Janus: The men, the motorcycles, Mexico, and Made In America!

I’m back after a 4-day, thousand-mile ride through Baja on a Janus Gryffin. I’m well-rested, I’m warm, and I had a great time.  It was a ride I’ll remember.

Brrrrr. That’s Devin Biek on the left, one of the two Janus founders (Richard Worsham is the other one). The guy on the right is Jordan Swartzendruber, the Janus video and photo guy.

On our first day we rode up to Idyllwild on icy roads, on to Julian, and then to the border near Tecate. Wow, was it ever cold! On every motorcycle trip, there are those “Why I am doing this?” moments, and I had more than a few of those on that first day. We stayed in Pine Valley on the US side that first night, a wide spot in the road with one restaurant open that evening, the appropriately-named Frosty Burger with outdoor seating only. Nope, too cold for that. It was to be a general store with sandwiches and pizza that night, which we ate standing in the store (the place had no seating). We joked with the two ladies behind the counter. “I’m married, ladies,” I told them, “but my friends Jordan and Devin want to know if you’re single.” It was that kind of an evening. We were out in the world on a motorcycle ride, headed for Mexico.

We crossed the border the next morning and the Mexican immigration officer successfully pitched his homemade salsa to us. It was funny. I tried to imagine a US Customs officer examining my passport in LAX and asking “hey, have you ever considered becoming an Amway rep?”

The bikes drew a crowd of Mexicans at the immigration control point, and that occurred every place we went. Even folks with no motorcycle knowledge knew they were looking at something special. Those who knew bikes understood these machines even better. A Mexican gentleman about my age examined the leading link front suspension and said “Ah, like Montesa.” His knowledge of vintage Spanish motorcycles surprised me and I immediately thought of Joe Gresh (it’s a private joke, folks).

Devin’s Halcyon model on the Rumarosa Grade. Note the Montesa-like leading link front suspension. I rode the Gryffin model, which I liked a lot. Richard Worsham rode this bike across the United States.

That day we stopped for photos as we rode through the Rumarosa Grade, and then it was on to the Mexicali bypass. We picked up Highway 5 south, and it was on that stretch that I really bonded with the Gryffin. I can only do that on a motorcycle with a soul. Some motorcycles have no soul and no character. But the Janus did. My good buddy Marty once bought a new Honda CBR1100XX, a bike with incredible performance stats. But he sold it after only a few months, and when I asked why, Marty told me it had no character and no soul.  I realized as I rolled through Mexico at a steady 50 mph that the Gryffin was something special. It spoke to me. The burble of its CG engine had a good sound. The cold air felt less cold, and the bike just felt right. It’s not something that’s easy to explain. Some of you will know what I’m talking about.

I knew a taco stand I wanted to visit for lunch, but we were already out in the desert coastal plains north of the Sea of Cortez and I had not seen it. Maybe it closed since I was here last, I thought, or maybe I just missed it. That would be disappointing. Then, nope, there it was. It was to be our first meal in Mexico. I was hoping Devin and Jordan would like it. Some folks get Baja, and others don’t. I would soon know if these guys would understand Baja’s magic.

The boys, about to savor their first Baja cuisine. It was grand. One bite and these fellows totally understood Baja.

Jordan ordered tacos. I ordered a quesadilla, and Devin did, too. We sat at one of the tables in front of the counter, all outdoors, and I looked at Jordan. He was chomping down on a taco bathed in guacamole sauce. He nodded approvingly, savoring the best of Baja. My quesadilla was delicious. Devin took a bite of his and smiled. At that instant, I knew this was a great trip, one for the ages. These guys get it, I realized. Devin, who had said something about being a vegan at the start of our trip, abandoned all thoughts of vegan purity. Hey, it’s the 500-mile rule. We were outside the perimeter of all mortal regulatory constraints and anything went. Devin wondered aloud if he had time to order a second quesadilla. He looked at me. You bet, I said. Go for it. More Mexicans stopped to admire and ask us about the motorcycles parked at the edge of our table. It was fun.

We burbled further south on Highway 5. The bikes purred. There’s just something about a single that says all is well with the world. And all was that fine day.

Dinner in along the Malecon in San Felipe that evening was fun. It had grown cold again, but it was not the bitter cold of Pine Valley. We looked out into the dark over the Sea of Cortez, knowing we had been carried to this spot by our Janus motorcycles. We had Tecate cerveza, con sal, with a wedge of lime. Devin ordered a bowl of guacamole. Chips and salsa were before us. They say you truly know the limits of your self-control when the chips and salsa are in front of you. I had none (self-control, that is). It was a wonderful dinner.

“So how does it feel,” I asked Devin, “knowing that you’re riding a motorcycle you designed and built, being in a place like this?”

Devin smiled. “It feels good,” he answered. He ordered another Tecate, one of the life’s grand treats, bottled in a city we had ridden through just that morning.

Burbling along on Highway 3, headed to Ensenada along a road few ride. We owned the road that fine morning.

We were up early the next day, and we were on our way diagonally across Baja to Ensenada. We owned the road; there were almost no other vehicles on Highway 3 that morning. The photo ops were great. The scenery was impressive. We stopped for fuel at a Pemex in Valle Trinidad. It was grand, as riding a motorcycle in Baja always is. We rolled on for 70 miles and entered Ensenada from the southeast. It was a heavily-littered area and the traffic soon grew heavy. We caught glimpses of the Pacific Ocean. We passed an intersecting road that entered Highway 3 at an angle at least 45 degrees steep. I wondered how any vehicle could make it up such a grade, stop, and then enter our roadway. Ah, Mexico.  I love it.

We rolled into Tecate late that third night. The Janus motorcycle’s headlight is impressive; it did a much better job than I expected. The El Dorado hotel had no vacancies, so it was on to the Hacienda (a mile further up Benito Juarez Boulevard), and we were in luck. Dinner that night was Chinese food. Yep, Chinese food in Mexico. Chinese restaurants abound in Mexico, and they are excellent.

We were concerned about the next day, as the forecast was for rain. Up early again, we turned in our tourist visas at the Mexican immigration office (no pitches for salsa this time), and we cut through the K-barriers to jump the line to the US border crossing. That little trick took at least an hour off our trip, and nobody tear-gassed us for rushing the border. The US border control officer was intrigued by my motorcycle. I told him about Janus and mentioned that the founder was on the next bike.  I think he found that even more intriguing.

Our ride home yesterday began with the mountains and twisties of southern San Diego County, and then we entered San Diego’s morning rush-hour traffic. It was the 94 to the 805 to the 15, and then a 120-mile drone north. Rain hit us just south of Temecula. We rode through 30 miles of it, we stopped to top off the bikes in Elsinore (yep, a Honda was named for the very same city), and a few miles further down the road the rain stopped.

That was our ride. Like I said above, I loved it. Even the cold parts and the rain. Those are the parts of any motorcycle trip I always remember. Time washes away the fleeting discomfort and it all blends together as part of the adventure.

So, on to the Janus motorcycles themselves. What are they like?

In a word, they are unique. They are vintage, but new. They target a special kind of rider.  They are not for everybody and not everybody will understand what they are.  But those who do….well, read on, my friends.

I’ve read comments about Janus on the forums saying they’re too expensive, they’re Chinese, Janus won’t last, you won’t be able to get parts, they’re overpriced, and on and it goes. There’s a behavioral science term for this kind of Internet forum negativity and nastiness: Online disinhibition. It means that folks say stupid stuff on the Internet they would never say in person. Couple that with the fact that a motorcycle is an emotional purchase, and you see some really wild stuff out there. Anyone with a keyboard and a connection thinks they are an expert on motorcycle design, manufacturing, procurement, service, and of course, marketing. My take on all of this?  If ignorance truly is bliss, there are lots of really happy people out there.

As I said above, somewhere on the road to San Felipe I bonded with the Gryffin. It just felt right to me. The motorcycle had a gem-like quality, with the precise and exquisite feel of a Rolex wristwatch. The fuel tank is a work of art. The leading link front suspension has a hint of R69S to it; the bike doesn’t dive on braking (a benefit of this kind of suspension). The colors just flat work and they are elegant. The seat looks right (Devin apologized about the comfort level and he told me they have a new seat coming, but it felt okay to me as is). The frame is a deep gloss black. The rear rack works and it looks good. The switchgear was slightly different than what I am used to, but I became comfortable with the Janus layout quickly.  The fit and finish are superior.

I know the CG engine well, having ridden many long-distance trips on CG-engined CSC motorcycles. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the CG engine, and the Janus bikes showcase the engine well. I know where the engine is made (China) and I know where the design originated (Brazil and Japan), but this vertical single has a distinctly British look.  In fact, even though the Janus and nearly all of its parts are fabricated and assembled in Goshen, Indiana, the bike looks British to me. Not British as in Triumph’s Kawi-inspired multis or today’s Thai-built Bonnevilles, but British of the Cotton 650 single, the BSA M20, or Brough Superior days (and I realize as I type this that the naysaying keyboard commandos will have no idea what I am talking about). I like that early British look, and I think the Janus guys nailed it. Maybe that’s why I bonded with the bike. Cue in the theme music from any James Bond movie, with Sean Connery’s voiceover: Bond. Janus Bond.

I like that you can see the motor. It’s a motorcycle, see? You’re supposed to be able to see the motor on a motorcycle. You can see the engine on this bike. It’s the way God intended a motorcycle to be. Body work? Fairings? We don’t need no stinking fairings!

Here’s something else I like: The Janus folks don’t like chrome. That doesn’t mean the bikes have no shiny components (they have many), but when you see something on a Janus that’s shiny, it’s not chrome. In nearly all instances, it’s polished stainless steel. Made in Goshen, Indiana. That’s right here in the US, you know.  Tell me again why you think $7000 is too much for this hand-built motorcycle?

About 25% of our trip involved riding in the mountains and that meant tons of twisties. The bike handles well, even with the weight I had strapped on the rear rack. Devin told me that I went through a corner with the motorcycle leaned over way more than he had ever seen. I told him I wanted to assess how the bike took a corner hard; I didn’t tell him I hadn’t been paying attention and I entered that corner way too hot. Trust me on this: The bike handles.

The Janus motorcycles excel in drawing a crowd, far more so than any other motorcycle I’ve ever ridden. The things are magnets. People know they are seeing something special, and once they get close enough, the Janus attention to fit and finish makes the motorcycles even more visually appealing. The closest thing I’ve ever seen to a bike attracting this kind of attention were the CSC Mustangs, and the Janus was even more of a magnet. Many folks thought the Janus motorcycles were restored vintage machines. We experienced this kind of attention at virtually every stop.

Look, I know you can buy a used (fill in the blanks here, keyboard commandos) for less than the cost of a new Janus. That’s missing the point entirely. I’m fairly confident that no one ever considered a used Sportster as an alternative to a Janus. Nope, this bike is for someone who wants something special, something different, something that is not made to appeal to the broadest possible market. I asked Devin if he and Richard Worsham (Janus’ other founding partner) did a market study before they introduced the bike. You can guess the answer. “No,” Devin answered. “We built the bike we wanted to build.”  So, if you’re a person who follows the crowd, this is not your motorcycle.  If you’re a person who makes your own decisions, though, then you’re in the zone here, folks.

About that $7K price: The keyboard commandos have said that’s too much for a 250. I don’t think so. Consider the BMW G 310 GS recently reviewed here on the ExNotes blog. That’s a 250-class bike made in India that goes for something north of $7K. Consider the Versys 300 Kawi. Same story there by the time you’re done screwing around with the typical dealer’s larcenous setup and freight charges. Yeah, there are other machines out there for less, most notably the CSC motorcycles with the same CG engine (the TT250 and the SG250). The CSC motorcycles are phenomenal motorcycles and their value is off the charts. They don’t have the look and the exclusivity of a Janus, though, and they are not made in America. Is that important? I’d say no, but a lot of people think otherwise to read their Internet forum comments (which they type, of course, on computers made in China).

Think about that for a second. Motorcycles made in America. Yeah, the Janus CG motor is Chinese. What’s your point? Nearly everything else is fabricated and assembled right here. Maybe it’s time for some of the naysayers and keyboard commandos to put their money where their mouths are. It’s not likely the strokesters would ever do that, but maybe it’s time they should.  Me? I think what the guys in Goshen are doing is amazing. You have two young guys with a vision and a great team building motorcycles in America.  Exquisite motorcycles with style and a unique character. Motorcycles that can take you through Baja and bring you back safely.  Motorcycles with a soul. A motorcycle with which you can form a bond.  What’s wrong with that?


Want to read the rest of the story?   Please visit our Baja page for an index to all of the Janus Baja blog posts!

Another 230 beautiful Baja miles…

Wow, we’re here in San Felipe, we just returned from a great dinner along the malecon, and yep, it’s still cold.   I’ll have more photos than text this evening, boys and girls, mostly because I want to get a good night’s sleep.  We’re staying in the beautiful Costa Azul Hotel right on the Sea of Cortez, and with that, let me get into a recap of the day’s ride.

One of the funniest things that’s happened on this trip occurred this morning.  When we stopped for our Mexican visas at their immigration office, Devin mentioned he was looking forward to great salsa with our dinner.

“I make the best salsa,” the Mexican immigration officer said.

“What time should we be over for dinner?” I asked.

“You can buy my salsa,” he answered, and with that comment he paused in his review of our visas and pulled out a variety of salsas and other condiments.  He arranged them neatly on his desk.  Devin and I looked at each other, and then we looked at the immigration dude.

“They are very good…” he said.

“I’ll take one of these and one of those,” Devin said.   Tourist visas approved, salsa in hand, and we were on our way.   I can’t make up stuff this good, folks.  That’s Baja for you.

So we were on the bikes, and our first big stop was the Rumarosa Grade.   It’s breathtaking.  Take a look at the photos we grabbed there on this cold and sunny day…

Devin and Jordan, with the Rumarosa Grade mountains in the background.
Jordan’s Gryffin. The colors just flat work. So do the bikes. I am savoring the ride and I am enjoying the motorcycles.
I’m riding the charcoal Gryffin in the foreground. The polished aluminum tank is an option.
Kids. Whatcha gonna do? That’s Jordan photographing Devin over the Rumarosa Grade. Devin is earning his hazardous duty pay.

We rode east on Highway 2 and as we descended from the Rumarosa Grade, we found what we had been seeking:  Warmth.   It was still a bit on the cold side (and we’re riding with lots of layered clothing), but it was an escape from the frigid high-altitude air we had been riding through for the last day and a half.   The warmer temps felt great.

We took the bypass around Mexicali, and we were soon southbound on Highway 5.   That meant a stop for lunch at my favorite open air taco stand, and wow, was it ever good.  Devin went back for seconds.  It was awesome.

Carne on the chopping block…
I give this place 5 stars. It was a great lunch.
Jordan’s tacos. They were great.
Devin, Round 2.
A quesadilla that was extraordinary. Wow, was it ever good!
The vanity plate on my motorcycle. I am seriously enjoying this machine!

After our fabulous lunch we rolled across the upper Sea of Cortez plains.  It was a glorious ride on a glorious day.  Jordan was grabbing video and taking photos.  Me?  I was just enjoying the ride.

We checked into the hotel and went to dinner.  Fish tacos tonight, folks.  Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a motorcycle blog!   All I’m doing is talking about food!

All right, one more.  After dinner, Jordan and Devin stopped at a churro stand.  The churros looked good, but I’ve got my figure to think about.  I took a pass.  That didn’t slow Jordan and Devin down, though!

A San Felipe churro chef. She enjoyed me taking her picture, I think…
The Janus Motorcycles Baja churro judges. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. I think they approve.

And folks, that’s a wrap for tonight.   Tomorrow we’re riding across the peninsula to Ensenada, we’ll ride along the Pacific for a bit, and then it’s through northern Baja’s wine country.

Stay tuned!


Want to read the rest of the story?   Please visit our Baja page for an index to all of the Janus Baja blog posts!

A Suggested Baja Itinerary: 4 days on the road…

This is a nice leisurely run down to San Felipe on the Sea of Cortez, mostly staying off the freeways.  It’s ideal for a smaller bike.  I’ve done it many times, most recently on the CSC TT250 (a bike with a 229cc Honda CG clone engine) and it’s a laid back, fun ride.    About half of it is through the lower portion of southern California, and the other half is through the upper portion of northern Baja, touching two oceans and taking in the best scenery of both areas.  Here’s what the Baja portion of this ride looks like on a map…

A day in So Cal heading south, two glorious days in northern Baja, and a fourth day in So Cal headed home.

The idea is to spend a day meandering through southern California to get to Tecate. My favorite route heads east on Rt. 66 through San Bernardino and beyond into Yucaipa, diverting north for just a bit through the mountains into beautiful Oak Glen, crossing I-10 (without getting on it) to the 243 up to Idyllwild, and then picking up 79 to head south through Julian and on to Tecate.   This part of California is an amazing country ride, and it’s likely you’ll see bobcat, wild turkey, deer, and coyote.   Good times, to be sure.  There are two Tecates, actually…one on the US side of the border, and the  far more interesting Tecate on the Mexico side.

Headed south through So Cal toward Tecate on a 229cc roadburner. Life doesn’t get much better!

Tecate is a fun town.  If you call ahead, you can arrange for a tour of the Tecate brewery.   Tecate’s town square is cool, and if you stay at the El Dorado Hotel, it’s within walking distance.   There’s a great Chinese restaurant across the street from the El Dorado, although you probably didn’t venture into Mexico to eat Chinese food.   That’s no problem, as there are a couple of outstanding taco stands (also an easy walk from the El Dorado, and any of the Mexican restaurants on the town square are great.  Trust me on this; I’ve tried them all.

On Day 2, pick up Mexico Highway 2 out of Tecate and head east toward Mexicali.   The Rumarosa Grade is the best part of this road.   The scenery is breathtaking and it’s a spot where you will want to stop for photos.

Good buddy Dan the K on the Rumarosa Grade. This is dramatic scenery and a fabulous ride.

Highway 2 runs directly into Mexicali, but you don’t want to do that.  Mexicali is a large industrial town (some might argue that Mexicali has its charms, but I’m not of them).  Take the bypass that veers off to the right before you enter Mexicali (it’s well marked), and you’ll cut a quarter circle around Mexicali.  The bypass will put you on Mexico Highway 5, which heads due south toward San Felipe (and that’s our destination for the second evening of this 4-day road trip).

Mexico Highway 5 is a cool road.   For the first 15 miles or so south of Mexicali, it’s built up.   I haven’t tried all of the taco stands along this stretch, but the ones I have visited have all been great, and the timing will be right for a lunch stop.   As you continue south along 5, the surrounding land changes dramatically.  You will enter a volcanic field that borders the northwest corner of the Sea of Cortez.  The scenery is stark, with bleached white and beige desert accented by dark burgundy and black rock formations.  You’ll smell the sulfur (this is a geologically active area, and it’s another great spot for dramatic photos).

A taco vendor on Mexico Highway 5. The real deal.
Wow, were they ever good!
A stop along geologically-active Highway 5. I can still smell the sulfur.

You will soon see the Sea of Cortez as Highway 5 parallels the shoreline.   Highway 3 cuts off on your right; but don’t take it (it’s the road we’ll travel the next morning).  For now, continue south on 5 and you’ll run right into San Felipe.

There’s a Pemex as you enter town, and I always like to top off there.  Bear left to downtown, and you’ll enter the Malecon area.   It’s a tourist area, but it’s nice.   The Rice and Beans restaurant is the dominant eatery in this area, but any of the others are good (my favorite is Chuy’s).  There are several hotels along this stretch; I like to stay at the El Cortez on the southern edge of town.   The El Cortez has a fine restaurant, and they do a great job for both dinner and breakfast.

The photo ops in San Felipe are what make this a great destination.   I like to grab evening shots, and then get up early the next morning for sunrise photos looking out across the Sea of Cortez.  The tidal variation in the Sea of Cortez northern regions is extreme, and in the evening, you’ll see miles of exposed ocean floor.  As you look out over the Sea of Cortez in the morning you’ll be facing due east, and the dawns are dramatic.

San Felipe is a hopping town!
A room with a view at the El Cortez Hotel.
San Felipe in the evening.
A San Felipe sunrise.

The next day brings us to Day 3 of this Baja adventure.   After a great breakfast at the El Cortez restaurante, head north on Highway 5 again for maybe 20 miles, and then pick up Highway 3 east (the one we passed coming the prior afternoon heading down toward San Felipe).  Highway 3 is another great road.  It cuts through the coastal deserts and then climbs into northern Baja’s mountains.  Watch for the rock art in this area.   A favorite is a set of boulders painted to look like a whale skeleton, or maybe a giant lizard.  It’s cool.

Highway 3 cuts across northern Baja, running from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean.
Rock art along Baja’s Highway 3.

There’s a Pemex on Highway 3 in Valle Trinidad and it’s a good idea to top off here.  Stay on Highway 3 and you’ll ride completely across the Baja peninsula.  You’ll see the Pacific Ocean as you enter Ensenada on Baja’s west coast.  It’s a gritty ride into town and you’ll get to see what a Mexican city looks like.   Stay on Highway 3 and you’ll soon find yourself in the Zona Turistica.  Highway 3 joins Mexico Highway 1 (the Transpeninsular Highway) for a few miles, and then it veers off to the right in El Sauzal.  That’s on Ensenada’s northern edge (you’ll be headed northeast once you make the turn).

This is the Ruta del Vino, another great road.  We’re headed back to Tecate for our third evening in Baja, and we’re passing through northern Baja’s wine country.  This is an awesome stretch.  Lunch has to be at Naranjo’s (it’s on the left as you head toward Tecate).   There are many wineries through this magnificent stretch; my favorite is the L.A. Cetto vineyard.  They have a great tasting room, but keep two things in mind: Don’t overdo it (remember, you’re on a motorcycle ride), and you can only bring one bottle back across the US border.

That night, the stay is in Tecate again, and you can try a different restaurant than the one you visited two nights ago.   Like I said before, they’re all great.  On the morning of Day 4, I always take my breakfast at the little restaurant right next to the El Dorado, and I’ll fill up again at the Pemex diagonally across the street.  The lines at the garita (the border crossing) are usually hideously long, but hey, that’s not a problem for us.  There’s a break in the concrete K-barriers just before the entry point, and nobody ever seems to mind when motorcycles use it to jump the line.

Day 4?  It’s a rerun of Day 1 if you wish (and that’s what I always do, as the scenery is magnificent) or you can take any of several other options through So Cal as you head home.

Baja, 150cc at time: Part V

The trek south on our 150cc California Scooter Mustang replicas continues. On the off chance you haven’t followed this ride, here are the first four installments of this grand adventure.   I almost called it a mini-adventure, but only the bikes were “mini.”   Everything else about this ride was a full-bore adventure.   So, to bring you up to speed…

Part I:  Baja, 150cc at a time…

Part II:  Baja, 150cc at a time…

Part III:  Baja, 150cc at a time…

Part IV:  Baja, 150cc at a time…

And with that, we’re back on the road, with our little 150cc Mustang CG clones, built by CSC Motorcycles, thumping their way south yet again…

Here’s a shot of our bikes parked in front of the Las Casitas Hotel in Mulege (it’s pronounced Mool-a-hay). The Tropic of Cancer was just a few miles down the road.

After a great stay at the Las Casitas Hotel in Mulege (one of my favorite places in Baja), we were on the road again, headed south to Ciudad Constitucion, our stop for the next evening. The regions we passed through were amazing, but the riding was beyond brutal. September is one of the hottest months of the year in Baja, and we were riding in 100-degree weather.

We soaked our clothes several times that day. J had a bunch of water in 5-gallon jerry cans on his big Dodge Power Wagon, and we used a trick I learned in the Army a long time ago…we soaked ourselves and then put our jackets on. The jacket keeps the water from evaporating too quickly, and in this kind of weather, you can stay cool for about an hour before you need another soaking. It really works.

My riding gear. Joe Rocket gloves. They work. Don’t ask me how I know. My new Bell helmet. Lightweight, comfortable, and very, very cool. Everybody loved it. My Olympia riding jacket. Visible, and I’m still wearing it.

After Mulege, we continued south out of Mulege, and we soon found ourselves along what I believe to be the most beautiful part of Baja…and that would be Bahia Concepcion. I’ll let the photos do my talking here.

John’s California Scooter parked in front of Bahia de Concepcion on the Sea of Cortez.
The Sea of Cortez along the Transpeninsular Highway. The water really is that color.

South of Bahia Concepcion, we stopped in Loreto. It’s a nice town but it is a touristy spot. John and J got nailed for a couple of traffic infracciones, paid their fines, and we bolted.

We stayed the night in Ciudad Constitucion on the way down and on the way back.  It’s a pretty interesting town, but it is not a tourist spot (which is why I find it interesting).

This local motor officer on a 250cc Suzuki stopped us as soon as he saw our bikes. He knew they were new and different. I tossed him my keys and asked for the keys to his police motor. We both had a good laugh about that!

Ciudad Constitucion was celebrating the Mexican Bicentennial, as Santa Rosalia had been the day before, and they had an awesome fireworks display.   It was impressive.

We had dinner at a sidewalk restaurant in Ciudad Constitucion, and we ate at a plastic table with plastic chairs right on the sidewalk. It was a cool evening, the town was festive, and it was great. The green things in the photo are nopales, or boiled cactus (very tasty). The tacos were delicious, too.

Simon ordering his dinner: Dos tacos.
Yours truly flirting with the waitresses. Dos senoritas.

We were up early the next morning, and we continued our southward quest. We knew the next major town was La Paz, but we didn’t want to get into it. La Paz meant heavy traffic and more heat.

You might be wondering…what were these little 150cc Mustang replicas, and what were the original Mustangs?   Hey, if you want to know more about that, you can read that story right here

Original Mustang motorcycles. Click on the image to get to the story!

CSC Motorcycles no longer manufactures new Mustangs, but more often than not they’ll have a nearly new trade-in on the showroom floor.  If you have an interest in these born-again Mustangs, here’s a link to the CSC website.

To be continued…


Want to learn more about riding in Baja?   Check out the ExhaustNotes Baja page!

Baja, 150cc at a time: Part III….

So we’re back on the story about our trek to Cabo San Lucas on reborn Mustangs, the little CG clone 150cc hardtails.   We’re doing this story in installments.  This is the third, and if you are new the ExNotes blog, you might not have seen Part I and Part II.   My advice?   Take a few minutes and read them before continuing with Part III (this part of our ongoing 150cc adventure ride)…

Part I:  Baja, 150cc at a time…

Part II:  Baja, 150cc at a time…

And with that, I’ll pick up where I left off at the end of our Part II Colonet coffee stop.  After our coffee stop, we rolled on for another hour and stopped for breakfast. Here we were, in this little Baja restaurant, and they had wireless Internet access. That’s where I posted the first CSC blog entry on our Baja trip (and we wanted to keep moving, so it was short).

Check this out…Simon Gandolfi checking his email on my laptop!

What is the world coming to, though? Wireless Internet access in Baja.  I was surprised.   That trip was the first time I had Internet access in Baja.  I knew the peninsula was changing.

Breakfast was good, and after that, it was a short hop down to El Rosario to top off the tanks before climbing into the Valle de los Cirios. Our bikes climbed, and so did the temperature. I’ll bet we had a 60-degree temperature swing that day. It was right at about 100 degrees in the desert. September is the hottest month of the year in Baja.  Why make it easy?  We stopped several times to peel off our layered riding gear as the temperatures continued to climb.

Arlene, dropping layers and trying to stay cool.

When Catavina came into view, we decided to call it a day. We might have pushed on to Guerrero Negro, but there is literally nothing between Catavina and Guerrero Negro, and it’s another 140 miles or so down the road. Too hot, too far, and we didn’t want to ride after dark.

We had a lot of fun with Simon, and we quickly dubbed him “the world’s most interesting man.” Do you remember those Dos Equis commercials? You know…the ones where a guy holding a Dos Equis beer is proclaimed the world’s most interesting man…with descriptors like “he never uses lip balm” and “his mother has a tattoo that says ‘Son.’”  We really enjoyed getting to know Simon, and he most definitely is the world’s most interesting man. Before I left, someone gave me a list of “world’s most interesting man” descriptions he grabbed off the Internet, and I dribbled them out to our group as we journeyed through Baja. The one that got the best laugh was “Simon Gandolfi is the world’s most interesting man…he once called a psychic…to warn her.”

I grabbed this shot of Simon with his California Scooter in the Valle de los Cirios south of El Rosario. It’s one of my all time favorites.

Simon was also keeping a blog for his readers. Here’s an entry from Simon’s blog…

The bikes are small and pretty, surely an unusual description of a bike. Best of all they make people smile, not with scorn but with pleasure – as does watching your children play out in the yard.

The bikes were performing well. We had two current production bikes (mine and Arlene’s), and two preproduction bikes (Simon’s and John’s). During development Steve and the boys found a few improvement opportunities on the preproduction bikes, and these resulted in upgrades on the production bikes. Simon’s and John’s preproduction bikes have had some of the problems we found earlier, but the production bikes performed flawlessly.

We didn’t coddle the little Mustangs. We ran on some pretty rough roads, and the speed bumps (topes) in every little town we pass through were brutal. The Mexicans don’t just use one speed bump. They use about 20 of the things in a row, maybe 30 feet apart, one after the other. When they tell you to slow down, they mean it. We’d slow down for the speed bumps when we saw them in time (which didn’t always happen), and then we’d speed up after the topes. As I said earlier, the bikes liked running around 45 mph. We occasionally cranked them up to over 60 mph, but then we’d settle into a relaxed putt to enjoy the scenery and the ride. It’s a sweet way to see Baja.

Here’s another cool entry from Simon’s blog…

The desert here is a vast up-and-down jumble of immense gray boulders, candelabra cactus, Judas trees and skinny scrub. To the south and west lie mountains scrubbed to their stone core by a few million years of wind and occasional rain. To the east a long roll of cloud or fog lies low over the ocean. The dawn light washes the mountains a pale chalky blue. The cloud bank is touched with pink.

I have ridden on ahead. I haven’t met another car or truck in twenty minutes. Cut the engine and the silence is total. Two buzzard glide overhead. Nothing else moves. I am absorbed into the stillness and the quiet and the beauty and find myself shivering, not with cold, but with that exultation that comes sometimes when, tired yet wonderfully content, you get into a bed spread with Egyptian cotton sheets stiff from the laundry and wriggle in minor ecstasy as you clutch yourself in your own arms. Never done that? Never slept between Egyptian cotton sheets? How sad…

And if you have never visited Baja California, start planning. Right now this is about as close as you can get to heaven without a one-way ticket.

We rode into the Catavina boulder fields, one of the prettiest parts of Baja.  It’s a surreal region with huge white boulder and enormous Cardon cactus.

Headed toward Catavina.
You’ve seen this photo before. It’s another one of my favorites. I shot it from the saddle with my old D200 Nikon and 24-120 lens as we rolled through the Catavina boulder fields.
The Catavina gas station. No kidding.

Our destination that night was Catavina, where we would spend the night in the Desert Inn. It was a grand day and a great place to call it a night. I’d stayed there many times before on prior Baja adventures, and I knew it was good. The Desert Inn is nice. It’s 100 miles from anywhere.

The courtyard in Catavina’s Desert Inn Hotel.
Our bikes parked in front of the Catavina Desert Inn.

They turn the generators off from 12:00 to 4:00 at the Desert Inn, so there’s no electricity in the afternoon.  The desolation and the surrounding landscape just make it a cool place to be, even if was 100 degrees (as it was when we stopped that day). We ate in the Desert Inn’s restaurant, we sampled their Tequilas (hey, our riding was over that day), and then we hung out in the pool. Wow, that sure felt good.

To be continued…stay tuned for Part IV!


Want to learn more about riding in Baja?   Check out the ExhaustNotes Baja page!

Baja, 150cc at a time: Part II….

To pick up where we left off, we’ll roll as far south as breakfast in Colonet in this blog.  This was to be our first full day on the road, headed south to Cabo San Lucas!

We trucked the bikes down to San Ysidro just north of the border, hopped on the little Mustangs and we were off, with J following us in the chase truck.  We had a spare bike in the back of the truck, and that’s when the fun began.  We went through the border and took off; J was stopped immediately.  Damn, we’re in the Tijuana traffic crucible, we lost J, and we didn’t have any telephone communications.  But we did have a plan.  Our rendezvous point in case we became separated was the Rosarito Beach Hotel, about 35 miles south of the border.

J was basically kicked out of Mexico as soon as he crossed the border because he didn’t have ownership documents and I guess the Mexican border agents didn’t want him bringing a motorcycle in the back of his truck into Mexico.  It just never dawned on me that this would be a problem.  Well, maybe it had…he had a letter from CSC authorizing use of the bike, but that wouldn’t cut it with the Mexican immigration folks.

Once he was back on the US side, J was able to reach the CSC truck by phone before it got too far north of the border.   J and the CSC guys moved the bike from J’s truck to the CSC truck, and J hotfooted it down to Rosarito Beach, where we had a great lunch.

Simon Gandolfi, Mustang rider, having an early lunch at the Rosarito Beach Hotel.

We rode through Ensenada, and then continued south into the northern Baja wine country.   It was grand.  Here we were, trekking south, on 150cc hardtail bikes, living large.   We stopped in Palomar to top off at a Pemex station, had a snack, and continued.

Yep, you read that right.  The CSC Mustangs were all hardtails.  The only suspension was in the seat springs.  Old school.  Cool.  You’d think our butts and back would take a beating, but that wasn’t the case at all.    Those seat springs did what they were supposed.  Surprisingly, at the end of the day we’d be feeling it in our wrists.  The handlebars weren’t rubber mounted on the Mustangs, and when the rear wheel hit a bump, the shock went directly to your hands.  But I digress.  Back to the main attraction…our trek south…

Our little 150cc California Scooters purred.  The bikes liked to run right at 45 mph. They just felt relaxed at that speed, and it’s about the perfect speed for riding on Mexico’s Transpeninsular Highway.  Here’s a bit more on the impressively-named Transpeninsular Highway.  Once you’re south of Ensenada, it’s a two-lane country road (one lane each way) that runs north and south (with lots of zigging and zagging along the way) for a cool 1000 miles, all the way down to Cabo.

A stop for fuel and a snack in Palomar, headed south on the Mustangs…

After the wine country, Mexico Highway 1 (that’s the Transpensular Highway’s numeric designation) winds through little farming towns.   In these little agricultural towns, the road is 4 or 5 feet higher than everything else. When you get off the road, you go down a pretty steep hill to get to the same level as the stores and other businesses, and there’s about a 30-foot dirt area between the street and the town on both sides of the street. People use this dirt area as sort of a parking lot and a street, so there’s traffic on the main road and the dirt areas on either side of the paved road. Which way the traffic flows in these dirt lanes depends mostly on…well, I don’t know. If I ever break the code, I’ll let you know.

We called it a night in San Vincente, and we checked into an inexpensive hotel (they’re all inexpensive down there). San Vincente was a hopping place that Friday night, which was a bit surprising to me.   What wasn’t surprising is that we were the only gringos in San Vincente.  That notwithstanding, we felt completely safe.  All the bad press in the LA Times in those days about Mexico being dangerous was bunk (“bunk” is a nice word for, well, you know).  There was so much bunk in the world back then about Mexico being dangerous that I sometimes wonder where it all came from. Is there a high-volume-production bunk factory out there I haven’t heard about?  The mainstream media, and the LA Times in particular, was hell bent on portraying Mexico as a war zone.  It’s not.

The point I’m making is that the Bajaenos are friendly, warm, and grateful that we visited this wonderful place. They had a double whammy down there…the recession, and the news media sensationalism painting all of Mexico as a terrible place. Not that San Vincente is a tourist area (it is not), but my sense of things is that the people we hung out with in San Vincente were glad to see us.

J waiting for tacos in San Vincente. The smile is real.  Good times.
J’s cabeza tacos.
Dinner in San Vincente. Wow, that was good!

Arlene and I wandered around a bit, checked out a couple of mercados (grocery stores), and we ended up at another little place that was cooking up a bunch of stuff. Folks were lined up and there were barstools at a makeshift counter.   All of this was outdoors.  Arlene and I had quesadillas (I had two, actually).  The guy who took care of us had this cool meat cooker that looked a lot like the ones I’ve seen in Turkey.  He was cool with it all and he seemed to be greatly amused that I was taking his photo.

Vinny and his brother, part of the San Vincente welcoming committee…

While we were enjoying the festive atmosphere and dinner, two young kids came up to us as I was savoring a real quesadilla (Taco Bell has no idea how good these are).  It was pretty obvious we were out-of-towners, and one of the boys slowly said to me in perfect, unaccented English “It is very good, isn’t it?” I told him it was and asked his name. “Vinny,” he said.   I took a flyer and asked if the other boy was his cousin.  “No, he is my brother,” he said.  Ah, okay. Not his cousin Vinny.  Too bad.  It would have added to the story.

We were up with the sun and on the road early the next morning, and it was cold.  I had checked out the bikes the night before and all were fine (oil, tire pressure, the standard big-road-trip-preflight-stuff for loose nuts and bolts, etc.).  I was surprised at how cold it was, because September is the hottest month of the year in Baja.  I guess nobody told the weather people, though.  Then the fog rolled in.  It was thick.  Not so thick that we couldn’t ride in it, but thick enough to soak my jeans and my gloves. We saw a coffee shop in Colonet and stopped for a caffeine fix.

Baja John, Mustang-mounted on a cold and damp morning in Colonet.  That’s the Transpeninsular Highway in the background.

I’ve done this run on big bikes many times previously and before we left I had a bit of trepidation about doing it on a 150cc motorcycle, but my fears were groundless.   The seating position on those little Mustangs was perfect for this kind of riding, and the ergos were about the same as a Harley Sportster.  Simon was surprised…he told me he felt the bike was extremely comfortable, and that it felt to him like a full-sized motorcycle (which is kind of what I was thinking).   And this was coming from a guy who rode a 125 cc pizza delivery bike to the southernmost tip of South America and back, and then rode another bike across the length of India.

After that great cup of Colonet coffee, our 150cc trek south resumed…

To be continued…

Baja, 150cc at a time…

This was a trip I did almost 10 years ago with a few good friends, and we were all on 150cc hardtail Mustang replicas.   California Scooters, to be precise.  Just as they were being introduced to the market.   Yep, we rode to Cabo San Lucas and back on 150s.

Anybody can ride Baja on a big bike.  We wanted to do something different.  It was all a big publicity thing.  Dog bites man, no big deal.  Man bites dog, that’s a story.   Ride to Cabo and back on a motorcycle?  No big deal.  Do it on a 150cc repop of a bike made 70 years ago?  That’s something the media would pick up, I reckoned, and I was right.

But first, let me introduce the crew…

Simon, Arlene, J, Baja John, and me. And the star of this show, the CSC 150 Mustang Replica.

I invited folks on this ride who had to meet two criteria:  They had to be able to help maximize CSC’s exposure in digital and print media, and they had to say yes.

Simon Gandolfi is a British novelist who rode a 125cc bike all the way to the southernmost tip of South America and back, and then he rode another 125cc bike across India.  He had a blog and he posted a lot on ADVRider.com.

My good friend Arlene Battishill is president and CEO of Go Go Gear, a maker of high end women’s riding apparel. Arlene had a custom California Scooter, she’s a tweeter, and she’s all over that great American institution fortuitously founded before the #MeToo movement, Facebook.

I wanted my longtime Mexico riding partner Baja John Welker to ride with us. John and I have been all over Mexico on our motorcycles.  He keeps me from doing really stupid things on our Baja trips.  To hear him tell it, it’s a full time job.

My good buddy J Brandon (president of American Sahara), tagged along in his Dodge Power Wagon, carrying spare parts and water.  I thought having a chase vehicle might be a good idea.  It turned out that having the chase vehicle along was just okay.  Having J along, though, was great.

You might be wondering…how did I hook up with CSC?  I kind of fell into the CSC gig.  I was initially hired to duel the digital dufi, the cretins badmouthing CSC on Internet forums (dufi is the plural of dufus).  I knew the digital dufi supply was infinite, so I reckoned this new gig might be a job for life.  Dealing and Dueling with the Dufi.   It almost sounded like a TV show (you know, Dancing with the Stars).  What intrigued me beyond that, though, was the CSC motorcycle.  I liked it.  A modern Mustang.  That could be a hell of a thing.

As I was being clever and outwitting unarmed digital opponents in the Great Forum Wars of the New Millenia, I pitched the Baja idea to Steve Seidner, the guy who owns CSC.  Steve was all for it.   “Don’t be gentle,” he said.  “Take the bikes down there and break them.”  Seidner wanted to unearth the modern Mustang’s weaknesses, and Baja’s broad badlands would bubble those up.

So, what was it like?  Okay, here ya go…

A sneak preview of the next 2200 miles….on 150cc California Scooters!

I’ll tell you about the ride, and I’ll tell you a bit about each of the riders on this trip, and in this first installment, Simon Gandolfi gets the spotlight.  Like I mentioned above, he’s a British author.  A famous one.  And he’s a blogger, too.  I started reading Simon’s blog during his travels through South America, and I was hooked. He wrote Old Man On A Bike about that adventure.   This guy would be perfect for our ride, I thought.  World traveler, small bikes, and he has a following.  And then Simon met the most important criteria:  He said yes when I invited him.  Simon blogged our Baja adventure, and his words were mesmerizing.   Here’s one of his descriptions…

Joe and Arlene ride production bikes. John and I ride pre-production bikes. These are small bikes, pretty babies to treasure. The average owner will ride down to the store on a Sunday or drop by a neighbour’s – say twenty minutes max. Steve wants the bikes tested to destruction. John is massive and I’m no light-weight. Steve wants destruction, we’re his men. Day one south from Tijuana is horrific coastal-strip development on the cheap side of cheap. Pass Ensenada and I begin to understand Baja’s magic: clarity of light, range upon range of mountains, immense spaces across which merely to travel is an adventure. Even Big John becomes little more than a moving microdot.

Baja John, a microdot somewhere up there…riding south of Ensenada, headed for Cabo San Lucas…

This will be maybe six or seven blogs in total, spread out over the next month or so.  It’s a good story and I like telling it.  This has been the first installment.

To be continued…

A Suggested Baja Itinerary: 8 days on the road…

It sounds like Dave Dudley’s country western hit (I think that was 6 Days on the Road), but this isn’t about Freightliner fever or 18 wheelers.  Nope, this is a suggested itinerary for an 8-day, 2000-mile ride from southern California through some of the best that Baja has to offer.  It’s based on the multiple tours I’ve led for CSC Motorcycles, it’s best done sometime in the January/February/March time frame (that’s when the California gray whales are in Scammon’s Lagoon), and it uses Loreto as the turnaround point.  Yeah, I know…you could go all the way to Cabo, but I’ve been there, done that, and there’s not much that’s interesting or pretty south of Loreto (unless you have a penchant for overpriced touristy hotels and refrigerator magnets).

To get to the point, here’s what a really great Baja adventure ride might look like…

A recommended 8-day Baja ride…it’s all explained further with the detailed itinerary and photos below.
8 days and 2000 miles, taking in some of the best Baja has to offer, with only a couple of high mileage days.

One of the things you’ll want to make sure of before you start this ride is that you have Mexican insurance for your motorcycle (your regular insurance policy won’t cover you south of the border), and the best I’ve found is BajaBound.   We’ll have another blog on BajaBound shortly, but you can trust me on this…I’ve tried several companies and BajaBound is the best.  They are the only folks I use.

I can’t explain everything about the trip in one blog, so there are other articles on the ExhaustNotes Baja page about traveling in Baja.   And if you have specific questions, please ask them here in the Comments section and I’ll do my best to get you answers.   What I thought I might do here is add a few more photos, showing one or two from each day on a ride like this.

Day 1:  Enchanted Ensenada

The first night in Ensenada. Doc Mike is checking out a new ride.

Day 2:  The Long Haul to Guerrero Negro

A stop for fuel in Catavina.

Day 3:  Whale Watching!

Whale watching in Scammon’s Lagoon. This is one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had. Everyone who does this says the same thing. Up close and personal with 45-ft California gray whales and their babies. It’s awesome.

Day 4:  The Sierra San Francisco Cave Paintings, San Ignacio, Mulege, and More!

The 10,000-year-old cave paintings, left behind by an unknown civilization.
The Sierra San Francisco church.
The 300-year-old San Ignacio Mission, still in use as an active church.
In the Las Casitas courtyard in Mulege, one of my all time favorite hotels.

Day 5:  Bahia Concepcion, Loreto, and Santa Rosalia

Along Bahia Concepcion, just north of Loreto…the prettiest part of Baja!
The all-wooden Frances Hotel in Santa Rosalia. It used to be a brothel.

Day 6:  Santa Maria

The Transpeninsular Highway, headed north to Santa Maria…

Day 7:  Tantalizing Tecate!

Street tacos in Tecate…good times and good food.

Day 8:  The Short Haul Home

No photos here, folks…by Day 8 it’s a beeline home after a fabulous Baja ride!  The last day is roughly 250 miles back to the LA area, and it’s an easy run.

I know if you’ve never ridden Baja you might have plenty of questions, so ask away!

Baja Cuisine: Catavina to Guerrero Negro

Our series on Baja cuisine continues. Previous blogs covered the stretch from Rosarito through Ensenada, and then the stretch south of Ensenada down to El Rosario. In this blog, we’ll cover Catavina and Guerrero Negro.

Catavina

There’s not much in Catavina except rocks, a few structures, and the Desert Inn, but it’s a part of Baja I dearly love. My all time favorite Baja photo (the one that is the ExhaustNotes Baja page banner photo) is one I shot from the saddle of my CSC Mustang on a ride through this region, and it also adorns the cover of Moto Baja. The region has an other-worldly feel to it, with its vibrantly green and pale beige colors (as displayed by huge boulders and gigantic Cardon cactus) contrasting sharply with brilliant blue skies, all bisected by Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway.  Amazingly, the boulders were formed by wind erosion (as my geologist buddies tell me).  It’s a stark and beautiful land.  I love it.

On Mexico Highway 1, headed south through Catavina. This is one of the prettiest parts of Baja.

So, back to the topic du jour, and that’s the cuisine in this part of the world. The Desert Inn is a hotel chain spanning nearly the entire length of Baja. The Desert Inns are a bit on the pricey side for Baja (which means they’re still inexpensive by US standards), but the food in these upscale-for-Baja hotels is always good.  The restaurant at the Desert Inn in Catavina has a cool arched ceiling tiled with bricks.   It’s a cool motif.

CSC Mustangs parked in front of the Catavina Desert Inn, headed south to Cabo San Lucas. We had a fine dinner that evening!

The trick is to get arrive before the tour buses do, but even if a crowd gets in before you do, the wait staff is pretty good about attending to your hunger pangs quickly. I’ve tried nearly everything on the Catavina Desert Inn’s menu; the good news is that it’s all good. That statement kind of invites the question: So what’s the bad news? More good news…there is no bad news. I like this place.

Guerrero Negro

It might be part of the Scholastic Aptitude Test: Diamonds are to Tiffany’s like fish tacos are to…well, there can only be one correct answer, and that’s Tony’s El Muelle food truck in Guerrero Negro. Baja is known for fish tacos, and to those in the know, there are none better than those whipped up by my good buddy Tony.

Tony, happily engaged in the production of the finest fish tacos on the planet. I’m not exaggerating.

Tony guy was killing it with a gourmet food truck before the gourmet food truck trend caught on in LA, and before that, he was selling fish tacos from a hand cart (I know, because I started enjoying them nearly 30 years ago…a story you can read about in Moto Baja). Just after you’ve crossed into BCS (Baja California Sur, about 500 miles south of the border), hang a right and follow the signs to Guerrero Negro. Tony’s El Muelle fish taco truck will be on the right as you enter town.

When you see Tony’s truck, you’ll know. You’ve arrived.
Happy riders, after a fish taco lunch at Tony’s. This is the place to stop after you’ve gone whale watching!
The stars of the show, and what Baja is all about…Tony’s fish tacos!

You can’t miss Tony’s. Just look for the people with knowing, anticipatory smiles standing in line. This is another one of those places that, all by itself, makes me want to hop on my motorcycle and head south.

Hey, there’s more. Tony is moving up in the world, and his new restaurant is under construction in Guerrero Negro.

Another favored dining stop and watering hole (especially if I’m spending the night in Guerrero Negro) is Malarimmo’s. Their restaurant is tops for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (everything is good), and they have an interesting bar. You’ll see a lot of cool objects hanging on the walls and from the ceiling in Malarimmo’s bar, all things swept south by the Pacific currents and picked up on the giant land hook around Bahia Tortuga. Buoys, driftwood, signs, parts of US Navy test aircraft…you name it, and it’s hanging in that bar. Taking it all in while enjoying any of Malarimmo’s dishes with a Tecate or a shot of Tequila (after the bikes are parked for the night, of course) is a most enjoyable experience.

My KLR in front of Malarimmo’s. The hotel, the restaurant, and the bar are all outstanding.
A group of riders enjoying a fine dinner at Malarimmo’s.

There’s one more place I like a lot, and that’s the restaurant at the Hotel Don Gus in Guerrero Negro. It’s right across the street from Malarimmo’s, and I’ve stayed at the hotel and dined at the restaurant several times.

Rode hard and put away for the night at the Hotel Don Gus. We had just finshed a fine dinner when I took this photo.
Good buddy Jim enjoying chile rellenos in the Hotel Don Gus restaurant.

The Don Gus restaurant has great food and it’s a little less expensive than Malarimmo’s, which means it’s very inexpensive.  I like the place, and I’m betting you will, too.

Baja Cuisine: Palomar to El Rosario

We’ve already covered my favorite Baja places to eat from the border down through Ensenada in our previous installment of the adventurer’s guide to Baja dining.   This next set of Baja dining recommendations covers the corridor south of Ensenada, through San Quintin, all the way to El Rosario. This region covers the wine country and the agricultural district, which ends in the San Quintin area. After San Quintin, Baja’s Highway 1 (the Transpeninsular Highway), continues south through low-lying coastal plains hugging the Pacific coast. Then it’s a brief climb through a set of twisties into El Rosario.

There are great places to eat through this stretch of Baja, folks.  Let’s take a look…

Palomar

This is a cool little place that’s on the right side of Highway 1 after you’ve passed through the mountains south of Ensenada. The food is good, it’s reasonable, and it’s always fresh. I like their chicken tacos; my friends seem to always gravitate toward the shrimp.

The El Palomar, a nice spot to stop for lunch.
The Pemex next to the Palomar restaurant.

There’s a little general store next to the restaurant, and if you need Baja kitsch, this is a good place to get it. More importantly, there’s also a Pemex station. I’d advise topping off here. If you’re on a motorcycle (and of course, you should be), this will get you all the way to El Rosario.

San Quintin

What can I say? I love this area. It’s one of the last vestiges of the northern Baja agricultural region.  There are three places I like here. One is the restaurant in the Mision San Quintin. It’s a hotel restaurant (it’s pricey for Baja, but it’s cheap compared to US prices), and it’s good. I’ve stayed at the hotel and had breakfast and dinner here; both are great. The orange juice is always freshly squeezed, and it’s fantastic.  To my great surprise, I didn’t have any photos of the Mision San Quintin when I prepared this blog entry.  Sounds to me like a good excuse to ride down there again.

Another is the Molina Viejo restaurant, near the Old Mill Hotel, which is right on Bahia San Quintin. The good news here is that the 4-mile ride to Bahia San Quintin is now paved (no more white-knuckle soft sand or deep mud, thank God).  Even before the road was paved, though, the ride out was worth it.  There are two great restaurants hidden away back here (the Molina Viejo and Don Eddie’s), and the food at both is stellar.

Fried mushrooms at the Molina Viejo. They’re awesome.
Good buddy Dave on his FJR. Fortunately, the road into Bahia San Quintin is now paved!

Both restaurants are literally right on the bay, and occasionally a gray whale will find its way into the bay. When that happens, it’s an amazing thing to see and hear.  The Molina Viejo has a fried mushroom appetizer that’s a favorite, and any of the entrees are excellent. This place rivals the décor and feel of any restaurant in the US, but it hasn’t been discovered yet (and that means the prices are low).

The Molina Viejo, a great restaurant right on Bahia San Quintin.
Having a beer or two before dinner at the Molina Viejo.
The real deal…Mariachi singers in the Molina Viejo.
A good day, a good ride, and a Tecate overlooking Bahia San Quintin. We saw a California gray whale swim by this very spot one night.  Life doesn’t get any better.

The other restaurant, Don Eddie’s, is on the opposite side of the Old Mill Hotel.   It’s not as fancy as the Molina Viejo, but I think the food is even better.  If you call ahead, Don Eddie (he’s a real guy) will prepare a buffet-style meal for your group.  We do that whenever I’m leading a group tour, and the breakfasts are particularly fabulous.

An incredible Don Eddie dish….shrimp and pasta. Bring an appetite!
The seafood medley at Don Eddie’s. The food is off the charts. The prices are ridiculously low.   Hey, that’s Baja.

El Rosario

El Rosario is the last town on the Transpeninsular Highway before you enter the Valle de los Cirios. That’s an experience like no other; it’s the barren and beautiful wilderness that is Baja. But I digress; the focus here is the dining, and El Rosario (as any Bajaeno knows) means two things: Top off at the Pemex (it’s the last one for 200 miles if you’re headed south), and eat at Mama Espinosa’s.

Decals and more at Mama Espinosa’s. Get one for your motorcycle; people will know you’re the real deal.
I’ve parked my bike here many, many times.

Mama Espinosa’s is a Baja icon, a legend among many Baja legends, and perhaps their most legendary dish is the old gal’s lobster burritos. This little tiny spot is a “must see” on any Baja trip. It’s literally world famous. It’s a stop on the Baja 1000. There are zillions of decals from folks who race and travel Baja. It’s got a cool wall-sized Baja map so you can get a feel for where you are.  But you really don’t need the map.  Ride into Baja and you know…you’ve arrived.  You’re in Heaven.

Lobsters at Mama Espinosa’s. Folks, this is the closest you’ll ever get to Heaven without a one-way ticket!
Mama’s chicken burritos, my personal favorite.

Mama Espinosa’s is known for their lobster burritos, but my favorite is Mama’s chicken burritos.  I think they’re great. The bottom line is this: You won’t go wrong with anything on Mama Espinosa’s menu.  It’s all good.

So there you have it.  The next push south on our culinary cruise will take us all the way down to Guerrero Negro, and the best fish tacos on the planet.  I’m not exaggerating.  Trust me on this. But that’s a story for the next installment of our ExhaustNotes dining tour.

Stay tuned!