I write the blog for CSC Motorcycles and one day I found myself in the motorcycle adventure touring business… well, that’s not entirely accurate. It’s not really a business because we don’t charge. We use touring to generate interest and to make it easy for folks get into adventure riding. And, in my opinion, there’s no better place to do that than Baja.

This all started when CSC decided to import the RX3 250cc adventure touring motorcycles. If you think you need a bigger bike, you’re not going to like this story. I’ve been riding Baja for decades, and I like small bikes. When I mentioned this on the blog, the calls and emails started the same day. Readers wanted to know, “Could I buy a bike and ride with you?” I wish I could say that all this was all part of a master marketing strategy, but it wasn’t. Suddenly, I found myself organizing a ride for six people, then nine, then 11, before finally capped participation at 15 riders mainly because I just didn’t think I could keep track of any more.

I knew Baja well, but when this all started three years ago I didn’t know the first thing about organizing tours. I quickly learned that safety, schedule, daily distances, rider empowerment, and showing the folks a good time were the best combination.

Initially, I thought that rider experience would be critical, and I only wanted to take riders with lots of it. I knew our first Baja ride would be demanding (covering roughly 1,900 miles in less than a week). Motorcycling is little like sex; everyone thinks they are an expert. On our most recent Baja ride, we had one fellow show up with only 300 miles on his bike and he did fine. We’ve also had very experienced riders drop their bikes multiple times.

Another thing I initially got wrong was the number of miles we could tackle in a day. When I ride by myself, it’s 500-mile-plus days. With larger groups, gas, lunch, and photo stops take longer, pee breaks occur more often, so I make sure we stop every hour. Riding after dark is not a good idea (especially in Mexico, where cows tend to wander onto the roads). Besides, most folks just like shorter mileage days. On our current eight-day Baja itinerary, we have two 400-mile days, but that’s only because the things we want to see are so far apart. 200-mile days are more typical.

We stick to pavement as much as possible. An exception is the ancient Sierra San Francisco cave paintings.

Keeping enough distance between bikes is critical. My observation is that the biggest reason riders bunch up is for photos. Some will get within inches of each other. The rule seems to be that you can have a great ride, or you can make a great video, but you can’t do both. If you want to get photos while riding, forget the screen and just take a bunch pointing in the general direction of your subject and weed them out later. It’s easier than crashing.

Regarding alcohol, our rule is simple: No drinking until the bikes are put away for the night. It works.

On our first group ride, it was enormously frustrating getting everybody moving in the morning until a friend suggested that I just leave at the scheduled departure time. During our pre-ride briefing the night before the ride, I provide a list of the hotels and casually mention that people can rejoin the group that evening if they’re late. On the first day of our multi-day rides, we might have one or two riders miss the departure, but everyone is usually on time every day after that.

We emphasize that each rider is responsible for having their bike properly maintained, bringing their own tools and spares, and maintaining their own bikes. If a chain needs tightening, do it that night. The approach dovetails well with our online maintenance tutorials and our customers like it. We don’t use a chase vehicle on any of our group rides. We did once, but had more problems with the chase vehicle (and its driver) than any of the riders.

To facilitate things, we have a dinner with an hour long PowerPoint presentation at the CSC plant the night before we leave. It’s made a huge difference.

Baja is beautiful, and we see some of the best it has to offer. The cave painting, for example, are 10,000 years old and the civilization that produced them vanished without a trace. We also visit Scammon’s Lagoon and cavort with the California gray whales. They’re twice the size of our boats and it’s the only place in the world where you can pet them; most folks consider it a life-altering experience. We stay in exotic but inexpensive places like the Las Casitas in Mulege and the very old, all-wood Frances Hotel in Santa Rosalia (it used to be a brothel). We ride along Bahia Concepcion, wedged between the cliffs and the bay, along the most beautiful stretch of road on the planet. We descend through La Cuesta del Infierno down to the Sea of Cortez on the eastern side of Baja, a riding experience like no other. We visit magnificent 300-year-old missions in San Ignacio, Mulege, and Loreto that are still working churches. And the food is amazing! It’s adventure touring at its best.

I’ve been riding Baja for more than 25 years and it never gets old for me. What’s even more fun is making new friends and sharing the best of Baja with them.

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Joe Berk rides and writes a lot. He’s a regular travel and feature writer in Motorcycle Classics magazine, the CSC blog (CSCMotorcycles.com), as well as 14 books. After riding everything from Hondas to Harleys, Berk is convinced that smaller bikes are ideal for real-world adventure touring. He has ridden 250cc motorcycles across China, through the Andes Mountains of Colombia, the Baja peninsula numerous times, and throughout the U.S.