your copy of Moto Baja!
An new exciting thing is that Kawasaki brought back the KLR 650. A review of the Kawi info makes it look like the big change is fuel injection, along with a few other things (like digital instrumentation, accessory and USB outlets, higher alternator output, optional integrated locking luggage, and optional ABS). Per the Kawasaki announcement:
The all-new KLR®650 dual-sport motorcycle is built to empower your passion to escape and explore. Featuring a 652cc engine, new fuel injection system, all-digital instrumentation, disc brakes, and optional ABS, the KLR650 is ready and eager to make new memories. Dual-sport capability allows the journey to go on- and off-road with all three available models, including two special edition models that are equipped with factory-installed Kawasaki Genuine Accessories. With the KLR650, KLR650 Traveler, and KLR650 Adventure motorcycles, your next great expedition awaits.
This is good; Kawasaki is finally catching up to CSC’s RX3 and RX4 series of adventure motorcycles. Don’t get me wrong; I owned a KLR 650 (first gen) and it was a stellar motorcycle. One of my good buddies is still riding it. They were fabulous motorcycles; I hope the new one is as good. By the way, if you’d like to read our comparison of the KLR 650 to the CSC RX4, you can do so here.
Pricing, per Kawasaki, is $6699 for the base model and $7,999 for the fully-loaded model, with a Kawasaki-listed destination charge of $410. There’s no mention of the setup fee. But they do mention in the small print that the dealer sets the actual destination charge and your price may vary. You think? Mark my words…dealers will throw on a $1500 freight and setup fee on this bike. When you enter the green room, be forewarned: Having worked in the motorcycle industry, I can tell you that actual freight (what the dealer really pays) is well under $400, and setup on a KLR 650 takes under an hour. And as point of reference, when I bought my ’06 KLR 650 new, it was $5200 out the door. Let the good times roll.
When I rode to the Overland Expo in Arizona a few years ago with good buddies Duane and Paul on CSC RX3 motorcycles, I met a bunch of interesting people. One man I saw at that event but didn’t meet was Sam Manicom. When this quiet and friendly-looking guy stopped by the CSC booth and left a flyer, I stuck the flyer in my pocket, from there it went into my saddlebag for the freeway blast back to California, and a week or so later I read it.
My first reaction when I read the flyer was that I had missed an opportunity. Had I known who Sam was back then I would not have let him slip by without a conversation. Just a few lines into the flyer I knew I wanted to read his books. I did (I bought and read all of them) and they were great. In fact, I’m wondering now why I didn’t include them in the Five Best Moto Books blog I recently wrote (they were that good). I should have, and I’m making up for that oversight with this blog.
Fast forward a few years, and I was at another adventure touring motorcycle event (the Horizons Unlimited gathering in Mariposa), and Sam was there as a speaker. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. I met Sam, we had a great conversation, and I attended his presentation later that evening. The guy is a mesmerizing story teller, and Sue and I enjoyed his travel descriptions. He has a voice and a manner of speaking that made us feel like kids listening to stories around a campfire. The word “hypnotic” comes to mind. Trust me on this, folks: Don’t miss an opportunity to listen to one of Sam’s talks or read his books. The guy is a master.
I wrote about Sam when I was doing the CSC blog, and the thought occurred to me I might post an updated blog here on ExNotes. I wrote to Sam to make sure he was okay with that, and he is. Sam sent materials and links to me for inclusion here on the ExNotes blog, and I’m sharing them with you today.
So who is Sam Manicom? Well, this is a man who went out and did what many have always wanted to do. Chuck it all in and set off on an epic motorcycle adventure.
A senior manager in retail, but wanting to do something completely different, Sam learned to ride a motorcycle and set off to ride the length of Africa on a 1991 BMW R80GS. He’d been riding a bike for just three months the day he arrived at the Sahara. This one-year trip turned into an 8-year, 55-country, 6-continent adventure (Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa again, South, Central and North America).
But there’s a twist. Sam now has four books published about the journey, and he never intended to write a thing. The point for him was to hunt out new adventures, but along the way other travellers encouraged him to write magazine articles.
He did this successfully over the latter four years of the ride, but he’s quick to point out, “Writing never took over as being the point of the journey. I was out there to learn, to have fun and to enjoy the freedom travelling by motorcycle was giving me. But sometimes you find yourself in places for longer periods of time. It might be because you are on a visa hunt that takes longer than anticipated, or that you have simply found yourself in a place that you really don’t want to leave in a hurry. I wrote all of my articles in times such as these. The journey is what really matters.”
Sam’s first book, Into Africa
Why attempt to write the books? As Sam tells it, “I guess it was a new challenge and I’d spent time during the last year or so on the road, wondering what I could do with all that I’d learnt. Not only would trying to write a book be a new adventure for me but I had another thought in mind. In part my books are aimed at those fortunate enough to know that they actually can go out and live the dream, with the hope that they might encourage them to just do it. But also for those who love the sound of travelling but are quite happy with adventure from the pages. I’ve also consciously written them for those who live in circumstances that may never allow them to ride into adventure.”
Sam writes for ADVMoto Magazine, Overland Magazine, Motorcycle Sport and Leisure, Adventure Bike Rider, Motorcycle Monthly and various other motorcycle magazines and newspapers around the world. He is a regular presenter at BMW dealerships, and Horizons Unlimited, Overland Expo, and Adventure Bike Rider Festival events. Sam is also a co-host of the Adventure Rider Radio RAW show.
Sam has a fairly unusual background in that he was born in the Belgian Congo in Central West Africa. His parents worked and lived through the two rebellions that preceded the change of the country’s name to Zaire. They brought the family home to England when he was ten years old. For the first few years at school in the UK he was known as “Jungle Boy.”
Sam’s first solo journey was by bicycle age 16. His next big trip was a backpacking, seat-of-the-pants voyage of discovery across Europe, India and Australia, which often saw him down to his last $10. On arrival in Australia, no one asked him if he had any money and a return ticket. He had neither. What was needed, he earned along the way and this he says was a great learning experience.
Though not looking for a girlfriend, Sam met his partner Birgit Schuenemann in New Zealand during year two of his 8-year motorcycle trip. After riding pillion with him for 3 months through Nepal and India she joined him for the latter four years across Africa and the Americas. She was travelling by bicycle when they met but transferred steeds to ride her own motorcycle, a 1971 BMW R60/5. She started her ride in Africa with just 600 miles experience on a motorcycle. Sam’s BMW R80GS, at the time of writing, has 278,000 miles under its wheels and is still his only means of transport in the UK where he is based. He also owns an F800GS which he keeps in the USA for his regular trips to the States.
For more information about Sam and his books check out www.sam-manicom.com. Sam’s books are available from Amazon
So there you have it: My thoughts on one of the best adventure motorcycle story tellers ever. Take advantage of the links we’ve provided above. You can thank me later.
A hidden treasure and one of Mexico’s national historic monuments, you might blow through Santa Rosalia on a trip through Baja and miss the Hotel Frances. That would be a bad thing. A stay in the Frances is one of Baja’s great pleasures, and Santa Rosalia is a fun town to explore.
Santa Rosalia is the first town on the Transpeninsular Highway along the Sea of Cortez after you cross the peninsula. The highway drops sharply as you descend Baja’s eastern seaboard through a series of dramatic and delightful twisties. The stretch is called La Cuesta del Infierno, and I could make the case that this road, all by itself, is worth a Baja visit. After that, it’s a short ride along the Sea of Cortez, and then you enter Santa Rosalia. There’s a main street that cuts due west (Alvaro Obregon) into Santa Rosalia, and the Hotel Frances sits high on a mesa to the right as you enter the downtown area.
The Hotel Frances is constructed entirely of wood in a colonial style, as is most of Santa Rosalia. It was built in 1886 when the French Boleo company mined copper in this region. I started to say I could write a book about all this, but I guess I already did. Two, in fact. But I’ll give you the commercial at the end of this blog.
I’ve taken more than a few photos in and around the Frances, but as I looked through them to write this blog, I only found one inside any of the hotel rooms. The rooms are wood, too, and they really are unique.
I shot that photo above as I was packing my Triumph Tiger’s panniers, and I guess I probably should have grabbed a shot with the bed made the night before. But that’s okay. It gives me a reason to return. Not that I need a reason beyond simply wanting to tour Baja again. In my book, that’s reason enough.
You might be wondering about security and safety. You know, if you read the papers, Mexico is a dangerous place. But not these small towns in Baja. One time when I stayed at the Frances, I noticed an older Mexican fellow in the parking lot. He was a security guard, the first I had ever seen in the area.
The security guard didn’t speak English and I don’t speak much Spanish, but we had a nice conversation. Being a gun nut, I asked him about his Smith and Wesson. He took it out of his holster and handed it to me. I was shocked, but I quickly saw that his well worn revolver was unloaded. I asked about that and he smiled a knowing smile. My new friend reached in his shirt pocket, withdrew a single crusty old .38 cartridge, and held it up to show he was strapped and ready for action. What do you know…I was having a conversation with the real deal: Baja’s very own Barney Fife!
The mesa the Frances sits on is an interesting part of town. There’s a mining museum there, an old steam locomotive, and other mining things. Santa Rosalia, you see, used to be a mining town until the copper played out. But then the price of copper went up sharply, and now it’s being mined again.
I’ve always liked Santa Rosalia. There are good restaurants in town, the place has a nice feel to it, and there’s the Iglesia de Santa Bárbara, an old all-metal church unlike any I’ve ever seen in Mexico (or anywhere else, for that matter). I first heard it was designed by Gustav Eiffel (the same guy who designed the Eiffel Tower); more recently, I’ve read that story wasn’t true. Whatever version you subscribe to, it’s a beautiful church that was built in 1897 and it’s right at the bottom of the hill from the Frances.
.The El Muelle restaurant is catty-cornered one block away from the church, and the seafood there is excellent (El Muelle means “the dock” in Spanish). There’s an old bakery a block or two west on Alvaro Obregon, the Boleo Panaderia, that offers outstanding pastries. There’s a Chinese restaurant, the Comida China, about a half mile south of town on the Transpeninsular Highway that is surprisingly good. And there are taco stands and other interesting spots throughout Santa Rosalia. At night, Santa Rosalia is a hopping place.
A walk through the downtown area is a rewarding experience. Like I said earlier, all the architecture is wood, as is fitting for an old mining town of French ancestry. It’s just a fun place, and it’s one of my favorites in Baja. Trust me on this: You’ll enjoy a stay in Santa Rosalia.
The phone number for the Frances Hotel is (011-52-115)-2-20-52. Last I checked, there’s no email address. The lack of an email address notwithstanding, the Frances Hotel has great wi fi coverage and I’ve posted more than a few blogs from there during my several visits. I love the place and I think you will, too.
On that book commercial I promised above: I’ve written two books in which Santa Rosalia figures prominently. One is Moto Baja
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Recently Berk wrote a story on his five best motorcycle books. I figure I’ll copy him since nothing else moto-related is going on. Berk’s choices were all good choices but naturally not the ones I would have picked. Berk and I differ on a lot of topics (ok, most) but we don’t let that stop us from getting along well. Maybe it’s my deep-seated conviction that I am always right or maybe it’s because I actually am always right that smooths troubled waters. It’s hard to tell, really. Whatever it is it works so I’m not going to over-analyze the thing.
The thing is, I don’t read many motorcycle books, and five will be a stretch. Sure, I’ve read Berk’s travel books but only the ones with me in them. I have nothing against travel/adventure books but as a rule, it’s a topic that I would rather do than read about. I’m going to take a stab at the five-list anyway.
My top pick for all-time best motorcycle book is Floyd Clymer’s A Treasury of Motorcycles of the World
The Treasury
Maybe I’m remembering the Treasury
Next on my list of all-time greats is a book I’ve never read. Learn To Wheelie by Jack B. Watson was advertised in the back ads of the many, many motorcycle magazines I devoured as a youth. The book must have sold by the thousands because the ads ran at least 20 years. That alone should tell you how good Learn To Wheelie is. I wanted to buy a copy for all those 20 years but money was scarce and I ended up learning to wheelie by trial and error.
Trial and error was how most of us learned to wheelie and it was a hard won skill. One time I flipped over backwards on my Honda SL70 doing around 45 miles per hour. I landed on my back and the asphalt wore through at each of my vertebra leaving little, quarter-sized cherries to mark out each one in a zipper-like fashion.
The SL70 continued on for few yards longer and when the front wheel came down the bike started cartwheeling in the middle of the road. It bent the swing arm, the frame, the handlebars and broke any sticky-outtie parts clean off. It was like the SL70 had spent a few hours in a cement mixer. Things would have gone a whole lot different had I read Learn To Wheelie. A whole lot different.
If you asked me, and you didn’t, I’d say the book that had the most influence on my feverish teenaged brain was Cycletoons
Unlike Clymer’s Treasury, Cycletoons
Webley-Vickers, The Ol’ Poop, Cycle Chicks, the lonely hearts mail page, Pillow Trot and Elbow Juice, I loved all of it and haunted the local 7-11 store eating Lemon Heads and waiting for the next issue to come out. Cycletoons
If you are into old clunkers like I am Chilton’s Motorcycle Repair Manual
Beyond it’s practical applications, Chilton’s Motorcycle Repair Manual
Structurally, Chilton’s Motorcycle Repair Manual
Last but not least is another book I haven’t read but I do have it on order from Amazon. One Man Caravan
It’s a sad thing when your list of five best motorcycle books has two books you haven’t read but there is nothing I can do about it now. Let me know if I’ve missed any!
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