Category: Motorcycle Adventure Ride

Day 2: Mompos!

The Colombia adventure continues.   For those of you just joining us, this is a series of blogs I wrote four years ago for CSC Motorcycles when I was rode an AKT Moto RS3 (the carbureted Colombian version of the RX3) through the Andes Mountains.  Day 2 of that ride was absolutely awesome, ending with a visit to an enchanted town after a ferry ride down the Magdalena River.

Our second day on the road in Colombia started in Coveñas, and the humidity was oppressive. It was going to get worse as the day went on. We’re in the tropics, not too far from the equator, and hot and humid is the normal way of things here. On the plus side, you don’t care if it rains because you’re already drenched. It actually helps because it’s cooling.

Anyway, back to the morning in Coveñas. We ate in the hotel, and while we were waiting for breakfast, this dude was selling some kind of yams or roots, and Juan Carlos pointed out the scale he was using. It’s about as crude a scale as I’ve ever seen, but it’s sound technically, and it sure makes for an interesting photo.

Here’s a typical Colombian breakfast: Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, bread, and a corn or flour tortilla with cheese (that’s called arrepo). The Colombians are big on cheeses, with different regions producing unique cheeses. It’s quite good.

The guys pointed out this car as we packed the bikes. This probably didn’t end well for the passenger, who most likely was not wearing a seat belt. The riding in Colombia is glorious, but it is stressful. Juan and Carlos said when they ride anywhere else (other than Colombia), it makes them sleepy because there’s only scenery. In Colombia, there’s scenery, but you have to watch out for everyone else. It’s intense. In a country full of twisties, people pass on blind corners routinely. I guess the theory is you pray a lot. People think nothing of passing if the oncoming traffic has room to move over, or if the oncoming traffic is a motorcycle. It’s weird, but you kind of get used to it. But it is intense (just like the heat and the humidity).

When we got on the road after breakfast, we only went maybe a mile when Carlos had a flat tire. Watching the guy repair it was interesting, and so was hanging out watching the world go by in Colombia.

And here are some of those watching the world go by in Colombia photos.

Here’s a photo of our RX3s somewhere on the road, headed to the ferry that would take us to Mompos, a remote town 45 minutes down the Magdalena River.

This church was across the street and just down the road from the ferry loading spot.

I only grabbed a few photos while we were boarding the ferry. The heat and humidity were getting to me at this point. It was about 4:00 in the in the afternoon, and it was sweltering.

Once we were underway, it got a little cooler on the river. You probably saw my video of that ride.

We arrived in Mompos and it was impressive. It’s the oldest town in Colombia, and to say it is off the beaten path would be an understatement. We had dinner in a restaurant run by an Austrian, where I had the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life.

After dinner, we chatted with the owner for a bit, and then we walked along the river front…I grabbed a bunch of photos there.

Folks, that’s about it for now. I’m a day behind in keeping you up to date on this trip, but Internet connectivity is dicey in these remote locations. As always, more to follow, if not today, then in a day or two (or three). Stay tuned.

If you’d like to see our earlier blogs in Colombia, please click here.

Day 1: Adventure Riding the Andes!

Our Colombia adventure continues…a circumnavigation of the Colombian Andes on a 250cc motorcycle.  For those of you just joining in, I’m reposting a series of blogs I did for CSC Motorcycles describing my ride through the Andes Mountains in December 2015.  After spending the previous day tearing around Medellin and its surroundings, I had become acclimatized to the mile-high altitudes.  As the adventure continued, we would head even higher, all the way up to 14,000 feet, but that’s all coming later.   On this, my second day in Colombia, we headed into the Andes and then down to the Caribbean.  Our real journey had started, and here is that story.

Wow! I never thought I’d been typing this, but here I am. I just rode across the northernmost range of the Andes Mountains.  On an RX3.  Here they are: The Andes!

I took that shot from a cool little spot where we stopped for a typical Colombian breakfast…hot chocolate, scrambled eggs, and arrepa. More on that later…here’s a shot of the bikes at what has to be one of the coolest biker restaurants I’ve ever enjoyed.

And here’s another shot of my AKT Motos RS3 (the RS3 is the carbureted version of the RX3).

I liked that restaurant a lot. They painted it to match my jacket.
We rode about 370 miles yesterday, and about half of it was in the Andes. 370 miles may not seem like a lot, but picture riding Glendora Ridge for 6 or 8 hours. The Andes are a motorcycling paradise. The Andes Mountains.

Wow!

I guess you never know what you’re going to see in the Andes. This old goat was kind of cool…and I had to grab a shot.

We stopped to take a break and some of the local paramilitary/police guys came over to check out the bikes. The RX3 is a prestige motorcycle in Colombia (just like it is in the USA) and these boys wanted a closer look. They gladly consented to a photo. They are most definitely well armed. You see police and military units everywhere.

These next photos are from the saddle after we descended from the Andes. Good times, my friends.

These next photos are of young ladies who are gas station attendants. When they saw our 250cc RX3 motos, they wanted to know what it was like riding such huge motorcycles. That’s a bit different from what you might hear in the USA, I suppose.

It was a long day, and it ended in a town called Covenas, right on the Caribbean. We stopped for a few shots with the sea in the background.

Keep an eye on the blog, folks. I won’t be able to post every day, but I’ll do my best.

And that wrapped up the second day of my time in Colombia, and the first day of our ride through the Andes.  We’re going to make it a little easier to track this adventure for our blog readers.  You can get all of the good stuff from our Colombian ride here.  I’ll post the next blog from our Colombia adventure in a few days, so stay tuned!

Medellin!

My ride through Colombia started on 13 December 2015 (it’s hard to believe it was more than 4 years ago; it feels like it was last year).  What started this trip down memory lane for me was the Netflix TV series Narcos, and yeah, Susie and I binge-watched the first two seasons (which culminated in the Colombian forces taking down Pablo Escobar).  It was an awesome series, filmed in Colombia, and the scenery took me back to that awesome adventure ride with my good buddies Juan and Carlos.   Like I said in the last blog, I wanted to treat you to the blogs I wrote for CSC when I was on that trip, and this was the first one I did upon my arrival in Colombia.

There are no straight roads in Medellin, there are more motorcycles than cars, the weather is awesome, and the cuisine is incredible. If that doesn’t sound like heaven to you, well, you need to rethink your concept of fun. Colombia, folks! On an RX3! What an adventure!

So today is Day 1, we put a couple of hundred miles on the AKT Moto RX3 motorcycles, and we haven’t even started our journey yet (it officially begins tomorrow). My good buddies Juan Carlos and Carlos (there are a lot of guys named Carlos over here) set today aside just to let me get used to riding in Colombia.

Here’s a shot of me with my two moto buddies in a village somewhere in the mountains surrounding Medellin.

Back to the RX3 designation…AKT Moto is one of Zongshen’s largest customers, and they sell a carbureted version of our favorite motorcycle called the RS3. It’s a cool bike. Here’s a shot of mine…it’s the one I’ll put 2500 miles on here in Colombia in the next week or so.

And that village? It’s actually called Mesopotamia. Folks, I can’t make up stuff this good!

Motorcycling in Colombia is substantially different than what we’re used to. For starters, there’s the prevalence of motorcycles. I’m not exaggerating. I saw far more motorcycles today than cars. It seems to be the national pastime. There were thousand (maybe tens of thousands) of riders in the hills this morning.

More interesting facts:

    • Motorcycling is predominantly a social activity here in Colombia. We must have stopped at 4 or 5 coffee houses and restaurants today. The pattern is you ride for 45 minutes or so, and then stop for coffee. Hey, is this what café racing is all about? Juan Carlos knows everybody at these coffee stops, and they all know him. Juan Carlos founded the only motorcycle magazine in Colombia (DeMotos), and he’s an icon over here. Any you know what? Some of these guys recognized me! Juan Carlos ran a feature story in his magazine on our Western America Adventure Ride, and these guys were all familiar with it.
    • The bikes are predominantly in the 100cc to 150cc range, and these folks are all happy with that. Small bikes rule over here. We saw people dragging their pegs on these things having as much or more fun as we do on the big bikes in the US. Nah, scratch that…they were having more fun!
    • I asked about freeways and the guys laughed at me. They pointed to the winding set of twisties just outside the restaurant and told me, “that is our freeway.” These are my kind of people!
    • There are elite riders over here on Triumphs, Ducatis, BMWs, and MotoGuzzis. There are lots of large Yamahas over here, too (or, is they say in Colombia, Jamahas). They’re not arrogant. We had coffee with a bunch of them, and they were all great guys. The photo below is a typical roadside restaurant, and they all looked like this. What a place!

The food is awesome. Here’s a shot of my lunch at that restaurant above. The dish is called Capresse Buenaventura.

Ah, let’s see, a few more photos from some of the little villages we rode through today.

Juan Carlos picked up his cousin Heronimo (you gotta love their names!) and he rode with us in the afternoon.

After I took that shot above and Juan Carlos and Heronimo pulled out, I saw a cool police bike painted in fluorescent safety yellow (or is it a green?). I always wondered what a bike would like painted in that color.

Bikes are both sporting propositions and utilitarian vehicles down here. I saw bikes carrying all kinds of cargo (no photos, but I’ll get some of those later), and I saw a few bikes that had to be 20 or 30 years old and were still doing hard time.

One of the guys I met at one of our coffee stops is a retired US Army Colonel named Miles. I liked the guy immediately…he’s a dead ringer for Lee Marvin and he even sounds a little like him. Talk about stories…this guy has been everywhere and when he retired, he decided to hang his hat in Colombia. Here are a couple of photos of my new buddy Miles…the first one with the guys listening to him in Mesopotamia, and a shot at yet another coffee stop. I sure drank a lot of coffee today!

Well, I think that’s enough blogging for Day 1. We’re rolling out at 4:30 tomorrow, and I want to get a good night’s sleep. The altitude bothered me a bit yesterday and I didn’t sleep too well, but I think I’m used to it now. The plan tomorrow is to put 300 miles on the bikes, and like I said, there are no straight roads in Colombia. We’re climbing up over another mountain range and headed for the coast. It’s going to be fun!

So there you have it.  The above was my first day in Colombia, and it was sort of a “get acquainted” bit of tearing up the roads around Medellin.  The real journey, our romp through the Andes Mountains, would start the next day.  Stay tuned, folks.  There’s a lot more to this story.

If you’d like to see the entire Colombia ride, just click here!

Plata O Plomo: Filmed in Colombia

Susie and I are hanging out at home, getting out for our daily walk or two, and generally obeying our fearless, fiercely-partisan, and fear-mongering leaders as we wait for them to declare a CV19 victory.  We’ve been watching a lot of TV while under house arrest, and it’s a big deal when we find a series we haven’t seen before.  We had one such discovery last week with Narcos, a series on Netflix about the drug wars in Colombia.

Silver or Lead, Amigos y Amigas. Or in this case, a Model 625’s stainless steel and six full metal jacket .45 ACP rounds.  That hat is one of my favorites.

Somehow we missed Narcos the first time around, although I was vaguely aware of its existence from a hat I picked up at an International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in San Diego two or three years ago.  Good buddy and retired police chief Mike was going to the IACP convention and he invited me along as his official “Assistant to the Director.”  I was even issued an official laminated ID card, but Mike drew the line when I asked him if I would get a gun, too.  His answer was immediate and clear:  No.  That’s okay, I already had a gun.

Mike and I had a good time at the IACP show and we came home with a lot of swag.  One bit of that haul was a Narcos hat embroidered with the show’s tagline:  Plata O Plomo.  If your Spanish is a bit rusty, it means Silver or Lead, with the premise being (if you were a Colombian cop or politician) your choice was either a bribe or a bullet.

The Narcos Netflix series is the story of Pablo Escobar, the activities involved in taking him down, and the drug wars in Colombia.  From the first episode, I thought the scenery was stunning.   I mentioned to Sue that it looked exactly the way I remembered Colombia from my Andean adventure.  We started in Medellin’s Antioquia neighborhood (which, by the way, was Pablo Escobar’s old stomping grounds).   Sue checked it out on her cell phone and, sure enough, Narcos was indeed filmed in Colombia.

Riding with good buddy Carlos in Colombia.  That’s me in the green jacket.  Photo by good buddy Juan DeMotos.

We’ve been binge-watching Narcos and every scene brings back a memory for me.  Colombia is a magnificent place, and I loved every minute of that adventure.  I’m going to recreate that ride by posting some of the photos (the one above is but a sample) of one of the grandest adventures I’ve ever enjoyed.   I’ll post a series of blogs from our Colombia trip over the next two weeks.

Stay tuned, folks.  This is going to be good.

CSC’s new colors and some good adventure video…

I stopped by CSC Motorcycles last week to visit with my friend Steve and see the new TT250, San Gabriel, and RX3 colors.   I and my camera will try to do justice to the new CSC paint themes, and hey, while we here, we’ll share a few videos.

The TT250 line has an entirely new set of colors, and I like the new look.

There’s a cool decal on the TT250 side panel, too, which i like a lot.  It reminds me a bit of what new Triumphs had in the 1960s, when every one of their bikes had a “world’s fastest motorcycle” decal on the tank.

As you know, I have a TT250, and mine is from the very first shipment that came into CSC a few years ago.  Mine is black with bold TT lettering on the tank and side panels.  I like that bike, I’ve ridden it in Baja (the video below is taking it through the Rumarosa Grade in northern Baja), and I’m going to fire it up and ride it around a bit today.

Next up is a photo of the San Gabriels. The new colors on the SG250 work well, too.

You know, I did one of the very first San Gabriel videos when those bikes first came to America.  It, too, was a hoot.

And here are a few photos of the CSC RX3, a bike that has generated lots of smiles and lots of miles since its introduction to the United States in 2015.  The new colors are much more interesting and maybe a little more subtle than what we’ve seen on RX3 motorcycles in the past.  There’s a gray and turquoise theme, and a silver and red alternative.  They both look good.

I like the new RX3 paint themes, and I like the original ones, too.  I ride an RX3.  Mine’s a 2015 model and, like my TT250, it’s one from the very first shipment to the US.  My RX3 is orange (the fastest color, as good buddy Orlando knows), and it’s one of the early ones that faded to a kind of subdued yellow (that’s before Zongshen started adding color stabilizers to the paint).   I like that look and I’ve had a lot of great rides on RX3 motorcycles, starting with our initial CSC Baja run.  That ride was a hoot and a half.  Imagine that:  A brand new shipment of RX3 motorcycles (the first in the US), and yours truly and 15 other intrepid CSC riders did 1700 miles in Baja on these bikes.   Take a look:

Our next big RX3 ride was the Western America Adventure Ride…5000 miles across the Western US, from So Cal to Sturgis to Portland and then down the Pacific coast to home. I didn’t do a video on that ride, but good buddy Joe Gresh sure did!

We did several more CSC Baja rides, a bunch of rides in the US, and our absolutely amazing 6000-mile ride across the ancient kingdom on RX3 motorcycles:

Not enough?  Hey, how about a ride through magical Colombia on RS3 motorcycles?   The RS3 is the carbureted version of the RX3, and it, too, was an amazing adventure:

If you enjoy watching YouTube videos, we have quite a few more on our YouTubby page.   Grab a cup of coffee, click on the YouTubby link, and have fun.  I sure did.

Golden Spike National Historic Park

To continue our Utah exploration, this blog is on the Golden Spike National Historic Park in Promontory, Utah.   This is where the Transcontinental Railroad came together, with the Union Pacific building from the east, and the Central Pacific building from the west.   The Transcontinental Rail Road was completed on 10 May 1869.  It’s quite a story, and Golden Spike National Historic Park does a grand job in telling it.

Heading into Gold Spike National Historic Park.
The National Park Service advises not listening to your GPS, but to instead watch for the signs.
Jupiter and No. 119. Both locomotives were built in the eastern, industrialized US.
Keep going in one direction, and these tracks would lead to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Head in the opposite direction and you’ll arrive in Sacramento.
Jupiter and its coal tender. Both this locomotive and No. 119 (see below) are not the originals. They were reverse engineered from photographs and completed in 1979.
No. 119. Neither Jupiter nor No. 119 were supposed to be the locomotives that met at this site. Antelope was replaced by Jupiter when it hit a fallen tree trunk along the way to Promontory. No. 119 replaced another locomotive when the first one was chained to the rails in Piedmont, WY, by workers who had not been paid.
A reenactment of a famous cowcatcher kiss.
Another view of Jupiter.
And another. If you are a photography enthusiast, Utah is a target-rich environment.
No. 119 basking in the Utah sunshine.
I had a new wide-angle lens when I shot these photos.
Colorful Jupiter. Both originals, Jupiter and No. 119, died a death that didn’t quite fit their historical significance: They were both sold for scrap (at less than $1000 each) in the early 1900s.
And finally, headed back to Ogden, Utah, on State Route 183.

Susie and I arrived late in the afternoon at Golden Spike National Historic Park to catch their last presentation of the day.  We hung around for a bit taking a few more photos and were about to leave when one of the docents suggested we stay a little longer.  They were about to move the locomotives back to their garage, or barn, or whatever you call the structure where you park a locomotive.   We were glad we did, and I grabbed this video.

Aztec Ruins, New Mexico and Motorcycle Classics magazine

This was exciting…Susie and I were tooling through New Mexico on  our way to Mesa Verde in Colorado when we spotted a sign for Aztec Ruins National Monument.   We’d never been there.  In fact, we had never even heard of the place.  But it’s there, it’s real, and it’s a grand destination.  The result?   Well, hey, check this out!

Locked out abroad: Mike in Baja

You guys and gals will remember my good buddy Mike, whom I met on one of the CSC Baja runs a couple of years ago.   It was a chance meeting…we stopped to buy bottled gas from one of the roadside entrepreneurs in Catavina and I noticed one of the bikes had a set of jump wings on the tail box.  We had been on the road a few days already and I wondered why I hadn’t noticed the Airborne insignia before, and then I realized it was because I hadn’t noticed the bike was a BMW GS, not a CSC RX3 (that’s how much the bikes look alike, I guess).  I looked around and there was Mike (a new face in the crowd), waiting for fuel just like the rest of us.  You meet the coolest people in Baja, and you meet the coolest people on motorcycles.  I liked Mike immediately.

Mike is a former US Army Paratrooper (my kind of Amigo), an adventure rider, a good friend, and one hell of a guy.  You’ve seen him here on the ExNotes blog before.  Mike lives on his motorcycle (a big BMW GS) and travels all over, working as an untethered project manager and writing regularly.  It’s a cool (and an enviable) lifestyle.

I received an email from Mike yesterday offering this guest blog, and I wanted to share it with you.

Joe,

Thought this would make for an interesting story for your blog. I know its been an interesting story for us! Let me know what ya think. Few colorful pics for it as well.

Hope you are doing well. I am sure you are fully prepared. 🙂

Mike

PS. Be cool if we could get Chris Hansen to read the blog “take a seat over there, would you like some lemonade” HAHAHA

Locked OUT Abroad- Mexico- Extended Stay

My girlfriend, Bobbie Surber and I both work remotely, so in late February we thought a 4-6 week adventure moto trip through Baja would be a great way to kick off spring. We could get some great riding in, explore camping along the beautiful beaches, and really just clear out the cobwebs from any winter blues and lack of activity we had been experiencing.

The trip started out great in San Felipe in a wonderful off grid solar AirBnb casita, with a lovely host (we only travel Saturday and Sunday as we are heads down working Mon-Fri in AirBnBs). We continued camping, riding, and staying in AirBnBs all through Guerro Negro, Muleje, La Ventana, Todo Santos, and Loreto. We were spending a week in each location to fully absorb the unique cities, people, and culture while soaking up the incredible desert roads, ocean views, and all while meeting new riders that will become lifelong friends along the way.

As we had just arrived in Loreto on March 15th we really began to notice the COVID-19 virus was really starting to ramp up in the United States to the point travel alerts were being issued globally and we began to see fellow travelers from Canada and the EU being requested to return home by their countries.

In Loreto, we were still a solid 3-day ride away from the US Border when on March 19th a Level 4 travel advisory was issued to either return to the United States or hunker in place for an indefinite period. At the same time people in America were hoarding toilet paper and individual states were beginning to “shut down” one by one. We took this quite seriously and given what information was being provided at the time a team decision had to be made by us. It was a long 2-3 days of going back and forth in open dialogue between both of us on different ideas, plans, and solutions. None of which either of us were thrilled with.

We both agreed returning to the United States was not a wise decision, however, we did not want to stay a 3 day drive away from a border crossing in the event there was a health emergency for either of us. We decided to reach out to our 1st Baja AirBnB host in San Felipe and she graciously offered her casita up for us to hunker down in which would place us within a 2 hour drive from the US Border should there be an emergency where one or both of us may need to return home. This seemed like a perfect staging area. The virus seemed to be less in the Baja, perhaps due to lack of testing, but nonetheless it was a peninsula so geographically it made sense that the impacts would be less. There was also an abundance of supplies (to include toilet paper, which I am still confused as hell on why there was a run on that particular item).

So now to our current state of affairs. We are in self-quarantine in San Felipe with our new AirBnB friend, Victoria and are continually evaluating the situation in the United States looking for a safe opportunity to return home, and are quite frightful for the new reality we are returning to. Confident in both our analytical and decision making abilities I am looking forward to writing Part II of this, hopefully sooner than later.

Mike, that’s an awesome input and we sure appreciate hearing from you.  Thanks very much.  Your photos and descriptions made me realize just how much I miss Baja.  Sue and I would have been down there this month had it not been for this CV19 business.  As soon as we return to normal, I’m headed south and we’ll be down there.  Ride safe, take care, and thanks again!

A note from Sergeant Zuo

Sergeant Zuo on our 2016 ride across China, somewhere along the Silk Road.

I recently wrote to my good buddy Sergeant Zuo, who led our 2016 ride across China.  Zuo lives in Lanzhou, a huge refining center we visited on the China ride.  He and I became great friends on that 38-day adventure.  Zuo is a former Chinese Army senior NCO and in an earlier life I was a lowly lieutenant in the US Army.  But hey, a lieutenant outranks even a senior noncommissioned officer, and every morning (even though we served in different armies), he’d snap to attention and salute me.  And I would then return the salute.  It was cool and it added to the good nature and relaxed camaraderie we all felt on the China adventure.  Zuo is that rare natural leader you sometimes encounter when groups gather and he was perfect for the China ride.  He made what could have a been a scary undertaking into a grand adventure.  I would follow him anywhere, and I imagine the troops in the Army units he led felt the same way.

Sergeant Zuo along Qinghai Lake, one of the largest salt water lakes on the planet.  We were about a third of the way into our ride when I took this photo.

Zuo owns an RX3 (he was one of the very first people to buy an RX3 in China) and it is his daily driver.  He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese, but that had no impact on us.  We spoke RX3 and riding, I guess, and we formed an immediate bond.  A good motorcycle can do that, you know.

Sergeant Zuo on the ferry ride to Qingdao.  Qingdao was our final destination on the China ride.

Our trip started in Chongqing, we rode to northwest China (the Tibetan Plateau and the Gobi Desert), then back to central China, and finally over to Beijing and then Qingdao.  Qingdao was a name that stuck in my mind.  Nearly 50 years ago I was on a US Army missile site in Korea and our primary target line pointed straight across the Yellow Sea at Qingdao.  And now, here we were at the end of our China ride five decades later in that very same city.

Zuo, Gresh, I, and a dozen others rode our motorcycles right onto the beach at Qingdao, stripped down, and went swimming in the Yellow Sea’s cool waters.  Damn, that felt good.  After fighting the oppressive heat and humidity of a damp Chinese summer, I could have spent all day in that cool ocean water. Back in the day I was ready to launch missiles at bad guys coming from Qingdao; 50 years later I swam in the Yellow Sea with Zuo at that very same spot to wrap up the grandest adventure of my life.

Our route on the ride across China.

With that as a backdrop, here’s the note from my good buddy Zuo:

Joe(大舅）：

谢谢您给我的信。

从网络里看到新型冠状病毒（CV-19）在美国蔓延，这个可怕的家伙成了人类共同的敌人，但是我们应该相信，它是会被战胜的！

我们这里的疫情虽然得到控制和缓解，但是疫情警戒还没有结束。

J，我很好，谢谢您。

阅读您和二舅的博客是我生活中的最大乐趣，看到你们快乐的玩很是高兴。因为你一直相信在大洋彼岸有一个和你惺惺相惜的好朋友一直在关注这您们，是吗？

等到疫情结束，如果能和您一起摩旅那将是我最幸福的等待。

非常想念您——我的良师益友。

代为向您的爱人问好。

祝愿您和二舅一切安好。

—— 左振义 2020年3月20日 于中国.兰州

Yeah, I know, you don’t speak Chinese.  That’s not a problem; we’ll just turn to Google’s translation site:

Joe (big uncle):

Thank you for your letter.

Seeing the spread of the new coronavirus (CV-19) in the United States from the Internet, this terrible guy has become a common enemy of humanity, but we should believe that it will be defeated!  Although the epidemic situation here has been controlled and alleviated, the epidemic alert has not ended.

J, I’m fine, thank you.

Reading your and Erji’s blog is the biggest joy in my life, and it’s great to see you playing happily. Because you have always believed that there is a good friend who cares about you on the other side of the ocean, has you been paying attention to you.

When the epidemic is over, it will be my happiest waiting if I can travel with you.

I miss you so much–my mentor.

Say hello to your friend.

I wish you and Erji all the best.

—- Zuo Zhenyi in Lanzhou, China, March 20, 2020

About that “Erji” business…the Chinese quickly gave Gresh and me Chinese names.  I was Dajiu (big uncle), and Joe was Erji (little uncle).   After that initial christening, those were our names for the entire trip.  It was cool.

You know, when this CV19 business is over, it would be grand to get Zuo over here for a US and Baja ride.  It’s something to look forward to, and I promise you it’s going to happen.

Edit:  Just in case you haven’t seen these videos, here you go.  The first is Gresh’s China Ride video, the second is the one released by Zongshen.  They’re both great.

The Royal Enfield, the RX3, the TT 250, and more…

So you’ve probably noticed I haven’t been riding too much lately.   You know how it goes…it gets cold, you have other things going on in your life, you want to send some lead downrange, and on and on it goes.

I needed to break that pattern, and there’s no better way to do that than to buy a motorcycle.   Yeah, I know…I already have two motorcycles (what has to be the world’s most well-traveled RX3, and a pristine, low miles TT 250). I like CSC motorcycles.  But you may recall that Uncle Joe Gresh and I road tested two Enfields last year and I fell in love with the 650 Interceptor.

Down Mexico way…dinner at the San Remedio in Guerrero Negro. Life is good, folks.

I was primed to buy a Royal Enfield when I returned from Mexico, but the Enfield dealer in Glendale had done a God-awful job prepping the Bullet (I wouldn’t buy squat from those guys now), and the Enfield dealer in Brea was doing the normal bend-you-over-a-barrel, here-comes-the-setup-and-freight-charges routine.   Folks, I’ve worked in the industry, and I know what setup and freight costs actually are.  Trust me on this…they ain’t $1500.  So I didn’t buy an Enfield.

Then an amazing thing happened.  One of the few dealerships I trust picked up the Enfield line last week.  It’s Art Guilfoil’s Douglas Motorcycles in San Bernardino.  I asked Art what he could do for me on a new Enfield, I was shocked at how low the number was (don’t ask, because I won’t tell), and, well…

I think this is No. 42 or No. 43 or something. I’ve owned a lot of motorcycles. This is the latest. Sue is cool with it, too!

I’m picking up my new 650 Royal Enfield on Thursday, and to say I’m excited would be an understatement of immense proportions.  It was a tough call for me between the Enfield and the new CSC RX4, but truth be told, I love my RX3 and it checks all the boxes for what I want in an adventure touring motorcycle.  Arguably, the RX3 is the finest adventure touring motorcycle in the world if you’re going places other than the corner burger joint (for all the reasons I explained in my piece titled Why a 250?).  I know.  I’ve been to places other than the corner burger joint, and I’ve made most of those trips on an RX3.

So with my new Royal Enfield coming in, it begged the question:  What should I do with my RX3 and TT 250?  My first thought was that I’d sell them.   Then I got to thinking about the RX3.   I’ve done some miles on that thing, folks, and we’ve bonded.  Nope, I’m going to hang on to it.  Baja beckons, and all that.  The RX3 is perfect for poking around the peninsula.  And next, month, that’s where I’m headed.   Susie’s going with me, and we’ll share a Tequila or two with Baja John.  You can read about it here.

That leaves the TT 250.  Hey, I was involved in bringing the TT 250 to America, and it all started when I eyeballed the 150cc version on display in Zongshen headquarters.  It was a bit of an uphill struggle…you know, getting Zongshen to make a 250cc version, and then selling the idea in Azusa.  I got the powers that be to go along and then I was out of town when the prototypes arrived in California.   A couple of the CSC underlings didn’t like the bike, and I had to sell it in Azusa all over again.  But it worked out, and the TT 250 is one of CSC’s best selling motorcycles ever.  It should be…it is a hell of a bike for a stunningly low price.

My TT 250 on the road at La Rumarosa in Baja.

With the Enfield coming in, I thought I would sell my TT 250.   Hell, it’s pristine, but because I don’t ride it too much, the carb gummed up on me.  I thought maybe I’d bring it to CSC and have them make it perfect again, and then another serendipitous thing occurred.  A few days ago, a post popped up on Facebook (why do I spend so much time on that moronic site?) from Revzilla, and what do you know, it was about doing your own maintenance on a CSC motorcycle.  In this case, it was the San Gabriel (a wonderful name for a motorcycle if ever there was one), and the guys from Revzilla said the CSC shop manuals were wonderful.  I thought that was great for a lot of different reasons, including the fact that, along with help from Gerry Edwards and the guys in the shop, I wrote many of the CSC manuals.  Then I realized…hey, I wrote the TT 250 manual.  I can fix my own carburetor.  I looked up the carb stuff and this afternoon I took mine apart, I cleaned the low and high speed jets, and now my TT 250 is running great.  There’s something uniquely satisfying about fixing your own motorcycle, and the Revzilla boys were right:  Those CSC manuals are amazing.  So are the motorcycles.  And so is the 650 Enfield.   I know, because I took one on what had to be the longest demo ride ever…all the way to Baja and back!

More good times coming up, folks, on the Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor!