The Real Deal…

We have a special relationship with Cal Poly Pomona, one of the premier engineering schools in the world, and today the California Scooter Company hosted a group of first year engineering students who wanted to learn more about designing and manufacturing motorcycles.   Cal Poly’s College of Engineering is just a few minutes from our plant, and it’s a great source of engineering talent.

What a great opportunity for these young folks…a chance to learn first hand what goes into designing and manufacturing motorcycles!   Visiting a motorcycle factory (and meeting Steve Seidner, the entrepreneur who created it) sure beats sitting in a classroom listening to stuffy old professors talk about engineering theory.   These young folks, the future of our sport, learned what it really takes to succeed from a guy who’s actually done it.  

The Cal Poly engineering students all showed up early (who’d want miss to any of this?), and they had a lot of fun in the showroom playing with the new California Scooters.    Steve addressed the group and told them about the new CSC motorcycles, and then he led them into the manufacturing area…

The questions from these guys and gals were great….they wanted to know how the company developed its new motorcycles, the manufacturing approach, how long it takes to make a bike, how they are tested, how Steve decides to make parts in-house versus subcontracting the work…really good stuff, and the kinds of questions that made me feel our visitors understood the rare opportunity they enjoyed today.

The Cal Poly engineers asked Steve how he got into the business, and in the process of answering that question, Steve mentioned the Pro-One Performance V-twins.   Naturally, that led to a discussion about those bikes, and Steve asked if anyone wanted to see a few of the newest Pro-One machines.    Who could say no to that?

Most engineering students are gearheads (hey, I’m a gearhead…and you probably are, too, if you’re reading this) and this part of the visit was icing on the cake.   The Pro-One bikes are some of the most exotic motorcycles in the world, and the great questions started all over again.   These young folks knew this was a special visit, and they were using the time well.

Steve Seidner, totally at ease, answering questions from sharp young minds…

One of the Cal Poly engineers asked the question everyone wanted to…what do these bikes sound like?  Well, our master bike builder Tony fired one up, and we all had an opportunity to listen to the answer…spoken in an unmistakable tone by a 121-cubic-inch V-twin engine…

These big Pro-One bikes and their 150cc California Scooter cousins both sound great, and the engineering students really enjoyed hearing them, but not as much as what Steve said next….California Scooter Company will soon announce a motorcycle design competition open to Cal Poly College of Engineering students!  Stay tuned, and we’ll post more about this exciting new opportunity right here!