What’s your dream?

Wow, Memorial Day is just about here already…2012 is sure flying by quickly.  Of all the holidays, this one is near the top of the list for me.   The weather is great, the riding is super, and to me, it’s a time for reflection.   We still have troops all over the world, making the world safe for folks like you and me, and all of us owe a deep debt to our service men and women for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make on our behalf.

To me, there’s something about CSC motorcycles that evokes World War II.  Maybe it’s the fact that the original Mustang motorcycle came into being when Gladden Products needed a new product when WWII ended.   Maybe it’s the idea that the Mustang style grew out of the 1940s and soldiered on into the early 1960s.   It’s hard to say…but I know these bikes just seem to fit with the styles of that era…

This is going to be a great weekend.   Mine started early…I took the day off yesterday and I spent most of it on the rifle range.   Good times.   Spent some time in the garage last night polishing my California Scooter.  I even fired up the KLR for a bit, and I aim to ride both this weekend.  I’m taking the KLR up to Lake Tahoe with my good buddy J Brandon in a couple of weeks…we’re part of a media team promoting Tahoe as a destination for motorcyclists.   It’s going to be fun.

Susie’s got me working hard on other things, too.  I cooked a couple of great omelettes for breakfast (old guy stuff…but good…egg whites only, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and scallions…along with a great cup of coffee), and I’m cooking up a big pot of Italian meat sauce for a ravioli dinner tonight.   Life is good.

Back to the style issue.  Even though California Scooters work well with the World War II theme, they are eminently customizable, and the style of these motorcycles is timeless.  They can fit any era.

I took a few minutes this morning to look over some of my favorite custom California Scooter shots….Steve and the CSC folks have done a lot of absolutely drop dead gorgeous customs over the last three years.   California Scooters are palettes…you can make them be whatever you want them to be, and the custom work can range from mild to wild.

Let’s take a look at just a few of my favorites…

Here’s what I would call a mild custom…an accessorized Classic, with just about everything you can put on a CSC motorcycle.  It’s in our standard sapphire blue paint, and it’s awesome.

Another favorite…Motor Officer Jim Watson on the CSC-150P…this is a really cool ride.  You can almost hear the siren!

This is a custom bike we did for Steve at Arcadia Cushman…we called it the Creamsicle bike before it left the plant.  Bikes with their frames painted to match the tank and fenders are pretty slick…

Remember the John-Deere-themed bike we did this year?  This bike sold within minutes of appearing right here on the CSC blog!

Here’s a more recent custom…the CSC Silver.  This bike is in another country right now.  We’re using it as a test bike for on-road certification over there. It’s one of my absolute favorites.   It’s kind of a funny deal…we built it to look like an inexpensive bike, but when we were done, it was one of the richest-looking customs we ever made!

The sidecar bike is a lot of fun, too!  That’s me in the photo below with Doug Bingham as a passenger.  Doug is known as “Mr. Sidecar” in the motorcycle world.  If you’ve ever seen a movie with a sidecar in it, Doug Bingham would have been the guy who built the rig, and he most likely piloted it, too!   Think The Great Escape, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and many, many more…

And of course, there’s the CSC Land Speed Record bike that set the 150cc world speed record in 2010.  That’s Syl on it (he’s our rider), and John, who was one of the key guys who built the bike.

This is one of my all time favorite shots…Syl at speed, being chased by the snakes…

Syl had never been to the test area before, and I really had him going with stories about the rattlesnakes out there.   When he came back after making the run above, I told him the snakes were chasing him, and I showed him that photo as proof!

The Land Speed Record bike was extensively customized, with major engine modifications, a special frame, and a wild paint job.  We also do a lot of relatively mild customs, with a two-tone paint job being a popular way to go.  Here’s a shot of Lupe showing off a combination that works especially well in red and black.

Lupe makes a pretty nice photo subject, too…one of my favorites is this shot of Lupe on a stock red Classic with whitewall tires…a combination that goes together nicely!

Here’s another early CSC photo…a custom Greaser at a Morgan and Phillips fashion shoot.  The purples work well in this shot!

We do a lot of bikes with the original Mustang logo, too.   This was one of the first…

A very easy custom touch is to use the Greaser’s red wheels with a red Classic.  This was our very first red-on-red bike, and when I saw it I knew it was the color combination I wanted…

The shot below shows another early bike…and it, too, is a mild custom.  This red Classic features our matte black billet wheels.  The combination is cool…it reminds me of an old Harley Knucklehead…

We do company rides on a regular basis, and the photo below shows Steve with the “Sarge” (his custom Army-themed bike that inspired our Military Series).   I grabbed this shot at Neptune’s Net on the Pacific Coast Highway.   We were on a ride through the mountains above Malibu.

And of course, our most recent corporate custom, the 2012 In-N-Out Burger Bobber…that’s our bike builder and test rider Art in the photos below.

You know from following the blog that the Burger Bobber sold quickly and it commanded a premium.  The good news is the Bobbers are relatively mild modifications from the stock Classic, and we have four more in production right now.

So, back to the title of this blog:  What’s your dream?   Let us know, and we’ll build it for you!