If you roll along dusty, unpaved county road A011 through the desert shrubbery of New Mexico’s south-central region, and you roll with purpose, you will fetch up on the shores of Kilbourne Crater. Kilbourne was formed by a maars-type volcanic eruption. In a maars eruption a crater is created by hot magma coming into contact with the water table. When the two meet, the rapidly heated water turns to steam, expands and blows huge chunks of ground skyward. By huge I mean 2.5 kilometers across 1.8 kilometers wide and 125 meters deep. It’s a big hole and it must have made quite a racket when it blew its stack 20,000 to 80,000 years ago.
Maars volcanic eruptions don’t form the classic Hanna-Barbera, cinder cone shape or leave behind crowd-pleasing lava flows. At first I thought a meteor caused the crater but the crew at Southwest Expeditions had several guest speakers situated under a billowing tent to set me straight. They also had a van if you didn’t want to burn your own fuel to get to the crater. I saved $2.57. In addition to downloading a heck of a lot of information about volcanism into the assembled masses they served us a fine chicken-taco lunch.
Lunch was fabulous except for one thing. That thing being a giant jar of sliced jalapenos. No one was eating them because the lid was too tight. I gave it a good twist but the lid would not budge. I’m not the strongest guy in the world but I can open a damn jalapeno jar, you know? I finally gave up and handed it to this big guy that looked like Chief from the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I swear, he took the lid in his fingertips and the lid spun off easy as pie.
It put a damper on my lunch I tell you. I ate moody qua-moody. Am I getting old? Will I need a Clap-On soon? Life Alert? After the jar debacle it was probably best that Southwest Expeditions canceled our hike down into the crater. The temperature was 92 degrees and the wind was howling. No sense crushing anyone else’s sense of self-worth.
After lunch we assembled to participate in an art project with Tim Fitzpatrick and Jeff Erwin. Fitzpatrick had a long swatch of bright red cloth that he wanted to juxtaposition against Kilbourne’s vast, earth-colored sweep. It was something to do with the wavelength of light and spectra. I’m not sure because Fitzpatrick lost me after he said, “Hold this red cloth.” While we marched around Erwin flew a drone to capture footage of the cloth snaking across the rim of the crater.
After piercing Kilbourne’s visual solitude with our happy, marching red-band the artists had each of us recite one line of John F. Kennedy’s, “We choose to go to the Moon” speech and took headshots of the readers. I’ll let you know when the thing pops up on you tube.
Surrounding Kilbourne are ash dunes and surprisingly little lava. What lava pieces you do find at the site are more block-shaped and are pieces the explosion ejected from an older layer of lava that had covered the area long before Kilbourne was born from pressurized steam. There’s also a lot of ammunition shell casing scattered around. I imagine the lead-to-lava ratio will approach 50:50 by the year 2234.
The reason for all of this activity in the middle of nowhere was the 50th anniversary of astronauts Conrad, Bean, Gibson, Carr, Irwin and Schmitt training in Kilbourne Crater for their upcoming Apollo 12 Moon mission. That would be the second Moon landing. Kilbourne was chosen for its dust, the rough terrain and the multitude of geologic examples found at the site.
Other Apollo missions trained at Kilbourne: Apollo 13, 14, 15 (canceled), 16 (renamed 15) and 17 crews all did their time in the hole. NASA’s budget and our will to explore the Moon waned and the Apollo missions kind of ran out of steam. Which, in a suitable ending is what created their moon-mission training ground those many years ago. Maybe one day NASA will return to Kilbourne and use its dusty, rocky landscape to train another generation of astronauts. I hope to see America once again become a space-faring nation and that those astronauts will be heading to Mars.
When I saw the first photographs of Royal Enfield’s new 650 twin the bike seemed perfect. 650 vertical twins have owned the sweet-spot of cool long before McQueen bashed them around the desert and they are still an ideal size and configuration for all around use. Unfortunately the latest vertical twin offerings from other motorcycle manufacturers have sprouted slow-moving tumorous pistons, lost their summer beach-bodies and become uselessly complex. The whole situation kind of put me on edge. I was actually a bit angry: “Royal Enfield better not screw this up,” I mumbled to my cat.
I liked the new Interceptor 650 so much I was going to get really pissed off at Royal Enfield if the bike was crude and uninspiring. Luckily for everyone involved, the Interceptor, or INT, or Cartridge, or Clip or whatever legal BS we are supposed to use, is a great bike. It’s hard to judge long-term quality without the requisite passage of time but from what I can see the 650 is well and truly the Nads.
In the video I rave about the frame, because it is noticeably well-finished. I couldn’t get over the thing. All the component parts of the RE 650 appear to be designed not only with function in mind but also with an eye toward aesthetics. This is a motorcycle that will look just as good dismantled as it does assembled, like how a Norton 750 looks good in pieces on your cycle bench. Thanks, whoever is responsible for this.
The 650 Royal Enfield engine feels peppy and it breathes well. The bike pulls hard right up until the rev limiter cuts in at 7500 RPM. It feels like a happy engine if you know what I mean. Sitting upright I saw an indicated 115 mph in 5th gear at redline and 6th gear dropped the top end to 110. I think if I didn’t have 75 pounds of touring garbage flapping in the breeze and made myself really small I could have gotten 120 mph in high gear.
The fuel injection on my 650 delivered its tiny spurts of fuel precisely and in a timely fashion. I could not imagine it working any better. On the highway the thing got an amazing 70 miles per gallon. Fuel injection is one of the few modern advances that I think are useful on a motorcycle. Handling was a non-issue: The bike tracked well and the suspension is good enough for me.
The shifting is slick and effortless and if I wasn’t running out of old Cycle magazine issues from the 1970’s to steal complimentary phrases from I’d go on about the transmission for hours. I’d really like to take this bike apart and see what makes it so good.
The brakes were not super powerful. I never felt like the bike wouldn’t stop but I’ve gotten used to incredibly powerful brakes on other bikes. It’s not a deal killer for me because this is a multi-purpose motorcycle, not a race bike. I didn’t care for the Royal Enfield’s anti-lock brake system but in their defense I don’t like anybody’s anti-lock brake system. I’ll have to yank the fuse or defeat the system somehow when I get mine.
Yes, I would actually buy one of these motorcycles if moto-journalism paid in something more fungible than “Likes.” I’m not sure what they will actually sell for yet but it will be less than the other guys. If they make a high-pipe scrambler version all bets are off.
Some motorcycles play much larger than their spec sheets would indicate. The Royal Enfield is one of them. It’s such a joy to travel on a simple, lightweight motorcycle and the pleasing burble exiting from the 650’s exhaust system is music to anyone who rode a Honda twin from the 1970s. The 650 is a bike built to ride and it’s nice to look at parked in the garage.
I’m afraid motorcycle riders have become trapped in the American Dream of bigger is better and more plastic is better. The road grows dimmer and further from their nerve endings in the cause of comfort and technology. Stop now. You can easily find a more powerful motorcycle or find a faster one but you’ll play hell finding a better looking motorcycle than the Royal Enfield 650. And you won’t find one that’s more fun to ride on the street.
If you’d like to read the rest of our recent Royal Enfield Baja adventure ride posts, here are the links…
At one time I owned a 1973 BMW R75/5 motorcycle. I traded 1300 dollars and a 1957 small-window VW van for the BMW. The good points about the bike were the suspension and the weight. For a 750cc the bike was lightweight and the thing had plenty of fork travel so it worked pretty good off road. The bad part was the charging system. I never could get the damn thing to electric start due to the battery being low. At the time I tried everything I knew to fix it but the little red discharge light was on constantly.
But this story isn’t about the BMW because I soon lost my driver’s license by wheeling and speeding around Florida on the German motorcycle. (It would do 110 MPH!) Maybe that’s the root of my animosity towards the brand. It had a bizarre ignition key to boot.
A year or two earlier Florida had changed the description of a moped and you no longer needed a driver’s license to operate one. I still had to travel 10 miles to my job at the JC Penny auto store so my mom drove me to the Garelli dealer on 49th street and I picked up their loss leader, Plain Jane Garelli moped for 399 dollars.
With no speedo and painted fenders the red Garelli was a study in thrift. It got 80 miles to a pre-mix gallon flat out at 30 miles per hour. Helmets weren’t required on a moped so I didn’t wear one. I wore a ball cap turned backwards.
My route to work changed to avoid busy roads. I crossed railroad trestles and scrambled behind Hialeah Speedway cutting across parking lots and running down alleys being chased by the exact same dog each day. The ride to work became an adventure and I learned to wheelie the Garelli for long distances. The moped’s lights were not exactly powerful but they always worked and the ride home at night kept the thrill going.
In the rearmost section of the luggage rack was a tin box containing the Garelli’s tool kit. The tool set was a spark plug socket and a couple wrenches of the cheapest thin steel so I used a letter punch to stamp ‘Snap-On” into the factory tools. This got huge laughs whenever I dragged the kit out to do what little maintenance the Garelli needed.
I rode the Garelli for three months and even after my license was reinstated I kept riding the moped for a while to save my driver’s license for a big cross-country trip my buddies and me had planned. I finally sold the bike for 300 dollars to an old man who could barely pedal the thing fast enough to get it started.
Daily destinations for a 7-day, relaxed whale watching Baja itinerary.
Good buddy Peter asked me to post a map of our recent Royal Enfield adventure ride to see the whales in Baja. That was a great suggestion, and it also provides an opportunity to suggest a great 7-day itinerary to see the whales in Baja. This was a relaxed ride of approximately 200 miles per day, and a full day off the bikes in Guerrero Negro on the day we saw the whales. One thing I want to mention up front: If you’re taking a motor vehicle into Mexico, you must insure the vehicle with a Mexican insurance policy. We insure with BajaBound, and that’s who we always recommend.
Day 1: The Los Angeles Basin to Tecate (170 miles)
The 170-mile distance I reference here is taking the 15 or the 5 south from the Los Angeles area. When you get down to the San Diego area, just find California 94 off the freeway, stay on it for about 25 miles heading east, and make a right on 188 for the 2-mile hop to Tecate.
Rolling into Tecate, Mexico!
You can make Tecate in about three hours if there’s no traffic. It’s an easy run and it gives you time to process into Mexico by picking up a visitor’s card, you can change U.S. currency into pesos, and you have time to explore Tecate a bit. An alternative route is to head south by riding over Mt. San Jacinto into Idyllwild and then take country roads through California down to Tecate, but you’ll need a full day if you do this and you would get into Tecate much later.
Jonathan and Pablo at Amores. It’s world class dining in downtown Tecate, and it is amazing.
My advice for a Tecate hotel is either the El Dorado or the Hacienda (you get to either by running straight into Tecate and turning right on Boulevard Benito Juarez. If you are with your significant other, you might consider the Amores Restaurante for dinner (it’s world class fine dining and it is superb). If you want something simpler, go for Tacos Dumas, a short walk from the Hacienda Hotel. There’s also a great Chinese restaurant across the street from the Hacienda (there are a lot of great Chinese restaurants in Mexico).
Day 2: Tecate to San Quintin (180 miles)
Day 2 starts with breakfast at 8:00 a.m. at the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant. It’s in the same building as the Hacienda Hotel, and as explained to us by Jonathan (the head chef at the Amores restaurant) it’s the best breakfast in Tecate. I think it’s the best breakfast anywhere, and with their exotic buffet featuring different Mexican regional cuisines, it will start your day right.
Maria, one of the friendly folks who took care of us in the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant.
After breakfast, head east on Boulevard Benito Juarez, turn right when you see the sign for the wine country, and stay on that road (it becomes Mexico Highway 3) to Ensenada. It’s Mexico’s Ruta del Vino, and the scenery and the vineyards are grand.
On Mexico’s Ruta del Vino headed for Ensenada!
After 70 miles of glorious wine country, you’ll hit Mexico Highway 1 just north of Ensenada. Turn left, hug the Pacific, and skirt through Ensenada (one of Baja’s larger cities). After Ensenada, you’ll pass through several small towns and then the road becomes the Antiqua Ruta del Vino, or Baja’s old wine country. The scenery is impressive. Stay on that road; you’ll pass through many small agricultural towns as you continue south through Baja. San Quintin is the destination on this second day of our Baja journey. There are lots of hotel options in San Quintin; my favorite is the Old Mill Hotel. Watch for the Old Mill Hotel sign, and make a right when you see it to reach San Quintin Bay and the hotel 4 miles to the west. Staying here is a tradition for Baja travelers.
When heading south in San Quintin, watch for the sign pointing to the Old Mill Hotel.Lucy, the lovely young lady who brought us beer and dinner at the Eucalipto restaurant.
There are two great restaurants on either side of the Old Mill, and the Old Mill now has its own restaurant, the Eucalipto. Good buddy Javier is the owner and head chef, and the cuisine is fabulous. You’ll get a free beer when you check into the hotel. Ask for a Modelo Negra; it’s superb.
Day 3: San Quintin to Guerrero Negro (264 miles)
This is the long stretch, and it starts with a run south from San Quintin through Los Pinos, and then roughly 20 miles along a roller coaster road skirting the Pacific. Then it’s a climb into the hills, a Mexican military checkpoint, and you’ll arrive in El Rosario. Top off at the Pemex in El Rosario, and if you’re hungry, you might have a late breakfast or an early lunch at Mama Espinoza’s (try the chicken burritos; they’re awesome). After that the Transpeninsular Highway climbs into the Valle de los Cirios and the desolation that is Baja. You’ll see several varieties of plant life that grow in Baja and no place else on Earth (including the Dr.-Suess-like cirio and the mighty Cardon cactus).
A Royal Enfield Interceptor 650, the first one to enter Mexico, parked near a giant Cardon cactus in Baja’s Valle de Los Cirios.
It gets even better when you enter the Catavina boulder fields. The area around Catavina is a magnificent region with stunning scenes. There’s a hotel on the right side of the road that seems to change ownership every time I’m down that way. The food is good (but a little on the pricey side); the trick is to get there before any tour buses arrive. A new Los Pinos 7-11 type store recently opened across the street from the hotel and it looks like they’re putting gas pumps in, which is a good thing. For now, though, if you’re on a bike we advise filling up from the guys selling gasolina out of cans. It’s 110 miles to the next gas station, and most bikes don’t hold enough fuel to make the entire 231-mile run from the Pemex in El Rosario all the way to Guerrero Negro.
You’ll want to fill up in Catavina if you’re on a motorcycle. Photo by Baja John.
After the Catavina boulder fields, it’s a run through Baja’s Pacific coastal plains to Parallelo 28, the border between Baja and Baja Sur (the two states comprising the Baja peninsula). There’s an immigration checkpoint there where you might have to produce your visitor’s form, but usually the Mexican immigration folks just wave you through. Make a right turn off the Transpeninsular Highway, and head on in to Guerrero Negro.
Joe Gresh riding through the Catavina boulder fields on a Royal Enfield Bullet.A gray whale skeleton as you make the right turn heading into Guerrero Negro. Good times ahead!
There are plenty of hotels in Guerrero Negro. I’ve stayed at the Hotel San Ignacio (no restaurant), Malarrimo’s (one of the best restaurants in Guerrero Negro), the Hotel Don Gus (they have a good restaurant), and the Hotel Los Corrales. They’re all good. The real attraction here, though, is whale watching, and that’s the topic for Day 4 of our 7-day Baja adventure.
My KLR 650 parked in front of Malarrimo’s in Guerrero Negro. It’s a decent hotel and they have a great restaurant. It’s on the right as you enter Guerrero Negro.
Day 4: Whale Watching in Guerrero Negro (0 miles).
Day 4 is a day off the bikes and a day devoted to whale watching. I always have breakfast at Malarimmo’s when I’m in Guerrero Negro. For whale watching, we’ve used Malarimmo’s and Laguna Baja’s tour service; both are great. They have morning and afternoon tours. Folks ask if the whale watching is better in the morning or the afternoon. I’ve found both are awesome (and both are just under $50 per person). The whale watching tours are only available January through March because that’s when the California gray whale herd is in Scammon’s Lagoon. You’ll be out on the boat for roughly three hours, so you’ll want to use the bathroom before you go. You can expect a genuine life-altering experience when you visit with the whales. You might think I’m exaggerating, but I am not. Bring a camera. No one will believe what you tell them about this experience unless you have pictures.
Up close and personal with a California gray whale in Scammon’s Lagoon. It is an experience like no other.
After seeing the whales, look for a fish taco van parked on northern side of the road. That’s my good buddy Tony’s Tacos El Muelle truck. Tony makes the best fish tacos on the planet. Yeah, I know, that’s another strong statement, but I know what I’m talking about here.
Tony, fish taco chef extraordinaire. Tell Tony Joe sent you.
For dinner in Guerrero Negro, there are lots of options. The Hotel Don Gus has a great restaurant, Malarimmo’s is great, and we most recently tried the San Remedio (off the main drag on a dirt road in Guerrero Negro) and it, too, was awesome.
Restaurante San Remedio in Guerrero Negro. It was authentic,and you will very likely be the only non-local guest.Brianda, who served us dinner at the San Remedio.Corvina grilled with olive oil and garlic at the San Remedio. It was 135 pesos, or about $7 US, including soup.
Day 5: Guerrero Negro to San Quintin (264 miles)
You might wonder: Are there other ways to head back north in addition to the way we came down? The short answer is yes, but the roads are sketchy and I’ve seldom felt a need to take a different route. My advice is to just go back the way you came down, and stop and smell the roses along the way. There’s plenty to see. Take photos of the things you missed. Enjoy the ride.
Joe Gresh feeling his oats on the ride north out of Guerrero Negro.Photographing a cirio plant in the Valle de los Cirios.Gresh spotted an unusual (and abandoned) geodesic dome in the desert north of Catavina on the way south and he said he wanted to stop there on the return leg north. So we did!More artwork framed our test Enfield from the geodesic dome’s interior. Gresh had the idea to grab this photo. He’s better at this than I am.
On the return leg of this adventure, you can stay at the Old Mill Hotel again. Yeah, it’s my favorite. There are other hotels in the San Quintin area, including the much larger and more modern Misione Santa Ines (which also has a great restaurant). There’s also Jardin’s, which Baja John told us about but I haven’t visited yet. One of these days I’m going to spend two or three days in and around San Quintin. It’s a cool area.
A bleu cheese salad at the Eucalipto. It was exquisite.
The Old Mill’s Eucalipto isn’t open every morning for breakfast, but that’s okay because there are lots of good places to eat once you get back on the Transpeninsular Highway heading north. If you want to pick one of the great breakfast spots, just look for any restaurante with a whole bunch of cars parked in front (the locals know what they are doing). If you’ve never had chilequiles, give this Mexican breakfast specialty a try.
Day 6: San Quintin to Tecate (180 miles)
This is the same ride we took on the way south, and my guidance is the same: Stop, smell the poppies, and grab a few photos along the way. If you can hold out for a great lunch, I have two suggestions. One is the Los Veleros in Ensenada, which is in the Hotel Coronado building as you ride along the coast. The other is Naranjo’s along the Ruta del Vino (Highway 3) back into Tecate.
The Naranjo’s dining room along the Ruta del Vino. It’s on the left as you head north to Tecate, and you’ll have to watch for it or you’ll miss one of the best restaurants in all of Mexico.Yours truly in the LA Cetto tasting room. I’m wearing my R Heroes USA workshirt, a top-quality item I’ve been wearing on every adventure ride for 10 years!
I always like to stop at the L.A. Cetto vineyard on the way home (rather than on the first part of the ride). I’ll pick up one bottle of wine (and for me, that’s either a Malbec or a Cabernet). I’d like to be able to take more home, but it’s tough to do that on a motorcycle, and you’re only allowed to bring one bottle back into the United States. Rules is rules, you know.
If you had dinner at Tecate’s Amores on the way down, you might want to try a street taco restaurante on this, your second night in Tecate. We like Tacos Dumas, just up the street from the Hacienda Hotel. It’s awesome.
For an authentic experience, try Tecate’s Tacos Dumas restaurante. Life doesn’t get any better than this.
Day 7: The Ride Home (168 miles)
This is an easy run, and for me, it starts with a breakfast at Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos in Tecate (yeah, I love that place). After that, it’s a quick stop at the Mexican immigration office to return your tourist visa (don’t skip this step; you need to check out of Mexico and simply crossing back into the US won’t do that). If you’re in a car, you’ve got to get into the long line waiting to get back across the US border. If you’re on a bike, go a block or two east of the street you took into Mexico, turn left, and look for the US border crossing. There’s a break in the K-barriers guiding the automobile line, and you can go right to the head of the line. I’ve never had a problem doing this, even though it feels like I’m doing something wrong.
And folks, there you have it: Seven glorious days of the best riding on the planet. I’m ready to go again.
If you’d like to read the rest of our recent Royal Enfield Baja adventure ride posts, here are the links…
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The Interceptor in Baja’s wine country along the Antigua Ruta del Vino south of Ensenada. I think the Enfield is a perfect motorcycle. I thoroughly enjoyed our Baja ride on it, and I’m planning to buy one for myself. The spirit of the British vertical twin is alive and well in this fine machine. I’ll point out a few nits in this article, but folks, trust me on this: This is an amazing motorcycle.
When I was a teenager and LBJ was in the White House, my standard against which all motorcycles were judged was the 1965 Triumph Bonneville. To me, that represented the ultimate motorcycle, and to this day, it’s what I think of when people start talking about the perfect motorcycle. It’s what came to mind when Royal Enfield announced the 650 Interceptor. I think 650 cubic centimeters is a good size for a motorcycle. I think a British vertical twin is the perfect vehicle (to borrow a phrase from good buddy Melissa Pierson). And I know that Baja is the best place on the planet for a motorcycle trip. That’s why I wanted to get the new Enfield and ride it through Baja. The perfect bike on the perfect ride. I predicted it would be a great trip. I was right.
Originally, we wanted to get two Interceptors, but they weren’t available. Enfield countered with an offer of two 500cc singles. Okay, we thought, that would do, and we realized it was a gutsy move on Enfield’s part to lend the bikes to us. Then that same dealer we’ve been so disappointed in couldn’t seem to get around to getting the bikes ready for us, and the plan shifted to an Interceptor and a Bullet. Even better, thought Gresh and I, and we were off, headed south into Baja. The two different bikes would make for an interesting contrast.
It’s a funny thing; we thought the story would focus primarily on the newer bike (the Interceptor), but the Bullet proved to be a fun and interesting motorcycle (like Gresh mentioned in his blog below). Don’t get me wrong; the Interceptor is an amazing machine. In fact, I’d say it was perfect. But it was almost too good (and I’ll get to that further along in this post).
Back in the day when I was a youngster dreaming about owning a Triumph Bonneville, I only knew one guy who rode an original Royal Enfield twin. That was Ricky Stang, a guy I knew in high school (go Vikings). Everyone else who rode was either on a Triumph or a Honda. Ricky had this amazing Enfield 750 with an all-chrome gas tank. He was (and still is) a cool guy. How cool, you might wonder? Well, he bought a Mustang car and modified the emblems by chopping off the M and the U, so his car said STANG (Ricky’s last name). That’s how we rolled back in the ‘60s.
Okay, back to the main attraction: The 2019 Royal Enfield Interceptor. Let’s start with the basics. It’s a 650cc vertical twin, just like my dream bike, the ’65 Triumph Bonneville. The Enfield brochure (downloadable on the Internet) puts the “kerb” weight at 202 kg (that’s 445 lbs; the ’65 Bonneville was 363 lbs), the wheelbase at 1400mm (that’s 55 inches, just like the ’65 Bonneville), and the horsepower at 47 (the ’65 Bonneville had 50). The new Enfield has a 6-speed transmission (the ’65 Bonneville had a 4-speed). Hmm, the right displacement and the right dimensions. The Enfield weighed a bit more, but the ’65 Bonneville didn’t have disk brakes front and rear, ABS, electric start, turn signals, an oil cooler, or catalytic converters.
The Enfield engine is magnificent. It is very torquey, and on our Baja foray I never felt like I was undergunned. The exhaust note is perfect (it sounds like a real motorcycle). The engine is extremely smooth. It didn’t seem to care what gear I was in; I could just roll on the throttle and the bike responded. In fact, a lot of times I’d be riding along thinking I was in 6th gear only to discover that the bike was in 5th or even 4th. It is that smooth. And a lot of times while climbing mountains in Baja’s Valle de los Cirios, I didn’t have to bother downshifting. Twist and go. Cool. We had the bike weighed down with lots of gear on our Baja trip; the Enfield didn’t seem to care. The engine is a 4-valve per cylinder, single overhead cam design, but the Enfield folks somehow managed to pull off the styling such that it looks a lot like the original overhead valve Enfield design of the 1960s (kudos for that). It is a good-looking and brilliantly-performing motor.
Perhaps the best-looking engine in the business, this SOHC, 4-valves-per-cylinder motor strongly resembles the 1960s Enfield OHV motor. The left side engine cases make it look like a non-unit-construction engine. Well done, Enfield!
The bike never felt heavy to me. The Enfield carries its weight low and it felt light and quick everywhere. Yeah, on paper it’s 80 lbs heavier than the ’65 Bonneville. It didn’t feel like it, though. It feels good.
Enfield’s spec sheet says the bike is air-and-oil cooled, and there’s a non-obtrusive oil cooler mounted on the frame downtubes. The engine looks perfect. It’s nicely finned and you can see the thing. The exhaust system is a work of art. The mufflers are nicely shaped megaphones and brilliantly plated, and the exhaust header curvature is perfect. (Why is the word “perfect” emerging so frequently in this report?) I’m guessing the headers are a “pipe in a pipe” arrangement, as the pipes exhibited no heat discoloration. The clamps securing the exhaust headers to the cylinder head are neatly finned gizmos, just like Triumph had in the ’60s. Both sides of the engine have beautiful cases. Gresh commented that the engine’s left side cases were fashioned to make it look like the bike had separate engine and transmission cases, as Enfield had in days of yore. The Enfield guys got it right. I am impressed.
A magnificent exhaust system. The curvature of the pipes and the upswept cans are perfect.If we had any, Gresh and I could comb our hair in those engine cases.
Gresh mentioned in an earlier blog that he reached 115 mph in 5th gear and 110 mph in 6th, confirming that 6th is really an overdrive. I never took the bike over 80; it would do it, I just didn’t want to. I found the bike stable at any speed. Fuel economy is outstanding. When we took delivery of the bike, it had 847 miles on the odometer and Joe measured 60 mpg on the first tank. On our last tank, with another 1300 miles on the bike, it returned 70 mpg. It never used any oil on our trip.
The headlight is a big chrome affair, just like Triumph (and basically all the British manufacturers) used to do. The beam was good, too. It lit up the street nicely.
The bike has a single disk in front and another in the rear. Both are ABS equipped. There’s no provision that we could see to turn the ABS off. Joe slammed the rear brake on a dirt road, and you could see where the ABS activated on and off in the bike’s track. The brakes are good. I never used them hard enough to activate the ABS feature, and that was okay by me.
The fuel tank is nicely contoured with a teardrop shape (it looks like a motorcycle gas tank should). Fuel capacity is 13.7 liters (that converts to 3.6 gallons). The tank emblems are gorgeous, although there was a very slight curvature mismatch where the leading edge of the emblem interfaced with the tank. That’s my inner motojournalist kicking in. I had to find something negative to say about the bike, and folks, this is one of very few nits I had with the bike. Yeah, I’m being picky. The gas cap is of the locking variety (it unlocks with the ignition key), and the cap is not hinged on the tank. You take it completely off when refilling. The bike ran equally well on regular or premium, and we mostly ran on regular because that’s all we could get once we went further into Baja.
The badging is magnificent. No funky cheap decals here.Picky, picky, picky…there’s a slight curvature mismatch at the front of the tank emblems. It was consistent on both sides of the tank.
Here’s another nit: Joe and I both felt the left side of the bike is crowded around the footpeg. The gearshift is a little too close (I guess it could be adjusted upward, and I’d like the lever to be a little longer). The extensions for the kickstand and the centerstand extend far enough outside the bike and they are close enough to the footpeg that putting your foot down is a bit challenging. I didn’t like that all of that stuff (the gearshift, the footpeg, the kickstand extension, and the centerstand extension) stuck as far out as they did, and I had to think about where I put my foot down more than I do on other motorcycles. On the plus side, shifting was slick and effortless, there was no clunking, and the bike almost changed gears telepathically (it was that smooth). Getting the kickstand down was easy with the long extension, and pulling the bike up on the centerstand was also easy. Enfield provides a nice handhold on the left side of the bike for that purpose.
Things are crowded on the left side of the bike, and I had to be careful putting my left foot down.The shift lever was a little too low and a little too close to the left footpeg.
I’d call the instrumentation perfect (ah, there’s that word again). As I mentioned in one of the first blogs we did on the Interceptor, Enfield captured the essence of the big old Smiths instruments that used to adorn British bikes back in the ’60s. The bike has a digital, bar-based fuel gage in the left pod, an analog speedo and tach, high beam and turn signal indicators, an ABS light, and an odometer and two tripmeters. Stated differently, it has all the good stuff you need and none of the stuff you don’t. The tripmeter reset was a pushbutton between the speedo and tach. I found the tripmeter reset a little hard to actuate, but I haven’t been hitting the gym lately.
Perfect instrumentation, in my opinion. The chrome crossbar is a little cheesy.
The horn on this bike is loud. It sounds like a European automobile horn. I liked that.
On the bodywork, everything looks great. The tank, as mentioned above, is is nicely shaped and the metalflake tangerine color is stunning. The Interceptor’s fenders are nicely shaped, a bit abbreviated (which I like), silver in color, and plastic, all of which is fine by me. The bike has a deep gloss black tubular double downtube frame, and that answers the mail nicely for a refined and classic Britbike look. The seat is long, not overly cushy, flat, and comfortable (it has a cable-actuated release accessible under the right body panel). The side covers work, too. I like that they are black. It fits the overall look nicely.
The handlebar switchgear is the same as the Bullet, which is the same as the CSC motorcycles, which is the same as 90% of the motorcycles sold today. Somewhere, there’s a single factory making handlebar switchgear for everyone. My guess is that factory has a Chongqing zip code. It all works nicely. The turn signals are not self-cancelling. The clutch and front brake levers (forgive me, Joe Gresh) fell easily to hand and were light to operate. One more minor nit: Joe noticed that the front brake left was shaped such that it had a minor drag against the right handlebar switchgear housing, and that this slight drag prevented the brake lever from returning all the way to the forward position (you could touch the front brake lever with your fingers to make it go all the forward). We probably could have adjusted that interference out by repositioning the front brake lever on the handlebar, but we did not. It’s a nit that will almost certainly be gone when the bikes go into production for the US market. Joe liked the handlebar crossbar; I thought it was the only thing on the bike that looked cheap. I think it would have been better if it was an integral part of the handlebar, as Janus does on their Gryffin model and CSC does on the TT250.
Standard switchgear on the left handlebar.Standard switchgear on the right handlebar, too.There was a slight bit of interference between the switchgear housing and the front brake lever in the area denoted by the yellow arrow.
The front suspension is not adjustable, and if you have been following the ExNotes Enfield Baja blog, you know that’s okay by me. The rear suspension is adjustable for preload. As delivered to us, the rear shocks were set to a medium position. Our bike, being a preproduction prototype, did not have a tool kit, so there was no spanner to make any rear shock adjustments. You can see from some of our photos that we had the Interceptor loaded heavily with our gear and soft luggage, and I managed to bottom out the rear suspension a couple of times. No big deal. Suspension travel is about what’s needed on a street bike. The wheels are 18-inchers front and rear.
Silver fenders, unpainted wire wheels, and Pirelli tires. It all came together for a crisp, responsive, good-looking motorcycle.The rear carries 130/70-18 tires. The bike rides and handles well.
Our Enfield benefactor told us that officially the bike is to be known as the 650 INT, as the Interceptor name had some issues. I’m guessing that’s because a certain other motorcycle uses that name today (hint: that motorcycle is usually red). Ah, whatever. It seems to me that Enfield of yore (in the UK Enfield days) used the Interceptor name long before you met those nicest people on a…well, you know. And then, of course, there was the Ford Interceptor, the name the Blue Oval guys stuck on their police cruisers. So I thought I might help Enfield by suggesting a few other names. My first idea was that maybe they could call this bike the Kool Long Range 650 to honor our 1300-mile Baja adventure and the bike’s displacement, but that would abbreviate to KLR 650, and…well, you know. Another idea was that because the bike has electric starting and it is such a smooth ride, we could call it the Electra-Glide, but…well, you know. And then, because it is so well balanced and tractable with its torquey motor, we might call it the Go Slow, but that becomes GS, and I think someone is already using those initials. The tank badges are kind of gold in color and shaped like a wing, so maybe Gold Wing would work (is that already taken?). Maybe, because of where the bike is manufactured, we could just call it the Indian. What’s that? That name is already taken, too? It’s tough, I guess, naming a new bike.
Overall, I am extremely impressed with the new Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor. So much so, that I’m going to buy one if (as I mentioned in an earlier blog) I can convince the dealer that I’m not stupid and I’m not subsidizing their freight and setup fantasies. At first blush, one of the dealers told me freight and setup on this bike would be $1200. Uh huh. Look, I know that you can ship a bike anywhere in the lower 48 states for something around $350 (and that’s a max number; if you’re shipping it to a closer state it’s a lot less, and if you’re shipping several, the rates drop even more). Setup on this bike probably involves installing the mirrors, maybe the handlebars, and the front wheel, and all that should take under an hour. I don’t know why the dealers persist in this gouge-the-customer-for-freight-and-setup larceny. Well, I take that back. I do know. I just don’t like it, and I won’t pay it. A realistic freight and setup cost (to the dealer) is most likely below $350, and with a reasonable profit that number would go a little higher. But not $1200. No way, no how.
Okay, off the soapbox and back to the bike. I think the Enfield 650 is one of the best motorcycles I’ve ever ridden. It’s light, it’s smooth, it’s fast, it handles well, it gets good fuel economy, and the fit and finish are world class. It’s almost too good, in that maybe it doesn’t have the character or personality of the Bullet, or a 1965 Triumph Bonneville. But that’s a trade I’d make. Enfield hit a home run with the Interceptor. I think it’s perfect.
Most of our time riding Royal Enfield motorcycles through Baja is spent eating. We have breakfast then ride a while. Any time between 10am and 2 pm is lunch time followed by a rolling dinner that lasts several hundred miles.
My T-shirts have stopped buckling and my pants no longer fit over my head. It’s a mess. Take today, we had Chorizo with eggs then cheesecake then chips and guacamole then tuna. Wash it all down with a nice, cold Mexican Negra Modelo beer and call it a moveable feast.
We eat so much so often that our awesome bellies have crushed the Royal Enfields down to Well-Respected Enfields. It’s a shame.
Between meals we managed to knock out a few hundred miles. The Bullet is averaging about 1000 calories per mile while the thirstier 650 twin Royal Enfield is showing signs of early onset diabetes. Pass me another Moon Pie will ya?
I spent the entire day riding the Bullet and it is much improved. Not exactly like it should be but running about 75% better than the last time I tried it. Berk will explain all in his blog.
We are slowly eating our way back to California and if our hearts and livers can hold out, should be home tomorrow.
Did I ever tell you I’ve been on two boats that sunk? No? Ah well, It’s a story for another blog another day. Bounding out into Guerrero Negro’s bay our low-gunneled pongas were kicking up rainbow waves and a light, salty mist settled over the occupants.
Sensing my worry, Berk assured me that this whale watching tourist business was settled science and I had nothing to worry about. “They must know what they’re doing” he told me.
At first the whales were far in the distance. I was so excited I zoomed my camera way out and started reeling off hundreds of shots. It went that way for a few hours but slowly the whales started to get closer to our boat. Somewhat cautious, then bolder, they came in closer. My zoom lens slowly retracted into its housing.
Still they approached, checking us out like like census workers. I no longer bothered with distant whales as we had plenty within 100 yards of the boat.
Late in the day the whales began to swim under the boat and kept getting bolder until they popped their heads up next to the low gunnel and spouted a fine mist all over the passengers. This we enjoyed way more than you’d think people that had just been sneezed on should enjoy.
The whales started rolling next to the boat, showing a fin here or a tail there. They pushed each other aside trying to receive lovey-dovey petting from passengers. Yes, we petted the whales like they were puppies.
Jaded by so many fantastic photo ops, I wouldn’t bother to lift the camera unless a whale specifically asked for a selfie with me. By name. They were crazy friendly, getting their noses (or where a nose should be) scratched and blowing salt water onto my camera and then feigning surprise, as if it was all a simple mistake.
It was an amazing time to be a whale as they don’t often get to meet two Royal Enfield riders in the same boat. Finally we ceded our private pod to another, less fortunate group of tourists.
The Bullet made it through the day without problems and now that it seems to be fixed Berk and I will swap bikes for the return ride. Wish me luck!
That word above (ballenos) converts to “whales” and wow, the whale watching in Scammon’s Lagoon today was as good as it gets!
First, a couple of motorcycle beauty shots…the Bullet and the 650 in Guerrero Negro…
…and next, some of the photos from our whale watching expedition earlier today…
At one point, we had four whales up against our little boat, all wanting to be petted like giant puppies. One even smiled for us…
Joe and I had a great time.
After we returned, we had a couple of fish tacos at good buddy Tony’s Tacos El Muelle, and tonight, we’re trying a new restaurant in Guerrero Negro. Tomorrow we’re pointing the bikes north as we head back to California, and most likely we’ll stay in the El Rosario/San Quintin area again.
Lawrence of Suburbia. I love it. Gresh thinks he’s riding the Bullet tomorrow. We’ll see…
Berk was feeling pretty frisky about the Bullet. We had cleaned up a corroded spark plug cap and the big 500cc single was running well.
“You stay on the 650, I like this Bullet and want to try it now that it’s running right.” It took no arm twisting to get me back in the Royal Enfield 650 twin’s seat. I feel supremely comfortable on that bike and you will too if your spine has also recently collapsed from lifting 36,000 pounds of concrete last month. The thing suits my wee, 5-foot 6-inch frame perfectly. Bigger guys may fit the 650 also but I have no way of knowing that sort of shin surgery.
Meanwhile, Berk was was like Lawrence of Suburbia burbling along Baja’s Highway 1 with his Eton tie fluttering in the Bullet’s considerable draft. The guy was having way too much fun racing rag-winged biplanes and organizing Gurkhas. The big 500 single was in top form, pulling steadily and hitting every beat right on time. It got to the point that I thought I was missing out on something good. Like Tom Sawyer painting that picket fence.
And then the battery died. Flat dead, like nowheresville, man.
I recently bought a bunch of those lithium engine starter batteries, the ones about the size of a pack of cigarettes that will jump start an aircraft carrier. I whipped the thing out and Berk was impressed at how the Bullet jumped. Wait…that doesn’t sound right…
Anyway, once running the Bullet stayed running and we made it to Guerrero Negro where we located a slightly-used-but-still-holding-a-charge battery. The poles on the used battery were reversed and the case was a little bigger than the stock battery so we had to do a bit of ham-fisted metal rearranging to get the battery to fit inside the Bullet’s box. It’s not pretty but the bike starts fine now. The stock battery side cover won’t fit over the larger battery and we debated tossing it into the weeds but decided Royal Enfield wouldn’t find it so funny. We buried that part in our luggage.
With wires dangling and the larger battery hanging out the left side of the frame our Bullet is looking more like a BMW adventure bike everyday. If we wrapped 75 feet of 3/4 inch electrical conduit around the Bullet you’d swear it was a GS1200. Despite the troubles the thing is growing on us. Really, none of the faults are due to Royal Enfield assemblies.
In fact, each time we get the Bullet back on the road I like the thing better. It’s plucky, it’s a never-say-die-motorcycle in a British stiff upper lip, we keep our side of Gibraltar’s door knob polished, way. You know what I mean?
That’s it for now. Tomorrow we are going to see the whales, which in Spanish translates to “I’m going to ruin another expensive camera on a rickety boat out in the ocean.”
I finally spent some quality time on the Royal Enfield 650 today. We rode from Tecate to San Quintin, Mexico through the Ruta del Vin0 and Ensenada. My initial impressions have been reinforced. Royal Enfield nailed it with the 650 twin.
The bike scoots along feeling fresh and light all day. In top gear 4000-ish RPM moved the bike along at 60 miles per hour, 4600-ish was 70 miles per hour and 80 miles per hour saw the steady tach needle planted at 5000 RPM give or take a few.
I don’t know what RE claims for horse power but sitting bolt upright and letting the thing rip led to a 7500 rev-limited RPM @ 115 miles per hour (indicated) in 5th gear while 6th gear topped out around 110 MPH at lower revs (7000? I was too busy to get the exact number).
Unlike an old, torsion-bar Honda 450 twin that would rev high but never seemed to enjoy it, the Royal Enfield 650 twin loves to rev and it feels like the 7500 RPM rev limit could easily be exceeded by another 1500-2000 rpm before any self induced porting restrictions came into play. There must be a wire that needs cutting somewhere.
All in, this bike is plenty fast for me as I don’t plan to do street racing anymore. I’m too mature for that crap.
The Meteor (I’m trying to get RE to rename the bike) ) 650’s transmission shifted crisply all day long and in heavy stop and go traffic it didn’t get crotchety. 5th and 6th gear are close enough that I found myself sometimes running a gear down at cruising speed. The engine is so smooth and quiet it’s best to give the lever an additional tug, you may have another gear to go.
Pulling in the clutch started to feel a little sticky, kind of segmented, so I gave the pivot to cable connection a squirt of lube and the lever was smooth again.
The bike has ABS brakes and the front lever needs a strong pull to get maximum stoppage. There’s only one disc but for me it stopped well enough. If you’re the kind of rider that enjoys standing a bike in its nose you may want a bit more front brake. The rear brake must be ok because I never noticed it.
After a full day of riding the Royal Enfield 650 twin has done nothing to diminish my initial enthusiasm. It looks so good and really runs great. It’s shocking that the same company that builds the retro Bullet made such a sweet machine. This is a cool bike, make no mistake.
If you roll along dusty, unpaved county road A011 through the desert shrubbery of New Mexico’s south-central region, and you roll with purpose, you will fetch up on the shores of Kilbourne Crater. Kilbourne was formed by a maars-type volcanic eruption. In a maars eruption a crater is created by hot magma coming into contact with the water table. When the two meet, the rapidly heated water turns to steam, expands and blows huge chunks of ground skyward. By huge I mean 2.5 kilometers across 1.8 kilometers wide and 125 meters deep. It’s a big hole and it must have made quite a racket when it blew its stack 20,000 to 80,000 years ago.
Maars volcanic eruptions don’t form the classic Hanna-Barbera, cinder cone shape or leave behind crowd-pleasing lava flows. At first I thought a meteor caused the crater but the crew at Southwest Expeditions had several guest speakers situated under a billowing tent to set me straight. They also had a van if you didn’t want to burn your own fuel to get to the crater. I saved $2.57. In addition to downloading a heck of a lot of information about volcanism into the assembled masses they served us a fine chicken-taco lunch.
Lunch was fabulous except for one thing. That thing being a giant jar of sliced jalapenos. No one was eating them because the lid was too tight. I gave it a good twist but the lid would not budge. I’m not the strongest guy in the world but I can open a damn jalapeno jar, you know? I finally gave up and handed it to this big guy that looked like Chief from the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I swear, he took the lid in his fingertips and the lid spun off easy as pie.
It put a damper on my lunch I tell you. I ate moody qua-moody. Am I getting old? Will I need a Clap-On soon? Life Alert? After the jar debacle it was probably best that Southwest Expeditions canceled our hike down into the crater. The temperature was 92 degrees and the wind was howling. No sense crushing anyone else’s sense of self-worth.
The reason for all of this activity in the middle of nowhere was the 50th anniversary of astronauts Conrad, Bean, Gibson, Carr, Irwin and Schmitt training in Kilbourne Crater for their upcoming Apollo 12 Moon mission. That would be the second Moon landing. Kilbourne was chosen for its dust, the rough terrain and the multitude of geologic examples found at the site.
Other Apollo missions trained at Kilbourne: Apollo 13, 14, 15 (canceled), 16 (renamed 15) and 17 crews all did their time in the hole. NASA’s budget and our will to explore the Moon waned and the Apollo missions kind of ran out of steam. Which, in a suitable ending is what created their moon-mission training ground those many years ago. Maybe one day NASA will return to Kilbourne and use its dusty, rocky landscape to train another generation of astronauts. I hope to see America once again become a space-faring nation and that those astronauts will be heading to Mars.
When I saw the first photographs of Royal Enfield’s new 650 twin the bike seemed perfect. 650 vertical twins have owned the sweet-spot of cool long before McQueen bashed them around the desert and they are still an ideal size and configuration for all around use. Unfortunately the latest vertical twin offerings from other motorcycle manufacturers have sprouted slow-moving tumorous pistons, lost their summer beach-bodies and become uselessly complex. The whole situation kind of put me on edge. I was actually a bit angry: “Royal Enfield better not screw this up,” I mumbled to my cat.
At one time I owned a 1973 BMW R75/5 motorcycle. I traded 1300 dollars and a 1957 small-window VW van for the BMW. The good points about the bike were the suspension and the weight. For a 750cc the bike was lightweight and the thing had plenty of fork travel so it worked pretty good off road. The bad part was the charging system. I never could get the damn thing to electric start due to the battery being low. At the time I tried everything I knew to fix it but the little red discharge light was on constantly.
Did I ever tell you I’ve been on two boats that sunk? No? Ah well, It’s a story for another blog another day. Bounding out into Guerrero Negro’s bay our low-gunneled pongas were kicking up rainbow waves and a light, salty mist settled over the occupants.
…and next, some of the photos from our whale watching expedition earlier today…
At one point, we had four whales up against our little boat, all wanting to be petted like giant puppies. One even smiled for us…
Joe and I had a great time.
After we returned, we had a couple of fish tacos at good buddy Tony’s Tacos El Muelle, and tonight, we’re trying a new restaurant in Guerrero Negro. Tomorrow we’re pointing the bikes north as we head back to California, and most likely we’ll stay in the El Rosario/San Quintin area again.
Berk was feeling pretty frisky about the Bullet. We had cleaned up a corroded spark plug cap and the big 500cc single was running well.
With wires dangling and the larger battery hanging out the left side of the frame our Bullet is looking more like a BMW adventure bike everyday. If we wrapped 75 feet of 3/4 inch electrical conduit around the Bullet you’d swear it was a GS1200. Despite the troubles the thing is growing on us. Really, none of the faults are due to Royal Enfield assemblies.
I finally spent some quality time on the Royal Enfield 650 today. We rode from Tecate to San Quintin, Mexico through the Ruta del Vin0 and Ensenada. My initial impressions have been reinforced. Royal Enfield nailed it with the 650 twin.