CSC Blog

Quite a weekend, folks…the RX3 motorcycles are rolling out to their new owners.

Check out this photo Steve grabbed of Fernando…

And when Fernando got home, he sent me a note…

Joe, I am happier than a pig in mud!!!! Can’t wait to take this bike EVERYWHERE!!!

Oh yeah, the stickers and fork guards are gone now, I love even more the way it looks and now I know mine is the fastest!

You have a great looking motorcycle, Fernando!  Thanks for the email and enjoy your new RX3!

The proper link to use for BajaBound motorcycle insurance, folks, is this one…

www.bajabound.com/buy

This will get you directly where you need to be to buy your insurance for our Mexico trip.   I’m buying mine this weekend, as soon as I get home from Canada.

Looks like our good buddy Juddy, who’s riding with us to Baja, is having a  lot of fun with his new RX3.   Here’s a note I received a few minutes ago…

Joe:

Having fun so far!  I figured I’d start “training” for Baja right away!

See you soon.

Juddy

Those are awesome photos, Juddy. Like you, I am looking forward to heading south of the border!

Day Two will take us from El Rosario to Santa Rosalia, and it will be our second relatively high mileage day (it’s 365 miles from El Rosario to Santa Rosalia).  Day One and Day Two are the two highest mileage days we’ll do on our Baja adventure, and they’ll take us to our turnaround city of Santa Rosalia.

After breakfast at Mama Espinoza’s, we’ll roll through town and cross the Rio El Rosario.   There’s not much to the town, but the bridge across the river is really something (actually, the riverbed is a dry wide gulley in which I’ve never seen water).   The bridge is long and straight as an arrow, and after we cross it, we’ll enter the Vizcaino Desert.

Awesome is a word I use a lot when talking about Baja, and for good reason:   The Vizcaino Desert is, well, awesome.

With our entry into the Vizcaino Desert, we’ll be entering another world.   It starts with a climb into the desert mountains (I know, that sounds strange, but you’ll see) and then we’ll run the ridges for the next 30 miles or so.

I hope you’re not bothered by heights.  I only say that because one time when I was leading a group of guys I used to work with through this region one of the guys was apparently bothered by heights.   He complained afterward.   “You didn’t tell me there would be mountains.”   Folks, there will be mountains.   And they are beautiful.

The Vizcaino Desert is a unique ecosystem, with multiple plants endemic to the region (that means they grow only there, and no place else on Earth).   The Dr. Suess-like boojum (you’ll know what I mean when you see them) and the giant cardon cactus are in this category.   We’ll see candelabra cactus and a variety of agaves.   As I’ve said before, you’ll want to bring a camera.  We’ll stop several times…there will be lots of photo ops.

While we’re in the Vizcaino Desert (named, incidentally, after the Spanish explorer), we’ll roll through the Catavina boulder fields.   That photo I like to use of Baja is from this area.  “Other worldly” is an apt phrase.   You’ll see.

After the Vizcaino desert, we’ll enter Baja’s western coastal plains.   These are the lowlands along the Pacific.   You can think of Baja as a long tilted plank stretching south, with the eastern edge of the plank (along the Sea of Cortez side) being higher than the western edge (along the Pacific side).      When we hit Guerrero Negro (named after the Black Warrior, a ship that sank off the coast of this region a couple of hundred years ago) , we’ll stop for fish tacos at my buddy Tony’s truck.

Guerrero Negro is the last town we’ll hit on the Pacific side while we’re headed south.   From there we head diagonally southeast across the peninsula.   We’ll roll through the volcanic flows preceding the date farms of San Ignacio, we’ll stop to see the church, and then roll toward our late afternoon destination, Santa Rosalia.

That ride, like the rest of the day’s journey, will be epic.   We’ll see a volcano.  No kidding.   A real volcano – it’s called Las Tres Virgenes.

And then we’ll be into the downhill run known as La Questa del Infierno.   It’s the descent down the left side of the plank that forms the Baja peninsula.   No stopping for photos on this one, boys and girls.   You’ll see what I mean once we get into it, but as a heads up, take a look at this video Carlos, Maria, and yours truly made a couple of years ago rolling through this region…it’s an E-ticket ride!

We’ll bunk at Santa Rosalia’s Frances Hotel that night, and we’ll have dinner at the El Muelle (great seafood, steaks, and I hear the Mexican food is really good, too).  There are lots of sights to see in Santa Rosalia, and if I get a chance, I’ll post some of them here later.   You’ll love Santa Rosalia. It’s one of my favorite towns in Baja, but hey, they’re all favorites.

And that’s it for today, folks.  As you know, I’m up north in British Columbia, and my day is about to start.

Adios, for now.

Steve is sending photos to me up here in BC of some of the folks picking up their new RX3 motorcycles.   Lots of good times at the Azusa plant, folks!

Here’s a photo of George from Arizona picking up his bike…

And here’s one of Andy and Karen from Houston picking up their new RX3s…they flew out from Houston and they’re riding their new motorcycles back to Texas!

Much more to follow, folks!

I received this nice note from Abe this morning, along with a couple of great photos!

Joe,

I liked the pic you posted on the blog of me picking up the crate at CSC. I had been in the market for a motorcycle since November and am happy to have it.

I finally had time to set up the bike.  Great point of tightening the handlebar mounts on the set-up video.  I took it for the first ride and it was great. Very happy with it.  Should be all broken in before the Baja ride. Here are a couple pictures I took today at Jamul and Otay Lakes.

Best Regards,

Abe

Thanks for your great note and for the super photos, Abe…your white RX3 really looks awesome!

I just landed in British Columbia a little earlier this evening.   It was 86 degrees in So Cal when I left this morning and it’s going to dip below freezing here tonight.   Wowee, talk about climate change!

Here’s a view of the Peace River as we were coming in…

Now, about that Baja trip…the response has been tremendous.   That’s the good news, and I’m pumped about this ride.   Big time.   Here’s the bad news…we’re maxed out on the number of riders we want to take with us.   We’re at 15 riders now, and that’s as big as we want to get.   There’s always next year for the CSC Baja Run, folks, and we’ll have many more adventure rides before then.

Keep an eye on the CSC blog, the social media, and the forums…there will be a lot of CSC riders posting photos from Baja!

…and the first one is mine…

Yep, that’s my yellow RX3, waiting its turn in line for the CSC tech team to set it up.    It’s going to be ready for me when I return from Canada.   I had to grab that photo you see above…and as Bogie said, it’s going to be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Next one is a KLR I  saw on the Cal Poly campus today.   Folks joke about KLRistas being cheap and holding their bikes together with bubble gum and baling wire…hey, I own a KLR and what they say about us is true!  Anyway, take a look at the repairs this enterprising young dude incorporated on his KLR fairing…

That’s pretty cool stuff.  I don’t know the young fellow who owns that bike, but he’s almost certainly an engineer like me (his bike was parked outside the engineering building).  I thought you’d enjoy seeing it!

We’re moving ahead sharply delivering RX3 motorcycles to our riders and we have four things we’d like to share with you…

Here’s our travel itinerary for the Baja trip, folks!    We’re planning on 5 days in Baja, with a pre-meeting the night before we leave.   I’m going to post one day at a time, so here we go.    Before we do that, though, let me remind you that you’ll need Mexican motorcycle insurance, and Baja Bound is ready to process your policy.

The insurance will be about $10 to $14 per day (depending on the level of coverage you select.   Here’s the link to do so, and you’ll want to take care of this sooner rather than waiting to the last minute…

www.bajabound.com/buy

So, let’s talk about Tuesday and Wednesday.

Pre-Day 1 (28 April)

On the Tuesday night before we leave, we’ll have a company dinner at a local restaurant in Azusa (it will be at Spaghetti Eddie’s in Glendora; they have a private room we can use).   Steve’s going to spring for that dinner, and I’ll go over the safety requirements, our riding approach, and the trip itinerary.   It will be a good chance to get acquainted.

Day 1 (29 April)

We’ll depart on Wednesday morning at 04:30.   That means you need to be at the plant before 4:30 a.m., because we’re pulling out on time.   When you arrive at the plant, have a full tank of fuel.   FYI, I run 87 octane (regular unleaded) in the RX3.

We’ll take the California freeways all the way down to the border (the 210 to the 605 to the 5), and we’ll take it slow.  Although we’re authorized to ride in the carpool lane, the early morning commuters in So Cal are stupid and aggressive (they view the carpool lane as the fast lane).

We should miss most of the traffic in LA, Anaheim, and San Diego leaving at our early hour, and that’s a good thing.   We’ll stick to the slow lane and vary our speeds a bit to help with the bikes’ break-in period.  With the ebb and flow of traffic it will be a good break-in run.

From the plant, it’s about 130 miles to the border.    We’ll stop somewhere around Irvine for a rest break (that will be about an hour into our run).    That will be our routine for most of the trip…we’ll stop roughly every hour to take a break.  We’ll stop again just north of the border to top off the fuel tanks (about another hour later), and to pick up one or two riders from San Diego who are joining us.

We’ll cross the border where Interstate 5 ends and head into Tijuana.    I’ll be the first one across and I’ll slow down quite a bit when doing so.   Things happen very quickly when you roll across that border, and it’s important that we stay together.  We’ll roll through TJ’s northern edge at a leisurely pace.   We don’t want to ride too close together for motorcycle safety reasons, but we don’t want to get separated, either.  We’ve got a couple of turns to make in TJ to get on the toll road down to Ensenada.

We’re going to stick to the right…you can see that sign that says Rosarito-Ensenada, and that’s what we want.

Once we get on the toll road, we’ll be rolling at about 60 to 65 mph.   There are three toll booths along this 80-mile stretch, and the way we usually work this is one guy in front (that would be me) will pay for all the bikes.   It speeds up getting through the toll booths.   Even with me doing this, though, we’ll have to go through the toll booths one bike at a time, as the Mexican toll dude has to raise and lower the barrier for each bike.    You guys can pay me back at the end of the day.

After that run down the Cuota (the toll road) we’ll be on Ensenada’s northern edge, and it’s stop and go for a little bit.   We’re headed to Velero’s for breakfast (that meal is on our good buddies at Baja Bound).  It is a breakfast fit for a king, and it’s where the Ensenada shakers and movers hang out.   Great food, and a three course breakfast (pastries, your choice of empanada, and the main course).   Folks, we are going to eat well on this adventure.

Right after breakfast, we’ll stop at La Migracion in Ensenada to pick up our tourist visas.   They’re free.  At that point, it’s follow me to get through Ensenada, we’ll stop for gas again, and then it’s into the wine country and agricultural district.   We’ll have about 200 miles under our belts when we leave Enseneda heading south.

It’s an easy and relaxed roll through the little ag towns, and depending on what the group wants to do, when can divert to an abandoned mission or two, or maybe take a dirt road for a few miles to see the Isla Del Carmen shipwreck.   You guys tell me what you want, and that’s what we’ll do.

After about 80 miles or so of the ag district, we’ll hit the coastal plains, climb into the hills at the northern edge of the Vizcaino Desert, and roll into El Rosario.   That’s where we’ll call it a day.   We’ll have dinner at Mama Espinoza’s (the lobster burritos are on Steve), we’ll top off at the Pemex station, and we’ll head south the next day.

Our destination on Day 1 is El Rosario.   It’s going to be about a 350-mile day.  We’ll stay at the hotel at Mama Espinosa’s.    It’s inexpensive (I’ll post prices in a subsequent post), and it’s even less expensive if you double up.  Primitive, but we’re not doing this ride to bask in the luxury of overpriced hotels.

For those of you who are using this run to break in your bikes, you can change your oil our first night in El Rosario.   You’ll need to bring your tools, a filter, and 2 quarts of oil if you wish to do so, as well as a tin foil pan to catch the oil.    I’ll be there to help you if you need help.  I will have already changed my oil before I leave on this trip, but I’m going to bring a quart so I can top off if I need to.

That’s it for now…I’ll post Day 2 in the next day or so…