CSC Blog

Watch as Gerry walks us through the things to check on a CSC TT250.  This is a good pre-ride checklist for our upcoming Baja ride, this Saturday’s dual sports and donuts ride, and any time you pre-flight your TT250.

Hey, guys, here’s the info I promised on getting insurance for the Baja trip.   I wrote to my good buddy Geoff at BajaBound, and as usual, it only took a few minutes for him to get back to me…

Hello Joe,

Sounds like fun!

We have you in our system. We don’t include any motorcycle models in our system so the riders can simply enter TT250 for the model when they sign up.

The riders can start the process at the www.bajabound.com homepage and go from there.

How far south are you guys going this time?

Best regards,

Geoff

So there you have it!  That’s good news from Geoff, folks.  Just so you know, we don’t have any business relationship with BajaBound and we don’t make any money on the policies you buy from them.  I keep recommending BajaBound because they do a great job.  I’ve been insuring my bikes on all of my Baja forays with BajaBound for the last 25 years.

Whoa, it looks like we’re up to eight riders for our TT250 Baja ride!  I guess it’s time to start posting a few details.

Pre-Ride Dinner

We’re going to meet the night before at the plant for a pre-ride dinner.   That will be at 5:00 p.m. on the 26th.  We’ll bring in the food and we’ll talk about the route, the ride details, and whatever else you want to discuss.

The Route

We’re going to stick mostly to surface streets, although in some areas it make may sense to get on the freeway for a little while (we’ll talk about it when everybody gets together).

Our ride will be four days, starting at 8:00 a.m. on the 27th.    Day 1 will take us along Route 66 to Oak Glen.   We’ll turn south toward Banning and pick up a glorious mountain road to Idyllwild.   From there we’ll meander south through Riverside County, and then we’ll mosey on down through San Diego County to Tecate.   We’ll cross the border that night, have a Mexican dinner in Tecate, and spend the night there.

Here’s what Day 1 looks like…

Day 2 will be a great ride through the Rumarosa grade as we roughly parallel the US border (but on the Mexican side) along Mexico 2.   We’ll skirt around the southwestern edge of Mexicali to pick up Mexico 5, and from there we’ll motor on in to San Felipe…

At that point, it’s up to our group what we’d like to do with the rest of the day.   Highway 5 continues south along stunning coastal Sea of Cortez views.  Some of us may opt to just hang out on the beach and swim.   There are dirt roads in the area.  Like I said, it’s up to you.

Day 3 will have us leaving San Felipe heading back up Mexico 5 for a bit, and then we’ll turn west on Mexico 3.  That’s an awesome ride through the northern Baja mountains with magnificent views and lots of photo ops.  We’ll ride right into the center of Ensenada, and then turn northeast as Mexico 3 heads back up toward Tecate.  That’s a great stretch, too.  It’s called the Ruta Vinacola, and it goes directly through Mexico’s northern Baja wine country.   We’ll stop at one of the vineyards, and we’ll stop at Naranjo’s for a great lunch.   We’ll spend that evening in Tecate.

Day 4 is the run home, and it will be mostly the same as the Day 1 ride, except it will be a bit more direct.  It will have lots of photo ops, especially on the stretch through San Diego county’s mountains just north of the border.

Budget

I’ve had a few folks ask me how much money they’ll need.   Hey, that’s variable, depending on what you want to eat, whether you share a room, and a whole bunch of other things.   Gas in Mexico is slightly more expensive than it is here in the US.   Hotels in San Felipe are somewhere around $100 a night; Tecate is a little less.   I’m going to bring $500 with me and I’ll probably have some left over.

Spares

You’ll be responsible for your bike; I’m not bringing extra spare parts for you and we won’t have a chase vehicle.  Here’s what I bring with me on my big rides:

• The bike’s tool kit.
• A spare tube, tire irons, a patch kit, and a tire pump.   We sell the electric air pumps at CSC; you might want to give us a call if you want one.  We sell the tire irons, too.
• A few extra tools (I’ll do a subsequent blog post on what I carry in my tool kit).
• A spare clutch cable and a spare throttle cable.  I probably should leave those at home.   I’ve carried them for years and never needed either.
• An extra quart of oil.  I don’t know how much oil the TT250 will use because I haven’t done any long rides on mine yet.  I know from the Baja ride I did on the CSC 150 (which uses a similar CG-type engine) that it used a little oil.
• Chain lube (or, you could just use motor oil on the chain, which is what we did on the China ride).

Clothes

Most people bring way to much stuff on these rides.   We’re going to be on the road for three nights.  My advice is to travel light.  I’m bringing a change of underwear, a sweatshirt (it can get cold), my normal riding gear, and my rain gear.

Passport

You should bring your passport with you (if you want to get back into the US).

Alcohol/Drugs/Guns

Don’t bring any illegal drugs with you.   If you get caught with drugs, no one will give a rat’s you-know-what about your views on victimless crimes and the legalization of marijuana.   You’ll be on your way to jail.

Ditto for guns.   It’s a really, really bad idea to bring a gun with you.

You can drink alcoholic beverages in the evening after we put the bikes away.   We don’t want to drink if we are getting back on the bikes.

Mexican Insurance

You’ll need Mexican insurance for your motorcycle.  You have to get a separate policy.  We always recommend Baja Bound because the service has always been so good.  This is not optional.  If you get stopped and you don’t have a separate policy (your regular insurance is no good down there), you’ll be spending more time in Mexico than you had planned to.

Speeds

We won’t get above 55-60 mph.   I’ve picked roads that are comfortable riding at 50 to 60 mph.   The TT250 is ideal for this kind of riding.  Some of you expressed concerns about being able to keep up.   You won’t have a problem with that.  It’s easy-peasy all the way.  I’m in it for a relaxed and fun ride.  Trust me on this…you’ll be fine.

Other Stuff

You might want to bring some Immodium if you’ve never traveled in Mexico before (hey, it happens).   There are plenty of farmacias down there, so if you don’t bring any, you can buy some if you need it.

Folks, that’s about it.  If you have questions, shoot me an email and I’ll do what I can to help you.

The final chapter in all three of my adventure motorcycle touring books, as is the case in many books, is called the epilogue.   Webster defines epilogue as “a final section or speech after the main part of a book, play, or musical composition.”  Folks, this is a good video. We’d encourage you to watch it and to tell your friends about it.

The question is bound to come up, so let me answer it: Before we saw that video, we had no idea who Jeff was. He was not paid nor encouraged by us to do this (we had never heard of him).  Full disclosure…I liked the video so much, I’m sending Jeff a free autographed copy of 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM.   But he didn’t know about that until today.  And I didn’t see the video until today.

Boy, there’s some really good stuff out there on YouTube about our bikes.   My favorite (as of this morning) was one our good buddy Joe Gresh did about a year ago.  This was our ride across the western US with the guys from China and Colombia.   Good stuff, folks…

Fast forward one year, and it’s the same sort of ride, but this time in China.   Joe did another awesome video on that one…

Joe didn’t ride with us in Colombia, so I don’t have a similarly great video for that ride, but I do have a few short clips I shot when riding an AKT Motos RX3 through the Andes Mountains and some video I captured in the AKT Motos plant.  I’m not nearly as good at this as is Joe Gresh, but hey, I’m trying…

And of course, if you want a more in depth story on any of our RX3 international adventure rides, there are always the books…

Saturday is our TT250 ride, folks, and I h0pe you’ll be able to join us.   We’re leaving the CSC plant at 9:00 a.m. sharp, and as I previously mentioned, we’ll have a few goodies on sale that day.  It’s going to be awesome riding in the San Gabriel Mountains along the route shown below.   There’s a chance there might be rain, but hey, if it rains, it rains.   The ride we have planned is some of the best riding on the planet, and I know what I’m talking about when I say that (having ridden in a more than a few places on this planet).  I ride a relaxed pace, folks, so if you’re worried about being able to keep up, well, don’t be.

Azusa Canyon, East Fork, Glendora Mountain, and Glendora Ridge Road…it just doesn’t get any better than this!

Please make sure you show up with your bike fully fueled (there are gas stations in either direction, but we’re not stopping for fuel after we leave the plant).   We’ll have coffee in the plant for you before we leave (and we may even have a donut or two).   There’s also a Starbuck’s directly across the street from us if your TT250 thinks it’s a GS.

I’m looking forward to Saturday.  It’s going to be fun.

I am getting more and more excited about the next Baja ride, which leaves on the 27th of October at 8:00 a.m. from the CSC plant in Azusa.   I’m delighted to mention that our two Colorado Dans are going with us, and Dan K wrote a note to me this morning with great questions.

Joe,

I saw your blog post about the Enduro bags. Looks like the solution I can use on my TT250, but before I order I just want to ask about the heat from the muffler.  Can those bags just be strapped on without regard to the muffler, or did you construct some sort of stand-off to keep them away? I can’t tell from the photos you posted.

Also, I definitely want (No, need) that 49 tooth rear sprocket you mentioned in another blog post. Can you tell me when they’ll be ready for sale?

Cheers,

Dan K.

Dan, I  didn’t use any standoff for the Wolfman bags, and in fact, on my bike, the muffler heat shield has been removed because I am using an aftermarket pipe.  I suppose it’s possible to add enough weight to cause a problem, but I think with normal loading you’ll be okay using the bags as is with no standoff.

Regarding the 49T sprocket, we have them on order.  I’ll know more when I get into the plant tomorrow and I’ll post something here about the sprockets’ expected arrival date.   Your conclusion is correct…for road work, that 17T/49T sprocket combo is the cat’s meow.  I expect we’ll have them in plenty of time for the Baja ride, but I’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

You all know how great our ride was in China.   Here’s the video Zongshen assembled for our trip.  You can see it by clicking here.

So I’m up here in San Carlos on yet another secret mission when I wandered into a clothing store (Sarrtori’s)  because I spotted something I knew was going to be special…

It’s a 1955 175cc 2-stroke Husqvarna Silver Pilen (or Silver Arrow, in English).   The bike was beautiful and I happened to have my D3300 with me.

I’m up this way on a fairly regular basis and I think I’m going to visit Sarrtori’s the next time I’m in town.  I had a nice conversation with the owner (Fredy) and he seems like the kind of guy I’d like to do business with.   He told me he’s going to have a couple of different bikes on display the next time I’m in town, and that all by itself is worth the ride up here!

Our good buddy Umut recently posted this photo of his club’s RX3s in Turkey…

As you know, Zongshen motorcycles (and in particular, the RX3) are now sold all over the world.    The RX3 is a worldwide and world class motorcycle!

And to my Turkish buddies…

Benim Türk arkadaşlar güvenli binmek!