Day 4 - Larry’s Place, Culver City, Los Angeles

The plan was to be away from Larry at no later than 10am to ensure a good run south for the day. We left at 10:30, so not too bad. Being a Saturday I was hoping that the infamous LA traffic would ease up and give us a relatively clear run out of the City on Highway 405. I was surprised at just how much traffic there was, and it continued pretty much all the way to San Diego. Once we got out of LA proper, the traffic was terrible with ridiculous queues, and we were lucky that 2 big BWM’s came past us splitting the outside lane of traffic. They were riding 2 up and loaded with gear, so likely heading down to the USA/Mexico border. Jorik was leading at the time and quickly made the decision to slot in behind them and use them as a blocker (a little American football term there!) so we could follow them and let them do the hard work. We rode behind them for quite a distance, which was great as they cleared the traffic for us.

We pulled into the San Diego Triumph dealership, who are also the local Royal Enfield dealer, in relatively good time and purchased the new battery for my bike. The guys at the dealership confirmed that they don’t even carry the Royal Enfield original battery, probably because it is just not up to the job, and sold us a more suitable battery. The guys were very helpful and interested in our trip, so they gave us a sweet “travellers discount” on the battery and we took the opportunity to pick up another bottle of oil whilst we had the chance. We set about undertaking the rather unpleasant experience of replacing the battery, which didn’t take us more than about 20 minutes (so good work on our part). Whilst the tools were out, we did a quick check on everything else and found that the new chains could do with a little more tension, so we tweaked the settings, a very quick job, and reloaded the bikes to head for the boarder, just 30 minutes down the road. Jorik, having an American phone, still had coverage so we were able to use the sat nav on his phone to get us through the maze of twists and turns to get back on to Highway 5 and head straight for the crossing at San Ysidro.

The border arrangement was very organised, and we passed through border control without even being stopped. In fact, we went straight through and started heading south once we saw the sign towards Rosarito. There was no way we were going to stary in Tijuana, which is notorious for being a wild town that Americans go to in order to enjoy the delights and more controversial elements of a less rigorous society that Tijuana offers, if that is what takes your fancy. For info, we were not interested, and wanted to cover some distance and head further south to Ensenada where we had booked a hotel for our first night in Baja, Mexico.

Having just about left the border control, we realised that we had no paperwork for ourselves or the bikes. Our research had informed us that whilst it might be acceptable to travel in Baja, Mexico with relative ease, i.e. no paperwork for either ourselves or the bikes, we would need the appropriate paperwork when we used the ferry from La Paz to mainland Mexico, the port of Mazatlan being our goal to enter. So we turned the bikes around, in a mass of traffic heading south and rode back into the border control (the wrong way) to sort ourselves out. A little hairy, but needs must. Once back inside the secure area, we were told where to go to get our immigration details sorted. We were bounced from 1 desk to another, in a relatively disorganised fashion, but it only took about an hour to get everything done and dusted and then we were back on the road heading south. Bit of fuss, but overall, a better border crossing than I have experienced elsewhere, particularly in some of the countries that I have been to in Africa.

It quickly become evident that Baja, Mexico is a bit run down and certainly gives the evidence of being a genuine third-world county. There was crap everywhere, the open sewers were pungent as we rode across the various crossings, and most of the houses (sorry casas) that we could see from the bikes, looked like they were about to fall down and were being held together by duct tape and cable ties. Mind you, that might just about be the strongest building materials that were used on some of these properties. There were a number of new developments being constructed, but the problem with seeing how these new developments are built, is that you can see the stages that they go through, i.e. the block work and the structural supports. Sketchy is the term I would apply to these buildings, and certainly not up to what we might assume to be a suitable standard. But hey ho, we are in Mexico now and if this is how they do things, so be it. We were not looking to buy a house, just pass through.

The plan was to stop in Rosarito for a quick photo shot, maybe a drink, and then press on to Ensenada. We passed right through Rosarito as it is an absolute dump and there wasn’t anything that took our fancy for a pit stop and a photo opportunity, well at least not that we passed. I appreciate that once you get off the main highway, the 1D, there are likely to be plenty of hotels, resorts, and guest houses that are lovely and would be great for a stop, but we wanted to cover distance and keep an eye on the time as we still had some ways to go. So, we missed a stop in Rosarito and pulled over on the side of the Highway at a little beach. We grabbed a couple of photos and had a quick celebratory drink to welcome ourselves to Baja, Mexico. Awesome to have got through our first border crossing and to be in our first proper country outside of the USA.

Pressing south we arrived at our hotel – the Hotel Paraiso Las Palmas, whilst the sun was still up and got settled into our double room with minimal fuss.

We met a really great guy called Fred, who is a keen biker, and is looking to purchase a Royal Enfield 350cc Classic. He was a fountain of information about places to go and see along our route and a really nice chap. He lives in LA and works in a hospital, but is originally from Mexicali, which is the capital city of Baja.

Having done most of our admin, we headed out to find some food and maybe a little tequila. When in Rome and all that bollox. We found a little cantina on the beach where got some nachos and a couple of margaritas. It really was great to chill out and take in the atmosphere, rather than pressing so hard to make distance and time up. Having had our rather unimpressive margaritas (not enough tequila, in my view), we didn’t want to spend our time having dinner in the same place as the sun had set and it was getting chilly and there were plenty of places, we could get a bite to eat. We headed back towards the hotel and found a restaurant that served typical Mexican food, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc and had a couple of beers and food, before calling it a night and getting back to hotel for a much needed sleep after a long day.

Day 3 - Casa Del Sol, Santa Barbara

The weather was still pretty grim when we woke up and prepared to head to Los Angeles. We were not expecting a long day in the saddle as we were meeting up with Larry, a good friend of Jorik’s that I have also know for many years, who lives in Culver City. There was no need to hang around in Santa Barbara and I was looking forward to the ride along the PCH through Malibu. We didn’t get any rain, but it was really grey, and the light wasn’t great as we headed towards the east. It was a shame as I am sure that the coastline is spectacular along this southern coast of California. Besides, isn’t always supposed to be sunny in California? It looks like we got a crappy window with shite weather, but I suppose there is no controlling the weather, and at least it wasn’t raining!

Passing through Malibu was a little bit of let down for me. We did see some fabulous houses, but there were also some pretty run-down parts of Malibu. The celebrities and rich folk must have a separate access road that heads to the swanky part of Malibu, or we just simply missed it. I’m not saying that it is a not a beautiful part of the world, just that it was a little underwhelming. So much so that we didn’t even stop for a few pictures. I suppose the fact that the light wasn’t great didn’t help to show off what I was expecting to be a bit of highlight along the California stretch of our ride. We arrived in Santa Monica in relatively good time and headed for the famous Santa Monica Pier. As we took the turn off for the Pier, we realised that the turn off took us directly into a car park, which it turned out cost $15 per day for bike. As there was no way we were going to pay that kind of money, we passed through the car park and headed down to Venice Beach, again a famous location that I’m pleased to be able to tick off the list. However, the homeless people, cracked sidewalks and roads, and the general sense of neglect is pretty much everywhere. There were still quite a few tourists about, but the experience left me less than impressed. We pulled into a great little dive bar called the Hinano Café just off the promenade along Venice Beach for a bite to eat. We had great burgers for about $10 and spent an hour or so watching the people go by. Pretty cool little chill out spot. Larry had let us know that he wouldn’t be home until around 6pm so we had the afternoon to chill out and have a look around town. We also had a fair bit of admin to do, what with downloading footage, updating the route maps, expenditure, blog, and all the other shite jobs that need doing to keep the machine working, so we had a ride around the area for a bit and then found ourselves a base of operations in a local brewery. We spent the rest of the afternoon beavering away in very friendly atmosphere with WI-FI and a great location along Main Street, Santa Moncia called the Library Alehouse.

We headed off to catch up with Larry for 6pm. Larry and Jorik go way back and whilst I have met Larry on a few occasions, I certainly don’t know him as well as Jorik does. All of my memories with Larry are from party occasions, such as weddings, trips overseas, and in pubs. So we have always been in a good space when we have met. However, Larry has turned to the dark side and started doing Iron Man events. He is super fit, doesn’t drink alcohol, and Jorik mentioned that we might have to pop out to grab a few beers when we get to his place. Whilst it was fantastic to catch up with Larry when we arrived, and a massive thanks for the opportunity to park our bikes in the secure garage within his apartment building, we did have to pop out for beers. Larry’s gorgeous wife, Shannon cooked us a fantastic, and I must emphasise, a fantastic home cooked meal of pot roast, shrimp, veggies, and potatoes with a salad.  Shannon prepares recipes and does a food blog, check it out at “Fit Slow Cooker Queen” on Facebook. We spent a fun evening with them and then crashed out at around 10pm expecting a long ride the next day down to San Deigo to get the battery sorted on my bike, the boarder crossing into Mexico, and then down to Ensenada for our first night in Baja.

Day 2 - Newark, San Francisco

Nick had to leave the house really early and as such, we had the opportunity to take our time in departing. We knew we had about an hour’s ride to Santa Cruz, our first stop for the day, so the plan was to leave Newark and head to a suitable location in Santa Cruz for breakfast. After a little bit of repacking, as the bikes are way overloaded, and some quick checks to oil levels, chain tensions, brake pads, etc, we left Nick around 10:30. Probably later than we initially had hoped, but the sun was out and the day ahead looked promising. For info, the camp char didn’t make it past Nick’s house as I realised that Jorik was probably right, the chair was indulgence and I need to harden up.

We were expecting that the first part of the ride to Santa Cruz, through San Francisco, would be relatively mundane as it was primarily on main roads. The traffic was horrendous, even at that time of the day and well clear of rush hour, but as we left the San Francisco area behind us and started towards Santa Cruz, the roads become a little better, the mountain passes included some great riding, even though traffic was still pretty heavy. It required a fair amount of concentration to keep up and ensure that we stayed well clear of the nutter trucker drivers.

We arrived at Santa Cruz Boardwalk at around midday. Having not had breakfast at Nick’s before leaving, we were both starving and in need of a decent location to overlook the beautiful beaches and get some much needed grub in. We eventually found a spot called the Crow’s Nest, right on the beach front and overlooking a marina. Probably not the most cost-effective location for motorcycle travellers on a budget, but hey ho, we were in need of a little spoiling.

We had a great lunch, shot a little video clip on the Santa Cruz beach front and then got on the road heading south for Santa Barabara. The initial plan was to follow the coast road south and pass through places like Monterey, Big Sur and Morro Bay. However, there is a road closure along the coast road and the risk of getting caught up in a massive delay and then having to back track to get onto Highway 101, was just too great. So, the plan became to head straight down Highway 101 to Santa Barabara taking the first opportunity to hit the coastline when it presented itself, which appeared to be near Pismo Beach.

As we approached the coast from the inland near Avila Beach, it quickly became clear that there was a very heavy sea fog that was sitting along the coastline. Not only was the fog really thick, but the temperature dropped drastically. We made the decision to skip getting off Highway 101 at Pismo Beach and joining the coast road as there was no chance of seeing anything worthwhile and as it was already getting late, we felt it best to stick to the faster route along Highway 101, which we followed towards Los Olivos. This route took us through a mountainous region where we passed Cachuma Lake and stopped at some incredible vista points to take a few photos and meet a few people who were also checking out the stunning view and stopped to chat about bikes and ask us about our trip. We then descended from Cachuma Lake towards Santa Barbara (and the cold) and arrived at our accommodation at around 7pm – Casa Del Sol.

We checked in, unpacked our gear and headed out to find a bite to eat. The first stop we pulled into – Zookers, looked great and we grabbed a table and started to go through the menu. It quickly became evidence that this was not the kind of place we should be eating at on a budget. The mains were around $45-$50 and it looked like we might drop around $150 if we were to include a few beers. So, with much embarrassment, we had to leave Zookers and found a local place called the Rincon Brewery that did much more reasonably priced food and we managed a tasty craft beer. Following dinner, we popped into a dive pool bar for a pint and couple of games of pool before heading back to Casa Del Sol and a good night’s sleep.

Day 1 - South Lake Tahoe

The anticipation of leaving was clearly high as both Jorik and I were up early and spent an hour or 2 packing and re-packing the bikes. It would probably have made sense to do this a few days earlier so that we could get the sense of how much stuff we would require on the trip, but it was a busy few days up to our departure and we simply didn’t find the time to go through everything. Like most things we have experienced on this trip, lots of exciting things tend to happen at the last minute. So why should our departure plans be any different!

We loaded up the bikes with just about as much gear as the girls could accommodate. I even managed to squeeze a small camp chair on to the back of my bike as I am too old to be fixing motorbikes on the side of the road from ground level. So the little camp chair that has made an appearance or 2 in our videos from the bike prep prior to leaving, was strapped to the bike. However, Jorik clearly expressed his concern that this was an indulgence and that I should ‘man up’ and that his “vintage” camp chair was under no circumstances to be left somewhere between South Lake Tahoe and Panama City and must be returned. I still packed the chair!

We were due to meet at the Boys and Girls Club Lake Tahoe (BGCLT) at 11:00am so that the kids could have a look at the bikes, and Aimi (our awesome contact from the BGCLT) had arranged for a big send off with the kids at 12:00. With about 30 minutes to go until we were due to be at the BGCLT, we wanted to do a quick video update with the girls in the sun looking ready to roll (albeit a little ‘top heavy’). Jorik had positioned his bike for a great shot, and I jumped on to my bike to move into place and whilst the ignition turned on, the electrics simply died as I tried to start the bike. This was not a promising sign, particularly with time rapidly running out for us to get ourselves down to the BGCLT. Jorik and I were dumb founded as to what the problem might be as I had been riding the bike pretty much every day for the past week, with the exception of the odd ‘snow day’ that we had experienced since I had arrived from the UK. After a few minutes I tried the bike again and it turned over, no problem. So, panic over, it was all going to be fine. I turned it off to check that it would fire up again, and sure enough, nothing! We had done some welding to the rear frame of the bikes a couple of days before to help strengthen the structure that supports the top box and panniers, particularly if we fall over in sand. I had disconnected my battery when we did the welding, just as a precaution and it might have been that when I connected the batter up, I might not have done a great job. So, with minutes to spare, I quickly unloaded much of the gear that I had just packed, took off the saddle, and disconnected and then re-connected the battery. All good, she fired up first time, but it did leave a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that this might come back to haunt us.

Having got the electrical issue sorted (I hope), we shot a quick clip and then jumped on the bikes to get ourselves done to the BGCLT. About 100 kids were all lined up in neat rows in the open space to the rear of the BGCLT facility, waiting for us to turn up at 11:00. As we were only about 5 minutes late, it was lucky that the kids hadn’t started to riot already. Whilst down at the BGCLT, we also got the chance to have a look around the fantastic facilities that they currently offer, including the rather tired and dated playground area. As has been evident from our fund-raising efforts to date (and a massive thanks to Aimi and the others that contributed so generously) the Enfields Overland crew have managed to raise $50,000 that will go towards the reconstruction of a more modern and suitable playground for the kids at BGCLT. The kids were great, with loads of questions being thrown at us. Some random questions like, how do you pee, what snacks are you taking with you, and how old are you? Much to Jorik’s glee, he explained that whilst I look really old with my grey hair and white beard, he is actually older than me.

The kids all lined up and waved us off, which was a really great send off. But we weren’t quite done with South Lake Tahoe yet. A friend of Jorik’s, Ted Kennedy, who is a local business owner and the frontman for a local band call The Residents (check them out https://www.residentstahoe.com/) had asked to have lunch with us to see us on our way. We popped over to the venue that they were playing at that afternoon and caught up with Ted over lunch whilst he was setting up for the afternoon session. Ted very kindly gave us some cash for beers and pizza along the road. What an absolutely awesome gesture and it was great to be in his company, even for only a short time.

We hit the road at around 13:30, heading for our friend, Nick Wells’ house in Newark, which is just outside of San Francisco. Climbing out of the Sierra Mountains after a fair amount of snow in the glorious sunshine was simply spectacular. I have been to Lake Tahoe more than a few times, both in the winter and the summer, but to see the mountains covered in snow, whilst the sun is out, was amazing.

We travelled over the mountains and cut through some of back roads to make our way south, trying to avoid the freeways and motorways as much as possible. Our bikes are not that large at only 411cc, which delivers about 24bhp (with no load), so going fast for extended periods is not ideal for our girls! And before anyone makes a smart comment, our actual girls are certainly capable of going plenty fast for extended periods! Big shout out to Siobhan and Melody (our respective much better halves) for allowing us the opportunity for undertaking this fantastic adventure, although it is for the kids!

We pulled into Newark as the light was starting to fade. It was a little after 6pm when we took the final turn towards Nick’s house. He had provided us with detailed instructions (in the form of a video – nice work Nick) as to how were able to gain access to the garage if he wasn’t home. However, little did we know that Nick was actually following us into his neighbourhood and even managed to shoot a little video clip of us, which was perfect timing.

Nick was a very gracious host and fed and watered us, with a couple of well-earned beers after our first day. I have to admit, for an old man, I felt surprisingly good for a such a long day in the saddle. Still, I was in bed and asleep by 10:00pm, leaving Jorik to beaver away at the video editing, which I suspect might become a recurring theme. He did inform me that he wasn’t up much longer after me.

Introduction to Blog

Welcome to the Enfields Overland Blog. I’m no expert at this sort of crap and writing is not my forte, but I’ll try to give you all an honest (where legal) and entertaining view of our experiences along the way. I plan to write this blog from my perspective, but where Jorik has input, I’ll add these aspects in italics, or simply note that the relative piece has had input from Jorik directly.

What with Jorik spending a lot of our time off the bikes editing and preparing videos and photos of the trip to post on our various social media platforms, I think it only fair that I take on the responsibility of preparing this blog.

In addition, you may see reference to the “girls” within the blog. These are the bikes that we are taking on the trip. It is clear that we are riding Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycles on this trip, but I still like to refer to my bikes as girls and I often even name them. Whilst I am not sure that we have settled on names for the girls yet, we are loosely referring to my bike as Black Betty and Jorik’s bike as Grey Gertrude.

Hopefully you all enjoy these little updates for our trip. And don’t forget, whilst this might appear to be 2 blokes on their bikes cruising around enjoying the shit out of ourselves, we are raising funds for the White Lodge Centre (https://www.whitelodgecentre.co.uk/) and the Boys and Girls Club Lake Tahoe (https://bgclt.org/). If you do enjoy the blog, and the updates on our social media platforms, please do visit our sponsors page and throw a little donation towards these great charity organisations. Alternatively, if you don’t think that the blog is entertaining enough, or that Jorik and I haven’t gotten ourselves into enough trouble, please do make a donation to our Go Fund Me page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/enfields-overland-motorcycle-central-america-trip) so that we can buy a few beers!

The History of Royal Enfield.

History

Royal Enfield is an Indian multinational motorcycle manufacturing company headquartered in Chennai. The Royal Enfield brand, including its original English heritage, is the oldest global motorcycle brand in continuous production. The company operates manufacturing plants in Chennai in India.

The first Royal Enfield motorcycle was built in 1901 by The Enfield Cycle Company of Redditch, Worcestershire, England, which was responsible for the design and original production of the Royal Enfield Bullet, the longest-lived motorcycle design in history. Licensed from the original English Royal Enfield by the indigenous Indian Madras Motors, the company is now a subsidiary of Eicher Motors, an Indian automaker. The company makes classic-looking motorcycles including the Royal Enfield Bullet, Classic 350, Royal Enfield Thunderbird, Meteor 350, Classic 500, Interceptor 650, Continental and many more. Royal Enfield also make adventurous and offroading motorcycles like Royal Enfield Himalayan. Their motorcycles are equipped with single-cylinder and twin-cylinder engines.

Finding the right bikes

RE Himalayan - The bike of choice

In 2016 the Royal Enfield Himalayan was introduced. The first Dual Sport Royal Enfield. It was a game changer for Royal Enfield. For us it was perfect, staying close to our Royal Enfield roots with a motorcycle that is affordable, simple and easy to work on and a true work horse. Having undertaken numerous adventure trips, we wanted a bike that would not need a high end service center or technical computer parts to ensure it runs, something that we could (mostly) fix on the side of the road or with the help of a local repair shop wherever we might need it, and something that was light and small enough to get through some tight tracks and roads.
We found 2 perfect bikes close to the Lake Tahoe area. Both are 2021 models and both have been run in and lovingly serviced with some upgraded mods by single previous owners. Meaning a lot of the kinks and issues that these bikes typically are plagued with have been sorted out.
Having these 2 bikes 8 months before the trip has also allowed us to test and challenge them ourselves as well as giving us the opportunity to get used to riding these little beasts. So far it has been an absolute pleasure and we have no doubt that these are the perfect bikes for this trip.