The ExhaustNotes Blog

Dream Bike: 1969 Kawasaki 500cc Triple

The ’69 Kawasaki Mach III 500cc two-stroke triple: Wow! It was a watershed wunderbike back in the days when the Big Four had serious engineering, the kind that went way beyond Bold New Graphics. They were trying all kinds of mechanically wild and wonderful things then. It was a magnificent time to start a motorcycle riding career.

Nicknamed the Widowmaker for its tendency to wobble and wheelie, the Mach III was the fastest motorcycle of its era, its MSRP was under $1000, and it would whomp a Honda CB750 in a drag race. I know because I was there. I had a Honda 750 and my college compadre Keith had the Kawi triple. I had a 50% displacement advantage and that extra cylinder, but it was to no avail. Keith cleaned my clock at every light.

Good buddy Gobi Gresh is all gaga on these bikes, so I guess that’s what induced my heightened sensitivity to the topic of all things two-stroke triple. Yesterday morning a note arrived in my email from Motorcycle Classics (the gold standard of motorcycle magazines, in my opinion), and it mentioned an article on a Mach III restoration by Anders Carlson. I sent it on to Arjiu knowing his perverted puttster predilections, he told me the story was really good, and I read it. I agree. I’ve never met Mr. Carlson, but let me tell you, the man can write.

Truth be told, I never wanted a Kawasaki Triple back then in any of the four flavors (I believe that as the line grew, they offered a 250, a 350, the original 500, and a 750 version). Now, maybe having one would be cool. I’d be a better man, I think, if I owned one.

I did my first international motorcycle ride ever with good buddy Keith back in the early ’70s. Keith rode his ferociously fast 500 triple and I rode my Honda 4 from central Jersey to Montreal. We were in high spirits, as might be expected. We were two young guys riding our bikes to Canada. Canada! It would almost be like going to another country! We were in engineering school back then, both of us were in Army ROTC, and it was a fun ride. We joked that folks might think we were draft dodgers, heading to Canada and all.

We swapped bikes for a while somewhere in Vermont and I thought the Kawasaki was downright painful. That bike could have been an enhanced interrogation tool before the term was invented. It felt like sitting a two-by-four plank. The 500 triple was fast in a digital sort of way (full on, or full off) and I didn’t care for it. My CB750 was a much more comfortable bike and it sounded the way I thought a motorcycle ought to. You know, like an Offenhauser. The Kawi sounded like a chain saw.

My buddy Peter had one of the Kawasaki 750 triples. I didn’t know him then, but he told me a story about that bike going into a high speed wobble coming down California’s Cajon Pass (the result being one pitched Peter with a broken shoulder that bothers him to this day). “I can’t tell you how many times I ran out of gas on that thing,” was his only other comment. I guess it liked fuel.

Still, the Kawi two-stroke triples are iconic bikes, and the Carlson article I mentioned above is a great read. If I was going to have a Kawi triple, it would be a white one with blue stripes (the original colors), just like Keith’s and the one you see in the photo above.

Required Baja Paperwork

We’re often asked: What kind of documentation will I need to ride a motorcycle or drive a car in Baja? Here’s the list of what documents are required for a trip into Baja:

1. You’ll need your US passport, or a passport card. I’ve always used my passport; I’ve never had the passport card (the passport card is issued by the US State Department). Either one will work.

2. You’ll need a Mexican tourist visa. This is something you get immediately after you enter Mexico, not before. If you enter through Tijuana or Tecate (my typical points of entry), there are Mexican immigration offices off to the right as soon as you enter. That’s where the tourist visas are issued. You might be tempted to just blow this off because you can drive by and continue your trip into Baja, but if you’re stopped further inland and you don’t have the tourist visa, you’ll have to go back to the border to get one (don’t ask me how I know this). The good news is that if you’re planning a stay of less than 7 days, the tourist visa is free. If you staying longer, it’s $20.

3. You’ll need your US driver’s license.

4. You’ll need your vehicle registration.

5. You’ll need Mexican insurance for your motor vehicle (your US insurance is not adequate). We use BajaBound insurance exclusively, and we did a post about that great company here on the ExNotes blog a short time ago.

You can contact BajaBound directly at this link or by clicking on the photo above. If you get stopped in Mexico and you can’t show proof of Mexican insurance, you’ll have a real problem (like we said above, your regular US insurance won’t cover you in Mexico). You’ll need to print a copy of your policy (which you can do online after you purchase it from BajaBound) and bring that with you.

And that’s it, folks.

Want to know more about riding in Baja? Check out our Baja page!

Dr. Dave!

Dave Reiss is another one of our good riding buddies and blogging friends who recently told us about a ride on his Yamaha Seca, proving yet again that you don’t have to sell the farm to have a grand motorcycle adventure. Dave’s post is right here. You’ll enjoy reading it. We sure did!

Wild Conjecture II: The KLR 650

The Kawasaki 1M-BC.

One Million Years BC. Raquel Welch. Who was John Richardson?

I was laughing so hard reading Gresh’s piece on the KLR 650 it took me a few minutes to get that “One Million BC” designator, and then I started laughing even harder. For reasons reaching back to my teenage years, I had visions of Raquel Welch scantily clad in strategically-draped animal skins atop a KLR 650. Yeah, that could work.

Ah, the KLR. Nearly all of us have owned one at one time or another. I wanted a KLR for a long time and I waited too long to buy one (mostly because none of the dealers allowed test rides), but I finally pulled the trigger on a new one in 2006. The bike was $5250 out the door (I know, you did better on yours). That price included an obscenely-inflated-but-successfully-negotiated-lower dealer setup fee. The windshield fell off on the 4-mile ride home.

I loved my KLR and I kept it for 10 years. I’d heard, off and on, that it was Kawasaki’s best-selling motorcycle. It was a sensibly priced and simple motorcycle. Top heavy, yeah. Heavy, yeah. Well supported with tech days and a great online community, yeah. Fun to ride, yeah. Easy to maintain, yeah. A great adventure touring bike, absolutely yeah.

My KLR 650 near the salt fields of Guerrero Negro, B.C.S. I had a lot of fun on that motorcycle.

Even though I started on small bikes (I was one of those nicest people you met on a Honda; I only became mean later in life) the KLR was the first bike of my adult life that made me realize I’d been brainwashed: I did not need a big bike. I also owned a Harley Softail with an S&S 96-inch motor at the same time I owned the KLR, and one day after inadvertent back-to-back rides, I realized the KLR was faster, more comfortable, and handled better. I’d spent more for just the S&S motor than the entire KLR cost new. The Softail went on CycleTrader that same day and was gone by the weekend.

My Harley Heritage Softail in Baja. This is a good example of how not to pack for a motorcycle trip.

The US motorcycle market is in the crapper for a lot of different reasons (none of which current industry leadership has been able to address). Sales dropped by 50% with the onset of the Great Recession of 2008, and today (10 years later), sales are still essentially at that same 50% level. It’s a double or triple or quadruple (or more) whammy…banks aren’t giving 6th mortgages on homes to buy a Harley, millennials are more interested in iPhones and Instagram than motorcycles, folks who were buying motorcycles are increasingly interested in adult diapers, motorcycles are too big and too expensive, and more than a few dealers are still price gouging with fraudulent and flatulent setup and freight fees. And there hasn’t been a good motorcycle movie (think The Great Escape or Easy Rider) in years. The answer is obvious to all but those heavily-invested in heavy, large, overpriced motorcycles (i.e., the same current industry leadership mentioned at the beginning of this paragaph): Smaller, lighter, way less expensive bikes. And maybe a good movie or two would help prime the pump.

So what do I think will be the follow on to the iconic KLR 650?

I see two options, and maybe a third…

Option 1 is for Kawasaki not to do anything because they already have a KLR 650 replacement. That bike is the Versys 300. The Good Times people may have pulled a fast one on us, and introduced a replacement without telling us it was a replacement. Hell, the Versys basically costs the same as a KLR 650. From a price point perspective, it is the replacement.

Option 2 would be an entirely new Kawasaki. If the Big K goes this way, my guess is it will be something around 450cc, it will be a single, it will be too tall, it will be fuel injected, and it will be too expensive. It will not be manufactured in Japan; my guess is Thailand (where the KLR 650 has been manufactured for decades). Or maybe China. I think Kawasaki is mulling this one very carefully. Such a bike would have to go head to head with the new RX4 and RX3S to be offered by Zongshen (and in the US, CSC), the Royal Enfield 400cc Himalayan, and maybe others. That would be a tough competition. My guess is the Zongs will be a good $2,000 (probably more) less expensive than anything the Good Times People bring to us as a KLR 650 successor, and the Big 4 dealers will exacerbate the price problem by tacking on their ingrained and irrational $1500 freight and setup fees. Maybe Kawasaki realizes this, and if so, that makes a good argument for them to just pick up their marbles and go home (which they may have already done; see Option No. 1 above).

The Zongshen RX3S on display at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou. It’s hard to imagine how any KLR replacement can compete with this or the Zongshen RX4, given Kawasaki’s traditional path to market and dealer fees.

There is, of course, a third option, and that’s to just keep building the KLR 650. The tooling was paid for years ago and there’s no real expense in continuing the line. This makes a lot of sense, unless the bikes are just not selling, and that may be the case. As mentioned earlier, the US market is flat and outside the US, bikes over 250cc are viewed as freakishly huge. I don’t buy the argument that because the KLR 650 is carbureted it won’t meet emissions requirements; the bike has been carbureted its entire life and new carbureted bikes are being approved in the US all the time. If my last name was Kawasaki, I’d keep the KLR 650 on the market, drop the price dramatically, find a way to limit the dealer larceny that passes as freight and setup fees, and sell the hell out of that bike.

We’ll see. This will be interesting.

Check out our other Dream Bikes!

Wild Conjecture: The Demise of Kawasaki’s KLR650

Rumors are circulating on the Internet that Kawasaki is finally ceasing production of their KLR650 dual-sport motorcycle. Wild Conjecture has no clue if this is true but uninformed rumors are close enough for us.

Created shortly after the discovery of lead, and mostly made from the stuff, The KLR 650 has been a somewhat reliable off-road partner for generations of thrifty, vinyl-pocket-protector wearing goofballs. Easily crashed yet hard to pick up, the KLR has spawned a huge aftermarket of widgets and freeze-dried gooseberries to remedy the built-in defects that Kawasaki never had time to address during the bike’s short, 437-year production run. Oval pistoned long before Honda claimed to invent it, the KLR suffered from excessive oil use, bad doohickeys, wonky thing-a-ma-bobs, and who’s on first anyway?

As a KLR owner I’ll be sad to see the “Killer” letter designation dropped. Given the history of the 650 maybe Kawasaki can use the iconic KLR combination on a rail-transported pipeline trencher or large bulk oil carrier.

What’s done is done, where does Kawasaki go from here? Wild Conjecture has it on good authority that Mama K is modernizing their big dual sport with a new model designated the 1M-BC. Extensive use of wood and stone will lighten the 1M-BC and chain tensioner issues will be forever solved with a Kawasaki-exclusive “shoe leather” drive system.

My source claims the new 1M-BC will prove it’s woodle by participating in the not-so-demanding Pike’s Peak Downhill Time Trial, a race the bike has a fair chance of winning as no one else is aware of the race and Kawasaki is keeping the event date close to its vest.

Whatever Kawasaki comes up with to replace the KLR650 you can be sure Honda and Suzuki will be watching the result closely. Those two guys have more than paid off the tooling and engineering costs on their 650cc offerings. Who knows (not us!), maybe Kawasaki’s KLR-delete will prompt a renewal of factory interest in the moribund 650 Enduro class?

Wow, more Dream Bikes? You bet! Just click here!

The 2018 Motorado Show

The Motorado vintage motorcycle show is held once a year on the eastern outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s a cozy show with a few hundred entries and the parking lot contains a few dozen more worthwhile bikes. I could go into one of my patented off-topic rambles only to bring you back to the show 500 words from now but I’ll spare you the agony. Here are a few of the motorcycles I found notable.

This year’s Motorado was Italian themed and the round-case 750’s came out in force. These are beautiful bikes but the non-desmo, spring-valve GT850 with its bizarre, Jetsons styling is the one for me.

Adjustable rear dampers on the mono-shockish Moto Guzzi Falcone. Also known as the Baloney Slicer for the large outside flywheel. The Falcone sports a 500cc lay down engine and were used extensively by the Italian army and Police force.

Italian-themed doesn’t mean Italian only. Motorado hosts all brands and style motorcycle. This Series C Vincent was blinding in the clear blue skies of New Mexico. Spotlessly restored and British, no one puts this baby in a corner.

In all ways unfortunate, this ’73 Norton High Rider was one of the first-ever factory chopper style motorcycles. Someone at Norton spent a lot of time screwing up a great motorcycle. I can’t imagine how they decided enough was enough but it looks like they just stopped styling on the bike and called it good.

Pre-unit vs. Unit Triumphs: Me being me, I prefer the pre-unit engines for their added complexity and abundant opportunities to leak. The long primary cover looks better too. Unit Triumph lovers are soulless automatons who should never be invited to parties.

The rare Bridgestone GTR350. Disc-valved, two cylinders, this bike was a screamer. Motorado had an unrestored example on display. The owner says he has about 100 motorcycles in his collection! The aluminum crossover intake ducting has only a screen to keep debris out of the engine so I’m guessing these things wore out fairly fast.

A couple of Ravens utilizing Moto Guzzi engines as they were never intended. The twin-cylinder model is shocking enough but the single with its rear cylinder blanked off takes the prize.

My internet buddy Wes dropped by on his H2 with bits and pieces from many years and even some 650 Kawasaki wheels. The whole of the parts exceeds the sum of the parts in this case. It’s a sweet bike and I should have killed him and stolen the thing.

I have about a million more shots from the show but you get the idea. Keep the date open for Motorado 2019 and I’ll see you there, maybe on an old Z1 if I can get the beast going in time.

More Joe Gresh stuff is right here!

Named, noted, and quoted…

A comparo…Slick and Zero. It was fun doing this one.

Hey, this is cool. Our story on the CSC City Slicker and Zero electric motorcycles was picked up (and quoted extensively) by a website called Electrek, an Internet magazine focused on electric vehicles. Imagine that…being quoted in a magazine. That’s cool…other people quoting me. I’m working on learning how to write gud (spelling and grammar mistakes intended, folks) because when I grow up I want to write as well as Arjiu (and that would be my good buddy and literary hero, Joe Gresh).

Okay, enough on that. I said I would someday explain the Dajiu and Arjiu business, and this is that day.

Dajiu and Arjiu in China. Yeah, we like gladiator movies…

So I’m Dajiu (which means big uncle, I’m told) and Joe Gresh is Arjiu (which means little uncle). Our Chinese buddies gave us those names on the Western America Adventure Ride (you can read about that in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM). Joe and I were leading a ride around the western US with a group of guys from China, and they were having difficulty with both of us having the same first name. It’s funny…most of the Chinese guys had adopted English names (Hugo, Leonard, Kyle, etc.) to make it easier for us, but they were having trouble with us having the same English name (Joe and Joe). On the second day of that ride, Hugo (Zongshen’s factory guy) fixed it by giving us new names, Dajiu and Arjiu. Hugo called us all together to make a formal announcement, and he handled it in a very solemn manner. I imagine the ceremony was similar to becoming a made man in the Mafia, or maybe a Bar Mitzvah. The Chinese guys thought it was marvelous.

The pronunciation is “Dah Geo” and “Ar Jeo” and our new Chinese names stuck. Whenever we’re with the Chinese guys, they simply refer to us as Dajiu and Arjiu, as if those were our given names. That’s how we’re introduced to others in China. It’s pretty cool. You can call us that, too, if you wish.

The Atlantic Highlands…

New Jersey may not be a place you would ordinarily think of for a motorcycle ride, but I grew up back there and I’m here to tell you that you can have a good time on a motorcycle in the Garden State. One of the rides I particularly like is along the Jersey shore from Pt. Pleasant to the Atlantic Highlands. Once you’re in Pt. Pleasant, aim your front wheel north and do your best to hug the coastline. It’s Highway 36 for much of that run (it’s called a highway, but it’s really a nice non-highway ride all the way up). Your destination might be (as mine usually is) the Atlantic Highlands, Sandy Hook, and the Gateway National Recreation Area.

I have several recent photos from this area (I was there this past June), and rather than a long narrative, I thought I might simply share the captioned photos…

The view from Mt. Mitchill in the Atlantic Highlands, the highest point on the US east coast south of Maine. That’s the Manhattan skyline at the far horizon. The land across the bay is the actual “Sandy Hook.”

The 9/11 memorial atop Mt. Mitchill. The eagle is carrying an actual piece of I-beam from the Twin Towers. Everyone who lives around here knew people who died on that day.

Names of just a few who died in the Towers on the base of the 9/11 monument.

Another view of Sandy Hook Bay from Mt. Mitchell.

Sandy Hook Light, the oldest operating lighthouse in America. It was built in 1764, 12 years before American independence.

A Nike Ajax along Hartshorne Road, the entrance to the Gateway National Recreation Area, on the way into Fort Hancock.

The Nike Hercules air defense missile, directly across the street from the Nike Ajax shown above. These were a later missile, and they could be configured to carry a nuclear warhead.

Before Fort Hancock provided air defense for New York City, it used coastal artillery to protect the region from seaborne invaders. Some of these guns go back to the early 1800s.

Battery Potter, with steam-powered retractable hidden cannons. Sandy Hook was an early Army proving ground, and the advanced coastal artillery pieces hidden underground behind these walls were tested here. Boom boom!

Two young ladies checking out a hidden mortar base on Fort Hancock. The photo ops here are amazing.

An old Army building on Fort Hancock. Ah, the stories these places could tell…

And there you have it. I like visiting New Jersey, and I never miss an opportunity to ride the Jersey shore. I’m thinking it might make sense to keep a motorcycle back there.

Hmmmm…

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Motorcycles and milsurps…

Zombies. No matter how many times you hit them, they won’t go down…goofy targets, to be sure, but lots of fun.

No motorcycle rides today…just a fun day at the range with some of my motorcycle and shooting buddies, and the milsurp rifles.

We get together every month or so to do this, and sometimes we let a few too many months slide by. That was the case this time; it had probably been 3 or 4 months since we last had one of our informal matches. We ordinarily have around 10 shooters show up. This one was on short notice but we still had 5 of us get together. It’s grand fun and we always have a great Mexican lunch following the match. There’s something about having a rifle match (informal or otherwise) with firearms that are 70 to 110 years old. It’s cool.

About this match business…it’s relaxed as hell, as you can probably tell from the targets, and it really isn’t a competition. It’s just a bunch of guys with a common interest getting together to have fun. Most of the time we don’t even bother to score the targets. The company and the conversation are the best parts; we really don’t care about declaring a winner. We have some interesting firearms, too.

Duane and his German K98 Mauser. Duane rides an RX3 and an Indian. The rifle is a Nazi-proof-marked World War II weapon, which makes it about 70 years old.

Willie and his US M1 Carbine. Willie also brought along a German Mauser (it’s to his right). Willie rides an RX3 and a TT250. The M1 is a World War II weapon.

My Russian Mosin-Nagant. The Mosin-Nagant was designed in the early 1890s. This particular one was built in 1942, and most likely saw service in World War II. It’s very accurate.

Here’s a short video of Duane firing his World War II K98 Mauser…

You might wonder…why a gun article on a motorcycle blog?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that I’m always amazed at how many riders are also into shooting. The two interests seem to go hand in hand. And then there’s another aspect: The companies that manufactured both firearms and motorcycles. There are more than a few manufacturers who have done that.

You guys and gals into vintage bikes certainly know of BSA. The BSA initials stand for Birmingham Small Arms, and if you look closely at the emblem on older BSAs, you’ll see it’s a set of three stacked rifles…

A 1939 BSA M20. Note the stacked rifle logo on the engine.

Royal Enfield is another company with a military lineage. Enfield was originally a British company (their motorcycles are manufactured in India today). Take another look at Rick’s Lee Enfield rifle up above. Yep, there’s a connection.

Hey, how about Benelli? That was an Italian motorcycle company (Benelli motorcycles are now made in China), but they also have a line of shotguns. Benelli made pistols for a while, too. I have a Benelli 9mm handgun.

Iver Johnson is yet another company with a dual lineage. They made motorcycles a century ago, and they are still manufacturing firearms.

I don’t know that Harley ever made guns, but they manufactured munitions components until very recently. I know about that because I used to work for a company in that industry.

I’m sure there are more companies than just the few I’ve listed here, and I’m going to research this a bit more. I don’t think it’s just coincidence that more than a few manufacturers decided to make both bikes and guns. Motorcycles and firearms are two products with something in common: They have a special feel to them, an appeal that reaches into our souls. They are more than just mashed-up machined metal mechanisms. There’s a commonality, a similarity, and maybe a sympatico between motorcycles and firearms, one that attracts both manufacturers and riders. We see it right here on the ExhaustNotes blog (every time we post a firearms-related piece, our hits go through the roof). I’ll post a more in-depth blog on this motorcycle/firearm connection down the road. It’s a fascinating topic. Maybe there’s a book in it!

Want to read more Tales of the Gun? Just click here!

Baja, 150cc at a time: Part II….

To pick up where we left off, we’ll roll as far south as breakfast in Colonet in this blog. This was to be our first full day on the road, headed south to Cabo San Lucas!

We trucked the bikes down to San Ysidro just north of the border, hopped on the little Mustangs and we were off, with J following us in the chase truck. We had a spare bike in the back of the truck, and that’s when the fun began. We went through the border and took off; J was stopped immediately. Damn, we’re in the Tijuana traffic crucible, we lost J, and we didn’t have any telephone communications. But we did have a plan. Our rendezvous point in case we became separated was the Rosarito Beach Hotel, about 35 miles south of the border.

J was basically kicked out of Mexico as soon as he crossed the border because he didn’t have ownership documents and I guess the Mexican border agents didn’t want him bringing a motorcycle in the back of his truck into Mexico. It just never dawned on me that this would be a problem. Well, maybe it had…he had a letter from CSC authorizing use of the bike, but that wouldn’t cut it with the Mexican immigration folks.

Once he was back on the US side, J was able to reach the CSC truck by phone before it got too far north of the border. J and the CSC guys moved the bike from J’s truck to the CSC truck, and J hotfooted it down to Rosarito Beach, where we had a great lunch.

Simon Gandolfi, Mustang rider, having an early lunch at the Rosarito Beach Hotel.

We rode through Ensenada, and then continued south into the northern Baja wine country. It was grand. Here we were, trekking south, on 150cc hardtail bikes, living large. We stopped in Palomar to top off at a Pemex station, had a snack, and continued.

Yep, you read that right. The CSC Mustangs were all hardtails. The only suspension was in the seat springs. Old school. Cool. You’d think our butts and back would take a beating, but that wasn’t the case at all. Those seat springs did what they were supposed. Surprisingly, at the end of the day we’d be feeling it in our wrists. The handlebars weren’t rubber mounted on the Mustangs, and when the rear wheel hit a bump, the shock went directly to your hands. But I digress. Back to the main attraction…our trek south…

Our little 150cc California Scooters purred. The bikes liked to run right at 45 mph. They just felt relaxed at that speed, and it’s about the perfect speed for riding on Mexico’s Transpeninsular Highway. Here’s a bit more on the impressively-named Transpeninsular Highway. Once you’re south of Ensenada, it’s a two-lane country road (one lane each way) that runs north and south (with lots of zigging and zagging along the way) for a cool 1000 miles, all the way down to Cabo.

A stop for fuel and a snack in Palomar, headed south on the Mustangs…

After the wine country, Mexico Highway 1 (that’s the Transpensular Highway’s numeric designation) winds through little farming towns. In these little agricultural towns, the road is 4 or 5 feet higher than everything else. When you get off the road, you go down a pretty steep hill to get to the same level as the stores and other businesses, and there’s about a 30-foot dirt area between the street and the town on both sides of the street. People use this dirt area as sort of a parking lot and a street, so there’s traffic on the main road and the dirt areas on either side of the paved road. Which way the traffic flows in these dirt lanes depends mostly on…well, I don’t know. If I ever break the code, I’ll let you know.

We called it a night in San Vincente, and we checked into an inexpensive hotel (they’re all inexpensive down there). San Vincente was a hopping place that Friday night, which was a bit surprising to me. What wasn’t surprising is that we were the only gringos in San Vincente. That notwithstanding, we felt completely safe. All the bad press in the LA Times in those days about Mexico being dangerous was bunk (“bunk” is a nice word for, well, you know). There was so much bunk in the world back then about Mexico being dangerous that I sometimes wonder where it all came from. Is there a high-volume-production bunk factory out there I haven’t heard about? The mainstream media, and the LA Times in particular, was hell bent on portraying Mexico as a war zone. It’s not.

The point I’m making is that the Bajaenos are friendly, warm, and grateful that we visited this wonderful place. They had a double whammy down there…the recession, and the news media sensationalism painting all of Mexico as a terrible place. Not that San Vincente is a tourist area (it is not), but my sense of things is that the people we hung out with in San Vincente were glad to see us.

J waiting for tacos in San Vincente. The smile is real. Good times.

Dinner in San Vincente. Wow, that was good!

Arlene and I wandered around a bit, checked out a couple of mercados (grocery stores), and we ended up at another little place that was cooking up a bunch of stuff. Folks were lined up and there were barstools at a makeshift counter. All of this was outdoors. Arlene and I had quesadillas (I had two, actually). The guy who took care of us had this cool meat cooker that looked a lot like the ones I’ve seen in Turkey. He was cool with it all and he seemed to be greatly amused that I was taking his photo.

Vinny and his brother, part of the San Vincente welcoming committee…

While we were enjoying the festive atmosphere and dinner, two young kids came up to us as I was savoring a real quesadilla (Taco Bell has no idea how good these are). It was pretty obvious we were out-of-towners, and one of the boys slowly said to me in perfect, unaccented English “It is very good, isn’t it?” I told him it was and asked his name. “Vinny,” he said. I took a flyer and asked if the other boy was his cousin. “No, he is my brother,” he said. Ah, okay. Not his cousin Vinny. Too bad. It would have added to the story.

We were up with the sun and on the road early the next morning, and it was cold. I had checked out the bikes the night before and all were fine (oil, tire pressure, the standard big-road-trip-preflight-stuff for loose nuts and bolts, etc.). I was surprised at how cold it was, because September is the hottest month of the year in Baja. I guess nobody told the weather people, though. Then the fog rolled in. It was thick. Not so thick that we couldn’t ride in it, but thick enough to soak my jeans and my gloves. We saw a coffee shop in Colonet and stopped for a caffeine fix.

Baja John, Mustang-mounted on a cold and damp morning in Colonet. That’s the Transpeninsular Highway in the background.

I’ve done this run on big bikes many times previously and before we left I had a bit of trepidation about doing it on a 150cc motorcycle, but my fears were groundless. The seating position on those little Mustangs was perfect for this kind of riding, and the ergos were about the same as a Harley Sportster. Simon was surprised…he told me he felt the bike was extremely comfortable, and that it felt to him like a full-sized motorcycle (which is kind of what I was thinking). And this was coming from a guy who rode a 125 cc pizza delivery bike to the southernmost tip of South America and back, and then rode another bike across the length of India.

After that great cup of Colonet coffee, our 150cc trek south resumed…

To be continued…