Another blog title dilemma. I went with the one you see above. I almost went with “Quoted by the NY Post.”
This is a blog about a dynamite So Cal loop ride, one that I covered for Motorcycle Classics magazine a couple of years ago and one that was (as the saying goes) critically-acclaimed in the NY Post. No kidding. I’ll get to that in a second or two. First, the ride: It’s circumnavigation of the San Gabriel Mountains, with a stop at the Devil’s Punchbowl State Park. The Punchbowl was burned out during one of the recent California wildfires, but it will be back. Here’s the route:
This ride includes a stretch along the northern side of the San Gabriels, a hop over the San Andreas Fault, Mt. Emma Road to cut around the northwest corner, the magnificent Angeles Crest Highway, and more. I like to start south of the San Gabriels and head up through Cajon Pass on I-15, grab the 138, and then take a quick left on Lone Pine Road. That’s a nice long climb up into the San Gabriels, it’s desolate, and it’s scenic.
I wrote up this ride for Motorcycle Classics, and suprisingly, the NY Post newspaper had nice things to say about it. They prepped an article critiquing other motorcycle mag articles, but they liked my piece. Here’s what they had to say:
Funny how it’s Motorcycle Classics, a magazine focused more on the bike than the ride, that really revved our two-wheeled wanderlust.
Joe Berk takes us on a ride through a passage in California’s San Gabriel Mountains called “The Devil’s Punchbowl.” The piece opens with a picture of a San Andreas Fault sign. Berk only gets one page to draw us in, but he has us ready to put our keys in the ignition.
“The Nirvana-like northern segment through the San Gabriels’ scenic twisties is … where the fun begins,” Berk advises. Later he describes a “ragged and rugged canyon” created by “a misbehaving San Andreas fault.”
Having indulged in the “crisp pine-scented mountain air” and taking in views of the Mojave Desert to his right and the San Gabriel summits to his left, Berk stops to recommend the French toast at the Grizzly Cafe. “You can thank me later,” he writes.
You probably already know this, but both the guys who write the ExNotes blog (yours truly and Joe Gresh) are well published. You can read some of Gresh’s work here, and some of mine here.
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A few weeks ago, blogmeister Joe Gresh vented on Bonnier and Motorcyclist magazine. It was a great piece of writing (not a surprise, seeing as it was coming from Gresh) and it garnered more than a few comments.
I thought that Motorcyclist had already gone belly up. I used to subscribe, and I thought my subscription had already ended, so I was more than a little surprised when I received the final issue in the mail last week. We checked our records and whaddaya know, we had renewed for a year, so now I’m annoyed that I’m apparently going to get stiffed for the last two issues (Motorcyclist didn’t say anything about reimbursing folks like me who are owed another issue or two). I guess the reason I was surprised was that with Motorcyclist’s recently-adopted quarterly print schedule, it had been so long since I received the last issue I assumed the subscription had already expired. Truth be told, the last few issues of Motorcyclist were terrible, I hadn’t read most of their articles after glancing at them initially, and I’m not missing Motorcyclist at all. It had become a collection of snowflake fluff.
Anyway, I looked through the last issue (the one I received last week) to see if they were making this a special issue (you know, because it was the last). Nope, not really. There was a brief article (less than a page) near the beginning that explained this was the last issue and it stated what I believe to be not more than a couple of half-assed excuses: The motorcycle industry has been in a permanent funk since the recession and nobody with any brains advertises in print media. It’s a digital world, Motorcyclist said, and motorcycling (as an interest, an endeavor, and an industry) is on life support (my words, but that’s essentially the Motorcyclist message). My take? These guys are good at making excuses. They’re right up there with that world-class, place-the-blame-anywhere-but-on-me hack who wrote What Happened. Blame it on the Russians, I guess.
The rest of the articles in the final Motorcyclist made no mention that this was the last issue, so my take on the whole affair is that it was a decision made suddenly. It’s a pity, as Motorcyclist used to be good. Really good. They had superb writing (including a regular column by a guy named Joe Gresh). But they failed to adapt. The market was changing and the coffee-table format and fluffy content Motorcyclist switched to a few years ago missed the mark by a mile. To their credit, they realized they had a problem, but their diagnosis and prescribed course of treatment was wrong. It’s that old joke: What do you call the student who graduates at the bottom of their medical school class? The answer, of course, is Doctor. Just having the title, though, doesn’t mean you know the right answers.
In the final analysis, I don’t buy what Motorcyclist said for the most obvious of reasons: There are good motorcycle magazines out there that are thriving. They’ve done a far better job of picking the right content, format, and market niche, and they are serving it well. One is Motorcycle Classics, with a focus on classic motorcycles. Another is RoadRUNNER, with a focus on touring. Rider may be in that category, too (I haven’t looked at them lately). And there’s Buzz Kanter’s American Iron magazine, with a focus on custom and vintage mostly-made-in-America motorcycles. I believe there are several things that inoculate these publications to the double whammies of a depressed motorcycle market and the brave new digital world. The first is that each is led by passionate riders. Think Landon Hall at Motorcycle Classics, the Neuhausers at RoadRUNNER, and Buzz Kanter at AIM. These are folks who ride, who tour, who love motorcycles, and who live in our world (and that comes across in their magazines). The second huge factor is that each of these magazines found a niche that doesn’t need to scoop the competition. If you’re in the printed magazine business and you need to be the first to publish breaking news, you’ll never beat the Internet. Nope, each of these magazines went a different route. Vintage bikes aren’t bold new graphics or the latest race results (let the Internet break that kind of baloney). Touring is not breaking news and that’s why RoadRUNNER does well. And custom, or vintage, Harleys and Indians…well, that’s the same deal: American Iron has what is essentially a timeless topic. And then there’s one last factor, I think, and it is that each of these magazines has superior editorial direction. The articles are profoundly interesting, well-written, error-free, and skillfully presented. Landon, Florian, and Steve are gifted editors who take their life’s work seriously, and if you didn’t know, they are the editors of Motorcycle Classics, RoadRUNNER, and American Iron.
Nope, the demise of Motorcyclist is unfortunate, but it’s of their own doing. Cream always rises to the top, flawed strategies ultimately fail, and the Russians had nothing to do with it.
Good buddy TK sent this to me a day or two ago (thanks, TK). I didn’t know the Honda Cub was the best-selling vehicle on the planet or that Honda had produced a cool 100 million of the things, and I think that number is all the more significant because several manufacturers make copies of the Cub not included in the total described in the video above. One of the other manufacturers producing a Cub variant is Zongshen. I saw several of Zongshen’s production lines during my many visits to Chongqing.
On the Zongshen production line.Another shot of Zongshen’s modern Cub production line. Folks who criticize Chinese motorcycles are doing little other than displaying their ignorance.
I owned a 50cc Cub back in the day. I was a teenager and a guy down the street had one he picked up in a trade of some sort. He just wanted to get rid of it and $50 later it was mine. It was fun, and it was incredibly well built. I wish I still had it.
Hey, on another note, I have a new article in print this month. It’s in the June 2019 issue of RoadRUNNER magazine, and it’s on the Chinese motorcycle industry. I know a bit about that world, and yeah, I’m an unabashed fan of the Chinese. I’ve been in Chinese factories and I’ve ridden their motorcycles. The Chinese motorcycle industry’s process control and production capabilities are as good as or better than any in the world, and folks who recoil at the idea of a Chinese motorcycle are simply displaying antiquated prejudices and ignorance. I expect I’ll get a few emails and maybe a few comments on that last statement, and we welcome them. The June ’19 issue will be on the newsstands in a few more days, and for those of you who subscribe to RoadRUNNER, you are receiving your copies now. My copy arrived in the mail yesterday, and I am enjoying it enormously. The travel and other stories (and the accompanying photography) are just outstanding. If you’re not already subscribing to RoadRUNNER, you should be, and you can sign on here.
This popped up in my Facebook feed this morning. It’s a RoadRUNNER magazine video on a recent Suzuki V-Strom and Wee-Strom trip through Tennessee. You’ll enjoy it; I sure did!
Jonathan and Pablo at Amores in Tecate. You can read about our dinner there in yesterday’s blog. When we asked Jonathan for a Tecate breakfast recommendation, his answer was immediate and unequivocal: Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos!
I wanted a quick overnight trip to Tecate to grab a few photos of the roads into and around the city, and some photos inside the city, for a story I’m writing about the place as a superb moto destination. Sometimes you just have to go with what awaits, though, and what awaited Susie and me on this trip was an unexpected discovery: Tecate is a foodie’s paradise!
So here’s the deal…at the end of our completely world-class dinner at Amores on Friday, I asked Jonathan (the head chef) for a breakfast recommendation. He smiled and said the best place in town, and his personal favorite, was Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos. Jonathan explained that this restaurant not only prepared regional specialties, but they had researched historical specialties from all over Mexico and their breakfasts were superb. I asked how to get there, but I was feeling the effects of the huge glass of Cabernet and my five-course Amores dinner, and I was only half-listening to Jonathan’s directions. They were complex, and he was giving me street names and directions I couldn’t follow. All of sudden, Susie jumped in because she heard something I missed. “The Hacienda Hotel?” she asked. “That’s where we’re staying!”
Talk about a small world…I had stayed at the Hacienda Hotel several times before, and I never noticed the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant. I think that’s because I usually check in at night, and I’m on the road early the next morning. Sometimes you need to slow down and smell the roses, I guess. The next morning (yesterday morning), Sue and I enjoyed one of the best breakfasts ever in our new good buddy Alicia’s Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos. It was wonderful. They opened at 8:00 a.m. We were waiting at the door when they did so.
The Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant. It shares a driveway and parking lot with the Hacienda Hotel, my favorite in Tecate.
Alicia’s restaurant specializes in authentic dishes as mentioned above, and in using varieties of corn for their tortillas, empanadas, and other dishes from different regions of Mexico. The restaurant also emphasizes the culture of the Kumiai Native Americans, a tribe from the Tecate area (something I was not aware of prior to our breakfast yesterday).
A Kumiai doll on display inside the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant.Artwork abounds in the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant. We saw this young lady as soon as we entered.The buffet line awaits. The aromas were inspiring. I thought I was hungry when we entered; the feeling intensified when we encountered the selections. The coffee was extra special (more about that in a bit).Maria, one of the friendly folks who took care of us yesterday morning. The steam and flavors were intoxicating.
So, about that buffet…allow me to share with you just a few photos of the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos selections…
A beef dish. It looked (and tasted) wonderful. I could do a photo essay just on the buffet line.Eggs, prepared the way I like. Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos also offers omelettes prepared to your tastes with a variety of authentic ingredients, but the buffet line was so overwhelming we decided it alone was enough. It was more than enough, actually.A pork selection. I had pork the night before and I didn’t sample this, but it smelled delicious.Cheese empanadas, with a pastry shell that provided flavors that were out of this world. A few minutes later, Maria brought out more…and they were chicken empanadas. They were delicious.Coffee, Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos style. There were clay cups in from of this pot, and you ladled the coffee into your cup as if it were soup. The coffee has cinnamon and brown sugar already mixed in. It was unquestionably the most exotic and most delicious coffee I’ve ever tasted. Wow, was it ever good!
Sue and I were lost in the grandness of our morning meal, and we both commented on our surprise that Tecate had such incredible restaurants. While we enjoying our buffet selection, Maria brought a plate with their specialty corn tortilla shells and eggs. It was yet another delicious and unexpected treat…
Thick, fluffy, regional corn tortillas caressing fried eggs. What a treat!
We met and spoke with Alicia, the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos owner, after our fabulous breakfast. Alicia told us the story of her restaurant. Her pride in what she was doing was evident. It was a grand experience.
You might be wondering…what did this magnificent morning meal set us back? For both of us, it was $11.13. That’s US dollars. Not only was Tecate proving to be foodie paradise, but the prices were stunningly low. $11. Wow!
Folks, trust me on this…time in Tecate has to be on your bucket list!
Hey, on another topic…here are a few updates from our advertisers. For starters, you can bet I wore one of my R Heroes USA shirts on this trip, as I knew we might hit some cold weather. Here’s a photo Susie snapped of yours truly as we went deeper into Mexico later that day at one of the Ruta del Vino wineries…
Do I have a career as a male model? I think not, but this photo in the L.A. Cetto Winery shows my R Heroes USA workshirt well. I’ve been wearing this shirt for 10 years!
I wanted to mention that if you’d like to purchase one of these grand shirts, here’s the link to see. It will take you to a page that finds your closest R Heroes retail outlet. Trust me on this, folks…if you ride, you need one of these shirts in your life!
A Mexican police officer in a truck just like this one came over and directed me to get into another line. If he had wanted to see my insurance papers, BajaBound had me covered.
Next topic…I was sure glad I had my BajaBound insurance on this trip. It’s what I use on every trip across the border. Bajabound is inexpensive, it’s good (I know guys who needed to submit claims and they pay promptly), it’s easy to get online, and it’s required. You have to have Mexican insurance when you visit Baja. We had a Mexican police officer direct us into a different line as we waited to cross back into the US yesterday. I felt secure in the knowledge that if he wanted to see my insurance paperwork, I was covered!
And hey, more good stuff…our good buddies at RoadRUNNER magazine are hooked up with Blue Rim Tours, and they are offering an amazing Four Corners Tour later this year. Having visited the places this tour touches on, I know this is going to be a good one.
And folks, that’s a wrap. The rains have returned to So Cal. We had a nice window of good weather, and the Tecate trip was a blast. Stay tuned…there’s more good stuff coming your way!
