Our good buddy and jet setter Thomas was in town for just 24 hours today, en route from Colombia to Chongqing with a layover in Los Angeles. We shared a great dinner at the world-famous Derby restaurant in So Cal this evening and it was awesome. More to follow on this visit, folks, and I can tell you that (like always) there will be lots of great news in the coming weeks. Stay tuned, and Thomas, safe travels back to the Land of the Sizzling Hot Pot!
Folks, I can’t believe how much more comfortable my RX3 was with its new Seat Concepts saddle on the Baja ride. The difference was amazing…not just in seating comfort, but in my legs as well. The seat sits taller than the stock seat, and that allowed me to stretch out a bit more. I’m not a tall guy (I have a 29-inch inseam) and I had no problems reaching the ground with our “tall” seat. As far as I’m concerned this is a “must have” accessory for your RX3, and you can order it here.
Whether it’s a new TT250 or a new RX3, we’ve got them in stock in all colors! Give us a call at 909 445 0900 or go online at www.CSCMotorcycles.com to get yours!
I grabbed the photo above of our good buddy Peter earlier today when he stopped by the plant on his Harley-Davidson. Peter is a good guy and he enjoys putting the miles on his Harley. And, he is one photogenic dude!
We service a lot of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, we sell tires and accessories for them, our service is top notch, and we do a great job. If you ride a Harley and you need parts or service, please give us a call at 909 445 0900!
Peter, thanks for your service. We know it’s guys and gals like you who made a difference!
While we were on our Baja expedition earlier this month, much of our discussion during dinner and our after hours get-togethers was on the cave paintings and the missions. Baja is one of the primo places on the planet to take these in, and we were all excited about seeing them. We visited the cave paintings in the Sierra San Francisco mountains about 650 miles south of the border on the eastern edge of the Baja peninsula, and getting there involved a rough ride on an unimproved dirt road. It’s real Indiana Jones stuff.
My good buddy Dan (see his photo in the blog below) mentioned that he had purchased an excellent book on the cave paintings by Harry Crosby, and as it turns out, I also had purchased a copy of Crosby’s work a few years ago. It really is a great book with magnificent color plates, and it covers the awesome cave paintings we see every year on our CSC Baja expeditions. The book also covers Baja’s many other cave painting locations. The book is not cheap, but it’s money well spent in my opinion.
I’d like to mention another book I had talked about a few years ago, and that’s Burckhalter’s awesome work: Baja’s California Missions. Here’s what I said about it in a CSC blog entry back in 2015:
Next up, the Franciscans. Actually, they’re one of three groups of interest. First the Jesuits came to Baja, then the Franciscans (I listed them first to satisfy my allegiance to alliteration), and then the Dominicans. The topics of interest in this part of our discussion center around the Baja missions.
You may recall that I told you about a couple of books I purchased recently – one on the Baja missions and one Baja’s cave paintings. I just finished reading the one on the missions, and folks, if you have any interest at all in this topic in particular or Baja in general, you owe it to yourself to buy a copy of Burckhalter’s book. The photography and the riding are top notch…so much so I feel kind of dorky for not buying it sooner. All those trips I’ve made into Baja and I really haven’t known anything at all about the missions. It seems the missions were the Europeans’ entry ticket into Baja, and all concerned paid an extremely high price…and none more so than the native inhabitants. There were several indigenous tribes “missionized” by the Europeans with devastating effects. Smallpox, in particular, came with the Europeans and took out close to 95% of Baja’s original population.
The above notwithstanding, the missions really are majestic. I’ve seen three so far of the original eight that are still standing….San Ignacio, Mulege, and Loreto. You saw our photo of the San Ignacio Mission on the recent CSC Baja Run…
The Baja missions all go back to the 1700s. The story is a fascinating one, and Burckhalter tells it well. It’s the kind of book I know I’m going to read a few more times to get the full story. And the photos…well, let’s just say I wish I could take pictures like that.
Of course, there’s one more book I think everyone with even a passing interest in Baja should buy, and that’s my very own Moto Baja! But wait a day or two. I’m going to update it with a group photo from our most recent CSC Baja ride and fix one or two of the mistakes I’ve found in the original edition. All that should happen this week.
And here’s another magnificent book I think any motorcycle rider will enjoy…it’s Clem Salvadori’s great work on riding in Baja: Motorcycle Journeys Through Baja. If you’ve never ridden Baja on a motorcycle, this book will make you want to do so. It’s what happened to me when I first read it.
Salvadori’s book is the first one I ever bought on Baja, and it inspired me to spend more time exploring some of the more “off the beaten path” locales in this exotic motorcycling paradise. Salvadori is one of the greatest motorcycle writers ever, and I’ll be the first to admit that his book is a much better travel guide than is my Moto Baja! (my book is more of a collection of stories and photos; Clem’s book is a “real deal” travel guide).
Salvadori has great insights on traveling in Baja. In addition to covering all of the more-well-known routes, he identifies many of the lesser-known spots ideal for motorcycle adventure travel. One of my all time favorites is the shipwreck off the coast of San Jacinto on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula, a spot my good buddy Welker and I visited only after I read the Salvadori book (I would never have known about it otherwise). It’s accessible only via dirt road, and it led me to the place where Welker and I had to outrun a pack of rather rude Mexican pups. Welker got away cleanly; me, not so much. But you’ll have to read Moto Baja! to get the full story on that one!
So, that’s it for now, folks. Stay tuned…like always, there’s more good stuff coming your way, and you’ll see it first right here on the CSC blog!
That’s the subject line in an email from my good buddy Dynamic Dan, a great guy with whom I’ve had the pleasure of riding Baja four times and the Destinations Deal tour (all on CSC motorcycles, I might add).
Dan wrote to me just after our most recent Baja ride to alert me to an article in RoadRunner magazine on (get this) Highway 39. That’s the amazing ride just behind our CSC plant, and it’s one we’ve written about many times here on the blog. The RoadRunner alert even had a cool YouTube video on this great road in our San Gabriel Mountains…
The next time you visit us here at CSC Central, you might want to budget a little time to explore Highway 39 and the San Gabriels. It’s some of the best riding in the world.
And speaking of the best riding in the world and RoadRunner magazine, you might want to keep an eye out for their next issue (that would be the July/August issue). I know the folks over there and I hear it’s going to include a great article…
Wow, the new 2018 RX3 motorcycles are in stock and they sure are nice. We’ve got four new colors this year, all based on a two-tone scheme that has the front and rear trim panels in gloss black.
The first new color is our matt black/gloss black combo, and it is stunning!
How about this one in gold…isn’t it sleek?
The next color is copper (it’s the same as the gorgeous copper we’ve used on the TT250)…
And the fourth 2018 color is yellow (rumored to be our new “fastest” color)!
There are several new features included on the 2018 RX3. One is a much more accessible radiator bottle fill point…
Another is ABS braking on the front and rear wheels…
A third new feature is the 19-inch front wheel as standard equipment…
And of course, the RX3 includes all of the standard features you’ve come to love…
It’s going to be a great year, folks!
Our Gerry Edwards is one of the top BMW wrenches in the world (he holds every BMW certification there is and he’s been working on BMWs for more than 30 years). Gerry loves working on all the Beemers, and he especially loves working on Airheads. If you have a classic BMW, give us a call for a service quote for any kind of work…a tuneup, a top end overhaul, tires, or a complete custom redo!
This 1975 R75/6 is having a top end overhaul…
The magnificent 1977 R100S is in for a tuneup…
Here’s a 1981 R100 with quite a history. It’s a bike that’s spent a lot of time exploring Baja, and now it’s being redone as a custom Café Scrambler from the ground up!
You can reach us at 909 445 0900. Just ask for Gerry, and we’ll take care of you!
No, it was not my RX3. I’ve probably ridden motorcycles through Baja 25 or 30 times and the only time I ever had a motorcycle breakdown was about 15 years ago, and that was my Harley-Davidson Softail. The bike started missing badly in Ensenada, so we turned around and I rode it all the way back to Upland (that’s about 200 miles north of Ensenada). It turned out that one of the Harley’s roller lifters stopped rolling, and that turned it into a solid lifter. And when that happened, the little wheel that was supposed to rotate along the cam profile started wearing a path through the cam. And when that happened, the metal filings migrated their way to the oil pump. And when that happened….well, you get the idea. My 80-cubic-inch V-Twin Evo motor decided to call it quits after roughly 53,000 miles. Eh, it happens I guess. Nothing lasts forever. We salvaged that trip by my substituting my Suzuki TL1000S sportbike with a set of soft luggage, and things worked out.
What bothered me more than anything is that the Harley dealer near my home wouldn’t work on my bike because it was more than 10 years old. “Huh?” I said. “What about all that heritage stuff? You know, the 103-year history of the company? You’re still making Evo motors.” Nope, I tried as hard as I could, but there was no getting around it…the Harley dealer would not work on my engine. It was over 10 years old. That’s that. Rules is rules.
So, I went with Plan B. I took the Harley to a local independent shop, and they were more than happy to work on my bike. I could have the Harley engine completely rebuilt (which it needed, because those metal bits had migrated everywhere), or I could have it rebuilt with an S&S motor. I went with the S&S motor (the cost was the same as rebuilding the Harley engine), doubling the horsepower, halving the rear tire life, and cutting my fuel economy from 42 to 33 mpg.
My re-engined Harley, I thought, was fast, but then a funny thing happened. One day when I was out and about on my hot rod Harley, I came home and Sue asked if I had picked up the milk she had told me about before I left. Well, you know how that goes. I had to make a run to the grocery store, and for whatever reason, I took my KLR. It was to be an unintended back-to-back comparison of the KLR versus the Harley.
So, the Harley had 96 cubic inches and the KLR had 40 cubic inches. The KLR had, I think, 36 or 38 horsepower, and God only knows what that S&S motor was cranking out. The weird thing about all of this? As soon as I got on the KLR I knew I liked it more, and there was no doubt about it: It was faster. A lot faster. My transition to riding smaller bikes had started. I put the Harley in the CycleTrader that day, and it sold the next. I’ve never missed it.
On to my next Baja breakdown, and the main topic of this blog. Nope, this wasn’t my RX3, either. It’s what you see in that photo above: My presumably indestructible Casio G-Shock watch. But it’s my fault and not the watch’s.
The story goes like this. I bought the G-Shock a year or so ago and I love it (it’s orange, and everybody knows that’s the fastest color). I even wrote a blog about it back then. Well, after wearing it for all that time (and using the light in it as a flashlight three or four times every night…you older guys will know what that’s all about), the battery went south on me during this latest Baja trip.
Fortunately, the battery had the good manners to do this in Guerrero Negro, where there are a few stores in town. I asked the guy who took us to see the whales (Oswaldo) which store would have a battery and he pointed one out on our way to the docks. After seeing the whales and having a couple of fish tacos at Tony’s, I rode my bike to the place Oswaldo had mentioned. Nope, they didn’t sell watch batteries, but the farmacia two doors down did. Okay, so I went to the farmacia two doors down. Nope, they didn’t have watch batteries, but another farmacia two doors on the other side of the first store did. I guess I turned right when I should have turned left. You know, there are lot of farmacias in Mexico. As in two per city block in a little town like Guerrero Negro.
Then things got interesting. This second farmacia had the battery, but they told me I had to open the watch to get my old battery out. Little tiny screws, and I was wearing my contacts, which gives me great far field vision but lousy near field vision. Hmmmhhh…
The lady behind the counter gave me a little box of tiny screwdrivers, but I couldn’t see those screws (I could barely make out the screwdrivers). I tried to explain my predicament to the very nice lady, but she didn’t speak English. So, I took my right contact out (they’re one-day disposables, so it wasn’t that big a deal) and I did the best I could (which evidently was not all that good).
The watch lit up as soon as the battery went in, but the rear cover is orientation sensitive, and I got it wrong. The bottom line was that the watch crystal fogged over within an hour (on the inside), and by the end of the day, the now-thoroughly-soaked battery called it quits. So that’s my second Baja equipment breakdown story. I dropped the watch off at my battery/jewelry/watch place this morning (where I didn’t have to listen about them not being allowed to work on it because it was more than some arbitrary number of years old), and hopefully, it’s salvageable. I’ll let you know.
Our good buddy Buffalo, as you read earlier, is an artist. I had not met Buffalo before this Baja adventure when his cousin Tim told me that Buffalo wanted to ride with us. Both of these guys had purchased new RX3s, and Tim had already signed up for the Baja ride. My first reaction when Tim told me about Buffalo was yeah, right, but I need the guy’s real name.
“His real name is Buffalo,” Tim told me.
Whatever, I thought. Buffalo it would be.
Here’s one of Buffalo’s photos in Baja. That’s Buffalo on the left and his cousin Tim on the right…
I knew Buffalo was going to be an interesting guy almost immediately. He was traveling to Azusa from Des Moines and he transported his RX3 (after a few modifications) in the back of his minivan. I saw this photo on Facebook and thought to myself that this is going to be fun…
When I first met Buffalo at the shop the day before the Baja ride, I thought he was Tim. I hadn’t seen Tim in a month or so and I thought maybe he had grown a beard. The two guys look that much alike.
So like I said earlier, Buffalo is the real deal, and his talents go beyond painting to include photography. I asked Buffalo if I could share his photos on the CSC blog, he said okay, and I’m featuring them in this post. This is going to be fun, folks.
This photo shows a fleet of orange RX3s parked in front of Mama Espinosa’s in El Rosario…
I think this one is in Ensenada on our first night in Mexico…
This is one of Buffalo’s selfies, somewhere on the Transpeninsular Highway…
These next three photos, I believe, are on the salt marshes near Scammon’s Lagoon in Guerrero Negro…
The next several are from our foray to the Sierra San Francisco cave paintings. The first one is on the road heading east into the mountains. That ride was glorious. I think the rider you see in the photo below is me.
This one is from the Las Casitas courtyard in Mulege. Our good buddy Javier let us bring the bikes into the courtyard. I think this is the best hotel in all of Baja…
This photo is along the Bahia Concepcion shoreline…
…and this one is in front of the mission in Loreto…
We had street tacos in Tecate on our last night in Baja, and Buffalo took this shot of meat cooking on the rotisserie (they call it al pastor)…
Buffalo grabbed a shot in Tecate the morning we left. If it looks cold and wet, it sure was…it was 41 degrees that morning and raining!
Buffalo posted this map he put together showing our route…
One of the great things about these CSC multi-day adventure rides is you get to know the people you are traveling with. So here’s the deal: Tim (who you see in the photo at the top of this blog) is Buffalo’s cousin. Tim bought an RX3 and planned to ride Baja with us, and he told Buffalo he needed to do the same. Buffalo bought the motorcycle, having never owned nor ridden a motorcycle before. He took a motorcycle riding class and put 300 miles on his RX3 before packing the bike in his minivan and driving to Azusa. Imagine that: Buying a motorcycle, having no riding experience, taking a riding class, and setting out on a 2000-mile adventure ride in Mexico. Like I said earlier, this guy is the real deal.
I asked Buffalo on our second or third night in Baja what he did, and his first response was that he pretty much did whatever he wanted to. I pressed the question a bit (being the nosy dude I am), and Buffalo told me he was an artist. I then asked (being the smartass I am) if he was famous, and I could tell by the body language that Buffalo was unsure how to answer that one. Hmmm, I thought, I’ll bet this guy is famous. So that night I Googled “Buffalo Bonker” and what do you know, I found his website. I spent some time on it and I was impressed. Today, in assembling this blog, I came across a Buffalo Bonker interview, and it is a bit more revealing about our good buddy…
Now I understood…if you really are famous, how do you answer when somebody asks if you are? Imagine that…we were traveling with a true artist. And just so you know, we actually found out how Buffalo got his name (watch the video; we did better than the reporter who asked the same question). But we’re going to keep that secret.
One of the things I talked about in Moto Baja! was that folks who buy the RX3 and go on these rides with us tend to be extremely interesting people. Buffalo and everyone who has ridden Mexico with us make that point.
RX1E Electric Motorcycle
TT250 Enduro
SG250 San Gabriel Cafe Racer