The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 4

Just a short one today, folks…it was a long day.   John led nine of the guys to the Old Mill Hotel in San Quintin while five of us hung back in Guerrero Negro to get a countershaft sprocket nut for Justin’s bike.

Here’s our one photo for today out in the desert…

150502_2625-760

The old saying about the adventure beginning when things go wrong certainly seems to be true on this ride, and the brave souls on our first Inaugural Run sure are having fun.

I was feeling guilty about Justin’s bike losing that countershaft nut; Justin and the three guys who hung back in Guerrero Negro were enjoying the hell out of trying to find a replacement.   We ended up finding a friend of a friend who was a machinist and that guy made a nut out of bar stock.   It’s a long story that I’ll post on the blog later, and it’s been a long day, but it sure was an adventure.

Everyone is having fun.

The Old Mill Hotel is packed….we’re 4 miles out on a dirt road and there must be 40 motorcycles in the parking lot.  The restaurant showed the fight on the wide screen, we all had a few beers and a great dinner, and life is good.

The adventure continues…

Posted in Best Of, CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 4

The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 3

What a day, and what a life (to borrow a phrase from our good buddy Reuben’s Four Corners blog).    Wow!

Last night, as you know, we had a great dinner at El Muelle’s in downtown Santa Rosalia.   We were down about 700 miles south of the border in Santa Rosalia, and it was our turnaround point.   The dinner was great, and the owner (Anna) really took good care of us.   So good, in fact, that we went back there again for breakfast.

We stayed at the Frances Hotel, and it was fun.   There are no Holiday Inns around here, folks.   The Frances Hotel is the real deal, and everyone enjoyed it.  Here’s what it looked like in the morning…

150501_2419-650

150501_2422-650Here’s a photo of our good buddy John, who had a genuine war story for us.   John was chased down and bit by a dog (hey, it’s Mexico, and you remember me telling you about the dogs in these parts).   The dog chomped down on John’s shoe but didn’t break through, and John told us all about it in the Frances Hotel courtyard this morning…

150501_2425-650

While we were prepping for the ride down to the El Muelle for breakfast, Justin somehow managed to climb up on the roof for a better perspective…

150501_2431-650This guy is amazing…Justin is a regular MacGuyver, but more on that later.

Here’s a photo our southern Cyclone, Tiffany, in downtown Santa Rosalia….

150501_2436-650

Justin and Juddy at breakfast.   The black Canon is faster…

150501_2440-650After breakfast, we visited the Gustav Eiffel church just around the corner.   You’ve read my stuff about this church here on the blog before.   The churches in Baja are amazing.   More on that in a bit, too.

150501_2460-650On the road again, leaving Santa Rosalia and heading for San Ignacio…

150501_2474-650

Tiffany, on the way into San Ignacio….

150501_2489-650

Those are date palms behind Tiffany.  The Jesuits introduced date farming to this region hundreds of years ago.   San Ignacio is natural oasis, evidently perfect for growing dates.   The area is beautiful.

Here’s a photo of my bike…

150501_2497-650

My bike again, in front of the San Ignacio Mission.

150501_2508-650

We kicked back for about an hour in San Ignacio.   Good times.

The Colonel, Justin, and Keith.   Great guys.   I’m having a blast traveling with these folks.

150501_2517-650

My good buddy Greg…another great guy.  I first met Greg at the Phoenix IMS show a few months ago.   He wanted to know all about the Baja trip, and what do you know, here he is.

150501_2519-650And here’s Reuben, another great guy.   Reuben is an interesting man.   I already told you about his blog.   Reuben is doing a Four Corners run on his RX3, which he interrupted to ride Baja with us.   Let me tell you something else about Reuben…he owns two RX3 motorcycles.   One is in the Philippines, and the other is the one he is riding in the US  (and of course, Baja).   Reuben bought his US bike just to run the Four Corners, and he loves it!

150501_2520-650

Here’s a photo of the Colonel on his red RX3.   Eric is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel with two tours in Vietnam under his belt.  He’s a cool guy, and he rode with us out to San Francisco Sierra this afternoon.

150501_2525-650

Here’s another photo of Greg on the same road.   It was a glorious day in Baja…

150501_2528-650

Here’s a shot of Greg piloting his RX3 in Mexico.   Greg’s day job is piloting a Boeing 737.   Greg is another very interesting dude…he’s a real gearhead.   We had a great conversation at dinner last night.

150501_2532-650

Here’s Justin on the way to see the cave paintings…

150501_2533-650

These are our guys who opted for the cave painting ride this afternoon, high up in the San Francisco Sierra Mountains…

150501_2535-650

To get to the cave paintings, it’s 27 miles off the Transpeninsular Highway on an absolutely stunning paved (but deserted) road, and then another 7 miles on a really gnarly dirt road.

This church is in San Francisco Sierra…

150501_2542-650One of the cave paintings…the black figure is a cougar.   These paintings were done over 10,000 years ago!

150501_2566-6590

The guys taking it all in…

150501_2577-650

The question I know many of you are wondering about is how the bikes are doing.   They’re doing well, thank you.   Not perfect, but pretty good considering the service they’ve seen in the last few days.   We’ve put about 20,000 collective miles on the 15 new RX3s on this ride, most of it in Baja under some fairly extreme conditions, and we’ve had a exactly four things happen so far.

The Colonel’s bike didn’t want to turn over twice the first morning we left.   We push started it both times, it fired right up, and it’s run fine since.   It could have been a lot of things, including a weak battery, but whatever it was, it’s doing fine now.  We’ll give Eric’s bike a thorough checkup when we get back to the plant, but we are thinking this problem is behind us now.

Two guys have had centerstand problems.   On Keith’s bike, the centerstand appears to be distorting at the gusset.   That’s a hefty part, so it might be a piece of soft steel.   We’ll replace it for Keith when we get back to California.

The other centerstand issue was on Justin’s bike.  One of the Circlips securing the centerstand pivot popped off.  We removed the centerstand from Justin’s bike and we’ll reinstall it when we get back to the plant.

The other problem we had on Justin’s bike was something I’ve never encountered before on any motorcycle…the countershaft sprocket nut came off.   This was right after we rode that gnarly dirt road to the cave paintings, but I really don’t think the road had anything to do with it.   As I said earlier, Justin is an amazing guy.   He walked back along his path and found the nut lock, but we couldn’t find the nut.   That didn’t slow Justin down at all, though…he put the retainer on, grabbed some baling wire, and fixed the problem…

150501_2597-650

To be sure, Justin’s fix is a temporary one, but it got us the 70 miles back to Guerrero Negro tonight.   We bought spare parts with us, but not the countershaft sprocket nut (like I said, I’ve never seen this happen before, on any motorcycle).   We’ll find a new one when the shops open up here in Guerrero Negro, and we’ll be on our way in the morning.

It sure feels good to be in Malarrimo’s Hotel tonight here in Guerrero Negro.   I grabbed this photo of Juddy just a short while ago, and his expression seems to capture everyone’s feelings about this trip…

150501_2604-650

That’s it for now, folks.  We’re having fun.   It’s been awesome.   The bikes are great and the folks on this trip are incredible.   Like Reuben would say…what a life!

Posted in Best Of, CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 3

The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 2

We made it safely to Santa Rosalia after leaving El Rosario and crossing the Vizcaino Desert.   What a day…it was hot, but boy oh boy, we sure packed the fun in!   Take a look at us rolling through the mountains…

Good times, it’s late, I’ve got flaky connectivity, so I’ll load as many photos as the Frances Hotel’s wireless will allow.

And you thought Llanterians had no sense of humor…a tire repair facility in the middle of nowhere….

150430_2261-650

Reuben topping off in Catavina, Baja style…

150430_2270-650

Pete doing the same…

150430_2282-650

Baja John cooling off in Punta Prieta…one of our rest stops today.

150430_2297-650

Reuben and Justin catching 40 weeks before getting back on the Transpeninsular Highway…

150430_2301-650

Rolling in to one of many military checkpoints…

150430_2323-650

The Pemex station just north of the 28th Parallel, which divides Baja and Baja Sur…

150430_2328-650

Guerrero Negro!   Juddy, Tiffany, and the Colonel stepping up for a couple of fish tacos!

150430_2331-650

The man of the hour…Tony Lopez!   He did not disappoint…everybody loved the fish tacos!

150430_2335-650

South of Guerrero Negro, heading toward San Ignacio…

150430_2342-650

A man, a motorcycle, and a mission…here’s Justin kicking back on the steps of the San Ignacio Mission.   This church was built in the 1700s.   It’s a great stop.   We stayed for about an hour.   We needed the break…it was a good hundred miles from Guerrero Negro to San Ignacio and we were all hot and tired when we arrived.

150430_2359-650

Reuben, Pete, Abe, and John relaxing in San Ignacio…

150430_2360-650

My RX3 under the Volcano.   That’s Volcan Las Tres Virgenes in the background…it’s the volcano that formed the San Ignacio oasis.

150430_2368-650

Need more horsepower?

150430_2370-650

Reuben’s rear tire…at 3500 miles, it’s showing no wear at all.

150430_2371-650

The Tourfella aluminum bags are nice.   I could have used the extra storage capacity on my bike.  Several of the riders on this trip have them.

150430_2372-650

I think this is Justin’s tank bag…

150430_2379-650

Rolling on into Santa Rosalia…

150430_2386-650

Coming up…the descent into Santa Rosalia, La Cuesta del Infierno

150430_2390-650

One of the best e-ticket rides in Baja…

150430_2394-650

And finally, our first glimpse of the Sea of Cortez….

150430_2406-650

We had a great seafood dinner in downtown Santa Rosalia this evening (thanks again, John!), and it’s about half past midnight right now.  When we crossed into Baja California Sur, we moved into a new time zone.   Folks, I’m tired, and I’m going to call it a night.   More tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Posted in Best Of, CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 2

The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 1

Folks, we are having entirely too much fun!   We’re in El Rosario tonight after a great dinner at Mama Espinoza’s (thanks, Steve!), and we had an incredible ride here.   We left at 4:30 a.m. (yep, you read that right!) and all 15 of us are really enjoying our RX3 motorcycles.  Ah, so many great photos and such limited connectivity….let’s give it a shot and see what I can upload!

Dinner at Mama Espinoza’s!

-650

Justin in a sea of RX3s…

150429_2149-650

Abe, who seems to be having a good time…

150429_2154-650Reuben, a traveling man!

150429_2157-650

John, who is enjoying the Baja run with his son…

150429_2159-650

And John’s son Jay…a great guy!

150429_2160-650

A great part of the game is shooting photos on the fly…the lightweight D3300 is just awesome for this sort of thing…

150429_2166-650

A typical small agricultural village along Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway…two horsepower!

150429_2168-650

So, all you haters out there…tell me again why I shouldn’t be enjoying this?

150429_2174-650

Filling up at the cheapest gas station in Mexico…

150429_2176-650

A colorful doorway in Santo Tomas…

150429_2178-650

On the road…in Baja…folks, it really doesn’t get any better than this.   I had the easiest job on the ride…I was out front and living large!

150429_2184-650

Youngsters mesmerized by the RX3s!

150429_2196-650

Javier, a future RX3 pilot…he told me he wanted a red one because it’s faster, like his bicycle…

150429_2199-650

Rolling through one of the ag communities.   This is where we were caught in the labor riot a few weeks ago…

150429_2205-650

A youngster on a dirt bike paralleling the Transpeninsular Highway shows us how it’s done…

150429_2219-650

Another shot from the cockpit…

150429_2227-650

New RX3 owners changing their oil in El Rosario after riding 365 break-in miles today!

150429_2233-650

Roselda, the prettiest gas station attendant in Baja!

150429_2237-650

My reward at the end of a great day, after the bikes were put away…

150429_2243-650

And finally, a great view stopped at a light somewhere in Baja…

150429_22120-650

We’re up early tomorrow for another great Mexican breakfast…and then we’re riding into the Vizcaino Desert!

Keep on eye on us, folks…we’re having fun!

Posted in Best Of, CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on The CSC Inaugural Baja Run – Day 1

Rolling out the RX3s!

Even more photos today, folks, and I have to tell you, the excitement around here in advance of the Baja trip is tangible!

150428_2094-650

That’s my good buddy John, who rode down from Washington state to pick up a gorgeous white RX3 and join us for the Baja run!

John put a few hundred break-in miles on his RX3 yesterday and he was in the shop for the first oil change this morning…

150428_2081[-650

Here’s a photo of my good buddy Tuan picking up his RX3…

150428_2088-650

Tuan is a good guy.   Like me, he’s a mechanical engineer…I know, because he was in a couple of my courses at Cal Poly Pomona!  The smile is real, folks!

Here’s another photo of John and Jay setting up their RX3s for the Baja run.  More smiles, looking forward to those Baja miles!

150428_2083-650

And speaking of smiles, check out this photo of our good buddy Tiffany, who flew all the way out from Georgia to buy an RX3 and ride with us to Baja!

150428_2091-650

Tiffany has her own blog featuring the RX3 (A Southern Cyclone) and it is a great one.

Our good buddy Reuben is going with us on the Baja run (we’ve written about him on the CSC blog earlier).   Reuben is another blogmeister…he writes a dynamite site about his RX3 adventures (you can see it at What A Life).   It’s another blog you might want to watch; I’m sure everyone will be posting about this grand Baja adventure that starts in just about 15 hours!

Here’s a photo of Reuben’s RX3 coming back down the Pacific Coast Highway…Reuben has already been up to Washington on his RX3 and he rode it back to ride with us to Baja!

ReubensRX3

Good times, folks!

Posted in Best Of, CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on Rolling out the RX3s!

Check this out…

150428_2078-650

Posted in CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on Check this out…

Exciting Times

Whoa…we ran out of bandwidth last night, the CSC blog was down for a bit very early this morning, and we’re back on the air as of about 4 hours ago.   We’re having lots of people visiting the blog to find out about the RX3 and our Baja trip!

Baja John and I went over to the Redhill Café for one of their super breakfasts (it’s a local breakfast spot and it’s great), and the rock star thing took over again.   Every one left the restaurant to get a look at the latest and most exciting motorcycle in America, the CSC RX3.   I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to grab that photo (probably a good thing, as you wouldn’t be able to see the bikes, anyway), but I grabbed a shot before we left.   What was very exciting for me was that when I was paying the bill at the cash register, there was a guy at the counter who was viewing the CSC blog on his i-Phone!   Awesome stuff!

150428_2065-650

More good stuff…my good buddy Ryan, who is the busiest motorcycle sales manager in America right now…

150428_2070-650

And here’s a photo of Peter, who flew in from Washington, D.C., to purchase his new RX3 and ride with us to Baja…

150428_2066-650

We were joking that we’d have to put our names on the bikes (like fighter pilots) to make sure we knew which one was ours…but Peter’s will be easy to recognize…his bike has the F-35 cockpit!

150428_2071-650

And how about this father-and-son team, Jay and John, who drove down from Washington (the state, not D.C.) to pick up their RX3 motorcycles…and yep, they are riding with us to Baja!

150428_2072-650

More good stuff….Eric just arrived from Texas, Tiffany is due in a bit, and more folks are rolling in for the CSC Inaugural Baja Run!   It’s “wheels in the wells” at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow!

We’re having our pre-ride dinner at Spaghetti Eddie’s tonight at 6:00 p.m.    For those of you who are not coming to the plant before the dinner, here’s the address and a map…

SpaghettiEddie

And just to keep us in the spirit of a grand Baja adventure (not that we need any help), here’s that awesome Baja video I posted a week or two ago…

Posted in CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on Exciting Times

The Baja Press Release

Our latest press release, and this time it’s about our upcoming Baja run!   We’re less than 48 hours away!

CSC-Inaugural-Baja-Run-Starts-This-Week

Posted in CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on The Baja Press Release

69.477

Just thought I’d add this…on my first full tank of fuel and while chasing Baja John up on Glendora Ridge Road, my RX3 returned 69.477 mpg!

150426_1971-650

150426_2004-650

Posted in CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on 69.477

Busy, busy, busy…

The plant is running 7 days a week getting bikes ready for you, my buddy John is in town, we’re getting ready for the Baja trip, and we’re doing whatever it takes to make sure you get the best we can give you in terms of customer service and an outstanding ride on your motorcycle.

When I stopped by the plant yesterday, I saw Michael and Kathleen pick up their new RX3 motorcycles…they are going to have a lot of fun!

150425_2035-650

While I was there today (Sunday morning, mind you!), things were jumping in the assembly area…here’s a shot of my good buddy Joel assembling one of your RX3 motorcycles…

140426_2040-650

And another one of my good buddy Rich installing the accessory outlets on John’s new RX3…

140426_2050-650

Like the title says, we are super busy.  And we are loving it.

Here’s a shot of John and Sara earlier, when John paid for all the extras he bought this morning…

140426_2049-650

And here’s one of John and Steve behind the plant, pondering the roads we would be riding a short while later…

140426_2055-650

I was checking the package of goodies our good buddy Geoff sent to us from BajaBound motorcycle insurance when I found this note I had previously missed…thanks again, Geoff!

150424_2038-650

There sure is a lot happening.  One of my deals is I keep an eye on the Internet forums to see what folks are talking about.   It’s one of the things that helped us to realize the need for a right-sized adventure touring bike a year ago.   We also like to keep tabs on what people say about us, about the bike, and about Zongshen, and I’ll weigh in when people say dumb stuff.  I weigh in on things a lot.

We, the good folks at CSC and you, our loyal riders…we’re in this together.   We’re finding and tweaking things on the bike, you’re sending your great suggestions to us, and folks, we are incorporating them.   We’re acting on every improvement opportunity we find, and every improvement opportunity you find, and we’re not hiding anything from you.   For example, consider el neuvo springo

140426_2052-650

Still, some folks feel this overwhelming need to criticize. I read a lot of stuff on the Internet, and some of the comments are dumbfounding.   There seems to be an army of folks out there who feel qualified to comment and criticize anything and everything.   Some people would complain if you hung ’em with a new rope, I guess.

Anyway, on to more fun stuff…Baja John and I were up on Glendora Ridge Road today putting some break-in miles on his bike, and the weather, the scenery, and the riding were breathtaking…

150426_2000-650

150426_2005-650

150426_2032-650

The Internet being what it is, somebody will no doubt study that last photo and tell me I should have gone into that corner at 32 mph, or I should have been in third gear, or whatever.   It’s amazing sometimes.

We had a great ride and a great lunch after.   We stopped in a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place in Azusa.   I had a couple of chicken tacos and John had camarones.   His plate was so impressive I had to grab a photo…

150426_2034-650

Like me, John is getting ready for the Baja run, too…you might say we both have a lot on our plate…

Posted in CSC Motorcycles | Comments Off on Busy, busy, busy…