{"id":1300,"date":"2018-11-02T10:57:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T10:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2021-01-13T06:44:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T14:44:49","slug":"baja-150cc-at-a-time-part-vi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/11\/02\/baja-150cc-at-a-time-part-vi\/","title":{"rendered":"Baja, 150cc at a time: Part VI"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you’ll recall from our last installment of the CSC Mustang Baja saga, we left Ciudad Constitucion<\/em> the next morning and we continued south. \u00a0 We wanted to make Cabo San Lucas that evening.\u00a0 That would be the turnaround point for our journey from southern California to the tip of the Baja peninsula, and we rode the entire distance on our little single-cylinder, 150cc, hardtail Mustang replicas.<\/p>\n

Our intent was to bypass La Paz, as it is a large city and we didn’t want to get bogged down getting through it. \u00a0 The map showed a bypass road, and that’s what we intended to grab.\u00a0 But, our plans meant nothing. We missed the bypass road, and we found ourselves in downtown La Paz. Like I said, it\u2019s a big town, and the temperature was over 100 degrees again.\u00a0 We were getting goofy from the heat.\u00a0 It’s almost hard to describe how oppressive the heat was.\u00a0 We were literally in the tropics, having descended past the Tropic of Cancer. \u00a0 High heat, high humidity, the hottest month of the year in Baja, fully suited in our riding gear…it was tough sledding. \u00a0 Simon had the best idea…he started shedding the heavy riding gear.<\/p>\n

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Simon, with red suspenders flying…all the gear, all the time!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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John and Arlene, suited up and sweating.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Simon wrote an entry on his blog that said it all…<\/p>\n

La Paz is a hot sweaty city on the Sea of Cortez. We are hot and sweaty (other than J. who travels in air-conditioned splendour). We miss the bypass and are lost. I ask a lady for directions. She begins describing the route. I understand individual words, even entire sentences. The whole becomes a jumble. My eyes betray a fatalistic acceptance of inadequacy.<\/em>
\nThe woman halts her instructions. Her smile is familiar. It is the generous female’s smile of understanding when faced by male incompetence. Men are men. They have their uses. However, rational thought is not the male’s strong point (expect even vaguely mature thought and you will be disappointed). Humour them. Lead them by the hand. Such is the Latin way…<\/em><\/p>\n

In brief, she stops giving directions and says, \u201cIt will be best if you follow me…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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A very patient woman and her daughter in La Paz, who guided us out of downtown…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once we were out of La Paz, we were on the open road again and it was much better. Even when it’s hot, you can still stay cool on a motorcycle if you are moving.\u00a0 When you stop, though, it gets warm and it does so immediately.\u00a0 So, we kept moving. We were approaching the Pacific Ocean on the other side of Baja, and the temperature dropped a couple of degrees.<\/p>\n

After La Paz on the eastern side of Baja, it was about 70 miles directly across the peninsula to Todos Santos on the Pacific side.\u00a0 It was a nice ride.<\/p>\n

We stopped in Todos Santos for lunch.\u00a0 I grabbed this shot of my bike and I want you to notice the BajaBound.com decal.<\/p>\n

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Taking a lunch break in Todos Santos. BajaBound!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BajaBound<\/a> was one of our sponsors on the CSC 150 run, and they are one of our advertisers now.\u00a0 We were very grateful to Geoff and the good folks at BajaBound for their help on this adventure.<\/p>\n

I wish I could remember the name of the place we had lunch in when we stopped in Todos Santos. It was great.<\/p>\n

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John and J enjoying lunch in Todos Santos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Our Todos Santos waitress, Erica.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After lunch, we were on the road again…headed to our next stop and our destination for the evening, Cabo San Lucas!<\/p>\n

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Simon taking a break just north of Cabo San Lucas. He was 77 years old when I took that photo. I really admire him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Curva Peligrosa means “dangerous curve.” I don’t know how you say “watch out for the goats.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Just north of Cabo. This guy pulled out right in front of us…anybody who would do this has to be a real ass\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We encountered a lot of construction during our trip, which gave the CSC Mustangs a real workout. I would guess that we probably did about 50 miles or so on dirt roads where the main highway was under repair.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t intend to do any dirt riding on this trip, but we sure rolled through a lot of dirt. One of the things that surprised me was how well the little Mustangs handled in the dirt, and in particular, in soft sand. Soft sand has always scared me on a motorcycle. \u00a0 At the time, I also owned a\u00a0 KLR 650 and a monstrous 955cc Triumph Tiger.\u00a0 With their narrow tires, these bikes would just sink into soft sand and do their best to toss me.\u00a0 The Mustangs didn’t do that. They had wide tires (almost balloon tires) and they were very light. They handled the soft stuff just fine. I\u2019m not advocating using a CSC 150 as a dirt bike, but if you find yourself on a dirt road with soft sand, these bikes handled it with grace.<\/p>\n

And finally, the California Scooter contingent arrived in Cabo after 1100 tortuous, hot, and beautiful miles through Baja! \u00a0 This was the perspective from our guest villa.<\/p>\n

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Cabo San Lucas! That’s the Sea of Cortez on the left, and the Pacific Ocean on the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yep, some of the toughest riding in the world\u2026and we did it!\u00a0 We ran the entire length of the Baja peninsula! \u00a0 I will tell you that I was absolutely beat when we finally made it to Cabo.\u00a0 The heat was bothering all of us, my leg was giving me a lot of grief from a prior injury, and we were all feeling the burn of a long ride.\u00a0 But we made it.<\/p>\n

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More good Baja trips on all different kinds of motorcycles…check out the ExhaustNotes Baja page<\/a>!<\/p>\n

If you would like to get up to speed on the prior installments of our CSC 150 Mustang replica ride to Cabo San Lucas, you can do so at this link:\u00a0\u00a0The CSC 150 Cabo Run<\/a><\/p>\n

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Never miss an ExNotes ride report…sign up here:<\/p>\n\n

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Learn more about motorcycling through paradise in Moto Baja<\/a>\"\"!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you’ll recall from our last installment of the CSC Mustang Baja saga, we left Ciudad Constitucion the next morning and we continued south. \u00a0 We wanted to make Cabo San Lucas that evening.\u00a0 That would be the turnaround point for our journey from southern California to the tip of the Baja peninsula, and we … Continue reading “Baja, 150cc at a time: Part VI”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,63,96,89,140],"tags":[387,169],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon","category-baja","category-feel-good-stuff","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","category-vintage-motorcycle","tag-csc-150-baja-run","tag-simon-gandolfi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC8269-900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11846,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions\/11846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}