CSC Blog

I’ve had a couple of days off the bike since returning from Mexico, and as promised, I wanted to give you a rundown on what we learned, what kind of problems we had, what we’d do differently, and most significantly, when we’re going again.  

Oh, yeah, we’re going to do this again.   We’ve already had a lot of requests from folks who want to be on the next ride.  The next one will be a lot smoother.   I screwed up a few things, but I learned a lot and I know what to do differently next time.

I think the best way to approach the Baja trip recap is to talk about the people issues, the spares issues, and the bikes.

The People Stuff

The people issues were not that big a deal, but there were a couple of things that we’ll emphasize before the next ride.  

On a ride like this, it’s imperative that the group stick together.   It’s okay to be a free spirit, but we were on a group ride and not everyone understood that at first.  In Baja the towns are literally hundreds of miles apart.  Being stranded in the Vizcaino desert could have been a very bad thing.  We had agreed we would stick together, but in practice, that didn’t always happen.  There’s no room for being a lone vagabundo on a trip like this.   That happened a couple of times, and the result was a lot of anxiety, lost time, and frayed nerves until we were able to regroup.

Beauty with matching desolation

Human nature being what it is, folks have different ideas about the concept of time, both in the morning and after every rest break.  You can imagine what it was like to be fully suited up with a riding jacket, a full-face helmet, and gloves in 103-degree weather while someone dinked around getting ready.   We were all guilty of these delays and it’s something we finally corrected, but doing so probably took longer than it should have.

The Spares

I’ve been traveling in Baja for a long time and I thought I knew what I needed to bring.   Boy, did I get an education.  Had it not been for J and his Power Wagon we would have not been as prepared as we needed to be. 

Water was a big deal.  September is the hottest month of the year, but I thought if I had a couple of bottles of water I’d be okay.   J came through for us.  He had several jerry cans of good Nevada tap water and a refrigerator on the Power Wagon.   It literally saved the day…9 days, as a matter of fact. 

Two amazingly competent entities...J Brandon and his Power Wagon

J bought other stuff that came in handy…shop towels, handi-wipes, and other incidentals like that.  It was nice having a chase vehicle with these things, and it really helped. 

We brought along a complete Craftsmen’s mechanics tool kit with 159 tools.  The Craftsmen tools were great; the plastic carrying case was a joke.   I never could figure out how to open or close it without the tools spilling out of their plastic indentations.   I think the Sears people realized this, too, as the carrying case had a big hollowed-out cavity at the bottom that all the tools fell into, which occurred every time I opened the thing.   We would have done just as well throwing all of the tools into a plastic sack; that’s what the tool case ultimately became. 

We brought spare parts with us based on what kinds of issues we had experienced on the bikes prior to our departure, and for the most part, that served us well (I’ll discuss the bike issues below).   One thing I didn’t bring was a spare battery.   We never had a battery failure on a California Scooter prior to this trip, so it just didn’t occur to me that I’d need one.   More on that later… 

I had asked that we pack a couple of spare tires, and Steve was way ahead of me here.  He stuck two complete tire-and-wheel assemblies on J’s Power Wagon.  I ripped up a tire, and it was a lot easier replacing my rear tire-and-wheel assembly than it would have been to replace just the tire.  That helped a lot. 

For the most part, we brought way more spares with us than we needed (with the exception of a spare battery), which I guess is okay in the grand scheme of things.  It’s better to have something and not need it than the other way around, and because we had the Power Wagon, it was easy to carry all of it. 

The Bikes

Our intent on this trip was to beat the heck out of our California Scooters and find issues offering improvement opportunities.  The idea is that we would do so here so that you won’t have to on your bike. 

The Floggees...Arlene's Go Go Gear bike, my red Classic, Simon's Rock Star, and John's black Classic

Baja is a proving ground…there’s no question about that.  When I was a kid, American Motors came out with a new car that they entered in the Baja 1000 (I think it was their AMX model).   Their commercials had a race car driver explaining to a Bajaeno that they were entering the car in the Baja race.   The Bajaeno responded with “You’re going to enter theese hunk of tin in the Baja?  Ha ha!”  It was an image that stuck in my mind.  Our direction from the top (that would be Steve) was to try to break the bikes, and Baja would be the place to do it.

And try we did…we rode over 2000 miles through some of the toughest riding conditions on the planet (take a look at the videos below and you’ll see what I mean).  Simon commented that what we were doing with these bikes was probably something no other owner would ever do with their California Scooters.   Rough asphalt.  Dirt roads.  Hundreds of miles a day with wide open throttles.  100-degree temperatures.   High humidity.   Up and down mountain passes.  Long straights through the desert.   You get the idea.

So, what broke?

I expected to have lots of light bulb failures, as I’ve had those on virtually any motorcycle I’d ever taken through Baja (and elsewhere, for that matter).   I bought a bunch of 1157s for the tail lights, and a half dozen headlight bulbs.   As it turned out, that was massive overkill. We had one headlight failure (Arlene’s conked out just before we reach Cabo San Lucas), and I had two tail light failures on my bike.   Part of what caused my tail light failures might have been my defective rear tire…it was unbalanced due to the rip I put in it and that made the rear end on my bike vibrate a lot.  Nobody else needed a bulb replacement.  I was surprised at how few bulb failures we had.

I guess I should point out that we had two preproduction bikes and two production bikes on this trip.   Part of the test was to gage our success with the improvements we made when we went from the preproduction to the production bikes.  We wanted to see the same failures on the preproduction bikes as we had seen earlier, and we didn’t want to see those failures on the production bikes.  I think we succeeded. 

One of the problems we had experienced on the preproduction bikes back in La Verne was an occasional failure of the welded frame tab to which the muffler attaches.   We strengthened that tab and its weld joint on the production bikes.   Both tabs failed on the preproduction bikes within the first two days of riding in Baja; neither of the production bike muffler mounting tabs failed during the entire trip.   I found a welder somewhere south of Guerrero Negro (my new buddy Umberto).   I asked Umberto to fabricate new tabs identical to those on the production bikes, and to weld the new tabs on the preproduction bikes using the same weld pattern as the production bikes.   Umberto did so, and the welds on the preproduction bike held for the remainder of the trip.

My new friend Umberto modifying John's preproduction bike to the production bike configuration...a mod that worked for the rest of the trip. Note John standing by to put out any fires.

As mentioned above, we had two battery failures, and both occurred on the preproduction bikes.   Neither of the production bikes had any battery problems.  There’s nothing inherently different between the preproduction bikes’ batteries or charging systems and those on the production bikes, and at first, I was a little nervous about having a similar problem on the production bikes.   Then, as the miles rolled by, I realized that the preprod bikes had batteries with a lot of time on them.  The batteries in both preprod bikes had been in those bikes for at least a year and a half, and who knows how old the batteries were before we installed them.  We were flogging these bikes in high temperatures, and that’s why the batteries conked out.   

When we got back to the plant, we put new batteries in both preproduction bikes, and both fired right up and ran just fine.   The lesson here…don’t leave on a long trip through Baja with an old battery.   Duh.   The weather conditions – high heat and humidity – were tough on batteries…even J’s Power Wagon had a dead battery one morning and needed a jump to get going. 

One thing about this battery business that was interesting was that Simon’s preproduction bike battery failed in a manner that didn’t allow the bike to start at all.   John’s preproduction bike battery failed in a manner that allowed the bike to be kick started.   John began the trip with the idea that he would kick start his bike for the entire trip…he just didn’t know when he started that he was going to have to do that.   And that’s what he did.   John rode that preproduction bike for 9 days and 2000 miles, kick starting it all the way. 

As I mentioned above, I tore up a tire.   I noticed one afternoon that the tire was bald in just one spot, almost as if the rear wheel had been skidded for a long distance.   I know I didn’t do that; maybe someone who rode my bike did.  Or maybe I hit something in the road that damaged the carcass.  Whatever the cause, I opted not to change the tire until later that day, and sometime in the next 150 miles, the tread split down to the cord in that bald spot.  This caused a lot of vibration, but I took a chance on reaching San Ignacio before replacing it and it worked out okay. 

I guess the last thing I should mention is that we learned which nuts and bolts you have to keep an eye on during a trip of this nature.  Nothing new here, folks…I’ve gone through this with every motorcycle I’ve ever owned.   On my Kawasaki it’s the lower fairing bolts, the muffler heat shield, the muffler mounts, and the steering stem.   On my Triumph Tiger it was the right foot peg and the saddlebag acorn nuts.   On my Harley Softail it was, well, nearly everything.   On the California Scooter it’s the two 10mm exhaust clamp bolts at the cylinder head, and the 12mm elongated bolt at the bottom of the muffler.   It became part of our ritual to check these bolts on our California Scooters each morning.  

What else about the bikes?   

Well, as you know, we offer rear drive sprockets with 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 teeth.   Our original California Scooters started with 26T rear sprockets, which is fairly tall gearing.   My personal bike has a 28T rear sprocket, and so did John’s and Simon’s.   I really like the 28T rear gearing, as it seems to really wake up the bike.  Arlene, who is a lot lighter than the rest of us, uses a 26T rear sprocket on her bike.  Simon rode Arlene’s bike home (she had to fly back from Cabo for a prior business engagement), and the funny thing is, he liked the taller gearing a lot better.   You wouldn’t think that a two-tooth gearing difference would make that much of a difference, but Arlene’s bike (even with Simon on it) used about a third less fuel than did our 28T bikes.  It also used almost no oil.   I found that we needed to add about a quarter of a quart to the other bikes every 500 miles or so, but again, we were flogging them and those little 150cc engines were hauling around some pretty big guys.  I may go back to the 26T rear sprocket on my bike.   We’ll see.

Another interesting thing I noticed is that after a short while, I stopped thinking about my California Scooter as a 150cc bike.   It was a motorcycle, and it rode like a motorcycle.   It didn’t feel “little” in any way, other than its light weight.  The seating position is about perfect for me.   Some of you may find this tough to believe, but I actually found it more comfortable on a long trip than my KLR or my old Tiger.   Don’t get me wrong…we’re not suggesting these are mini-Gold Wings…but the fact is, they are pretty comfortable.   Simon commented several times that the seat was the most comfortable he’d ever experienced on a motorcycle.

And the engine?  Well, as far as I’m concerned, it’s bulletproof.   We absolutely flogged these bikes (we essentially ran wide open for the last 500 miles), and we didn’t have a single engine problem.    These are good, solid, reliable motors.

So, that about wraps up my after action report on our Baja trip.   I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that when I got home, I stared at the bikes for a long time, and the feeling I had (and still have) is one of overwhelming pride.  These are great bikes, and as a result of this trip, they are going to be even better.

Oh, and the other question…when are we going again?   The third week in March, boys and girls.   We’re going down to San Ignacio (the trip will be about half as long as this one was).   The weather will be much nicer, and the whales will be in Scammon’s Lagoon.

Wanna go?

Folks, this will be the last blog entry from Baja…we ran a romping, stomping, perfect 357 miles today on our California Scooters, and we are only 180 miles south of the border.  Yep, we ran over 1800 miles so far, all the way down to Cabo San Lucas and back up to our digs for tonight.   That would be the little town of San Quintin on the Pacific Ocean.  We’re staying in the Hotel Maria Celeste, which is a place that popped up since my last trip down here.  The hotel has wireless Internet service, but it’s not working properly.   I’m typing this on a flash drive and I’ll try entering it from the hotel lobby later tonight.

So, about that 357 miles…it’s our longest day by far (pardon the pun).  We were up about an hour before sunrise way down in San Ignacio, and we left at first light.  We stayed up late last night changing a tire on my bike (I ripped it up somewhere between Cabo and San Ignacio).   After J and John replaced my tire, we checked the oil on all the bikes.  We also checked the nuts and bolts that we’ve found have a tendency to loosen with the kind of abuse we’re giving our bikes.  I’ll point these out in a subsequent blog entry, but I can tell you there’s nothing unusual in this regard with California Scooters.   I’ve had the same kinds of issues on my Triumphs, my KLR 650, and my Harleys.   Motorcycles vibrate and things loosen.  It comes with the territory.  It’s part of the fun. 

We’ve been on the road a little more than a week now, and as you know from reading our previous blogs, the weather in the last few days has been hellish.   Hellish with humidity, actually.   Our journey took us below the Tropic of Cancer, and the heat and humidity have been rough…not on the machines, and maybe not on all of the guys, but certainly on me.   Simon hasn’t been bothered by it (he said it was a lot worse when he rode across India).  I’m not used to that kind of heat and humidity, though, and I was not feeling too good about another day with temperatures over 100 degrees and sticky humidity.  

My mother always told me to be careful what you wish for, and today certainly proved her warning to be right on the money.  When we left San Ignacio, the air had that pre-dawn heaviness that promises misery, but then a funny thing happened.   We went through the military checkpoint just north of San Ignacio, and a few miles down the road, we had a heavy marine layer.   That’s fog that’s just few hundred feet above ground, so it was cool and we had good visibility.  Wow, this is nice, I thought.   I reckoned it would burn off in 20 or 30 minutes, and then we’d get the high temperatures and humidity I dreaded, but the marine layer stayed with us all the way to Guerrero Negro and beyond.   After riding about 50 miles, I realized I was cold.  It felt wonderful to be cold.  For a while.  Then I realized I was really cold.   As in cold enough to pull over, dig out my jacket liner, and layer up.  That was just the ticket.   It felt perfect.   No glare and cool air.  We rode the next 40 miles or so to Guerrero Negro feeling great.  The bikes purred.

After a great breakfast at Guerrero Negro, we were on the road again.   The guys in the Malarrimo’s restaurant did their usual outstanding job for us.   Incidentally, if you ever head down this way, Malarrimo’s is my preferred spot for whale watching tours.  I’ve done several, and Malarrimo’s is the best.   The hotel and the restaurant are nice, too. 

After topping off the Scooters in town, we expected to be stopped at the Immigration checkpoint just north of Guerrero Negro, but the Mexican officers just waved us through.   Sometimes they stop you and sometimes they don’t.   Today, we got a pass.

We continued to enjoy the cool weather for another 30 miles.  The marine layer lifted and the temperature climbed back up to 101 degrees.   It was dry, though.   We were back in the Vizcaino Desert.  Hot, you bet. Humidity, not today.   It was a lot more tolerable than what we’d been through in the last few days.

Before we realized it, we were in the boulder fields around Catavina.  J told us we  had covered 168 miles already.  We stopped at Catavina’s Desert Inn for lunch (we stayed there on the way down).  You gotta try their tortilla soup (it’s great).   It was hot outside, but the restaurant has massive doors at both ends.   With the doors open, we had a nice breeze.  Simon said he wanted to get more photos, so we took it slow for the next half hour and Simon shot mpegs for his publishers.

From Catavina we continued north through the Vizcaino Desert.  It’s desert punctuated by mountain ranges, and that means twisties.   John and I wicked it up a bit…we ran through the twisties at speeds up to 65 mph.  With the Scooter’s hardtail configuration, spring-mounted solo saddle, and wide bars, I felt like Gary Nixon or Bart Markel (I’m dating myself here; they were the leading flat-trackers in the ‘60s and ‘70s).  The Scooters were purring perfectly.  It was a grand ride. 

John and I have been exploring Baja on motorcycles for close to 20 years now.  He’s an easy guy to travel with, and he always laughs at all of my jokes (so I naturally like the guy…a lot).  We’ve done the cruiser thing, we’ve had other bikes, and we both ride KLR 650 Kawasakis.  And, we both love California Scooters.   He’s been a great guy on this (and other) trips, and he’s another guy that just doesn’t let the small stuff bother him.   He’s a great engineer, too, and his insights on this trip are going to be very helpful to us.

My good friend John Welker getting ready for the day's ride

I know this cool spot overlooking the mountains just south of El Rosario, and we stopped so I could get a photo of John, Simon, J, the bikes, and the Power Wagon. 

Simon, J, and John at the northern edge of the Vizcaino Desert

J’s Power Wagon is an amazing vehicle with awesome capabilities (much like its owner).  J has been enormously helpful on this trip.  Cool, calm, unflappable, articulate, and just a joy to travel with.  We’ve worked together before in a company that manufactured sails for ocean racing yachts, and I hope to work with him again in the future.  The guy is incredibly bright. 

Two amazingly competent entities...J Brandon and his Power Wagon

After grabbing the above photos, we stopped in El Rosario at the world famous Mama Espinosa’s restaurant.   With his fluency in Spanish, Simon was quite a hit with ladies in Mama Espinosa’s.  After Simon mesmerized our waitress, she turned to me, expecting me to be as fluent.  I told her (in English) that I taught Simon to speak Spanish. 

Simon is another amazing guy.  As you know, he’s the dude who rode down to Tierra del Fuego and back on a 125cc pizza delivery bike a couple of years ago, and then across India on a similar machine last year.   Now he can add buzzing the Baja peninsula in its entirety on a 150cc California Scooter to his resume.  Simon’s going to be 78 in a few months, but I don’t think of him as a guy in his 70s who still rides motorcycles.  I just think of him as a great writer who loves to travel internationally on bikes…a guy who is probably the world’s most knowledgeable person on small-motorcycle long-distance touring. 

Simon Gandolfi on a California Scooter somewhere in Baja (photo by John Welker)

After a great dinner at Mama Espinosa’s, we were back on the road again for the 40 mile sprint to San Quintin.  That’s where I am now as I type this blog entry.  As I said earlier, the wireless service isn’t working, so I’m going to try uploading this from the lobby.

Tomorrow, we make our break for the border.  It’s been a grand ride, but it will be good to be home.

You know, it really is amazing how you can get to know what your bike can do.  My red Classic held an honest 40 mph going uphill into a strong headwind hauling me along in the Baja oven.  I was amazed that an engine this small could do that.  I never thought I’d get to a point where I thought a 150cc bike had real power, but once you get used to its capabilities, using it at 100% is cool.

When we arrived in Cuidad Constitucion, we quickly checked into the Oasis Hotel and made a beeline for the swimming pool.  It felt incredibly good.   After cooling ourselves for a bit, we saddled up to find something to eat.  Our hotel was about a quarter of a mile down a dirt road off the main drag, and as soon as we got to the end, a local motorcycle cop stopped us to take a look at the bikes.   His name is Jose (like me, I guess), and he was intrigued.  He knew the bikes are new and that they are something special.   We had a good chat.   I offered him the keys to mine, and then I asked him to give me the keys to his Suzuki police motorcycle so I could try it out.   We had a good laugh over that one.

Simon and Jose, the Cuidad Constitucion motor officer, on our way to dinner

We saw a very cool taco stand just around the corner and gave it a thumbs up.  The tacos, nopales, and grilled onions were great.  I asked our waitresses if I could grab a photo, Simon translated for me, and they thought we were hilarious.

Betty and Gwendolyn, two lovely ladies in Cuidad Constitucion

Simon and Luis...dos tacos, por favor

This morning we were up well before dawn, and we rolled out at 6:45.   I think it was the first time we all got up, got ready, got on the bikes, and hit the road without having to wait on anybody.   I have to compliment J; all of us were getting annoyed each morning because there was always someone (we all took turns being that someone) who kept the group waiting.   Last night as we were enjoying our tacos, J suggested we all just agree on a departure time and be ready to go at that time.  It was brilliantly simple, and it worked. 

As we rolled out of Cuidad Constitucion this morning in the dark, it was a nice, comfortable, and cool ride.   We continued north on Highway 1, and the temperature climbed.   The scenery was magnificent.  Coming down the grade into Loreto from the south is really special.   The views are incredible; each one seems to be better than the last.   We stopped for photos, but I didn’t grab any.  I left my camera in J’s truck.  I had been wearing it around my neck, but a D200 Nikon with a 24-120 lens is heavy, and after a week of being on the road, I decided to give the camera to J.   As much as I love taking photos of California Scooters and Baja, it was getting so hot my attention was focused on finding shade and cool agua.

John's photo of Simon and me coming out of the mountains on the Sea of Cortez, just south of Loreto

We grabbed breakfast this morning at an open-air roadside restaurant just outside of Loreto.  None of us wanted to go into town, for three reasons…we wanted to minimize how much time we stopped riding, we wanted to make San Ignacio early, and the last time we stopped in Loreto, the local policia clipped us for about a thousand pesos for traffic infracciones.  

John grabbed this photo on the way down...Arlene and her new amigos in Loreto

After a great breakfast, we hit the road again, and that’s when my problems started.  I and the rest of the guys are using SPF 50 sunblock, and I got some of that stuff in my eyes.   Man, that was agony.  We stopped about 50 miles further up the road and I took my contacts out, and I poured a bottle of water into my eye.   I put my glasses on and we resumed, but it felt like I had a weld burn (any of you guys or gals who work around welding know what that’s like).  I was having problems seeing, and I didn’t know if it was the sunblock or the glare, or both.  When we got to Santa Rosalia, John went on ahead and found an air conditioned Chinese restaurant (yep, a Chinese restaurant in Mexico).   We had a long, leisurely dinner, and after about two hours, I was good to go.

Tonight we’re staying in the Desert Inn Hotel in San Ignacio (same place we stayed on the way down).  I’m going to wrap this up because I need to check a few things on the bikes and tighten the chain on one.  I may not have Internet access tomorrow, and if that’s the case, I’ll update the blog again when I’m back in the good old USA!

I think where I left off on the last blog was our arrival in Catavina.   We stayed at the Desert Inn Hotel, and it was pretty cool.  Lots of margaritas, a few beers, and a well deserved rest for both us and our California Scooters. 

Our bikes parked in front of the Desert Inn Hotel in Catavina...several hundred miles into Baja

I was up very early early the next morning…it’s always hard for me to lay in bed on these trips…it’s too much fun being out on the road!

The Catavina Desert Inn Hotel courtyard at dawn

After fueling the bikes and checking that everything was tight, we were ready to roll.   We had agreed that if the group separated (which happens on these trips), our next rally point would be Chapala.   Sure enough, that’s what happened, and Arlene and I waited for John and Simon to catch up to us near Chapala.  Arlene and I had sodas at the only loncheria in town…

Fine dining deep in Baja

We continued south toward Guerrero Negro (it means “Black Warrior” in Spanish, and it’s the name of a ship that sank near there in the 1800s).  We had a great breakfast….including a salad with 1000 Island dressing…

Yep, 1000 Island salad dressing

Arlene and Simon enjoying breakfast somewhere south of Catavina

My Scooter continued to purr as we headed south…

My red Classic on the road to Cabo

I think I’m going to take a break…I chased the kids out of the pool to grill our dinner and I think I’ll grab a beer.  Instead of making more separate entries on the blog, I’m going to keep updating this one so you get a sense of the flow of events…so check back again in a few hours, and again after that.

Later, boys and girls….

Okay, I’m back.   Just had a great dinner with even better conversation…lots of talk about what a great thing Steve and Maureen created with the California Scooter Company and how much fun this grand adventure has been.   On with my description…

We continued down Mexico’s Transpeninsular Highway, and I grabbed this shot of Simon and Arlene headed toward Guerrero Negro…

Heading along the sea plains, with the Pacific to our right...not too shabby for a one-hand-hold photo from the back of a California Scooter

Guerrero Negro is right on Parallelo 28 (the 28th Parallel), which separates the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur.   The town is also a good spot in the winter months for whale-watching tours.   There’s a Mexican Army compound on the highway, and they have this cool whale skeleton right next to the highway…

Another drive-by photo...the whale skeleton in Guerrero Negro

From Guerrero Negro, the highway cuts southeasterly across the peninsula, and we moved from the Pacific side to the Sea of Cortez side of Baja.   That’s a heck of a ride, especially the last few miles into Santa Rosalia.   That’s a 2,000-foot descent in just a few miles, and it’s a wild ride.   No guard rails, and nightmarish drops if you let things get away from you (so you’ll understand if I didn’t grab any shots on the way down).

When we arrived on eastern shore of the peninsula, we stopped for a few shots…

Arlene's Go Go Gear bike...with a John Esposito custom paint job

Arlene on her Go Go Gear CSC motorcycle...that's the Sea of Cortez in the background...don't you think this should be a magazine cover?

Simon, Arlene, J, John, and yours truly...I'm the one holding breakfast! Lynda, if you're reading this, look closely at who's T-shirt I'm wearing!

The bikes cooling their jets in Mulege

My riding gear...it was hot...but the right gear is critical

J has a bunch of water in 5-gallon jerry cans on the big Power Wagon, and I used a trick I learned in the Army a long time ago…I soaked myself in it and then put my jacket on.   The jacket keeps the water from evaporating too quickly, and in this kind of weather, you can stay cool for about an hour before you need another soaking.  It really works, and it worked well for us yesterday.

We continued south out of Mulege, and we soon found ourselves along what I believe to be the most beautiful part of Baja…and that would be Bahia Concepcion.  I’ll let the photos do my talking here…

John's black Classic at the north end of Bahia Concepcion

No PhotoShop here...the water really is this green

Riding our Scooters along Bahia Concepcion on the Sea of Cortez

It’s getting late, and I’m tired…so I’ll call it a night.   Before I go, though, a few cool links…the first is a story about the guys who won our motorcycle design competition.   Check out this latest Daily Bulletin article!  And Simon, as you know, is posting a bit about us on his blog, so check this out, too!   And Arlene is our tweetmaster…if you’re not following her tweeting, you might take a look…she’s been giving updates on an hourly basis on our trip, and you can read her tweets right here!

Well, okay, one last photo…let me jump ahead to just north of Cabo (don’t worry, I’ll come back and fill in the blanks between Concepcion Bay and Cabo in another day or so).  We had someone pull out right in front of us just after we left La Paz…my take is that anybody who would do this has to be a real ass…

I’ll post more when I can…thanks for reading about our adventure.  Tomorrow we turn around and run the same trip, but in the opposite direction…and we’ll keep you updated right here.

Okay, back again….we left our plush digs in Cabo this morning after servicing the bikes…but first, a few more photos from the ride down there…

Arlene and John on the road

Another shot on the road

We missed the bypass road when we passed La Paz, and we found ourselves in downtown La Paz.  It’s a big town, and the temperature was just under 100 degrees.  Simon talked to a nice lady who led us through the La Paz traffic back to the road we wanted.

Simon's new friends...our guides through La Paz

After La Paz on the Sea of Cortez, it was about 70 miles to Todos Santos on the Pacific.   It was a nice ride, and it cooled just a tiny bit as we neared the ocean.

Arlene and John riding in very hot weather wearing full protective gear

Simon on my bike...you gotta love those red suspenders!

We stopped in Todos Santos for lunch.   I grabbed this shot of my bike and I want you to notice the BajaBound.com decal.  They are one of our sponsors, and we are very grateful to Geoff and his folks for their help on this adventure!

BajaBound.com is one of our sponsors...thanks, Geoff and crew!

I wish I could remember the name of the place we had lunch in when we stopped in Todos Santos.   It was great.   Here’s a shot of Erica, our waitress…

Erica, age 22, who served us an excellent lunch in Todos Santos

Okay, guys and gals, this brings us up to speed on the first half of the ride…a run on our California Scooters all the way to Cabo San Lucas.   As you know, we had a great night in Cabo in a very exclusive place (Villa Clara Vista, another one of our sponsors, and you can learn about them at cabovillas.com).   We were on the road again this morning, headed north this time…so I’ll sign off on this entry and say adios until the next blog.

The California Scooter contingent arrived in Cabo today, after 1100 tortuous, hot, and beautiful miles through Baja! Yep, some of the toughest riding in the world…we ran the entire length of the Baja peninsula on your favorite motorcycle, and what a trip it has been!

I thought I would cut to the chase and post what we are doing right now…and then provide more blogs later tonight to fill you in on the fun we’ve been having since my last update.

J, like everyone on this trip, has proven himself to be an amazing person.  He enlisted the support of the good folks at Villa Clara Vista, and they are hosting us this evening in a magnificent villa at the very tip of Baja in Cabo San Lucas, high up in the hills, overlooking both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean.  Wow!   Here are two or three quick shots showing us living in the lap of luxury…

The view from our deck...that's the Sea of Cortez on the left, and the Pacific on the right!

The first thing we did after arriving is jump in the pool…we’ve been riding in temperatures hovering around the 100-degree mark, and that pool sure felt good…

John and J in our private pool...Arlene is under the towel tweeting away!

Simon and I are working hard.  Sort of.   I saw Simon on his laptop after we spent a couple of hours in the pool, and I thought I would do the same….

Mr. Simon Gandolfi, blogging away, overlooking two oceans...tough work, but somebody's gotta do it!

Well, one of our personal assistants is here with a margarita.   I don’t want him to feel his efforts are unappreciated.   Keep an eye on the blog…more’s coming!

My new best friend...one of the few times a dog in Mexico didn't want me for dinner!

 On our way south, we stopped for fish tacos in Palomar…

A quick stop in Palomar for fish tacos...

The lady who served us in Palomar

We spent the night in San Vincente on our first day in Baja, and it was more than fun.  San Vincente is a wide spot in the road about 80 miles or so south of Ensenada.   It’s an agricultural town, and it is definitely not a tourist spot.  That doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun, though.  It was a blast.  It was Friday night, and San Vincente was a hopping spot.

These little agricultural towns have the main road (the only paved road) running right down the center (it’s the Transpeninsular Highway that we’re following), and the road is about 4 or 5 feet higher than the rest of the town.  When you get off the road, you go down a pretty steep hill to get to the same level as the stores and other businesses, and there’s about a 30-foot dirt area between the street and the town on both sides of the street.  People use this dirt area that parallels the highway as a street, too, so there’s traffic on the main road and the dirt areas on either side of the paved road.  Which way the traffic flows in these dirt lanes depends mostly on…well, I don’t know.   If I break the code, I’ll let you know. 

On the road, well south of Ensenada, in the wine country

Anyway, Vincente was hopping last night.  J, John, and Simon ate off a cart with this sort of built-in oven top.  J had a cabeza taco (go ahead and Google it…you’ll be surprised).  Arlene and I wandered around a bit, checked out a couple of mercados (grocery stores), and we ended up at another little place that was cooking up a bunch of stuff.   Folks were lined up and there were barstools at a makeshift counter.  We both had quesadillas (I had two, actually).  The guy in front had this cool meat cooker that looked a lot like the ones I’ve seen in Turkey.   I can’t remember if I put that photo in the blog yesterday, but I’ll put it in again today (the guy was really cool and he seemed to be greatly amused that I was taking his photo).

J getting a couple of tacos....real tacos

J's tacos...cabeza...look it up!

On that subject…as I suspected, all the bad press in the LA Times and the San Diego newspaper about Mexico being dangerous is bunk (“bunk” is a nice word we use for, well, you know).   There is so much bunk in the world that I sometimes wonder where it all comes from.  Is there a high-volume-production bunk factory out there I haven’t heard about?  The point I’m making is that these Bajaenos are friendly, warm, and grateful that we are visiting this wonderful place.   They’ve had a double whammy down here…the recession, and the news media sensationalism painting all of Mexico as a free-fire zone.  Not that San Vincente is a tourist area (it is not), but my sense of things is that the people we hung out with last night were glad to see us.

The real deal

While we were enjoying the festive atmosphere and our quesadillas, two young kids came up to me as I was savoring a real quesadilla (Taco Bell has no idea how good these are).  It was pretty obvious we were out-of-towners, and one of the boys slowly said to me in perfect, unaccented English “It is very good, isn’t it?”  I told him it was and asked his name.   “Vinny,” he said.  I took a flyer and asked if the other boy was his cousin.  “No, he is my brother,” he said.  Ah, okay.   Not his cousin Vinny.

Vinny and his brother

We were up with the sun and on the road early today, and it was cold.  I checked out the bikes, and all were fine (oil, tire pressure, the standard big-road-trip-preflight-stuff for loose nuts and bolts, etc.).   Everything on the bikes was okay, but it was cold.  Real cold.  I was surprised, because September is supposed to be the warmest month of the year in Baja.   I guess nobody told the right people, because we were freezing.   Then the fog rolled in.  Thick, but not so thick that we couldn’t ride in it.   Thick enough to soak my jeans, though.  We saw a coffee shop in Colonet and stopped for a caffeine fix.   J bought coffee for all of us, and it was good. 

'Twas a cold and damp morning in Colonet...

We continued our journey south.  The little 150s purred.  The bikes like to run right at 45 mph.   They just feel relaxed at that speed, and it’s about the perfect speed for riding on Mexico’s Transpeninsular Highway.   Transpeninsular Highway is an impressive title, and it kind of makes the road sound like the New Jersey Turnpike, but it is not.  The Transpeninsular Highway is a two-lane country road (one lane each way) that runs north and south (with lots of zigging and zagging along the way) for a cool 1000 miles.  

Lots of fog headed out of Colonet

I’ve done this run on big bikes before, and I had a bit of trepidation about doing it on a 150, but my fears were groundless.  The seating position on the bike is perfect for this kind of riding (the ergos are about the same as a Harley Sportster, except that the Sportster weighs about 320 pounds more).  Simon was surprised…he told me the bike was extremely comfortable, and that it feels like a full-sized motorcycle.  Don’t forget…this is a guy who rode a 125 cc pizza delivery bike to the southernmost tip of South America and back, and across the length of India.

Simon Gandolfi...the world's most interesting man

Simon Gandolfi.   What a guy (you should Google him, too).   Simon spent a couple of days with us before we left on this trip, and the guys in the shop fell in love with him.  Our boys quickly dubbed Simon “the world’s most interesting man.”   Do you remember those Dos Equis commercials?  You know…the ones where a guy holding a Dos Equis beer is dubbed the world’s most interesting man…with descriptors like “he never uses lip balm” and “his mother has a tattoo that says ‘Son.’”   We are having a lot of fun with Simon, and he most definitely is the world’s most interesting man.  Before I left, Josh gave me a list of “world’s most interesting man” descriptions he grabbed off the Internet, and I’ve been dribbling them out to our group as we journey through Baja.   The one that got the best laugh was “Simon Gandolfi is the world’s most interesting man…he once called a psychic…to warn her.” 

After our coffee stop this morning, we rolled on for another hour and stopped for breakfast.  Here we were, in this little Baja restaurant, and they had wireless Internet access.   That’s where I posted my first blog entry this morning (we wanted to keep moving, so it was short – my apologies).  What is the world coming to, though?  Wireless Internet access in Baja. Arrrggghhh!   Folks, you gotta get down here and experience the real Baja…it won’t last forever.

How about that...Simon Gandolfi typing on my laptop!

Breakfast was good, and after that, it was a short hop down to El Rosario to top off the tanks before climbing into the Vizcaino desert.   Our bikes climbed, and so did the temperature.  I’ll bet we had a 60-degree temperature swing today.  It was right at about 100 degrees in the desert.  We stopped several times to peel off our layered riding gear as the temperatures continued to climb, and when Catavina came into view, we decided to call it a day.   We might have pushed on to Guerrero Negro, but there is literally nothing between Catavina and Guerrero Negro, and it’s another 140 miles or so down the road.   Too hot, too far, and we didn’t want to ride after dark.

Ah, yes, Baja's Transpeninsular Highway

So, we’re staying tonight in the Desert Inn Hotel in Catavina.   The boulder fields and Cardon cactus in this area are stunning.  I’ve seen it many times and I’m still dazzled every time I’m down this way.  Simon and Arlene were seeing it for the first time, and they both stopped for photos.  “Awesome” just doesn’t make it as an adjective here, folks.   Bright blue sky, bright green 70-foot-tall Cardon cactus (it doesn’t grow anywhere else), and huge white boulders.  It all looks like something you’d see in a science fiction movie, or maybe in a dream.  It made me feel good.   Simon’s been all over the world, and he was blown away by Baja’s beauty.

The boulder fields in Catavina

The Desert Inn is nice.   It’s 100 miles from anywhere.   They turn the generators off from 12:00 to 4:00, so there’s no electricity in the afternoon.   The desolation and the surrounding surreal landscape just make it a cool place to be, even if it’s 100 degrees.   We ate in the Desert Inn’s restaurant, sampled their Tequilas (hey, our riding was over for the day), and then we hung out in the pool.  Wow, that sure felt good.

The bikes are performing well.  We have two current production bikes (mine and Arlene’s), and two preproduction bikes (Simon’s and John’s).  During the development process Steve and the boys found a few improvement opportunities on the preproduction bikes, and these resulted in upgrades incorporated in the production bikes.   Simon’s and John’s preproduction bikes have had some of the problems we found earlier, but the production bikes have been performing flawlessly.  

And we’re not babying our California Scooters.  We ran on some pretty rough roads under construction for about an hour, and the speed bumps (“topes”) in every little town we pass through are brutal.  The Mexicans don’t just use one speed bump.   They use about 20 of the things in a row, maybe 50 feet apart, one after the other.   When they want you to slow down, they mean it.  We’d slow down for the speed bumps when we saw them in time (which didn’t always happen), and then we’d speed up after the topes.   Like I said earlier, the bikes like running around 45 mph.  We’ve cranked them up to well over 60 mph, but then we always settle into a relaxed putt to enjoy the scenery and the ride.   It’s a sweet way to see Baja.

Well, that’s it for tonight.   More great riding tomorrow…we’ll probably get to Guerrero Negro or maybe even San Ignacio.  I’ll post this as soon as I find an Internet spot.  Part of me wants to find one so I can share this with you, and part of me hopes I don’t because it means Baja is changing, and I think it’s perfect just the way it is!