The Ride of Your Life…

I noticed two really interesting bikes in the factory today.   The first is a very cool one going to our friend Herb in Florida.  Herb is a Shriner, and he ordered a red Classic (but with a silver engine instead of the standard black one).   It’s a stunning bike, I think…take a look and tell me what you think…

We hold the Shrine organization and the charitable work they do in very high regard, and we are working on a special package for our Shriner friends (including paint schemes in white and purple).  If you have an interest in this, we’d sure like to hear about it.

The other interesting bike I saw today is a red Classic with the standard black engine.  It has the Greaser’s red wheels, and it’s very special because IT IS GOING TO BE MY MOTORCYCLE!!!

Yep, yours truly pulled the trigger.  I opted for a standard red Classic.  I liked that Radio Flyer bike I posted here so much that I decided I had to have one of my own.   That color combo just reached out and grabbed me.   I plan on doing some very cool things with this bike (more on that in a minute). 

In anticipation of great things, I grabbed a pair of off-the-shelf saddlebags from my good friend Ryan at Cycle Rider in Montclair (those are great folks!).   The bags I selected are probably a little oversized for the Classic, but that’s okay…I’ll need the space for what I’m going to do.

Carlos, Tony, and Tom were all over these bags as soon as I brought them into the shop, and Carlos worked up a muey bueno mounting approach with only a few minor mods to the bike’s turn signal mounts.  They’ll be a little higher than what you see in the above photo, but I think they’ll work out just fine.

So, you might be wondering…just what do I have in mind?

If you scroll back to my very first blog entry, I mentioned to you that I am a roadburner, and I like interesting road trips.  In the past, I’ve done these runs into Canada, Mexico, and all over the US on Harleys, Triumphs, Hondas, Suzukis, and other big bikes.  I especially love touring Baja.   It is the most beautiful place on the planet.  

Well, I believe things happen in sets, and just before I was fortunate enough to link up with the California Scooter Company, I read one of the most interesting blogs (later made into a book) I’ve ever come across.   Simon Gandolfi is, quite simply, the best writer I’ve ever read.  His writing is beyond awesome.  Here’s what Simon did…at the tender young age of 73, after writing several very successful novels, he decided it would be interesting to take a ride on a motorcycle.   Not just any ride, but a ride on a motorcycle from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego (the southernmost tip of South America).  And not just any motorcycle…Mr. Gandolfi took this ride on a 125cc Honda pizza delivery bike!   His descriptions and adventures made me wonder…what would it be like to cover big distances on small machines?  He turned the blog into an absolutely outstanding book (Old Man On a Bike), and if you enjoy a good read, folks, this is a must-buy book for you.  It’s that good.

So, here I am…a guy who loves to travel by motorcycle (especially in Baja), a guy who is lucky enough to be affiliated with the most innovative and most fun motorcycle manufacturer in the world, and a guy who thinks what Simon Gandolfi did was one heck of an adventure….

Can you guess where this is going?

Yep, I am planning a Baja trip. 

On my new California Scooter.

You wanna go?  

Hey, don’t answer just yet.    Let me tell you that I know the place really well, all the baloney you read about how unsafe it is down there is just that (a bunch of baloney), and it’s cheap.   I’m not leaving tomorrow, so you have some time to consider joining his grand adventure.  Think about it…a group of California Scooters on a tour through Baja…

So what’s like down there?  

Well, take a look…

The trip south through Baja is on Mexico’s Transpeninsular Highway, the only way down.   It winds through mountains, the Vizcaino Desert, and incredible scenery.  It’s a two-lane, well-maintained road that rolls along with almost no traffic for a cool thousand miles.   Yep, a thousand miles of this kind of riding, with lots of twisties thrown in…

The food is way better than anything you’ve ever had in a Mexican restaurant here in the United States.  These are chicken burritos from Mama Espinoza’s in El Rosario, which is about 200 miles south of the border.  It’s where the real Baja begins…

At the end of the agricultural region (in San Quintin), there’s a very cool little hotel called the Old Mill (it used to actually be a mill).   One night, while enjoying the Tecate below, a whale swam right up to us in Bahia San Quintin, just past that bottle of beer!

Baja has many plant species that grow no place else on the planet.  This is the Cardon cactus, with my riding buddy Bob included in the photo to give a sense of scale to these magnificent plants.  This is not a particularly large one, either…some of them get up to 70 feet tall!

From January through April, the California gray whale population hangs out in a couple of lagoons in Baja.   This is the only place in the world where you can actually get close enough to touch one.   It is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had.  This is about 500 miles south of the border, in Laguna Ojo de Liebre.  That dark spot just to the left of the boat is another whale swimming beneath us…

After visiting with the whales, I always stop on my way out of Guerrero Negro to grab a few fish tacos off Antonio’s truck.   There are none finer.

Another 70 miles down the road and we’ll be in San Ignacio.  This is San Ignacio’s church, built hundreds of years ago and still in service…

San Ignacio is an oasis in the desert.  I’m not being flowery in my writing here, folks…it’s an actual oasis.   An oasis is usually formed as the result of a volcanic eruption.  That’s the volcano in the background.

The Transpeninsular Highway cuts diagonally across the Baja peninsula, and comes out on the other side on the Sea of Cortez in a little town called Santa Rosalia.   This is the Frances Hotel in Santa Rosalia, a very classy all wooden palace that serves the best breakfast in all of Baja.

The  next town heading south along the Sea of Cortez is Mulege (it’s pronounced Mool-a-hay).   Mulege is another oasis in the Vizcaino desert, and this is the Rio de Mulege cutting through the date palm groves introduced here by the Jesuits in the 1700s.

Well, I could go on, and on, and on, but you get the idea.   If you want to find out more about riding in Baja, check out www.motofoto.cc, where I’ve posted a bunch of other trips and a lot more photos.

So, like I said, you wanna go?  Are you up for the ride of your life on your California Scooter?

Let me know, because I’m in!