During the summer of 2016, your blogmeisters (Arjiu and Dajiu) rode RX3 motorcycles 6000 miles across China. Tracy was our translator and he was funny as hell.
Our good friend Tracy is an up and comer in the Zongshen organization. He sent an email to us recently, along with the above photo. Tracy is being reassigned to the Zongshen team in Mexico, and Gresh and I may take a ride down there once Tracy is in country. You can bet the beer will flow freely when that happens!
Hey, buy two or three…they make great gifts!
If you’d like to read the story of our ride across China, you can do so here. It was a great ride and an amazing adventure.
Our recommendation for Baja motorcycle insurance is BajaBound.
If you’re headed into Baja, you need to have Mexican insurance on your car, truck, motorcycle, or motor scooter. Your regular US motor vehicle insurance won’t be recognized as meeting this requirement in Mexico. It’s that simple.
At the risk of being challenged by a keyboard commando telling me that you don’t have to have insurance in Mexico, I’ll say at the outset that what you need is proof of financial responsibility for liability incurred as the result of a motor vehicle accident. Yeah, there are other ways of getting around this. You can arrange a bond in advance with a Mexican bank (not very practical), you can carry enough cash to meet Mexico’s upper liability limits (just bring $333,000 in cash with you to show to the officer if you are stopped) or you can get Mexican insurance. Door No. 3 is the obvious answer.
You might be tempted to just blow off the requirement for Mexican insurance, and you might get away with it. Then again, you might not. If you are stopped (or worse, you have an accident) and you can’t produce proof of Mexican insurance, you are going to be spending a lot more time in Mexico (and the accommodations will dramatically different) than what you originally planned. Trust me on this. It’s just not worth the risk.
I’ve been traveling in Baja and other parts of Mexico for close to 30 years, and I’ve tried several different outfits. To cut to the chase, BajaBound is the easiest and best way to insure your vehicle. What I like about it is that it’s all done online, it’s inexpensive, and it’s a quality product. What you need to get insurance is an internet connection, your driver’s license, a credit card, your bike’s registration, and a printer. That’s it.
Why go for anything but the best?
I always buy my insurance a day or two before I travel to Baja, and I always set it up to start the day I enter Baja (and just to be on the safe side, I insure for one day longer than I plan to be south of the border). If you’re new to BajaBound, you’ll answer a few questions about yourself to set up an account the first time you visit their website, and then you’re ready to start making selections (how many days, how much coverage, etc.). If you’ve insured previously with BajaBound, all you need to do is log in, specify the vehicle you’ll be using (super easy if it’s one you’ve previously insured), specify the dates, and pick the coverage you want. In my case, it typically works out to something south of $20 per day, and that’s a hell of deal. You pay with a credit card, the policy is immediately available, and all you need to do is print the proof of insurance and you’re good to go.
I’ve been lucky. I’ve never needed to use my BajaBound insurance because I never crashed my car or motorcycle in Mexico. On one of the tours I led in Mexico, though, one of the guys I rode with had a bad crash. He got through it okay, but the motorcycle did not. My friend put in a claim and BajaBound paid promptly. This is the real deal, folks. It’s good insurance, it’s easy to get over the Internet, it meets all of Mexico’s legal requirements, and when necessary, they pay promptly. It doesn’t get any better than that. It’s the only insurance I use for my Baja forays.
Would you like to know more about riding in Baja? Hey, it’s the best riding on the planet! Check out our ExhaustNotes Baja page for the best routes, hotels, restaurants, whale watching, cave paintings, and more! Do a search here on the ExhaustNotes blog using the search term “Baja.” Better yet, pick up a copy of Moto Baja, available now on Amazon.com!
Our good buddy Dan from Colorado (the other Dan from Colorado; we know two of them) sent an email to me last night with a link to a very cool blog (the Maple Fiesta) about five guys who all bought new TT250s when they were first offered by CSC. They had a plan…they all bought the bikes to ride the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada.
A great read about a great adventure. Five men, five TT250 motorcycles, and three countries. Well done, guys!
Yeah, they had a few problems, but that’s what adventure riding is all about. They fixed the problems and trucked on, and they all made it. It’s a hell of story and it’s worth a read!
Former US Army paratrooper, GS rider, and good buddy Mike!
That’s good buddy Mike in the photo above, a very interesting guy I met on our most recent Baja ride. He’s a former US Army 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper, and for the last year or so he’s been living off his BMW and camping as he goes. Mike penned a piece on motocamping, and he sent it to us here on ExhaustNotes.
Here’s Mike’s take on this topic…
Camping can be fun and enjoyable for everyone if you plan properly and set realistic expectations. The same can be said for camping on a motorcycle. Over the past year and a half I have made it a point to camp on my moto at least once a week, and for the weeks I have not met this goal there are long weekends and vacations where I more than make up for it.
A man, a motorcycle, and a campsite. It just doesn’t get much better than this.
Throughout the past year I have been frequently asked how I choose a campsite on a moto. In this blog I wanted to answer that question from my personal experience.
For the first couple times using a KOA or other publicly-used campground is a great way to ease into camping. You will be camping, but close enough to stores and facilities that you can begin to gauge what you need and start to define your personal camping comfort zones.
After camping in that environment, and after you invariably get sick of listening to kids screaming and another annoyances from humans, you can experiment with camping for free in National Forests. A good note to remember is that National Forests are free to camp in, but National Parks are not.
A Baja campsite.A National Forest campsite. Note Mike’s mascot peeking out from under the tent.Mike in the morning at one of his campsites. The floral-print shorts were not standard issue 82nd Airborne gear!
Over the past year I found a number of free remote campsites. I use www.freecampsites.com or I look for National Forests on maps. Once in a National Forest locate a Forest Road (FR) and ride a few miles down it. Many of these FR’s are doable even for street bikes but be aware of changing road conditions as you navigate them. You will often see the remains of a campsite marked with stones from a previous campfire. For me this is the perfect indication that someone has camped here before and is a safe location.
Moto camping is an easy and inexpensive way to escape the rat race with less effort then many would think. Moto camping experiences are some of the most rewarding that I have had throughout my adventures. Being so removed from everything as you sit relaxing in the glow of a warm campfire reflecting off your moto is a fulfilling feeling that few venture to achieve.
At the end of his email to me earlier today, Mike asked if I had any rides planned. Actually, Mike, the answer to that most excellent question is yes. I’m thinking about two motorcycle rides, either one of which might involve camping, so your blog today was very timely.
One ride I’m thinking about is another Baja adventure, and this one would involve more dirt riding than usual (at least for me). I’m thinking about a run up to Mike’s Sky Ranch in northern Baja (I’ve never made that trek, and I always wanted to). Another variation, perhaps part of the same ride, would include a leg from Chapala on the Transpenisular Highway near Catavina through Coco’s Corner to the Sea of Cortez (a 23-mile unpaved section). And another possibility is a run from San Felipe down to Bahia de Los Angeles on the Sea of Cortez, which involves about 70 miles on dirt. I’d like to do this on my CSC TT250, just to say that I did. I’m thinking maybe December for this ride.
There’s another ride on the horizon that my good buddy Dan the K is setting up, and he was kind enough to extend an invitation to me. Dan rode with me a couple of times in Baja on the CSC motorcycles, once on his RX3 and once on his TT250.
Dan the K with his TT 250 above Baja’s Rumarosa Grade.
The ride Dan is planning is a much longer adventure ride up to Inuvik in Canada’s Northwest Territories. That ride will involve a lot of camping. It’s coming up next summer, and I’ll keep you clued in on the planning right here on the ExhaustNotes blog.
I’m excited about both rides. On that Baja ride…anybody want to ride with me? Hey, let us know here at info@exhaustnotes.us!
We had a nice note from our good buddy Peter today, an ardent ADV rider, Norton fan, and fellow Mesa Verde enthusiast…
Joe, I enjoyed your post about Mesa Verde today. A few years ago Sara and I spent the night there and toured the ruins. We agree, photos don’t give the appropriate scale. Our guide made the whole place seem alive! With that said, there are at least two notable things about Dolores. First, they have a pretty decent motel right on the main drag. It’s owned by a Swede (cannot remember his name) and about 4 blocks away they have a good brew pub. Second, just outside of town you’ll find Colorado Norton Works. Matt Rambo (another Swede) is the owner. He has a very small shop that, as I recall, lacks any kind of sign. Inside you will find a motorcycle shop that closely resembles an operating theater, it’s that spotless. Matt will take your Norton and totally rebuild it from the frame up. The end product is absolutely beautiful and improved in so many ways I cannot remember them all. Matt and John Snead (owns a CNC machine shop in Jacksonville, FL) have also designed an improved electric start system for Nortons. I mention all this because you owe it to yourself to visit the shop, meet Matt, and drool over his rolling jewelry. You’ll love it!
Matt and John are both friends of mine. I have visited Matt’s shop three times and even stayed at his house on one trip.
Peter
Thanks for taking the time to write and convey your thoughts, Peter. I had heard of Colorado Norton Works from Gerry Edwards, another good friend. He spoke of them in reverential terms.
For those of you who don’t know, Dolores is a nice little Colorado town just up the road from Mesa Verde. When my good buddy Marty and I rode the Three Flags Rally in 2005 and visited Mesa Verde (my first time there), we rode along the Dolores River into the town of Dolores. It was pouring rain that day, but we had decent weather during our earlier stop at Mesa Verde.
Somewhere in New Mexico, with good buddy Marty on the 2005 Three Flags Rally. One of these days I’ll post more photos from that trip here on the ExhaustNotes blog. It was one hell of a ride!
Ride safe, Peter, and again, thanks for your note!
Sue and I stopped at interesting spots on our way home from Tinfiny Ranch earlier this month, and one of them was Mesa Verde National Park. I first went there on the 2005 Three Flags Rally with my buddy Marty. On that visit, Marty and I were only there for a quick stop, and I knew it was a place that needed more time.
At the Mesa Verde National Park entrance. It would be another 1000-ft climb and 14 miles of glorious twisties to get to the good stuff.
Mesa Verde is just outside of Cortez, in southwestern Colorado. It’s a great little town.
The whole idea behind Mesa Verde National Park is that Native Americans lived in advanced cliff dwellings about a thousand years ago. It’s real Indiana Jones stuff.
A shot I showed on Facebook a week or so ago. Folks told me it looked fake, and I needed a photo with some people in it to give a sense of scale.As requested.
The place was amazing. We were up on a huge mesa looking down into dramatic canyons, and these dwellings were built into overhangs and crevasses in the canyon walls…
The Tower structure. Several of these little villages had a tower like the one you see in this photo. Maybe the chiefs lived there?Another hamlet.A view from across the canyon at another set of dwellings, this time with my 70-300 lens. All of the other photos were with a 24-120 lens.
While we were there, we met a nice young guy named Tom, a Canadian artist traveling through the US on a motorcycle…
Captain Tom…Tom’s ride, a rented Honda Africa Twin.
Tom was an interesting man and a world traveler. He gave his card to us and I visited Tom’s website. He’s been to many of the same spots Sue and I have visited, including Turkey (one of the world’s best-kept tourist destination secrets) and southeast Asia (another best-kept secret). You should take a peek at Tom’s site; it’s awesome.
Cool stuff, to be sure. One last Mesa Verde photo today, folks…my signature selfie…
In the painted bumper of my blue Subie…
When we were planning this trip, I asked Gobi (that’s Joe Gresh) what he recommended on the ride back to California. One of his suggestions was the Petrified Forest in Arizona. That’s next, folks. Stay tuned!
New Hope, Pennsylvania, from the iron bridge over the Delaware River. George Washington crossed the Delaware just a few miles from here.
Motorcycle Classics published my latest Destinations piece, this time on New Hope, Pennsylvania. New Hope is a great destination in an historic place, and it’s a ride I used to do regularly back in the early ’70s on my CB750 Honda. Good times, those were. I recently made the trek again to write the story for MC, and the ride to New Hope through New Jersey’s rolling farmlands is as good as it ever was. It’s a good read, and Motorcycle Classics is a great magazine.
I’ve been writing for Motorcycle Classics for 10 years now, and if you’d like to see the complete collection, here you go! Joe Gresh, who is a much better writer than me, has been similarly widely published in Motorcyclist and other magazines, and if you would like to visit the grotto of great Gresh literature, here it is!
It sounds like Dave Dudley’s country western hit (I think that was 6 Days on the Road), but this isn’t about Freightliner fever or 18 wheelers. Nope, this is a suggested itinerary for an 8-day, 2000-mile ride from southern California through some of the best that Baja has to offer. It’s based on the multiple tours I’ve led for CSC Motorcycles, it’s best done sometime in the January/February/March time frame (that’s when the California gray whales are in Scammon’s Lagoon), and it uses Loreto as the turnaround point. Yeah, I know…you could go all the way to Cabo, but I’ve been there, done that, and there’s not much that’s interesting or pretty south of Loreto (unless you have a penchant for overpriced touristy hotels and refrigerator magnets).
To get to the point, here’s what a really great Baja adventure ride might look like…
A recommended 8-day Baja ride…it’s all explained further with the detailed itinerary and photos below.8 days and 2000 miles, taking in some of the best Baja has to offer, with only a couple of high mileage days.
One of the things you’ll want to make sure of before you start this ride is that you have Mexican insurance for your motorcycle (your regular insurance policy won’t cover you south of the border), and the best I’ve found is BajaBound. We’ll have another blog on BajaBound shortly, but you can trust me on this…I’ve tried several companies and BajaBound is the best. They are the only folks I use.
I can’t explain everything about the trip in one blog, so there are other articles on the ExhaustNotes Baja page about traveling in Baja. And if you have specific questions, please ask them here in the Comments section and I’ll do my best to get you answers. What I thought I might do here is add a few more photos, showing one or two from each day on a ride like this.
Day 1: Enchanted Ensenada
The first night in Ensenada. Doc Mike is checking out a new ride.
Day 2: The Long Haul to Guerrero Negro
A stop for fuel in Catavina.
Day 3: Whale Watching!
Whale watching in Scammon’s Lagoon. This is one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had. Everyone who does this says the same thing. Up close and personal with 45-ft California gray whales and their babies. It’s awesome.
Day 4: The Sierra San Francisco Cave Paintings, San Ignacio, Mulege, and More!
The 10,000-year-old cave paintings, left behind by an unknown civilization.The Sierra San Francisco church.The 300-year-old San Ignacio Mission, still in use as an active church.In the Las Casitas courtyard in Mulege, one of my all time favorite hotels.
Day 5: Bahia Concepcion, Loreto, and Santa Rosalia
Along Bahia Concepcion, just north of Loreto…the prettiest part of Baja!The all-wooden Frances Hotel in Santa Rosalia. It used to be a brothel.
Day 6: Santa Maria
The Transpeninsular Highway, headed north to Santa Maria…
Day 7: Tantalizing Tecate!
Street tacos in Tecate…good times and good food.
Day 8: The Short Haul Home
No photos here, folks…by Day 8 it’s a beeline home after a fabulous Baja ride! The last day is roughly 250 miles back to the LA area, and it’s an easy run.
I know if you’ve never ridden Baja you might have plenty of questions, so ask away!
Our series on Baja cuisine continues. Previous blogs covered the stretch from Rosarito through Ensenada, and then the stretch south of Ensenada down to El Rosario. In this blog, we’ll cover Catavina and Guerrero Negro.
Catavina
There’s not much in Catavina except rocks, a few structures, and the Desert Inn, but it’s a part of Baja I dearly love. My all time favorite Baja photo (the one that is the ExhaustNotes Baja page banner photo) is one I shot from the saddle of my CSC Mustang on a ride through this region, and it also adorns the cover of Moto Baja. The region has an other-worldly feel to it, with its vibrantly green and pale beige colors (as displayed by huge boulders and gigantic Cardon cactus) contrasting sharply with brilliant blue skies, all bisected by Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway. Amazingly, the boulders were formed by wind erosion (as my geologist buddies tell me). It’s a stark and beautiful land. I love it.
On Mexico Highway 1, headed south through Catavina. This is one of the prettiest parts of Baja.
So, back to the topic du jour, and that’s the cuisine in this part of the world. The Desert Inn is a hotel chain spanning nearly the entire length of Baja. The Desert Inns are a bit on the pricey side for Baja (which means they’re still inexpensive by US standards), but the food in these upscale-for-Baja hotels is always good. The restaurant at the Desert Inn in Catavina has a cool arched ceiling tiled with bricks. It’s a cool motif.
CSC Mustangs parked in front of the Catavina Desert Inn, headed south to Cabo San Lucas. We had a fine dinner that evening!
The trick is to get arrive before the tour buses do, but even if a crowd gets in before you do, the wait staff is pretty good about attending to your hunger pangs quickly. I’ve tried nearly everything on the Catavina Desert Inn’s menu; the good news is that it’s all good. That statement kind of invites the question: So what’s the bad news? More good news…there is no bad news. I like this place.
Guerrero Negro
It might be part of the Scholastic Aptitude Test: Diamonds are to Tiffany’s like fish tacos are to…well, there can only be one correct answer, and that’s Tony’s El Muelle food truck in Guerrero Negro. Baja is known for fish tacos, and to those in the know, there are none better than those whipped up by my good buddy Tony.
Tony, happily engaged in the production of the finest fish tacos on the planet. I’m not exaggerating.
Tony guy was killing it with a gourmet food truck before the gourmet food truck trend caught on in LA, and before that, he was selling fish tacos from a hand cart (I know, because I started enjoying them nearly 30 years ago…a story you can read about in Moto Baja). Just after you’ve crossed into BCS (Baja California Sur, about 500 miles south of the border), hang a right and follow the signs to Guerrero Negro. Tony’s El Muelle fish taco truck will be on the right as you enter town.
When you see Tony’s truck, you’ll know. You’ve arrived.Happy riders, after a fish taco lunch at Tony’s. This is the place to stop after you’ve gone whale watching!The stars of the show, and what Baja is all about…Tony’s fish tacos!
You can’t miss Tony’s. Just look for the people with knowing, anticipatory smiles standing in line. This is another one of those places that, all by itself, makes me want to hop on my motorcycle and head south.
Hey, there’s more. Tony is moving up in the world, and his new restaurant is under construction in Guerrero Negro.
Another favored dining stop and watering hole (especially if I’m spending the night in Guerrero Negro) is Malarimmo’s. Their restaurant is tops for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (everything is good), and they have an interesting bar. You’ll see a lot of cool objects hanging on the walls and from the ceiling in Malarimmo’s bar, all things swept south by the Pacific currents and picked up on the giant land hook around Bahia Tortuga. Buoys, driftwood, signs, parts of US Navy test aircraft…you name it, and it’s hanging in that bar. Taking it all in while enjoying any of Malarimmo’s dishes with a Tecate or a shot of Tequila (after the bikes are parked for the night, of course) is a most enjoyable experience.
My KLR in front of Malarimmo’s. The hotel, the restaurant, and the bar are all outstanding.A group of riders enjoying a fine dinner at Malarimmo’s.
There’s one more place I like a lot, and that’s the restaurant at the Hotel Don Gus in Guerrero Negro. It’s right across the street from Malarimmo’s, and I’ve stayed at the hotel and dined at the restaurant several times.
Rode hard and put away for the night at the Hotel Don Gus. We had just finshed a fine dinner when I took this photo.Good buddy Jim enjoying chile rellenos in the Hotel Don Gus restaurant.
The Don Gus restaurant has great food and it’s a little less expensive than Malarimmo’s, which means it’s very inexpensive. I like the place, and I’m betting you will, too.
Photo ops abound in New Mexico. They have at least four different license plate themes. It’s cool.
Wow, we are enjoying our travels here in the Land of Enchantment. Every where we’ve been, the roads have been awesome and the photo ops have been amazing.
Yesterday we were up near the Colorado border in the little town of Aztec, New Mexico, and we came across a National Park Service Native American ruins site. I never heard of Aztec, I certainly never heard of the ruins there, and the roads were amazing. We stopped for a few photos, and then it was on to Colorado.
A kiva, a large multipurpose room. It was cool.A storm on the horizon…As we viewed the ruins, thunder boomed. It added to the mood. It was a great stop. Sometimes the unplanned ones are the best.The view through an ancient Native American door.
Mesa Verde is coming up next, but that’s a topic for another blog.
More cool stuff…it seems my friend Dan the K is planning a trip to the northwest territories on his 250cc RX3, I invited myself along, and Dan told me that’s great. It looks like Gresh may ride with us for at least part of the run, too. All adventure motorcycle tours are great; I believe the ones on 250cc bikes are even more so. We’ll include you in the planning for this ride, and you’ll be able to read all about it on the ExhaustNotes.us blog.
