Big Kids and Little Kids…

What can I say, folks…we had another gorgeous day here in sunny So Cal…and what better way to spend it than hanging around the California Scooter Company, meeting some really interesting people, and making chicken strips disappear up on Glendora Ridge Road…  

Yep, we took a couple of bikes out for the same ride as we did last week….hey, why not?

I knew that Jim Petitti, the owner of Raceway Services up in Salem, Oregon, was in town to pick up seven new California Scooters, and I was I was really looking forward to meeting him.  I had chatted with Jim a bit on the phone, hearing about his shop and the awesome restoration work he does, and his enthusiasm is infectious.   I knew I wanted to meet Jim in person.  After that initial phone call, I learned that Jim actually wrote a book on camshafts and optimizing small engine performance.  

My morning started out great, with Jim giving me a signed copy of his book.  It takes a lot (a whole lot) of work to write a book, and Jim’s is a great one.   Jim is the “go-to” guy in the high performance small engine field.  Jim’s working very closely with us and I can’t wait to get some of the parts he’s  developing into a California Scooter.   Here’s a shot of Steve listening carefully to Jim’s ideas…

Jim drove down from Salem with his young friend TJ.   TJ’s a great guy, too, and I grabbed this shot of him securing Raceway Services’ new California Scooters in the back of Jim’s truck.   TJ just got back from serving a tour of duty in Iraq.    TJ, we salute your service!

Our good friend Robert is doing some very important work with us, and Robert knows motorcycles.   Steve told Robert and me to grab a couple of bikes and go out for lunch and a ride.   With the weather we had today that could only mean a return to Glendora Ridge Road…so off we went!

Here’s a shot of my ride, a black California Scooter Classic, up in the San Gabriel Mountains…

And here’s one of Robert, who was piloting the Van Halen bike…

Sandy’s design on the Van Halen bike sure looks good…but so does a stock California Scooter…

We hardly ever see cars on Glendora Ridge Road, and because of the surrounding mountains and the road’s serpentine nature, you can hear things coming for a long time before you see them.   We heard what we thought was a motorcycle and Robert and I were trying to guess what it was when this cool little Beetle rolled into view…

When we reached the western end of Glendora Ridge Road, as is usually the case we found a few guys on sports bikes taking a break.  This is always a cool scene.  Picture this…ultra-exotic, ultra-high-performance motorcycles (today’s take was two RC-51 Honda L-twin roadburners, and a 998 Ducati), with young guys in full leathers suddenly losing all interest in their bikes as they check out the California Scooters.   I love it!

One of the sport bike riders hamming it up for my Nikon while checking out the lean angle on a California Scooter…

And speaking of lean angles…I’ve written before in this blog about how the California Scooter’s 12-inch wheels and short wheel base make for a great-handling bike.   You can really crank these little puppies through the twisties…and we’ve got the chicken strips to prove it!  Chicken strips are the unused edges of a motorcycle tire’s tread area.  The harder you push a bike through the twisties, the more you lean it, and this means you use more tread at the tire’s extreme edges.  Serious riders don’t waste any time listening to war stories…they just look at a bike’s chicken strips.  Check out how narrow they are on the bikes Robert and I rode today…

Back at the plant after our afternoon ride, I met three great guys in our factory showroom.   Allow me to introduce Ed, Andrew, and Will…

That’s Ed on Steve’s ’53 Mustang Pony, with his grandsons Andrew and Will taking a photo.  Ed saw our recent ad in Popular Mechanics, and the ad’s tag line (“inspired by the legendary Mustang”) caught his eye.   Ed used to own a Mustang, so he and his two grandsons decided to swing by for a visit.   I asked Ed if he wanted to take one of our California Scooters out for a ride, and he was suddenly as excited as his grandkids.  He sure didn’t need to be talked into it!

These three kids were having such a great time I had to get one more photo…

Tomorrow’s going to be fun, too…we’re having a bunch of young engineers from Cal Poly Pomona visit the California Scooter Company to participate in an exciting new design competition…but that’s a story for another blog entry, so like I always say….stay tuned!