Category: Baja

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 John weighs in…

Baja John with Joe Gresh in the Grand Tetons.

A week or so ago we posted a blog about my good buddy Baja John considering the purchase of a bike to keep at his home in Bahia de Los Angeles.  We asked for your inputs and we received several (thanks very much).  John pulled the trigger, and he wrote a guest blog to tell us about the rationale behind his decision.   Here you go, folks…

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As Joe mentioned in an earlier post, I have been considering a bike to keep at my house in Mexico. Although I’ve had the house for several years, I never kept a motorcycle there because I had no secure place to store it. Thus, my motorcycle riding in Mexico was limited to bikes that I could ride long distances at highway speeds from my home in the U.S. Both my KLR 650 and my CSC RX3 250 fit this bill, however, I recently built a garage at the house in Mexico, and now I can keep a motorcycle there. Since this motorcycle will only be ridden in Mexico, and primarily on the Baja Peninsula, I don’t necessarily need a bike that can do more than 60mph comfortably. I also want a bike that will probably see on and off road equally. So, I laid out the requirements, and set out to find a bike.

My requirements are a bike that is 1: reliable, 2: simple to work on in the field, 3: lightweight with a smooth power band, 4: comfortable for long distances, 5: a range of at least 150 miles on a tank of gas, 6: has enough ground clearance for the majority of off-road riding that I will do, and if I’m lucky, 7: has a kick starter that will fire the engine up in the event of a dead battery. That last requirement is tough to satisfy these days, so it became more of a desire. If I were going to ride in cold weather, I would also require enough wattage to power heated gear, but fortunately, the majority of my riding will be in temperate climates.

So, why the desire for the bike to start with a dead battery. For me it boils down to peace of mind. Many years ago, when I rode the 2,200 mile round trip to Cabo San Lucas on a small 150cc bike, the battery died before I was halfway through. No problem. I used the kick starter and rode that bike all the way back to the border with a dead battery. I thought that all motorcycles would start with a dead battery, as long as you could turn the engine over. I recently found out that this is not the case when I went to the movies on my RX3. I came out of the movie theater and started the bike. It cranked over as usual, and started. About 2 blocks down the street, I came to a stop sign. The engine died. I hit the starter, but nothing. I thought that I had inadvertently hit the kill switch. Nope. I pushed the bike to a nearby downgrade, rode it down, popped the clutch, the engine sputtered a little, but would not run. Put in a new battery and it was business as usual. I called Gerry, the mechanic at CSC at that time, and he explained that fuel injected motorcycles will not run without a good battery. Lesson learned. Thus, my strong desire to find a bike that won’t leave me stranded in the desert because the battery died.

My first thought was to use my KLR, but the riding height always bothered me even though I am 6’ tall. That’s OK though, because I can get some lowering links, but it is also a heavy bike with enough power to get me into trouble. I know that dirt bikers rely on a bike with a good power band to maintain control with the throttle when they need to, but I’m not a dirt bike rider, and I prefer not to throttle my way out of trouble. Buying another RX3 also crossed my mind. A gentleman near my home in AZ is selling one with 9K miles for $2,195 with a few extras already installed. I like the RX3 for the majority of off-road riding that I do in the U.S. I like the lower seat height so that I can plant both feet firmly on the ground when I need to. I like the smooth power band so that I don’t break the rear tire loose if I accidentally blip the throttle. No surprises with the RX3. I like the confidence that it instills in me to take roads that I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking on the KLR, however, I don’t want to have to carry a small alternate battery with me in Mexico with enough power for the EFI system, and then attempt to find a way to push start it in the desert. It is also a heavier bike than I prefer for the dirt, and as an adventure bike, it doesn’t have quite the ground clearance of a dual-sport bike.

So, how heavy is the RX3?  The internet says 385lbs wet with the stock side bags and trunk. I decided to find out by taking my RX3 to the local scale. It weighed in at 420lbs with a half-tank of gas and my aluminum Tourfella trunk on the back with no side bags attached. The Tourfella just had a few tools, air pump, and some tie-down straps in it. The internet says that my KLR is 370lbs dry, so it shouldn’t be much heavier than the RX3 when wet, but I’m staying in Wisconsin for the summer, so I currently don’t have the KLR with me to take to the scales, but it feels like it’s quite a bit heavier than the RX3, and it definitely feels more top heavy. Based on the discrepancy between the RX3 advertised wet weight and the actual wet weight that I saw at the local scale, I’m going to guess that the KLR is close to 500lbs. Although neither of these bikes are too heavy to pick up by myself, I’m 65, and it appears that I’m never going to get any younger, no matter how much wishful thinking I do, so I prefer something lighter. Enter the Yamaha XT250.

The XT250 pretty much checks all of the boxes. I recently stopped by a dealership to see one. I wanted to sit on it and check out my riding position and standing position. Everything good so far. The tank is only 2.4 gal, but at the advertised 78mpg, it should meet the 150 mile range. It’s Yamaha reliable, easy to work on, and less than 300lbs wet with a very comfortable 32” seat height. I would still have to ride one to get some feel of the power band and comfort while riding, but at a price of $5,200, I decided that a new one was out of the question, so I didn’t bother with a test ride at the dealer. A little research told me that the 2008 to 2012 models were carbureted, so I searched Craigslist and Cycle trader to find a used one. The pre-2013 models were running a much more reasonable $2,500 to $3,200, but I couldn’t confirm whether there was a kickstarter kit available for them like there was for the Yamaha TW200. Yep, this bike is looking good, but I still prefer to find a bike with a kickstarter that is post-1980’s and not a pure dirt bike, so the search continued, however, I may still buy a used XT250 in addition to another motorcycle. After all, it’s always good to have a spare bike, especially in Mexico where my bike may be down for a couple of weeks waiting for someone to bring me a part from the U.S.

I remember seeing the CSC TT250 when I was visiting CSC a couple of years ago when I returned from one of the CSC sponsored rides, so I went online to review the specs. Wow, this bike had possibilities. Although it’s a Chinese bike, my RX3 has been very reliable, and probably the best motorcycle that I’ve ever owned, due to its reliability, versatility, and comfort. I take that bike with me wherever I go, either on the back of my motorhome or on a hitch carrier attached to my Jeep. Manufactured by Zongshen, the same company that builds the RX3, I was sure it would be well made and reliable. Plus the Honda CG clone engine has been known for its reliability for decades. So, let’s check the boxes.

I went online to the ADV and China Rider forums to see what TT250 owners had to say about the bike. 1: Reliable: Yes. 2: Simple to work on: Obviously, being a CG clone engine. Plus CSC provides a service manual and online service tutorials. 3: Lightweight with a smooth power band: Advertised at 309lbs it looks like it will be about 100lbs lighter than the RX3, and riders say it has a smooth power band. 4: Comfortable for long distances: Riders say that they like the wider seat, the riding position, and apparently there is not too much wind buffeting. 5: Range of 150 miles: At 65mpg, the 2.9 gallon tank should make 150 miles even if only 2.3 gallons is usable. 6: Good ground clearance: Yes. 7: Kickstarter that will fire up the engine even with a dead battery: Yes to the kickstarter, but I haven’t been able to verify whether it will start with a dead battery. I suspect that this is true since it’s a carbureted engine. Steve at CSC Motorcycles said that he believes that this is true as well. One other thing that I like about the TT250 is that CSC offers a seat that will reduce the seat height to 32” if I feel uncomfortable with the 34” stock seat height.

So, what did I decide to do? Looks like that answer would be obvious, but first I wanted to verify the price out the door for a CSC TT250. $2,195 seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? So many times we find that things cost much more than the advertised price by the time the dealer tacks on fees for everything that they can think of. So, I asked Steve what the price would be shipped to my home. He said that they only add $400 to the price of the bike for prep, documentation, and shipping, so the cost to my door would be $2,595. At this point I was close to ordering one, but I had one last thing to check; accessories. I wanted to see what kind of accessories CSC offered, as well as the prices. Turns out, CSC offers a number of accessories, although not as many as the RX3. That’s understandable due to the type of rider and riding that the TT250 is designed for. Also the accessories are much less expensive than those for the majority of motorcycles manufactured today, so I chose a power outlet kit, rear luggage rack, handguards, helmet lock, and a 47 tooth rear sprocket in case I want a little more speed and less torque than the OEM 50 tooth provides. I was still thinking about waiting a few weeks until I returned home to Arizona to order one, but Steve said that they could hold the bike for me and ship it when I arrived home in October if I wanted to buy it now. Steve also told me that the next shipment of bikes arriving in October might be more expensive due to the possibility of additional tariffs imposed on Chinese products. In addition, he said that CSC stocks all accessories and OEM parts that you need for the bike, and they will usually arrive at your home within 2 or 3 days of ordering them. At that point I said, “Sold”, and ordered the bike. Within 15 minutes I had received and approved the invoice from Sara. They will ship it to my home in Arizona shortly after I arrive during the 3rd week of October.

Now that I pulled the trigger, I’m very happy with my decision. During my lifetime, I’ve seen customer service slowly decline over the decades. It’s refreshing to deal with a company that has a strong customer service ethic. I’m anxious to get home, break the bike in, and change the oil before I take it to Mexico at the end of October. I’m also going to run the battery down and see if I can kickstart it with a nearly dead battery. It turns out that there was an added bonus to ordering the bike when I did, since I found out after the fact that I bought the last white one that CSC had in stock. “Hoorah!!!”

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Awesome inputs, John, and thanks very much.   We think you made a good decision.   CSC is one of our advertisers, so we are glad to see that you bought the TT250.   For those of you following the ExNotes blog installments about the CSC 150 Mustang ride to Cabo and back, John was one of the guys on that ride.   And those of you who read Moto Baja! will know that John is the guy with whom I’ve ridden many, many miles in Mexico (he and I rode my first trip ever to that magical land).

With Baja John in Mexico many moons ago….

And for our other readers…do you have a story you’d like to share with us?  Hey, let us know, and we’ll consider it for the ExNotes blog!

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…

Which Baja beach bike?

Baja John, somewhere in Baja’s Valle de los Cirios, making my old KLR look good.

I just got a call from good buddy Baja John, a guy with whom I’ve been exploring Baja for the last 30 years.   Part of the call was about what we’d be riding and where we’ll be going on our next Baja foray in December (more on that in a future blog), and part of was about keeping a bike in Mexico.  John has a home in Mexico right on the water in Bahia de Los Angeles.  The Bay of Los Angeles is about 400 miles south of the border on the Sea of Cortez.  It’s a cool place.

Bahia de Los Angeles, denoted by the red arrow.

My good buddy John wants to buy a bike and keep it at his Baja beach house.  I think that’s a cool idea.   The question is:  Which bike?  John saw a CSC RX3 for sale near his home here in the US.  He already owns an RX3 and he loves it, but the idea of picking up a second one and keeping it in Mexico is appealing.

A second RX3 isn’t the only bike John is considering.  He also has an older KLR 650, and he might just move it to Mexico.  And, old John is intrigued by the CSC TT250 (he’s heard me talk about its light weight, super handling, and simple maintainability enough and he’s interested).  And then there’s the Royal Enfield Himalayan (that bike is getting great reviews, too).

I told John I had my ideas on the perfect beach front bike, and then I thought hey, I’m not the brightest bulb in the room (the room being the ExhaustNotes blog).   I asked John if it was okay to post the question here and solicit your inputs, and he thought that would be a grand idea.   So, the question is:  Which bike would you keep in a Bahia de Los Angeles beach house, and why?

Let’s hear your thoughts in the Comments area of this blog, folks!

See more on Baja here!

The Crest

I did something today I haven’t done in a long time…I went for a motorcycle ride. By myself. Just for the enjoyment of it. It was awesome.

Nearly every motorcycle ride I’ve taken in the last 10 years has been leading a tour, or gathering info and photos for a magazine article, or testing a motorcycle for CSC or Zongshen. I had not hopped on a motorcycle just to rack up miles by myself in, well, I don’t know how long.

Today didn’t start out as a solo ride. I led a group of 15 riders from CSC to the Mt. Wilson Observatory this morning. I had done the Mt. Wilson tour about a month ago and I didn’t want to do it again so soon, so I thought I would just ride home by myself.

But I didn’t. I rode down Mt. Wilson Road alone, not worrying about who was behind me and who was and who wasn’t keeping up. I looked out to my left and I saw the whole of the LA basin, with Los Angeles itself protruding proudly from perhaps a thousand square miles of suburban sprawl. I’d never seen it like that before. I was tempted to stop for a photo, and then I realized: I wanted to capture the image with neurons instead of electrons (and I did). When I got to the bottom of Mt. Wilson Road where it intersects Angeles Crest Highway, I turned right instead of left. I wanted to go for a ride, and the 55-mile jaunt across the Angeles National Forest was just what the doctor ordered.

I brought my Nikon with me, but in a departure (for me, anyway) I didn’t take any photographs with it. I just wanted to ride. The Nikon stayed in its case, tucked away in my left saddlebag.

I rode through Charleton Flats and then Chilao Flats. I remembered from an  article I wrote that Chilao Flats was named for a horse thief who kept his ill-gotten gains hidden in this area. Cool stuff.

I loved it. It was just me, my motorcycle, and the mountains. It was warm today, but it was comfortable. Warm enough to suppress the pine scent that usually permeates this area (I missed that), but not so warm that it was bothersome.

Newcomb’s appeared and I pulled in for breakfast. I grabbed a seat at the bar and I could see my motorcycle while I ate. All right, one photo, if you insist…my healthy breakfast courtesy of my iPhone (I told you, the Nikon stayed in its case today).

The best thing on the Newcomb’s breakfast menu.

Like always, my RX3 drew a crowd. You have to appreciate the scene…uber-expensive BMW GS motorcycles just back from the Starbucks wars, $40K Harley CVO monstrosities (loud pipes save lives, you know), Ducatis out the gazoo (loud clutches save lives, they say), and here was my little 250cc Chinese motorcycle attracting all the parking lot attention. Seeing it from the perspective of a Newcomb’s barstool halfway through one of the most glorious rides in the world was a treat (almost as good as the berries in that fabulous breakfast). The folks around my RX3 were clearly intrigued. Maybe it was the motorcycle. Maybe it was the tank decals showing where I had been on that little 250. And my bike doesn’t have any stickers from the Colombia or China rides.  If they only knew.

Lots of Baja.
And lots of decals.

The barmaid was loud, telling another customer about a recent head-on collision between a Guzzi and a Harley that killed the guy on the Guzzi. I’m guessing she doesn’t ride. We don’t like to talk about such things. Guys go too fast up here sometimes. I’m not one of them. I learned the hard way…physics always wins.

After eating, it was back on the road, letting the miles roll by to Wrightwood. I passed through two tunnels, with signs advising the next mile was a Bighorn sheep area. I didn’t see any, but it was cool knowing they were out there. Then another sign advising of eagles. More cool and comforting facts. I continued northeast, and I realized the road was now descending. The mighty Mojave desert was in front of me, and I caught glimpses of its expanse through the pine trees.

I put a cool 150 miles on my motorcycle this morning, and I loved every one of them.  I need to do this more often.

Let’s go see the whales!

It’s as good as it gets, folks.  Whale watching, Baja style.   It’s the only place in the world were you can get up close and personal, and actually touch the whales.   Combined with a motorcycle ride, it makes Baja even more special…

Figure on two days from the Los Angeles area to get down to Guerrero Negro.  I’ve done it in one day, but that involves getting up at 4:00 a.m. to leave LA and riding hard for 700 miles…it’s not the best way to do it.

The ride south is awesome, especially once you get south of Ensenada.   You could make this an easy 5-day run if seeing the whales was your main objective, and hey, I’m here to suggest it should be.   We’ll talk more about that in just a bit.

The deal is this…the California gray whale herd spends its time migrating north in the summer (all the way to Alaska) and south in the winter (down to two major lagoons on Baja’s Pacific side).   It’s the longest mammal migration in the world.   The two lagoons where you can see the whales are Scammon’s Lagoon near Guerrero Negro, and San Ignacio Lagoon about an hour west of San Ignacio via a gnarly dirt road.

Let’s go see the whales.

My preference (and my recommendation) is to do Scammon’s Lagoon from Guerrero Negro, as getting to the little boats only takes about 10 minutes.   If you want to do San Ignacio Lagoon, you have to go with a service that picks you up in San Ignacio and takes you for a one-hour van ride to the lagoon.   There are several whale watching services in Guerrero Negro; my favorite is Malarimmo’s or my good buddy Martin’s whale watching tour.   It’s $50 per person, it includes a box lunch, and it’s literally a life-altering experience.   Nobody does this who doesn’t come away moved by the experience.  I know it’s hard to accept that reading a blog, but trust me, it’s what will happen.

The whales are cool.  They’re longer than the boats we’re in.  And like I said earlier, you actually get to touch them.  Ever been kissed by a 45-foot California gray whale?

Up close and personal, good buddy Rob makes two new friends…
Scammon’s Lagoon, a ponga, and a motorcycle ride….it all makes for a whale of an adventure!

The whales are only in town (i.e., in Baja) from January through April, and then they’re back on the road headed north to Alaska.  I like to visit with them in March; it’s when I think the whales are most friendly.  This is a really cool thing to do.

I used to do these tours for CSC, and we’re thinking of opening it up for anybody in the ExhaustNotes crowd who wants to ride with us.  You can be on any kind of bike, with a maximum number of people we’ll define at some point in the future.   There won’t be any charge for this, folks, but you will have to sign up for our automatic ExhaustNotes email blog notifications to ride with us, and basically you’ll have to pass the personality test (that means you can’t be a jerk if you want to ride with us).

If you’re interested, let us know at info@ExhaustNotes.us (but only let us know if you’re serious; we not interested in a lot of “if” pre-qualifiers…you know, if I can get the time off, it my wife says it’s okay, if I can get my bike running, etc.).

Follow the ExhaustNotes blog if you want to know more about our planned Baja whale watching adventure ride.   You should be reading the blog at least once every day, anyway (it will make you taller, thinner, better looking, and a better rider).   Get your bike insured with BajaBound.   We’ve got a lot of good info on Baja on our Baja page, and there’s more coming.

Stay tuned…there’s lots more to follow, but in the meantime, if you want to get a feel for what it’s like riding in Baja and seeing the whales, check out Moto Baja!

Learn more about riding in Baja here!

Tracy!

During the summer of 2016, your blogmeisters (Arjiu and Dajiu) rode RX3 motorcycles 6000 miles across China.   Tracy was our translator and he was funny as hell.

Our good friend Tracy is an up and comer in the Zongshen organization.  He sent an email to us recently, along with the above photo.  Tracy is being reassigned to the Zongshen team in Mexico, and Gresh and I may take a ride down there once Tracy is in country.   You can bet the beer will flow freely when that happens!

Hey, buy two or three…they make great gifts!

If you’d like to read the story of our ride across China, you can do so here.   It was a great ride and an amazing adventure.

BajaBound: A great organization!

Our recommendation for Baja motorcycle insurance is BajaBound.

If you’re headed into Baja, you need to have Mexican insurance on your car, truck, motorcycle, or motor scooter.  Your regular US motor vehicle insurance won’t be recognized as meeting this requirement in Mexico.  It’s that simple.

At the risk of being challenged by a keyboard commando telling me that you don’t have to have insurance in Mexico, I’ll say at the outset that what you need is proof of financial responsibility for liability incurred as the result of a motor vehicle accident.  Yeah, there are other ways of getting around this.  You can arrange a bond in advance with a Mexican bank (not very practical), you can carry enough cash to meet Mexico’s upper liability limits (just bring $333,000 in cash with you to show to the officer if you are stopped) or you can get Mexican insurance.  Door No. 3 is the obvious answer.

You might be tempted to just blow off the requirement for Mexican insurance, and you might get away with it. Then again, you might not. If you are stopped (or worse, you have an accident) and you can’t produce proof of Mexican insurance, you are going to be spending a lot more time in Mexico (and the accommodations will dramatically different) than what you originally planned. Trust me on this. It’s just not worth the risk.

I’ve been traveling in Baja and other parts of Mexico for close to 30 years, and I’ve tried several different outfits. To cut to the chase, BajaBound is the easiest and best way to insure your vehicle. What I like about it is that it’s all done online, it’s inexpensive, and it’s a quality product. What you need to get insurance is an internet connection, your driver’s license, a credit card, your bike’s registration, and a printer. That’s it.

Why go for anything but the best?

I always buy my insurance a day or two before I travel to Baja, and I always set it up to start the day I enter Baja (and just to be on the safe side, I insure for one day longer than I plan to be south of the border). If you’re new to BajaBound, you’ll answer a few questions about yourself to set up an account the first time you visit their website, and then you’re ready to start making selections (how many days, how much coverage, etc.). If you’ve insured previously with BajaBound, all you need to do is log in, specify the vehicle you’ll be using (super easy if it’s one you’ve previously insured), specify the dates, and pick the coverage you want. In my case, it typically works out to something south of $20 per day, and that’s a hell of deal.  You pay with a credit card, the policy is immediately available, and all you need to do is print the proof of insurance and you’re good to go.

I’ve been lucky. I’ve never needed to use my BajaBound insurance because I never crashed my car or motorcycle in Mexico. On one of the tours I led in Mexico, though, one of the guys I rode with had a bad crash. He got through it okay, but the motorcycle did not. My friend put in a claim and BajaBound paid promptly. This is the real deal, folks. It’s good insurance, it’s easy to get over the Internet, it meets all of Mexico’s legal requirements, and when necessary, they pay promptly. It doesn’t get any better than that.  It’s the only insurance I use for my Baja forays.

Would you like to know more about riding in Baja?   Hey, it’s the best riding on the planet!  Check out our ExhaustNotes Baja page for the best routes, hotels, restaurants, whale watching, cave paintings, and more!   Do a search here on the ExhaustNotes blog using the search term “Baja.”   Better yet, pick up a copy of Moto Baja, available now on Amazon.com!

Mike weighs in on moto-camping…and more!

Former US Army paratrooper, GS rider, and good buddy Mike!

That’s good buddy Mike in the photo above, a very interesting guy I met on our most recent Baja ride.  He’s a former US Army 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper, and for the last year or so he’s been living off his BMW and camping as he goes.    Mike penned a piece on motocamping, and he sent it to us here on ExhaustNotes.

Here’s Mike’s take on this topic…

Camping can be fun and enjoyable for everyone if you plan properly and set realistic expectations. The same can be said for camping on a motorcycle. Over the past year and a half I have made it a point to camp on my moto at least once a week, and for the weeks I have not met this goal there are long weekends and vacations where I more than make up for it.

A man, a motorcycle, and a campsite. It just doesn’t get much better than this.

Throughout the past year I have been frequently asked how I choose a campsite on a moto. In this blog I wanted to answer that question from my personal experience.

For the first couple times using a KOA or other publicly-used campground is a great way to ease into camping. You will be camping, but close enough to stores and facilities that you can begin to gauge what you need and start to define your personal camping comfort zones.

After camping in that environment, and after you invariably get sick of listening to kids screaming and another annoyances from humans, you can experiment with camping for free in National Forests.  A good note to remember is that National Forests are free to camp in, but National Parks are not.

A Baja campsite.
A National Forest campsite. Note Mike’s mascot peeking out from under the tent.
Mike in the morning at one of his campsites. The floral-print shorts were not standard issue 82nd Airborne gear!

Over the past year I found a number of free remote campsites. I use www.freecampsites.com or I look for National Forests on maps. Once in a National Forest locate a Forest Road (FR) and ride a few miles down it. Many of these FR’s are doable even for street bikes but be aware of changing road conditions as you navigate them. You will often see the remains of a campsite marked with stones from a previous campfire. For me this is the perfect indication that someone has camped here before and is a safe location.

Moto camping is an easy and inexpensive way to escape the rat race with less effort then many would think. Moto camping experiences are some of the most rewarding that I have had throughout my adventures. Being so removed from everything as you sit relaxing in the glow of a warm campfire reflecting off your moto is a fulfilling feeling that few venture to achieve.

At the end of his email to me earlier today, Mike asked if I had any rides planned.  Actually, Mike, the answer to that most excellent question is yes.   I’m thinking about two motorcycle rides, either one of which might involve camping, so your blog today was very timely.

One ride I’m thinking about is another Baja adventure, and this one would involve more dirt riding than usual (at least for me).  I’m thinking about a run up to Mike’s Sky Ranch in northern Baja (I’ve never made that trek, and I always wanted to).  Another variation, perhaps part of the same ride, would include a leg from Chapala on the Transpenisular Highway near Catavina through Coco’s Corner to the Sea of Cortez (a 23-mile unpaved section).   And another possibility is a run from San Felipe down to Bahia de Los Angeles on the Sea of Cortez, which involves about 70 miles on dirt.  I’d like to do this on my CSC TT250, just to say that I did.  I’m thinking maybe December for this ride.

There’s another ride on the horizon that my good buddy Dan the K is setting up, and he was kind enough to extend an invitation to me.  Dan rode with me a couple of times in Baja on the CSC motorcycles, once on his RX3 and once on his TT250.

Dan the K with his TT 250 above Baja’s Rumarosa Grade.

The ride Dan is planning is a much longer adventure ride up to Inuvik in Canada’s Northwest Territories.   That ride will involve a lot of camping.  It’s coming up next summer, and I’ll keep you clued in on the planning right here on the ExhaustNotes blog.

I’m excited about both rides.  On that Baja ride…anybody want to ride with me?  Hey, let us know here at info@exhaustnotes.us!

High end, high class small bikes…

On its face, it seemed like a weak market to target…folks  who want very high end, small displacement, expensive custom motorcycles. But it worked.

When CSC revived the Mustang motorcycle concept 10 years ago, the company didn’t really have a grand plan, a handle on the market, or even a clearly defined name. CSC was originally California Scooter Company, and the original plan was to re-introduce a concept pioneered by the Mustang Motor Company in the postwar 1940s.

Original vintage Mustangs. Both of these bikes, along with more than a dozen others, are in Steve Seidner’s personal Mustang collection (the largest vintage Mustang collection in the world).

The idea was to spin off of Pro-One Performance Manufacturing’s line of very high billet and other accessories (and complete large V-twin custom motorcycles), and apply it to a small, modern version of the Mustang.  Pro-One, CSC’s sister company, was founded by Steve Seidner (the same guy who started CSC).   And boy oh boy, did those little bikes sell. They were beautiful little creations. Jewels, actually. Hand made, and built to extremely high standards. Mirror-like paint. Billet. Chrome. Little choppers. Expensive little jewels you could actually ride.

Ah, but that name…the California Scooter Company. It created confusion. People would see the new California Scooter modern Mustang and ask: Is it a scooter or a motorcycle? They didn’t get that the name was old school. Back in the day, antiques (folks like yours truly) called any bike a scooter. A Harley was a scooter and so was a Triumph…as in “I’m going to ride down to Cabo on my Scooter.”

Me? I wanted to tell anybody who asked that question (is it a motorcycle or a scooter?) that they were too dumb to ride either, but I couldn’t do that. Then one day, the boss hit on the idea of just calling the company CSC Motorcycles. You know, go with the tradition of other world-class marques with three-letter names: BMW, BSA, AJS, KTM, and more. And that worked.  The dumbass scooter or motorcycle questions stopped, and the bikes continued to sell.

Back to the modern Mustangs…the initial thought was that the bikes would sell for $4,995, and they’d be a hit with young folks.

The modern California Scooter Greaser in the San Gabriel Mountains. Folks loved this bike and it was one of the best-selling paint themes.

Ah, what we didn’t know. The market will tell you what it is. Plans and fancy marketing studies mean nothing. A hit with young folks? The problem with young folks is that they don’t have any money and they don’t buy motorcycles. Hell, a lot of them don’t even want driver’s licenses. Just, like, you know, call an Uber.

Good buddy Walter B, back in the day, on his Knucklehead Harley-Davidson.

What we found out at CSC 10 years ago was that our modern Mustang market squarely centered on older folks (who often have a lot of money). Specifically, older folks who wanted a Mustang back in the day, but Dad said no. Or folks who rode big bikes way back when and who still wanted to ride, but they didn’t want to wrestle with 800-lb monsters.  Fast forward 60 years, Dad’s no longer around, an Advil a day is just the ticket, and what do you know, I can buy that Mustang I always wanted and still ride. And they did. In droves.

A near-standard CSC Mustang on the right, and two custom versions on the left. Nearly all California Scooters were extensively optioned with additional chrome, billet, and custom paint.

Almost no one bought the standard, no-accessories, $4,995 CSC 150. They could have (that bike featured a slew of custom high end stuff, like billet and chrome all over the place and a world class finish). But those old guys who were denied an opportunity to scratch that Mustang itch as teenagers wanted more. A lot more. They would call on the phone (“I don’t do the Internet”), option the little California Scooters up to over $10,000 with lots more bling (custom wheels, custom paint, and more), and then put it all on a credit card. They wouldn’t attempt to negotiate price. California Scooter buyers wanted to spend more. Negotiate a lower price? Nope, that would demean the purchasing experience. It was full boat, full freight, and here’s my security code number…

A custom California Scooter. This was the “Bobber” variant. Note the gangster whitewalls, chrome wire wheels, and other custom touches.
Steve Seidner built a personal aviation-themed custom California Scooter he called the P-51 (get it?…the P-51 Mustang).  Steve intended to keep the bike, but I put this photo on the CSC blog and it sold within an hour. Someone called with a godfather offer (a deal Steve couldn’t refuse).

Those little bikes were awesome. I owned one of the very first ones, and I found I was having more fun on 150cc than I had on bikes with ten times the displacement. I rode mine all the way to Cabo San Lucas and back, but that’s a story for another blog.  The Baja trip did a lot for CSC, too.  The 150cc bikes had Honda CG clone engines manufactured in Asia, and the Baja trips showed the bikes were supremely reliable.  We invited famous people to ride with us in Mexico and that was a force multiplier.  The press coverage was off the charts.

Simon Gandolfi, British novelist and world traveler, on the road in Baja with a California Scooter.  He cuts a commanding figure, doesn’t he?
Simon, suspenders flying, at speed on my CSC 150, just north of Cabo San Lucas.
Arlene Battishill, CEO of Go Go Gear, on the Sea of Cortez with her custom California Scooter.  Arlene later appeared on the TV show, Shark Tank, with this motorcycle.

One of the things that sticks in my mind is the uninformed and the ignorant occasionally posting somewhere on an Internet forum that you could get a used Sportster for the kind of money people were happily spending on California Scooters. These keyboard commandos just didn’t get it. You could actually get a new Sportster for that kind of money, but that wasn’t the point. California Scooter buyers didn’t want a Sportster. They wanted, and were happy to pay top dollar for, a custom-crafted bit of motorcycle jewelry that could be both admired and ridden. A current classic.

There’s a market for such a thing. I know. I was there.