CSC Blog

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.

The new TT250s arrived just before we left for Baja, and the new RX3s were arriving just as we left the plant on the 10th.  I was eager to get back so I could see the colors.  I had been talking to Steve during our Baja adventure, and he told me things were hopping back at CSC headquarters.  New bikes have been flying out of the plant.  Check this out…here are a few shots of Manah picking up her brand new black-on-black RX3 (it’s one of our new 2018 colors)…

And here’s a photo of Thai and Robert taking delivery of their new TT250 motorcycles…

I was intrigued by Thai’s faceshield, and I knew I had to grab a selfie…and I caught Steve in the photo, too!

I’ll do my best to post photos of all the folks picking up their new bikes here on the blog.  It’s good to see this happening.

That’s it for now, folks, with a promise of a blog I may get to later today.  My good buddy Buffalo grabbed some amazing shots on the Baja ride, and I’ll post those a little later.   Like we always say:  Stay tuned!

The forecast was for rain and cold in Tecate yesterday morning, and the forecast was spot on.  It was wet and cold, and the ride home was a trying one.   We did just fine, though.  Thanks to my good buddy Abe, I knew how to use the break in the fence just before the border control station, we jumped the line, and the guy at immigration processed all of us at the same time.  It was the quickest transit back into the US I’ve ever experienced.

But it was raining, and wow, was it cold.   It was slow rolling on the way home, mostly because I was the guy leading our group and I couldn’t see very well with my visor being covered with raindrops and steaming up on the inside.  I’d open it a crack and the fog on the inside would clear, but then I’d get raindrops on the inside.  Like I said, visibility was poor.   We fought the rain for all of Highway 94 to the 805, and then, once we were on the 15 headed north, the rain ended and we cruised at 65 mph to the CSC plant in Azusa.

We had a great time, but the riding was physically demanding.  The roads in Baja were in the worst shape I’ve ever seen, with 100-mile stretches of large and deep potholes.  We ran what essentially became a 65-mph slalom through these areas, weaving right and left, dodging the potholes as best we could.  Occasionally they stretched across the entire road, and if they weren’t too deep, we just rolled through them.   It was rough riding.  I have a tendency for my left shoulder to act up on longer motorcycle rides, and the pounding we were taking from the potholes and Baja’s famous topes took their toll on me.   My shoulder was on fire for the last three days, and I was popping those 750-mg farmacia acetaminophen pills like they were candy.  The weather was a lot cooler on this run, too, much more so than any of the earlier Baja runs we had in the past.  I was surprised at how much the cold weather was affecting me.  The other guys handled it just fine, but I don’t mind admitting I was feeling it.

After that 177-mile day from Tecate to the CSC plant, it sure was great to be back home. Everyone was in high spirits.  It was another year, and another CSC Baja run.  As I enjoyed a glass of Malbec with Susie and J last night during dinner, I thought about all we had accomplished during the last 8 days.  The riding.  The whales.  Tony’s fish tacos.  Riding the dirt road to the cave paintings.  The paintings and our guides there, with Joaquin eloquently translating for us.  The amazing lunch at Rene’s in San Ignacio.   The run down La Cuesta del Infierno into Santa Rosalia.  Our stay and magnificent dinner at Las Casitas, and my good buddy Javier who has been managing that marvelous little Mulege treasure for the last 44 years.  The mission in Mulege.  The mining museum in Santa Rosalia.  The fuel stops in Catavina, buying gasolina out of bottles because there are no Pemex stations on the 200-mile stretch between Guerrero Negro and El Rosario.   The magnificent Mision Santa Maria hotel.  The wonderful dinner Joaquin’s family prepared for us in their chalet between Ensenada and Tecate.  Street tacos in Tecate.  Making new friends and trading jokes with Dan, Pete, J, Tim, Buffalo, Jim, Dave, and Joaquin at every meal.  It had been a grand adventure.

Good times, folks.

In the Valle de los Cirios

Yesterday was a long day.  We covered over 400 miles, running from Santa Rosalia to San Quintin, passing through more than a few places named for other saints, and finally staying in the Santa Maria Mision Inn.  Wow, it was a long day.  Folks, there’s a whole of riding in Baja, and we covered a good portion of it yesterday.

Yesterday started early in Santa Rosalia, with a quick continental breakfast in the Frances Hotel, and then  a climb up through La Cuesta del Infierno.  Then it was miles and miles and miles of open desert, rolling through a valley dominated by the Las Tres Virgenes volcano, with a stop for lunch at Malarimmo’s in Guerrero Negro.  Then it was more miles along the Pacific coastal plains, and a stop for fuel in Catavina.  Another 50 miles or so took us back into the Valle de los Cirios, where we stopped on a cold and windy mountain top in the late afternoon to grab the lead photo in this blog.   We topped off the tanks in El Rosario, and then it was another 35 miles along the Pacific to the Santa Maria Mision Inn.  It was so cold I almost felt as if I was getting a touch of hypothermia.   A great dinner in the hotel’s restaurant took care of that, but I was so tired I didn’t feel like writing a blog entry last night.   Thankfully, the hotel’s shower had plenty of hot water (not all of them do), and after a steaming shower I crawled into bed and called it a day.

It’s staying cold here in Baja.   When we left San Quintin this morning, we were all feeling it.  We stopped after about 40 minutes for a cup of coffee, hoping the day would get warmer as the sun continued to climb.   The sun moved along like it was supposed to, but the day never warmed.  The ride this morning and yesterday may well have been the coldest and toughest miles I’ve done in Baja on any of our CSC rides.  I don’t mind admitting I’m feeling it.

Our good buddy and fellow rider Joaquin is from Ensenada, and his family has a neat place along the Ruta del Vino to Tecate (that’s Mexico Highway 3).   Joaguin’s brother-in-law is an artist and a sculptor, and they built this place with the intent of renting it for events.  They had a great Mexican style dinner for us there today, and it was awesome.

Joaquin’s family’s chalet. It’s awesome.

A poster Joaquin’s family prepared for our arrival.

Great food and incredible hospitality.

We had a fantastic lunch.

It’s supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, and the temperatures are supposed to range from the high 30’s to the low 50’s.   We just came back from having tacos for dinner here in Tecate, and there’s a damp chill in the air.  I can’t remember ever turning on the heater in a Baja hotel room, but I sure have the one in this room cranking right now.   It’s cold.  Here’s hoping for a warmer and mostly dry run back to Azusa tomorrow!

Jim and I decided to spend a little more time in Mulege after a great breakfast at the Las Casitas Hotel this morning while the rest of the group buzzed down to Loreto.  There’s a lot to see in this town and Jim wanted to take it all in.  I’ve been to Loreto plenty of times, and I was up for exploring Mulege in more detail.

The Mulege Mission is an amazing place with incredible photo ops, and we had a good time there this morning…

Brother Jim in front of the Mulege Mission.

The Mulege Mission interior. It’s beautiful.

A Mulege Mission alcove.

Looking out one of the Mission’s doors.

Jim in the Mulege Mission.

Another exterior scene framed by a Mulege Mission door.

We had an easy and very scenic ride along the Sea of Cortez back up to Santa Rosalia and the first order of business there was to visit another church.  Santa Rosalia’s all-steel church has quite a story behind it.  It’s another beautiful church and it is a fun place to photograph…

The Santa Barbara church in Santa Rosalia.

My RX3 parked in front of the Santa Rosalia church.

Wow. You can see the difference in architecture here. Gustav Eiffel, the same guy who designed the Eiffel Tower, designed this church.

Stained glass in the Santa Rosalia church. My Nikon did a great job here.

The story behind the Santa Rosalia church.

Santa Rosalia started life as a fishing village and a mining town.   The French Boleo mining company built this town, and its architecture is unique in Baja.  All the buildings are constructed of wood, including the Frances Hotel where we are staying tonight.

Heading into downtown Santa Rosalia.

El Boleo bakery in el centro Santa Rosalia.

One of Santa Rosalia’s fixer uppers. I’ll bet this house has an interesting history.

An old locomotive in front of our hotel.

My bike is a blog hog.

The mining museum, another amazing old wooden building.

That last photo above is of Santa Rosalia’s mining museum.  We stopped in there for a bit and it is a very interesting place.

Tough work, back in the day. I hurt just looking at that photo.

Mining tools. Nah, it’s a motorcycle tool kit. There’s a joke in there somewhere.

Inside the mining museum. It was an interesting place.

A porch ran all the way around the mining museum. This is looking out over the Sea of Cortez.

A friendly Mexican pup, whose nap I disturbed when I took this photo. He was stretched out in front of the mining museum.

I rode by the mining museum on my prior visits to Santa Rosalia, but I had never stopped to see it.  It was pretty cool.  And while I was taking photos in front of the museum, a guy came over to talk about cameras.  It turns out Oswaldo is a Nikon man, too.   We had a good discussion and I made a new friend.

Good buddy Oswaldo, a fellow photography enthusiast.

The French stopped mining copper in Santa Rosalia before I first visited this town in 1994 because the ore had played out, but I guess the price of copper has increased enough to make mining economically viable again.   They are back at it, and it’s the same Boleo company.

That’s it for today, folks.   The rest of the guys are due in from Loreto any time now, and we’ll be going to dinner at El Muelle.   Tomorrow is a big day for us…we’ll be headed 400 miles north to San Quintin.   Good times.  Stay tuned, and you’ll be able to read all about it right here on the CSC blog!

The crew at the Las Casitas in Mulege this morning…from left to right it’s Joaquin, Javier, Joe, J, Tim, Buffalo, Dave, Jim, Pete, Mike, and Dan.

We are having an amazing ride.  It’s been one of the best ever, and this is a fantastic group of guys.  That photo above?   It’s the group and our host for last night (Javier) at the Las Casitas Hotel in Mulege, Baja California Sur.   If it conveys a great group having a great time in a great place, my Nikon is doing its job well.

Yesterday we rolled out of foggy Guerrero Negro after a wonderful day of whale watching the day before.   We rode roughly 60 miles south on the Transpeninsular Highway to the road that lead to the Sierra San Francisco cave paintings, deep in the mountains along the eastern edge of the Baja peninsula.   It was 25 miles of a delightful road through the Vizcaino Desert floor, and then fantastic twisties in the mountains until the paved road ended.  From there it was another 10 gnarly miles on a very rough dirt road, but the ride was worth it.  The cave paintings were spectacular.   They always are.

Joaquin on the road to the cave paintings.

J, Dave, Buffalo, Tim, and Dan in front of the entrance to the cave paintings.

Captain Dave, lost in thought.

Our guides yesterday are Baja royalty.  They are direct descendants of the Arce and Buenaventura families, the folks who have lived in this extremely remote area for a century or more.   Their parents were the ones who guided Earl Stanley Gardner so he could “discover” Baja’s cave paintings, and we all had a good laugh about that.

Joaquin with the royal family, our cave painting guides.

The area is so remote that the folks make many of their own items, such as shoes and knife sheaths.   Cool stuff, this was.

A handmade knife sheath.

Handmade shoes.

One of the stars of this ride is Joaquin, who speaks Spanish fluently.  We’ve been lucky on our CSC Baja expeditions in many regards, one being always having a Spanish speaker.   Joaquin, a genuine good guy, has made the ride a lot easier for me.   On past trips it’s been Willie and Carlos.   We are indeed fortunate to have such great friends.

Joaquin, a great guy and wonderful travel companion.

And speaking of great friends, we picked up a rider along the way.  Meet Mike, a fellow we met while refueling at an impromptu roadside fuel stop in Catavina a couple of days ago.

BMW Mike, who really wants an RX3.

Airborne!

Mike rides a BMW GS1200.  We were chatting in Catavina when I noticed the jump wings on his GS.  I asked, and yep, he’s a former US Army paratrooper.  That makes three of us on this ride (with me and Tim being the other two).   We’ve had a lot of fun with Mike.  We told Mike we wanted him to ride along with us so it would be easier to find the Starbucks coffee shops.   One of the guys on our ride says BMWs are equipped with a Starbucks location feature.

As it turns out, we have several former military guys on this ride, and one active duty fire captain.   And, one exceptional artist.   Our good buddy Buffalo (christened on this trip as Baja Buffalo) is the real deal…an artist of exceptional talent.  If you don’t believe that, here’s a link to Buffalo’s website.  Check it out…I did and I enjoyed perusing his paintings.

Buffalo, Pete, Dan, and Jim at the cave paintings.

The Las Casitas Hotel is perhaps my most favorite place to stay in all of Baja.   Javier, the proprietor of this amazing place, prepared a special chile relleno dinner for us last night, and it was exceptional.    We are in great spirits and we are having a great ride.

Dinner at the Las Casitas Hotel…it was awesome!

Chile relleno…my favorite!

Grand times, folks.   It’s down to Bahia de Concepcion today, a U-turn, and then back to Santa Rosalia’s Frances Hotel for tonight.   We are having a fantastic time.

What a great day…a super day of whale watching in Guerrero Negro, a great fish taco lunch, and another cool tank decal.  Folks, it just doesn’t get any better than this!

We’re headed south tomorrow to the cave paintings and beyond.   Stay tuned, folks, for more of this great adventure!