CSC Blog

Wow!  Jorge’s video showed up on Facebook this morning, and it turns out the one I saw was only one in a series of great adventures!  Enjoy, my friends…

Wow, what a day!  We had a sample of nearly every CSC motorcycle on our Glendora Ridge Road ride today…a couple of RX3s piloted by Mike and Byron, a CSC 250 Mustang with Duane on board, and a couple of TT250s with Lieutenant Dan and yours truly.    The weather was perfect and we sure had a good time.

The boys stopping for coffee at Camp Williams. From left to right, it’s Dan, Byron, Mike, and Duane.

After talking motorcycles for a bit, it was back on the East Fork Road to the northeastern end of Glendora Mountain Road.  There were lots of motorcyclists enjoying the road today.   I wanted to get more video today, but my GoPro battery gave up the ghost.  Ah, that’s how it goes sometimes.  I’ll find replacements and order them tonight on Amazon.

We still grabbed some video, though….good buddy Duane came through with his helmet-mounted video cam!   Duane gave his files to me and I was able to put together a video.   Duane was riding at the back of the pack…you can see Byron, Dan, Mike, and me in front.

It sure was nice out there, and when we rode to the top of the mountain (where Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road intersect), we stopped for photos…

That’s Dan with his TT250…I’m showing off a bit with Photoshop here!

More Photoshop magic on Glendora Ridge Road!

Good buddy Mike, who is riding with us to Baja in a couple of weeks

Duane and his CSC Mustang

After looking at all of the photos I shot today, I realized I didn’t get a feature shot of Byron like I did of the other guys.   My apologies, Byron, but you know what that means…it’s a good reason to join us on the next ride!

Today was a nice day, wrapped up with a great lunch at the Mt. Baldy Lodge.   Good times, good roads, good friends, and good motorcycles!  I sure enjoyed it.

Just 12 more days and we’re Baja bound, folks!

Our TT250 ride is tomorrow, and it’s going to be a good one. I rode Glendora Ridge Road today on my TT250 just to make sure the road is open, and it was awesome up there.  And hey, if you ride an RX3 or a CSC Mustang, we’d love to have you ride with us, too!   We’re leaving from the CSC plant at 9:00.  We’ll stop for coffee and photos on the East Fork road, we’ll ride Glendora Mountain Road, we’ll ride Glendora Ridge Road, we’ll have lunch at the Mt. Baldy Lodge, and then we’ll loop back to the plant.  The road is in good shape and the weather should be perfect!

I’ve been riding my TT250 a lot in the last couple of weeks, and I have it dialed in just the way I want it. I think the Wolfman bags are perfect, and so is the 17T/49T gear combo. My TT250 is turning into a very nice smallbore touring platform, and I’m pumped about our upcoming Baja ride!

I have been working with my GoPro video camera a bit, and I tried a handlebar mount today. It’s okay, but I’m not wild about it. As you can see in the video above, a lot of road vibe gets through to the camera. I think tomorrow I’ll try a helmet mount.  The video is always a lot smoother when I use a helmet mount.

I figured out how to control the GoPro from my iPhone (I know, I’m slowly entering the 21st century, kicking and scratching all the way). I have a handlebar mount for the iPhone coming, but I don’t know if I’ll have it by tomorrow. That’s the problem with the GoPro…if you don’t control it remotely, it’s tough to know when you’ve turned the thing on or off (especially when it is mounted on your helmet).

I’ll keep you posted…watch for more photos and video after our ride tomorrow.  You know what? I may do a Periscope broadcast from the shop tomorrow, too, before we get on the road…so stay tuned!

I received a nice email from my good buddy Bob on that last blog post a few minutes ago…

Looking good with the tool roll, Joe!

Only suggestions I would make would be:

Locking Pliers (aka: Vice Grip, or Channel Lock) – definitely good to have, but maybe consider using the 6” long nose version. The smaller snout will give more precise clamping as needed (smaller bolt heads, hoses) and can reach where the standard jaw may not reach 2. Bungee Cords or plastic zip ties.  Don’t weigh much, always handy to have 3.  2 or 3 foot section of duct tape.  I roll this on itself and unwind as needed.

Optional (but I always carry with me) is a Leatherman tool. Good to have the knife, pliers, saw, can/bottle opener, etc. in one handy tool.

Looks like a great ride! One of these days when the four letter word (“work”, not “wife”) doesn’t get in the way, I hope to do one of these trips with you!

Bob

Bob, those are all great suggestions.  Thanks for taking the time to send them to us.  And just let us know when you’re ready to accompany us on any of our rides.   They are all fun.   I think we are up to 9 people on our short run into Baja at the end of this month.  It will be my first long ride on the TT250, and I’m excited about that.

I promised a recommended TT250 toolkit a few blogs back, and this afternoon I put together a list of the tools I’m going to bring with me on the Baja trip.   The Internet being what it is, I have no doubt this will spark a firestorm of controversy from those of you who have different ideas.  Hey, as my personal hero (that would be Dubya) once said, bring it on.   Seriously.  If there’s something you think I missed, let us know and if I think it makes sense I’ll add it to the list.   That last part is important.  I’m bringing along the tools I think I might need in the unlikely event something goes south.   I’m not planning on doing an engine rebuild on the side of the road.  Knock wood, I’ve only ever had one serious breakdown on any of my rides (and it wasn’t on a Chinese bike; in fact, it was on a bike that costs about 10 times what a new TT250 goes for…and that bike didn’t come with any tools).

The TT250 comes with a modest tool kit mounted in a container along the frame, as you see below…

They say halitosis is better than no breath at all, and that’s kind of how I feel about the tool kits that come with new motorcycles (indeed, as mentioned above, some new motorcycles don’t include any tools).

Here’s what you get with the stock TT250 tool kit…

It includes a screwdriver with both blade and Phillips head drives, two wrenches with 8mm, 10mm, 13m, and 15mm ends, and a pressed steel socket that you’re supposed to turn with the screwdriver shaft.  The problem is that I don’t think that pressed steel socket would hold its shape under serious torque (and even if it did, and you probably couldn’t exert enough torque with the screwdriver shaft to adequately tighten or loosen the larger fasteners or the spark plug).

I took a hard look at the nuts and bolts on my TT250 this morning, and here’s what I’m putting in my tool kit for Baja…

From left to right, here you go:

• A reversible drive screwdriver with both Phillips and blade drives.  It’s a big screwdriver, but I like the thing.   It’s one of those tools that’s gone on all of my rides.
• A 17mm wrench.   There are a lot of 17mm bolts and nuts on the TT250, including the oil drain plug.  It’s a must-have item.
• A cool wrench that has both 18mm and 19mm box ends.  This will come in handy for both the front and rear axles.
• A crescent wrench.  This is a catchall and it’s a good thing to have.  I could have left out several other wrenches and just taken the crescent, but I wanted the others.
• I kept the two wrenches that come with the standard TT250 tool kit.  They fit virtually all of the smaller fasteners on the bike.
• A small channel lock pliers.   I mainly carry these because I once read about a guy using them when he lost his shift lever.   I’ve never had that happen, but these things were on sale for a buck at a Lowe’s and I couldn’t pass them up.   If I ever lose a shift lever, I’ll be good to go.
• A pair of pliers.  These came with my 1965 Honda Super 90 tool kit, which I bought in 1966.  I’ve had them with me on every ride ever since.
• Allen drives in 4mm (for the fuel tank filler cap), 5mm (for the body panels), and 6mm (for the handlebar clamps).  I could have bought one of those pocketknife-like things that have a bunch of Allen drives, but these are the only three I think I’ll need and I didn’t want to add the bulk of the larger multi-driver tool.
• A spark plug socket.   You might wonder why I don’t have a socket driver for it.  The 18mm wrench fits it perfectly.

And that’s about it, folks.  All of the above won’t fit in the little plastic case the original factory tool kit occupied, so they’ll go in a tool roll that’s going in my soft luggage.   That plastic box for the original tool kit?   I may use it to carry a burrito…

I’ve been using my TT250 as my commuter bike lately, and I am really loving that 49T rear sprocket.   I rode in on the 210 freeway this morning, and the bike has no problem keeping up with traffic (I mostly stick to the right lane on the TT250, and traffic in that lane moves at about 55 mph).   There were a few times when things opened up, and my TT250 ran 70 mph when I asked it to.

I’m getting psyched about the TT250 Baja run.    It’s going to be good to be on the road again.

I’m sure looking forward to it…riding up in the San Gabriels north of the plant is one of my favorite rides. I was thinking about all of the videos we’ve done up there and I realized I don’t have one on Glendora Ridge Road from the saddle of my TT250. That’s a character flaw I intent to correct this weekend!

In the meantime, take a look at this earlier video…it’s when we were still making the CSC 150…

Folks, those little 150s could really rip in the corners…the twisties are so tight engine displacement really doesn’t matter much up there. I had a lot of fun on my CSC 150, and it’s the bike that introduced me to this great organization.

Yours truly with my CSC 150 on Glendora Ridge Road

The late great Walt Fulton proved that when he nearly won the Catalina Grand Prix back in the 1950s on a Mustang (the bike our CSC resurrected). Good times, to be sure!  The story of the original Mustang motorcycles is most intriguing, as this article that my good buddy Jim Cavanaugh and I wrote a few years ago for Motorcycle Classics magazine.

Watch as Gerry walks us through the things to check on a CSC TT250.  This is a good pre-ride checklist for our upcoming Baja ride, this Saturday’s dual sports and donuts ride, and any time you pre-flight your TT250.

Hey, guys, here’s the info I promised on getting insurance for the Baja trip.   I wrote to my good buddy Geoff at BajaBound, and as usual, it only took a few minutes for him to get back to me…

Hello Joe,

Sounds like fun!

We have you in our system. We don’t include any motorcycle models in our system so the riders can simply enter TT250 for the model when they sign up.

The riders can start the process at the www.bajabound.com homepage and go from there.

How far south are you guys going this time?

Best regards,

Geoff

So there you have it!  That’s good news from Geoff, folks.  Just so you know, we don’t have any business relationship with BajaBound and we don’t make any money on the policies you buy from them.  I keep recommending BajaBound because they do a great job.  I’ve been insuring my bikes on all of my Baja forays with BajaBound for the last 25 years.

Whoa, it looks like we’re up to eight riders for our TT250 Baja ride!  I guess it’s time to start posting a few details.

Pre-Ride Dinner

We’re going to meet the night before at the plant for a pre-ride dinner.   That will be at 5:00 p.m. on the 26th.  We’ll bring in the food and we’ll talk about the route, the ride details, and whatever else you want to discuss.

The Route

We’re going to stick mostly to surface streets, although in some areas it make may sense to get on the freeway for a little while (we’ll talk about it when everybody gets together).

Our ride will be four days, starting at 8:00 a.m. on the 27th.    Day 1 will take us along Route 66 to Oak Glen.   We’ll turn south toward Banning and pick up a glorious mountain road to Idyllwild.   From there we’ll meander south through Riverside County, and then we’ll mosey on down through San Diego County to Tecate.   We’ll cross the border that night, have a Mexican dinner in Tecate, and spend the night there.

Here’s what Day 1 looks like…

Day 2 will be a great ride through the Rumarosa grade as we roughly parallel the US border (but on the Mexican side) along Mexico 2.   We’ll skirt around the southwestern edge of Mexicali to pick up Mexico 5, and from there we’ll motor on in to San Felipe…

At that point, it’s up to our group what we’d like to do with the rest of the day.   Highway 5 continues south along stunning coastal Sea of Cortez views.  Some of us may opt to just hang out on the beach and swim.   There are dirt roads in the area.  Like I said, it’s up to you.

Day 3 will have us leaving San Felipe heading back up Mexico 5 for a bit, and then we’ll turn west on Mexico 3.  That’s an awesome ride through the northern Baja mountains with magnificent views and lots of photo ops.  We’ll ride right into the center of Ensenada, and then turn northeast as Mexico 3 heads back up toward Tecate.  That’s a great stretch, too.  It’s called the Ruta Vinacola, and it goes directly through Mexico’s northern Baja wine country.   We’ll stop at one of the vineyards, and we’ll stop at Naranjo’s for a great lunch.   We’ll spend that evening in Tecate.

Day 4 is the run home, and it will be mostly the same as the Day 1 ride, except it will be a bit more direct.  It will have lots of photo ops, especially on the stretch through San Diego county’s mountains just north of the border.

Budget

I’ve had a few folks ask me how much money they’ll need.   Hey, that’s variable, depending on what you want to eat, whether you share a room, and a whole bunch of other things.   Gas in Mexico is slightly more expensive than it is here in the US.   Hotels in San Felipe are somewhere around $100 a night; Tecate is a little less.   I’m going to bring $500 with me and I’ll probably have some left over.

Spares

You’ll be responsible for your bike; I’m not bringing extra spare parts for you and we won’t have a chase vehicle.  Here’s what I bring with me on my big rides:

• The bike’s tool kit.
• A spare tube, tire irons, a patch kit, and a tire pump.   We sell the electric air pumps at CSC; you might want to give us a call if you want one.  We sell the tire irons, too.
• A few extra tools (I’ll do a subsequent blog post on what I carry in my tool kit).
• A spare clutch cable and a spare throttle cable.  I probably should leave those at home.   I’ve carried them for years and never needed either.
• An extra quart of oil.  I don’t know how much oil the TT250 will use because I haven’t done any long rides on mine yet.  I know from the Baja ride I did on the CSC 150 (which uses a similar CG-type engine) that it used a little oil.
• Chain lube (or, you could just use motor oil on the chain, which is what we did on the China ride).

Clothes

Most people bring way to much stuff on these rides.   We’re going to be on the road for three nights.  My advice is to travel light.  I’m bringing a change of underwear, a sweatshirt (it can get cold), my normal riding gear, and my rain gear.

Passport

You should bring your passport with you (if you want to get back into the US).

Alcohol/Drugs/Guns

Don’t bring any illegal drugs with you.   If you get caught with drugs, no one will give a rat’s you-know-what about your views on victimless crimes and the legalization of marijuana.   You’ll be on your way to jail.

Ditto for guns.   It’s a really, really bad idea to bring a gun with you.

You can drink alcoholic beverages in the evening after we put the bikes away.   We don’t want to drink if we are getting back on the bikes.

Mexican Insurance

You’ll need Mexican insurance for your motorcycle.  You have to get a separate policy.  We always recommend Baja Bound because the service has always been so good.  This is not optional.  If you get stopped and you don’t have a separate policy (your regular insurance is no good down there), you’ll be spending more time in Mexico than you had planned to.

Speeds

We won’t get above 55-60 mph.   I’ve picked roads that are comfortable riding at 50 to 60 mph.   The TT250 is ideal for this kind of riding.  Some of you expressed concerns about being able to keep up.   You won’t have a problem with that.  It’s easy-peasy all the way.  I’m in it for a relaxed and fun ride.  Trust me on this…you’ll be fine.

Other Stuff

You might want to bring some Immodium if you’ve never traveled in Mexico before (hey, it happens).   There are plenty of farmacias down there, so if you don’t bring any, you can buy some if you need it.

Folks, that’s about it.  If you have questions, shoot me an email and I’ll do what I can to help you.