Janus Motorcycles issued this press release recently. “The Flying Z” is a good-looking motorcycle with an interesting story.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
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July 6th, 2024
Goshen, Indiana
This spring, 66 year-old Mark Zweig—a lifelong motorcyclist, Janus Motorcycles partner, and part-time CFO for the firm, commissioned a new one-off bike for himself—a custom-built Janus Halcyon 250 dubbed “The Flying Z.”
Zweig has been a restorer, customizer, and collector of a wide range of motorcycles from the 60s and 70s for many of his years, sometimes having as many as twenty bikes at a time. And while he has always had a soft spot for smaller, lighter weight bikes, an accident in 2016 where he totalled his brand new Triumph Thruxton 1200, combined with a divorce and resulting downsizing, got him to eventually sell all of his larger bikes and narrow down his rides to a small group of small-displacement bikes including a new Janus Halcyon 250 in the year 2000.
“I just don’t ride as much as I used to, and certainly don’t need to go that far or that fast. Our founder, Richard Worsham, has dubbed that kind of riding as ‘rambling.’ Most of my riding is to and from campus (Zweig is the ‘Entrepreneur in-Residence’ at The Sam M Walton College of Business at The University of Arkansas), or on short trips in and around town. The Janus to me represents everything I want in a motorcycle. It’s incredibly beautiful, simple, reliable, ultra lightweight, and fun to ride. That’s why when I decided to have a new bike built for myself—where we could test out some new design ideas—I opted for another Halcyon 250 instead of one of our larger displacement bikes. It’s such a wonderful basic design.”
In fact, this bike is the second of Zweig’s “Flying Z’s.” The first Flying Z was a custom car—a boattailed speedster he built together with his friend and master fabricator, Mike McPherson—featuring a unique handbuilt chassis, hand-formed steel body, rumble seat, sand cast 18” wheels with knockoffs, and a straight-8 Buick engine with triple carbs. “That thing looked like it came from the same era as our Halcyon,” Zweig said.
Janus Motorcycles has made its marque and established a cult like following in the motorcycle world by building unique bikes to customer order, one at a time. Their bikes come in a huge range of colors and styles, with all kinds of options for hand pinstriping, leather seats and bags, and much, much more. But Zweig’s Halcyon Flying Z takes things a step farther and has some unique features not found on any other factory-direct Halcyon 250s.
“Our basic Halcyon 250 looks like a bike that could have come out of the 1920s,” Zweig said. “So I wanted to see what we could do by creating a bike that looked like the natural evolution of that one and that would have been built in the 1930s or 40s,” he added.
“One of the coolest aspects of The Flying Z is its set of uniquely flared and deeply skirted fenders making it more aerodynamic. I have been wanting to see what one of our bikes would look like with some fenders like these for the last couple years, and our master fender builder Brent Lehman, along with the design guidance from our founder and design lead, Richard Worsham, made it happen.”
The bike also has a one-off color scheme, with the frame and most other parts color-matched to the RAL 5024 powder-coated “Cavalry Blue” body work. The large “Janus” script on the tank sides was laid out by the design team and painted by lead pinstriper, Kelly Borden, as well as the cream-colored “Flying Z” script and logo on the bike’s black airbox. It has hand-painted dual silver pinstripes on the tank and fenders, along with silver pinstriped black wheel rims.
The bike also features a sandcast Flying Z fender ornament, based on the original Flying Z hood ornament, created by Zweig’s friend—famed Arkansas sculptor, Eugene Sargent. “Sargent made the fender ornament so it bridges the front fender brace and didn’t require any special mounting hardware,” Zweig said. The bike also features other bespoke polished components.
Topping off the build is a custom engraved fuel cap for its hand formed aluminum tank, replete with a “Flying Z” logo.
“I cannot wait to see the public reaction to the new Janus Flying Z,” Zweig said. “My old Janus draws a crowd every time I park it, and I expect this one will be even more attention-grabbing,” he added with a smile.
For more info, contact Grant Longenbaugh – grant@janusmotorcycles.com
I love Idaho and the Boise area, and no story about this part of the country would be complete without mentioning at least one of the motorcycle rides out of town. A short and easy one is the run along Idaho Highway 21 to Lucky Peak State Park.
It’s easy: Just grab Interstate 84 east out of Boise and then Highway 21 north. You’ll be running alongside the Boise River up to Lucky Peak. It only takes about 10 minutes to get up to Luck Peak State Park if you are in a car or on a motorcycle. If you’re into bicycling (I am), it’s about a 30-minute ride on the Boise River Greenbelt, a dedicated bike lane that parallels Highway 21 along the river. The bike lane is protected from traffic by a concrete barrier. I didn’t have a bicycle on this Boise trip, but I found myself wishing I did. It looked like a great bicycle ride.
Highway 21’s north and south lanes are separated, and the northbound lanes up to Lucky Peak State Park don’t have good places to pull off and grab photos. For that reason, most of my on=the-road pictures were taken on our ride back to Boise, including this one of a sign for the Diversion Dam.
You get a great look at the Boise River’s Diversion Dam heading to Lucky Peak, but like I said above, there’s no place to pull off for a photo. On the way back, you see the sign in the above photo, but you can’t see the Dam from there. It provides water for Idaho’s agricultural canal system and it also generates electricity. The company that built it in 1909 took a financial bath on the project, but the dam didn’t give a damn. It’s well over a hundred years old and it’s been doing its job well the entire time.
The Lucky Peak State Park is a multi-use park. You can swim in its freshwater beach, there are a couple of boat launch ramps, we met people there for kayaking, you can rent watercraft, you can fish, or you can just hang out and take pictures (which is what we did).
There are two dams in this area. The first is the Diversion Dam mentioned above; the second is a much larger Army Corps of Engineers Dam that forms Lucky Peak Lake.
The ride back had places along Highway 21 to pull over and grab a photo or two, which is what we did. There’s a lot to see and do in the Boise area and in Idaho, and there’s more coming up here on ExNotes about that. Stay tuned, my friends.
Ayers Rock was my destination. This is not an easy destination to reach, especially by car. It takes dedication, time, and patience. Many people fly to this location and use tourist busses to get around in the park, snap a few photos, and leave. Not me. It is cliché, but I feel the journey is more important than the destination. What you see, hear, and feel along the way allows you to appreciate the destination when you do finally reach it. This two-week drive to Ayers Rock was one that elevates that cliché phrase to a level I never thought possible.
My original plan was to circle the entire continent of Australia in a month. That was NOT happening so Ayers Rock (Uluru) was a solid turnaround point. Mind you to even complete this took me one month. The isolation was beyond what I had expected. I knew going into this that isolation would be the greatest challenge, but what I didn’t grasp was how far I would be pushed mentally during this journey.
To add to the trip, one of my best friends and a fellow paratrooper had been diagnosed with cancer a few years back and I knew his time was coming. Our texts and calls were becoming more and more infrequent. Fortunately, I am very close with one of his sisters. When I don’t hear from him within a week I reach out to her to obtain a status. During one of the most desolate spots on earth I received a text from her to inform me of his passing.
You don’t understand isolation until you receive a text like that in spotty cell phone coverage. There was no way of replying or reaching out to console and provide support to his loved ones. This left a more than significant gap in my mind with no way of processing it since I was in the middle of the Outback. There is no one to rely on for comfort or a crutch to get you by. There is nothing. Just nothing. The only consolation I found was hours of alone time to think and process it while focusing on how fortunate I was to have such a close friend, all the while driving for hundreds of miles with, again…nothing. A few dead kangaroos on the side of the highway with an occasional eagle or dingo chomping on them was the only life I saw through this portion of the drive.
Upon arriving at Uluru I set up camp, which only entailed pulling into a parking spot as I was car camping. This has been a solid pro to car camping, just minimal to no preparation setting up or pulling down camp. After cooking a quick meal in my “campsite” I thought I had enough in me to drive around Ayers Rock for sunset.
Upon entering the park and seeing Ayers for the first time my eyes welled up. I am not sure if it was due to this area being such a spiritual place for the Aboriginals or that the drive to reach it was so emotional. It really doesn’t matter. To finally lay eyes on this magnificent rock glowing in the golden hour of sunset was a moment that will resonate with me forever. I was fully present in the moment and felt a sense of calmness.
After a semi-solid night’s sleep in the car, it was time to do a 3-hour hike around the rock and really get to experience this monument of the ancients up close and personal. Since I had been car camping in some warm climates I purchased some mesh window covers to allow the windows to remain down in the evening without having any bugs, flies, snakes, kangaroos, or dingos enter the vehicle while I was sleeping. This purchase turned out to be one of my better decisions along this drive. Uluru is plagued with flies. An unimaginable amount of them. Starting the hike early in the morning was key to avoid them and as the sun rose over this great rock having the car mesh as a makeshift fly screen for myself on the hike was a lifesaver.
Traveling alone through Australia is an experience that forced me to look at life from a unique perspective that many will never understand or even imagine existed. The month was filled daily with two constants: Change, and being challenged to adapt to the environments. By environments I mean both from the outside world and from the world within me. Both were deeply felt throughout my long journey to Ayers Rock.
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I will start this story with the disclaimer that my lack of planning and just going with the flow of Australia allowed for this adventure to even happen. I originally thought that I would easily be able to circumcise (I think that’s the right word) the Australian continent in a month. Not a big deal. Yeah, some long days, but doable. Well, if you go back to Part I of this story, you will realize I got hit by a brick daily on that theory. Either way I had a rental car for a month and would see what adventures I could experience using a list two close friends had provided as a high-level blueprint.
After a couple days exploring Sydney, it was time to pick up my rental car, hit the open road, and embrace what would come while in Australia.
One of the first locations where I was able to slow down and take some time to embrace my surroundings was The Great Ocean Road. Having ridden some pretty incredible roads throughout the planet, for me to say much about any road is a rarity. Well, this is one that I was kicking myself for being in a rental car (and not on a motorcycle). I encountered a group of Japanese tourists, and one was a student at Boston University. I was wearing my Boston University shirt, so we posed for a photo.
The Great Ocean Road begins just west of Melbourne and extends to Port Fairy. It is 146 miles long. The road is paradise for anyone who has ever ridden a motorcycle. The entire length skirts the coast of the Southern Ocean from cliffs high above. “Breathtaking” doesn’t begin to touch how this feels, as every corner provides a new panoramic view of rock formations and ocean as bright green as you can imagine.
Occasionally the road cuts inland through thick rain forest. There are plenty of short hikes gushing waterfall views along these parts. If you look closely you will likely find a koala bear lazily eating eucalyptus leaves in a tree high above. Wallabies dance around your car, curiously peering in to see if anything is worth a closer inspection for something to fill their bellies.
Another beautiful feature of this paved paradise is the lack of people along the way. Several campsites I visited had no one in them. I am certain it helped that it was offseason (that and my ability to find off-the-beaten-path locations). It wasn’t odd for me to have miles of beach to myself while enjoying a cold VB Bitter beer. I could stare along the endless coastline while listening to the waves crashing, with my surroundings devoid of any other creature (with the occasional exception of a kangaroo hopping by).
Upon driving along the Great Ocean Road my mind was in the right place. I was filled with peace through the solitude I enjoyed from star-filled nights. I felt as though my mental clarity was honed, and I was prepared for the next part of my journey (that being the vastness of the Outback of Australia). On many levels, this would prove to be more challenging than I had imagined as I continued the long journey to my destination of Uluru, Ayer’s Rock.
I recently wrote about viewing the Triumphs and Enfields at So Cal Motorcycles in Brea, California. I included a bunch of Enfield photos with a promise to show a few Triumphs in a future blog. This is that future blog.
I’ve always considered myself to be a Triumph guy, even when I rode Harleys, Suzukis, CSCs, and my current Enfield. It’s a brand loyalty that goes back to my motoformative years in the 1960s. It was a lot easier then; Triumph’s models could be counted on one hand. Today, it’s confusing. I’d have to take off my shoes and socks to count them all. It’s too much for my 3-kilobyte mind, and I’m not going to cover all the Triumph models here. So Cal Triumph probably had them all in stock, though. There were a lot of motorcycles there, including a vintage Triumph Bonneville.
One of the most beautiful motorcycle fuel tanks in the world: A Triumph Bonneville gas tank.An original Triumph Bonneville. These are very classy motorcycles. These bikes weighed a scant 363 pounds.
There were two models I wanted to see when Sue and I visited So Cal Triumph. One was the new Triumph 400 single we wrote about a few months ago; the other was Triumph’s 2500cc triple uberbike at the opposite end of the spectrum. We saw both.
Check out the comparison photos of the vintage Bonneville’s 650cc engine and the Rocket 3 engine.
The fuel tank and powerplant on an original Triumph Bonneville.A similar view of Triumph’s latest and greatest: A 2500cc Rocket 3. For their size and weight, I found them to be surprisingly nimble.
The Rocket 3 is a study in excess in all areas, including price and fuel consumption. That said, I find this motorcycle irresistible. I test rode one at Doug Douglas Motorcycles in San Bernardino when Triumph’s big triple first became available. I had a beautiful blue Triumph Tiger in those days and Doug himself let me ride the new Rocket 3. The Rocket 3 was huge then and it is huge now, but it felt surprisingly light and nimble. I don’t know how Triumph did it, but they somehow made the Rocket 3 flickable. I like it and I’d like to own one. The styling on the latest iteration makes the bike look even better.
So Cal Triumph had three of these monstrous Triumphs on the showroom floor.The Rocket 3’s single-sided swingarm and industrial-sized rear tire.Another chrome surface, another selfie.
The price for this massive Triumph? Here you go:
A new world fiction record: An $1800 setup and freight fee! Have they no shame?
I mentioned that there were a bunch of different Triumph models, and I suppose I should be embarrassed that I don’t know all of them like I used to. I think the problem is that I know so many things there’s only a little bit of room available for new knowledge, and I don’t want to squander that on Triumph’s extensive offerings. I know there’s the current crop of modern Bonnevilles; I don’t know all the variants thereof. But I recognize a good chrome gas tank when I see one, and I know a selfie opportunity when it presents itself.
The modern Triumph Bonneville.In the “have you no shame?” category: One more selfie.
Back to part of the objective for this blog: Seeing the new smaller Triumphs. One of these is Triumph’s dirt bike. I have no idea what the TF or the X represent (maybe the X is related to moto X, you know, as in motocross). The 250, I’m pretty sure, is the displacement. These bikes are made in the Triumph factory in Thailand (as are all models in the Bonneville line). The 250cc Triumph is not a street bike (although they made a street 250 back in the ’60s). I’d never seen the new 250 prior to my So Cal Triumph visit.
The Triumph motocross livery.Tall, gangly, and handsome: The Triumph TF250X.
The I found what I really wanted to see: Triumph’s new 400cc singles. There are two models here: A Speed 400 (the street-oriented version), and the Scrambler 400X (another street-oriented version doing a dual sport motorcycle impersonation). The styling works for me; they both looked like what I think a Triumph should look like. We wrote about these when they were first announced; this was the first time I had seen them in person.
Triumph’s new 400cc single. The styling works. It looks like a Triumph. I like it.Another Triumph 400cc single. The fit and finish are great.
I asked a salesman in the Triumph showroom where these were made. He told me India (which I already knew, but I wanted to see if he would answer honestly). He then quickly added, “but they are built to Triumph quality requirements.” It was that “but…” qualifier in his comment that I found interesting. It was obviously a canned line, but for me, it was unnecessary. I have an Indian-made motorcycle (my Enfield) and I would put its quality up against any motorcycle made anywhere in the world. I suppose many folks assume that if a motorcycle is not made in Germany, Japan, Italy, or America, its quality and parts availability are going to be bad. But that’s not the case at all.
The price on the Street 400 is a lot lower than the Scrambler; it is about $5K.
The price on the Triumph 400 Scrambler was substantially higher than the price on the Enfields I saw at So Cal Triumph. The Speed 400 was within spitting distance of the Enfield’s price, though. Are the Triumphs really better than the Enfields? I don’t know. So Cal Enfield/So Cal Triumph probably does; they see what’s going on with both bikes when they are brought in for service. That info would be interesting.
I didn’t ride either bike, mostly because I’m not in the market and I didn’t have my helmet and gloves with me. I sat on the Triumph Street 400 and it fit me well. I recognize that’s no substitute for a road test. I also recognize that a short road test is no substitute for a 1500-mile run through Baja, which is the kind of duty my motorcycles see. I like the Triumph 400cc singles and the Enfield 350cc singles. They are both right sized, good-looking motorcycles. If money didn’t matter to me and I had room in the garage, I’d buy both bikes. They both look good and their Indian-origins don’t scare me at all. If I had to pick one, it would be a tough choice.
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About that riding in Baja I mentioned above? Check this out!
That photo above? It’s the Springfield mile, with riders exiting Turn 4 at over 100 mph on their way up to 140 or so. These boys are really flying. It is an incredible thing to see.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Two blogs back I wrote about the East Windsor half-mile dirt track, which has gone the way of the dodo bird. The Springfield Mile is bigger and better and last I checked it’s still with us. A dozen years ago I made the trek out to Illinois to watch the big boys (and a lady or two) mix it up and it was awesome. I don’t know if this is accurate or if it’s more biker bullshit, but the guys claim the bikes hit 140 mph in the straights and maintain a cool 100 in the turns. And “straights” is a relative term. The track is basically a big oval, with the straights being less of a curve. What’s nice about oval track racing, though, is you usually can see all the action all the time. When you go to a grand prix type event, you get to see the bikes or the cars for just an instant when they scream past wherever you are. Oval tracks are a better deal, I think.
We planned to ride to Springfield from So Cal, but just before it was wheels-in-the-wells time my good buddy Larry passed and I stayed for his funeral. We flew instead and because that gave us a little bit more of our most precious commodity (time), we bopped around Springfield a bit more. We visited Springfield’s Lincoln Museum and had a lot of fun getting there. I drove our rental car and we promptly got lost (it was in the pre-GPS era). We pulled alongside a police officer and he gave us directions. As soon as I pulled away, I asked my buds which way to go. “I don’t know,” they answered, “we weren’t listening…” Neither was I. We all had a good laugh over that one.
An interesting Norton in the fairgrounds parking lot.Another shot of the Norton.
The Illinois State Fairgrounds has two tracks, one is a quarter-mile dirt oval and the other is the big mile track. The quarter-mile races were awesome. This racing, all by itself, would have been worth the trip out there. I love watching the flat trackers.
These boys are kicking up some dirt coming out of Turn 4 on the Illinois State Fairgrounds quarter-mile track.One of the riders lost it coming our of Turn 4 and he crashed hard directly in front of us.I didn’t think he was going to get up, but he did. The next day, this guy won a heat on the 1-mile track. The announcer said he was “tougher than a $2 steak.” I believe it.
The next day, we went to the 1-mile track on the other side of the State Fairgrounds.
The field entering Turn 2 at over 100 mph on the Springfield 1-mile track. The noise is incredible and there’s nothing like it. These guys are drifting sideways at 100 mph, just a few inches apart!The same shot as above, but with the two fastest riders at the Springfield Mile identified. The arrows point to Chris Carr (National No. 4 in the white and orange leathers) and Kenny Coolbeth (National No. 1 in the black leathers). Coolbeth won on Sunday and Carr won on Monday. This photo was just after the start.One lap later: Coolbeth and Carr are riding as a closely-matched pair well ahead of the group.
I was really happy with these shots. I had my old Nikon D200 and a cheap lens (a 10-year old, mostly plastic, $139 Sigma 70-300). I zoomed out to 300 mm, set the ISO to 1000 for a very high shutter speed (even though it was a bright day), and the lens at f5.6 (the fastest the inexpensive Sigma would go at 300mm). The camera’s autofocus wouldn’t keep up with the motorcycles at this speed, so I manually focused on Turn 2 and waited (but not for long) for the motorcycles to enter the viewfinder. It was close enough for government work, freezing the 100-mph action for the photos you see above.
Kenny Coolbeth, after winning the Springfield Mile.Nicole Cheza, a very fast rider. She won the “Dash for Cash” and the crowd loved it.A Harley XR-750 rider having fun.
As you might expect, there were quite a few things happening off the track, too. Johnsonville Brats had a huge tractor trailer onsite equipped with grills, and they were serving free grilled brat sandwiches. It was a first for me, and it worked…I’ve been buying Johnsonville brats ever since. There were hundreds of interesting motorcycles on display and a vintage World War II bomber orbiting the area.
An old B-17 flying above the track…it made several appearances that weekend.An old Ariel Square Four. The owner started it and it sounded like two Triumph 650s.An old two-stroke Bridgestone, a marque that never quite made it in the US. Imagine the marketing discussions in Japan: “Let’s logo it the BS…that will work!”
So there you have it, along with a bit of advice from yours truly: If you ever have an opportunity to see the Springfield Mile, go for it. I had a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Good buddy Paul recently sent to me a video about the powder charges used by US Navy battleships. The USS New Jersey was featured in the video, and it reminded of my visit to a sister ship, the USS Alabama. I wrote a Destinations piece for Motorcycle Classics magazine ten years ago, and I thought you might enjoy seeing it (along with photos that did not appear in the MC article).
The coastal plains along Alabama’s southern edge are flat and the line of sight extends to the horizon. Ride east on Interstate 10 out of Mobile and you can see her distinctive, bristling profile from a great distance. One can only imagine the fear she induced in our enemies as she emerged from the mist on the high seas.
She, of course, is the USS Alabama. She’s docked at Battleship Memorial Park, just east of Mobile on I-10 where Alabama’s coast meets the Gulf of Mexico. To call the USS Alabama impressive would be a massive understatement. This magnificent old warship is a study in superlatives and in contrasts. Taller than a 20-story building, longer than two football fields, and capable of firing projectiles weighing nearly as much as a Z-06 Corvette at targets more than 20 miles away, the USS Alabama projected America’s power on the open oceans and inland during World War II. The “Lucky A” (she lost not a single crewmember to enemy fire while earning nine Battle Stars) sailed just under a quarter of a million miles in combat conditions and saw action in both the Atlantic and the Pacific theatres. When she passed through the Panama Canal, the 680-foot, 44,500-ton Lucky A had just 11 inches of clearance on each side.
After World War II the USS Alabama was retired from active service. In 1962 the Navy announced plans to scrap this magnificent ship due to the high costs of keeping her in mothballs, but the good citizens of Alabama would have none of that. Alabama kids raised nearly $100,000 in nickels, dimes, and quarters, and corporate sponsors coughed up another $1,000,000 to bring the ship from Puget Sound to Mobile.
The USS Alabama is in amazing condition; indeed, it looks as if the ship could go to war today. Being aboard is like being in a movie (Steven Seagal used it for the 1992 movie, Under Siege). It is an amazing experience eliciting a strong combination of pride and patriotism.
The USS Alabama is a floating artillery base. With armor more than a foot thick above the water line it’s amazing she could float at all, but the old girl could top 32 mph and she had a range of 15,000 nautical miles. When she stopped at the pumps, the USS Alabama took on 7,000 tons of fuel (a cool 2 million gallons).
The guns are what impressed me most. The ship bristles with armament. The Alabama’s 16-inchers dominate everything. Approaching the ship highlights the big guns and when you get closer, they are stunning. Try to imagine nine 16-inch guns, three per turret, firing at our enemies (it must have terrifying). The ship boasts twenty 5-inch guns (two in each of the ship’s 10 smaller turrets). There are another 12 mounts with 48 40mm cannon. And just to make sure, the Alabama has another 52 20mm anti-aircraft cannon. If you’ve been keeping track, that’s 129 guns.
The USS Alabama is only part of the treasure included in Battlefield Memorial Park. The park includes the USS Drum (a World War II submarine), numerous armored vehicles, and an impressive aircraft collection spanning 70 years of military aviation (including a B-52 bomber, numerous fighters, the top-secret SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft, and assorted other planes). The USS Alabama could touch 32 mph on the high seas; the SR-71 cruised at 3,000 mph. The USS Alabama weighs a bit more than 720 million pounds; the SR-71 was built from lightweight titanium. As I stated earlier, the Park and its exhibits are a study in superlatives and contrasts.
Battleship Memorial Park is just east of Mobile on Interstate 10. You can’t miss it (the USS Alabama is visible for miles from either direction, even at night). Admission is only $15 and take my word for it, it’s the most bang for the buck you’ll ever get.
The Skinny
What: Battleship Memorial Park, 2703 Battleship Parkway, Mobile, AL 36602. An outstanding collection of land, air, and sea military vehicles, with the USS Alabama being the main attraction.
How to Get There: Interstate 10 from either the east or the west. From anywhere else, just head south until you hit Interstate 10 and point your front wheel toward Mobile.
Best Kept Secret: There have been seven US Navy ships named Alabama reaching back to before the Civil War. Today, a US Navy nuclear submarine sails under that same proud name.
Avoid: Missing Mobile. It’s a beautiful town, and its Gulf Coast location makes for great seafood and great hospitality.
Sue and I visited the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda (one of our favorite So Cal destinations) to hear Fox News’ Jesse Watters speak a couple of days ago. I’ll post a blog about that in a few days. On the way home, we stopped at a motorcycle dealership in Brea, California. Normally, I avoid motorcycle dealerships for a lot of reasons (as outlined in 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM), but I used to have my 1200 Daytona serviced at So Cal Motorcycles and I thought I’d stop in for a visit. So Cal Motorcycles is a multi-brand dealership selling Ducati, Triumph, Royal Enfield, and Suzuki. I stopped with the intention of looking at the Enfields, but I also spent some time in the Triumph showroom. This blog focuses on the Enfields; I’ll post another one on the Triumphs in the near future.
As you probably know, I ride a Royal Enfield 650cc Interceptor. Joe Gresh and I tested two Enfields in Baja a few years ago. You can see those bikes at the Paralelo 28 military post in the photo above (we were about 500 miles south of the border when I took that shot). Our conclusion was that the 650cc Interceptor was a marvelous machine (I liked it so much I bought one), but the 500cc Bullet needed muey attention before it would meet our low bar for approval. That was a few years ago, though, and that’s why we visited So Cal Motorcycles.
As soon as we parked, I noticed several Enfields parked outside. I had not seen their new singles up close and personal yet. The model line has become a bit confusing for me. It used to just the Bullet (their single), then they added the Interceptor (the 650cc twin), and my 15-kilobyte mind could handle that. Now they have several different versions of the 650 twin and a whole bunch of singles in 350cc, 411cc, and maybe other displacements. I won’t try to explain the entire model line here, mostly because I don’t feel like expending calories trying to wrap my mind around it all. I just wanted to see the bikes and take a few photos. I did that, and I have to tell you: Royal Enfields are still great looking motorcycles. Check out the 350cc Meteor singles below:
The Meteor 350 is the bike you see at the top of this blog and the two you see immediately above. The price on Enfields has always been attractive; on the Meteor it is even more so. So Cal Enfield had a 2023 leftover Meteor and the price on it was especially attractive.
Next up were the Himalayan models, Enfield’s ADV bikes.
The Himalayan has a 411cc single cylinder engine. The colors are attractive. I didn’t see any with luggage, but I know panniers and top case are available. I saw a guy riding one of these one time when I was returning from northern California on Interstate 5. I was cruising along at 77mph; I think the Himalayan was running about 70mph. Enfield’s spec sheets puts the horsepower at 25. I guess that’s enough. My RX3 had 24.8 horsepower, and it took me all over the western US, Mexico, Colombia, and China.
As an aside, a bunch of folks (including Royal Enfield) are offering trips through India (and the Himalayan Mountains) on Royal Enfield motorcycles. I’m tempted. I’ve always wanted to visit that part of the world, and the thought of doing it on a motorcycle is appealing. The photo ops would be amazing, and I’d get another book out of it, I think. Ah, maybe someday. Maybe I should write a letter to Enfield and ask them to sponsor me.
Enfield’s Classic line looked good, too. At just under $800, the freight and setup fees are ridiculous and larcenous (they were lower than what I’ve seen other dealers charging, though). Motorcycle dealers’ posted freight and setup charges are often nothing more than a suggested negotiating starting point, but it’s still annoying to see this kind of imaginative exaggeration. I wrote about this common dealer misrepresentation in 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM.
So Cal Enfield had what apparently is a 650 twin anniversary model. It was a used bike with an asking price of $15,999. Hope springs eternal, I suppose.
Like most motorcycle companies, Royal Enfield has a clothing line. I saw a sweatshirt I thought I might want until I looked at the price. It was $88. I put it back on the rack. I don’t think I would ever pay $88 for a sweatshirt.
I enjoyed viewing the Enfield line at So Cal Motorcycles. My negative comments about freight and setup (and $88 sweatshirts) notwithstanding, I believe So Cal Motorcycles is a reputable dealer. When I rode Triumphs, I sometimes had So Cal service my bikes, and they always did a good job. Unlike my experience at other dealers, I never had to bring my bikes back because they botched the job. If I was in the market for another Enfield, this would be the place I would go.
Interestingly, Sue and I were the only people in So Cal’s Enfield room. The Ducati room was similarly empty (other than lots of outrageously expensive red motorcycles). Maybe we just hit a lull when we were there. The Triumph showroom, on the other hand, was hopping. I’ll talk more about that in a near-term future blog. Stay tuned.
At the time of this writing I am sitting in my hotel room, which happens to be in an underground cave in the tiny opal mining town of Coober Pedy. Normally this would sound crazy, but 50% of the residents in this town live underground so it’s perfectly normal to be living as someone on the desert planet of Tatoonie would live. It is deep in the Australian Outback hundreds of miles from nothing. How I even ended up in this town is something I am still piecing together, but alas, here I am typing this up as an aboriginal drum beats from the distant hills and echoes into my cave dwelling.
I apologize for being on a brief writing hiatus. My travel schedule has been beyond nonstop (even for me). I have only had two days off since leaving New Zealand in early April. In doing so there were multiple countries I toyed with visiting. Australia was one that kept being recommended, but I didn’t really feel the calling for it. So was hesitant when I booked a one-way ticket to Sydney and was expecting a short stay to just check the box. Well, life had other plans for me as I am currently six weeks into this giant country with no end in sight.
When I say no end in sight, I literally mean no end in sight. Having motorcycled much of the Southwestern United States over the past six years I think I have a pretty solid grasp on distances and expansiveness with large pockets of isolation and nothingness. I knew what large areas were and how to negotiate them, even on two wheels. I couldn’t have been more ignorant of what expansiveness really is.
Expansiveness is driving 100+ miles and not seeing another car and only a random oncoming truck towing three or four trailers that when it passes you throws your tiny rental off the road due to the wind gust. Expansiveness is slowing down to some type of an unknown road hazard in front of you only to realize it’s an emu that decides to attack your car so you must quickly swerve and speed up. Expansiveness is clicking search on both AM and FM radio stations only to have it indefinitely spin without a station to be found for hours. Expansiveness is Australia.
Australia is my home for the time being and I am trying everything possible to do more than just scratch the surface of this foreign and incredibly large part of the world. With every type of climate you can imagine and wildlife that is other worldly, cute, dangerous, and some a combination of the three. This article series will take you through my journey of Australia as I make my way towards Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the great Australian Outback.
Baja is a motorcycling paradise and I have a bunch of favorite destinations there. Seven of them, to be precise, although truth be told, I like everything in Baja except for Tijuana and maybe La Paz and Loreto. That said, my favorites are:
Tecate
San Quintin
Cataviña
Guerrero Negro
San Ignacio
Santa Rosalia
Concepcion Bay
Here’s where they are on a map:
So what’s so great about these places? Read on, my friends.
Tecate
Tecate is the gateway to the middle of northern Baja, and it’s the easiest point of entry. Both Tijuana and Mexicali are too big and too complicated, and the Mexican Customs guys are too official in those bigger cities. Tecate is a friendly place. The last time I picked up a tourist visa in Tecate, the Customs officer tried to sell me salsa he and his family made as a side gig. That’s what the place is like. I love it.
If you’re into fine dining (not as in expensive dining, but just great food), it’s hard to go wrong anywhere in Baja. Tecate has some of the best, from street taco vendors to Malinalli’s to Amore’s. I could spend a week just in Tecate. It’s that good.
Uncle Joe Gresh with street tacos in Tecate. Wow, were they ever good.The buffet at Malinalli’s is regional, awesome, and inexpensive. It’s a hidden treasure.Dos Joes’ motos on an Enfield expedition that took us through Tecate.The Tecate brewery dominate the Tecate skyline and is visible from just about anywhere in town. A can of ice cold Tecate with sea salt around the rim and a bit of lime juice…life doesn’t get any better.
San Quintin
San Quintin is 186.4 miles south of the border on Baja’s Pacific coast. It’s usually a quiet ag town that has a lot of things going for it, including interesting hotels, good food, and Bahia San Quintin. The Old Mill hotel and its associated restaurant, Eucalipto, is my personal favorite. The hotel is about 4 miles west of the Transpeninsular Highway, and what used to be a harrowing soft sand ride to it is now easy peasy…the road is paved and riding there is no longer a test of your soft sand riding skills. The Eucalipto restaurant is second to none.
What could be better than an ice cold Tecate overlooking Bahia San Quintin after a day’s riding in Baja? We once saw a California gray whale from this very spot.
A man, a motorcycle, and Mexico….the sign on the Transpenisular Highway pointing toward Bahia San Quintin and the Old Mill Hotel. The bike? That’s the 650cc Royal Enfield, perfect for riding Baja. But then just about any motorcycle is perfect for riding Baja.Bahia San Quintin at dawn. It’s an awesome spot.Uncle Joe enjoying breakfast in the Old Mill’s Eucalipto. It is an exquisite restaurant.
You’ll notice at the top of my scribblings about San Quintin I said it is usually a quiet town. The one exception for us was when there was a labor riot and we were caught in it. The Mexican infantryman about 80 miles north of San Quintin told me the road was closed, but his English matched my Spanish (neither are worth a caca), and without me understanding what I was riding into, he let me proceed. It’s not an experience I would care to repeat. But it’s the only event of its type I ever experienced in Old Mexico, and I’d go back in a heartbeat.
The Cataviña Boulder Fields
Ah, Cataviña. Rolling down the Transpeninsular Highway, about 15 miles before you hit the wide spot in the road that is Cataviña you enter the boulder fields. Other-worldly is not too strong a description, and if the place wasn’t so far south of the border it would probably be used more often by Hollywood in visits to other planets. The boulders are nearly white, they are huge, and the juxtaposition of their bulk with the bright blue sky punctuated by Cardon cactus.
Pastel geology. The area really is as beautiful as the photos depict it to be.
I get a funny feeling every time I enter this part of Baja. Not funny as in bad, but funny as in I feel like I’m where I belong. I once rolled through this region in the early morning hours with my daughter and she told me “you know, it’s weird, Dad. I feel like I’m home.” She understood (as in completely understood) the magic that is Baja.
I like the area and its stark scenery so much that one of my photos became the cover of Moto Baja! I grabbed that shot from the saddle at about 30 mph on a CSC 150 Mustang replica, which I subsequently rode all the way down to Cabo San Lucas (that story is here).
You should buy a copy or three. They make great gifts.
Every time I roll through Cataviña with other riders, the dinner conversation invariably turns to how the boulders formed. When I was teaching at Cal Poly Pomona, I asked one of my colleagues in the Geology Department. He know the area as soon as I mentioned it. The answer? Wind erosion.
Guerrero Negro
The Black Warrior. The town is named after a ship that went down just off its coast. It’s a salt mining town exactly halfway down the peninsula, and it’s your ticket in for whale watching and the best fish tacos in Baja (and that’s saying something). I’ve had a lot of great times in Guerrero Negro. It’s about 500 miles south of the border. You can see the giant steel eagle marking the 28th Parallel (the line separating Baja from Baja Sur) a good 20 miles out, and from there, it’s a right turn for the three mile ride west into town. Malarrimo’s is the best known hotel and whale watching tour, but there are several are they are all equally good. It you can’t get a room at Malarrimo’s, try the Hotel Don Gus.
CSC RX3 motorcycles at the Hotel Don Gus. We used to do annual Baja tours with CSC…those were fun times and great trips, and introduced a lot of folks to the beauty of Baja.What it’s all about…getting up close and personal with the California gray whales. They are in town from January through March.Tony, taco chef extraordinaire. You might think I’m exaggerating. I’m not.It’s worth the 500-miles trek to Guerrero Negro just to savor Tony’s fish tacos. You might think I’m exaggerating. But like I said above…I’m not.Man does not live by fish tacos alone, so for breakfast or dinner, it’s either the restaurant at Malaririmo’s or the San Remedio, a block north of the main drag into town. You won’t be disappointed at either.Sue’s photo of a Guerrero Negro osprey enjoying some sushi.
After you leave Guerrero Negro and continue south, the Transpeninsular Highway turns southeast to take you diagonally across the Baja peninsula. About 70 miles down the road (which is about half the distance to the eastern shores of Baja and the Sea of Cortez along Mexico Highway 1) you’ll see the turn for San Ignacio. It’s another one of Baja’s gems.
San Ignacio
San Ignacio is an oasis in the middle of the desert that forms much of Baja. The Jesuits introduced date farming to the region hundreds of years ago, and it’s still here in a big way. Leave Guerrero Negro, head southeast on Mexico Highway 1, and 70 miles later you run into a Mexican Army checkpoint, a series of switchbacks through a lava field, and when you see the date palms, turn right.
An oasis is usually formed by a volcano, and when a volcano is done discussing politics, it forms a lake. That’s the San Ignacio volcano and its lake, visible on the left as you ride into town.The San Ignacio church, built as a mission in the 1700s, dominates the center of San Ignacio. It’s a beautiful spot, one of the most photogenic in all of Baja.Another photo of the San Ignacio Mission. You’ll want to grab some photos in San Ignacio.Dates? Nope, not on that trip, but dates are one of the things San Ignacio is known for. I’ll bet they are delicious.
San Ignacio has a town square that’s right out of central casting, there’s a little restaurant that serves the best chile rellenos in all of Mexico (I’m not exaggerating), and the place just has a laid back, relaxing feel about it.
Santa Rosalia
You know, this town is another one of Baja’s best kept secrets. As you travel south on Highway 1, San Ignacio is the first town you encounter after traveling diagonally across the peninsula. Folks dismiss it because it’s an industrial town, but they do so in ignorance. There’s a lot of cool stuff in this place.
The ride into Santa Rosalia a few years ago with novelist Simon Gandolfi, Arlene Battishill, J Brandon, John Welker, and yours truly. That’s a dead fish I’m holding. We did a round trip to Cabo San Lucas on 150cc Mustang replicas, just to say that we could.
One of the things that’s unique about Santa Rosalia is the all-wooden architecture. The town was originally built by a French mining company (Boleo) and they built it they way they did in France. Like the Hotel Frances, which sits high on a mesa overlooking the town and the Sea of Cortez. I love staying there.
The Hotel Frances. It used to be a brothel.
There’s a cool mining musuem a block or two away from the Frances, and it’s worth a visit, too.
The mining museum in Santa Rosalia.
There are many cool things in Santa Rosalia, and one of the best is the Georg Eiffel church. It was designed by the same guy guy who did the Eiffel town.
Santa Rosalia’s church. It’s an unexpected delight. And I’m not even Catholic.Inside Santa Rosalia’s Georg Eiffel church.Stained glass. Photos ops abound in Santa Rosalia.
I’ve heard people dismiss Santa Rosalia as a gritty, industrial place not worth a stop. Trust me on this: They’re wrong. It’s one of my favorite Baja spots.
Bahía Concepción
Concepción Bay is easily the most scenic spot in Baja. It’s just south of Mulege (another delightful little town, and the subject of an upcoming ExNotes blog). Bahía Concepción runs for maybe 20 miles along the eastern edge of the Baja peninsula. I’ve seen whales from the highway while riding along its edge, the beaches are magnificent, and the photo ops just don’t stop. The contrast between the mountains and Cardon cactus on one side and the pelicans diving into bright green water is view from the saddle you won’t soon forget.
On one of many rides along Bahía Concepción, good buddy Joe Lee and yours truly rode our Triumph Triples. This is a favorite shot of mine.Besides “wow,” what can I say?World-famous novelist and motorcycle adventurer Simon Gandolfi andn yours truly on 150cc scooters. We were on our way back from Cabo San Lucas when we stopped for this Bahía Concepción photo. Hardtail 150cc scooters. Up and down the length of Baja. I think about that ride every time I see a GS parked at a Starbuck’s.
So there you have it: My take on seven favorite spots in Baja? How about you? Do you have any favorite Baja destinations? Let us know here in the comments sction!
My original plan was to circle the entire continent of Australia in a month. That was NOT happening so Ayers Rock (Uluru) was a solid turnaround point. Mind you to even complete this took me one month. The isolation was beyond what I had expected. I knew going into this that isolation would be the greatest challenge, but what I didn’t grasp was how far I would be pushed mentally during this journey.
