CSC Blog

My buddy John flew in from Florida last night for the CSC Inaugural Baja Run.  I’m taking him to the plant in a little bit to pick up his new RX3.   Like me, he chose the fast color…

After John picks up his Cyclone, we’re headed into the hills to accumulate some break-in miles.

Three more days, folks, and we are Baja bound!

Folks, check out this nice note and these great photos from our good buddy Florida Doug…

Hey Joe:

I finally got the bike out on the road for some break in miles.  Life is good!!!

Here are a couple of shots from my 75 mile break in loop today.  People say Florida doesn’t have mountains ….I would argue that! 

Are these pics blog worthy?

And along with those Florida mountains we even have curves, ha ha!

Not wanting to push the envelope too far until I get a few more miles under my belt on this scoot…. I’ll have an order of fries because there’s not enough chicken strips to fill this fat boy up!

Regards,

Doug

 Doug, thanks for that nice note…and not only are your photos blog-worthy, but I have to tell you I am feeling the competition!  Your photos are great!

We’re glad you’re enjoying your new RX3.   I am doing the same.  I got caught in the rain riding home from the plant today, and the bike handles well in the wet stuff.   I love this new motorcycle, and we at CSC love getting notes and photos from our riders.   Thanks for taking the time to send these to us!

In mind, heart, and spirit, I am indeed bound for Baja, as are many of you who follow this blog.

I rode my RX3 to work this morning, and before I could turn around, Steve and couple of the guys had it out back checking out a pallet concept for another bike we’re shipping somewhere.  I had to act fast to keep my bike here in Azusa!

And here’s another cool photo…when I was poking around a bit in the plant earlier, I saw our folks setting up a great-looking red RX3 with the matching accented handgrips. It’s surprising how that one little detail really added to the overall appearance of this already stunning motorcycle…

More good news…I just finished getting my Mexican motorcycle insurance from BajaBound (it was $69 for 5 days with their top coverage package) when one of the office folks told me there was a package for me from BajaBound.   My good buddy Geoff, a VP at BajaBound, sent these promotional items to us for our upcoming trip…

There’s lots more swag in the box, but basically we’ve got decals, pens (some even in RX3 orange!), chapstick (that will come in handy down there), cool cigarette lighter converters for your cell phone or GPS, and a coffee mug.

The coffee cup is spoken for, folks….it’s mine!

I wasted no time in getting the BajaBound decal on my bike…

I’ll pass around these promotional items at our company dinner Tuesday night before we depart.   We’ll be eating at a good Italian restaurant in Glendora…the Boss figured you’d be getting enough Mexican food over the next 5 days!

Actually, I think you’ll be surprised at the food in Baja, and in a good way.   Anywhere we go in Baja, we’ll be close to two oceans (the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific).   You can see that on the Baja map (incidentally, I’ll be stopping at the Auto Club and I’ll have Baja maps to pass around for you).    But back to that “close to ocean” thing…the seafood down there is fantastic (like the lobster burritos you see in the photo below at Mama Espinoza’s).   It’s one of the many best parts of Baja.  You’ll see.

Back to my good BajaBound buddy Geoff…he’ll be down in Baja at the same time we are for the NORRA race.   Geoff is the real deal…he loves Baja and he’s a gearhead.   Here’s a photo of his truck…

Geoff’s race team is doing charity work for an animal shelter, and they are taking donations (if you want to donate, you can do so here).   I did (in fact, I was the very first one to do so, and I was glad to help out…BajaBound has done a lot to help CSC on these adventure rides).

If you haven’t already grabbed your motorcycle insurance policy for Mexico, here’s the link again:

www.bajabound.com/buy

Just 5 days, folks, and we’re Baja bound!

A quick shot from the saddle of my RX3 a day or two ago along Glendora Ridge Road.   GRR was built in the 1930s, most likely as part of Roosevelt’s program to help pull the US out of the Great Depression.   Much of our riding next week in Baja will involve scenery like this.

Here are a few more links on Glendora Ridge Road…

• http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2011/01/other-california-canyon-as-deep-as.html
• http://motofoto.cc/glendora_ridge_road.htm
• http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/21/autoblog-sunday-drive-glendora-mountain-road

Are you getting excited about Baja?  I sure am!

Ryan just asked me to remind everyone:   If you are doing the setup on your bike yourself, make sure you drain the oil the bike ships with and put in 1.7 quarts of oil.   The bikes don’t ship with the full amount of oil, so you want to make sure you have the right amount and type of oil.   You can see our tutorial on oil changes here.

Friends, here’s our Baja itinerary…

And here’s what it’s going to look like on the map…

You can see the daily mileage in the table above.

A few of you have contacted me to ask about the hotel reservations based on one of my blog posts.   We’ve got that squared away…you’ll have to pay for your rooms, but we have contacted the hotels and they are holding the rooms for us.  You won’t have to contact the hotels to make your reservations except for the night before we leave if you are getting a hotel in the US.

A word on the hotels:   As I’ve said before, these ain’t the Waldorf Astoria (actually, I’ve stayed at the Waldorf, and I like the ones in Baja better).  If you’re expecting 5 star luxury, you might want to lower your sights a bit.

The next question you might have is:  How much money should I bring?   That’s really up to you, but I made a preliminary estimate based on the hotel room fees, what food will cost, about 1600 miles with fuel at $3.70 per gallon, and no alcohol.   The number I came up with is slightly over $600.  I think if you rolled out of Azusa with about $750 or $800 in your wallet, you’d be okay.    Bear in mind that not many places down there take credit cards, so don’t plan on that.   There is an ATM in Santa Rosalia, but I wouldn’t count on it working.

People often ask this:  What other stuff should I bring?  I can’t really answer that for you, but I’ll tell you what I am taking for a 5-day foray into Baja:

• $800 cash
• Digital camera with charger and spare SD card, and my laptop (so I can post to the blog if we have Internet reception).
• Motorcycle gear (helmet, jacket, pants, gloves, boots, and the jacket and pants are rain-proof).
• Two pairs of jeans (one I’ll be wearing on the way down, and an extra pair).
• Two extra pairs of underwear, two extra pairs of socks, two T-shirts and one sweatshirt.
• Deodorant, toilet paper, disposable razor, Immodium, toothbrush, toothpaste and my cholesterol pills.
• Passport, driver’s license, and BajaBound insurance policy (printed proof of Mexican insurance).
• Toolkit (beyond the RX3 toolkit), including 8, 10, 12, 17 mm sockets and ratchet, Allen wrench combi-tool, reversible (slot and Philips) screwdriver, an adjustable spanner, my Gerber pliers combi-tool, and a few tie wraps.
• One spare clutch cable, one quart of oil, one can of chain lube, one mini air pump, tire irons, and two tubes (one for the front, one for the rear).
• One positive attitude.

If you plan to change your oil as part of the break-in process while you are in Mexico, you’ll need to bring two quarts of oil, an oil filter, a tray to catch the oil, and the tools you’ll need.  Take a look at our online maintenance tutorial if you’re going to be doing this.   I’ll be there to help you, but I’m not bringing extra stuff for you.   You’ll have to pack what you need.

My observation is that most people pack way more than they need to.   We’re not on an expedition to Mars; we’re going into Mexico for 5 days.   The more stuff you pack, the more stuff you’ll have to load and unload every day, and the more your bike will weigh.   Travel light, folks.

Oh, and one other thing…when you’re buying your BajaBound insurance online and it asks for the license plate number, if you don’t have your plates yet just enter “newbike” in that field.

That’s it for now.  If you have any questions, I’d love to hear from you.   Just shoot me an email (jberk@cscmotorcycles.com).

I’m excited, folks!  We’re going to have a great time!

Guys and gals, I’ll email the Baja hotel info to you tomorrow or Friday.  As you might imagine, things have been busy around here!  But busy or not, I left a bit early today because I wanted to put a few more break-in miles on my RX3.  As you know, I have the fast one (that is to say, mine is orange).  I say that in jest, of course.   Everybody thinks their color is faster.   I picked orange because I like it.   But I like the blue, too.  And the white.   And the red.   You just can’t go wrong with any of these colors.

So, on to my ride.   My favorite spot outside of Baja is…you guessed it…Glendora Ridge Road!   You’ve heard me brag about Glendora Ridge Road many times, but what you may not know is that GRR is one of the premier wildflower spots in the entire United States.  Hey, it’s April, everything is in bloom, and I figured I’d go for a few RX3 beauty shots in wildflower heaven.   This blog entry might load a bit slower because I sized the photos at 900 pixels (they’re bigger than usual).  If you click on any of them, you’ll see the larger version.

A shot in front of the rock pile just past the start of Glendora Ridge Road. It’s Rattlesnake City in those rocks…you don’t want to go poking around in there!

Red wildflowers just in front of the RX3. I was going to do this big botanical study and find all of these flowers’ scientific names, but I think I’ll just give them my own names. These are called red wildflowers.

Yellow wildflowers.

Purple wildflowers. These are pretty cool.

I think these purple flowers are a poppy of some sort.

More yellow wildflowers, with some purple thrown in.

A view from the RX3 cockpit along Glendora Ridge Road.

More yellow wildflowers…yellow is the dominant color up there, with at least three different kinds of flowers.

At the junction of Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road.

Yours truly, living large and thinking about Baja…we leave in one week!

All of the above photos were with my little Nikon D3300 and its kit 18-55 lens.  It’s a small camera, and it’s what I’m bringing with me next week when we ride Baja.   That package (the D3300 camera and the lens) is ideal for the kind of riding we’ll be doing.   Trust me on this…you don’t want to ride Baja without a camera!

Adios for now, amigos and amiga!

We received this nice note from our good buddy Rob just a short while ago…

Steve, Joe, Ryan and everybody else there at CSC-

Here’s a pic from today’s ride, the first taste of twisties for my RX-3.

Feel free to use it, share it, whatever you like. Including this email.

I’ve got about 150 miles on the RX-3. It’s breaking in nicely!

Today was the canyon run. From Los Angeles to Malibu and up Las Flores/Rambla Pacifica over the mountains. Then onto Malibu Canyon/Las Virgenes to Mulholland, and up The Snake.

From there, down Kanan Dume for a half mile to Latigo Canyon and down to the coast.

We started with a breakfast burrito at the Malibu Country Store, which is right there at Las Flores. And then the rest of the ride was twisties!

I have to tell you, of all five bikes I have in my garage, this one is the most fun in the twisties. It’s far lighter than anything else I ride, and is an absolute joy in very tight, technical curves. It’s light enough to easily adjust your line while cornering, without bad results. And I find that as it breaks in, it develops a nice power band above 5000 rpm. In tight stuff, the Cyclone has more than enough power to give you a very spirited ride! I’m really impressed. I left my buddy (on an F800GT) in the dust.

Now, part of this experience comes from me getting off my 600 lb. GS and onto a Cyclone. But still, I also have two sport-touring bikes (a ’92 K75S, and an ’08 K1200GT) that are almost magical to ride in the canyons, but neither can compare to the handling of this lightweight adventure bike.

I’m really loving it.

And I’m riding more tomorrow.

I’ll see you folks soon,

Rob

That’s an awesome story and an awesome photo, Rob.  Thanks very much for sharing it with us.

For our riders who are not here in So Cal, the Rock Store is an iconic motorcycle stop high up in the mountains above Malibu.  We’ve done runs there on the little CSC-150 Mustangs (you can read about that here), and there’s always a crowd on the weekends.   I even wrote a piece on the place for Motorcycle Classics magazine (that story is here).

Rob, we’re amazed you managed to grab a photo of your beautiful white RX3 with nobody else around…the place is usually packed!