CSC Blog

That guy you see smiling in the photo to the right is our CEO, Steve Seidner, and the reason he’s smiling is what’s behind him.  It’s history being made…the first shipment of CSC RX3 motorcycles arrived in Azusa this morning, and they’re being unloaded into our plant as I write this!

Yes, indeed, the first of our RX3 motorcycles are here!  We’ll be receiving the rest of the shipment over the next four days.   Folks, our wait is nearly over.   Woweee!

Don’t deluge us with calls about your bike just yet…we’ll need a tiny bit of time to enter everything into our inventory control system, get things sorted, and get your bikes on their way to you!

Much, much more to follow, my friends….but I wanted to get the word out to you first!

A good weekend and a good Monday today…the containers are being unloaded in Long Beach, and I received a nice letter from my new good buddy Martin in New Zealand.  Martin is a dealer (Belamoto) in New Zealand who’s bringing the RX3 to that beautiful land.   Martin wrote some interesting things and he had a cool photo of the RX3 next to a GS 1200 BMW.

First, the photo…

Seeing that photo says a lot to me.   In US dollars, the CSC RX3 is $3,495.   The GSA is around $23,000.   The RX3 will do 84 mph.  The GSA is faster.   If you drop the RX3, you can pick it up.   If you drop the GSA…well, you know.   If you want to know how to service the RX3, you can go right here for the CSC maintenance tutorials.   If you want BMW’s online service tutorials (or Harley’s, or Honda’s, or…well, you get the idea) search for those links and let me know what you find.   If you want a free Service Manual, buy a CSC RX3.   If you want a BMW service manual (or one from Harley, or Honda, or well, you know…) bring your credit card.

I really like Martin’s photo.  It’s a picture that’s worth a thousand words.

There was some cool stuff in Martin’s letter to me…

…putting aside the fact that we’re used to our 1200s, for what it is, the RX3 is loads of fun to ride. It feels nimble but planted on the road, seated and standing, and I really felt I could throw it into the corners. I can’t wait to see what it’s like once run in and I can really open it up, plus I’m keen to test it on gravel…

…everyone we’ve shown it to has been really impressed so far – it definitely has more ‘presence’ than you would expect for a 250…

And here’s another comment Martin made on one of the Internet forums following  the RX3…

…assembly was no problem. The setup tutorial on CSC’s blog was a big help…

Hey, we’re glad to hear that, Martin, and thanks for the compliment!

More good stuff…we’ve had several instances already of people commenting on the forums about my good buddy Ryan’s professionalism and willingness to take the time necessary to help folks with their purchasing decisions.   Folks, Ryan is a great guy and we really appreciate the compliments!

Sometimes I go tangential on other topics, and here I go again.   More than a few of you tell me you like the gun stuff I occasionally post here, and I have to tell you about two super deals I pulled the trigger on this weekend.  One of my favorite shops is the Gunrunner in Duarte, and he had some interesting rifles in there when I stopped by on Saturday.  One was a custom Ruger No. 1 (Ruger’s ultra classy single-shot rifle) with an exotic stock and fore end….

This Ruger rifle is a custom proposition from the git go, including the cartridge…it’s what we call a wildcat (a custom cartridge that you have to make yourself).   It’s 6mm Improved, which is a real oddball, but I don’t care.  At the price I paid for this, I already have a guy who will put a standard .30 06 barrel on the rifle, and I similarly already have a guy who wants to buy the 6mm Improved barrel.   Sometimes everything just goes the way you want it to.

After I thought I had finished my negotiations on the Ruger, I noticed another rifle…an older .223 Remington Model 700.   It’s a standard (non custom) rifle, but it’s another one with a price that was just too good to walk away from.    And the photos don’t do it justice.  It has a real contrasty bit of walnut with horizontal dark stripes that are unusually nice on a production gun.   I’m still watching Frank and Mike on the American Pickers TV show (I watch that show every chance I get), and I’m still honing my negotiating skills.  As Frank would say, it was time to do some bundling, and I did…

That Remington is going to get a scope and I’m looking forward to seeing how well it does.

You’re probably thinking I sunk a ton of money into these two rifles, but I did not.  The two of them cost what a new set of RX3 Tourfella luggage cost, and folks, that’s a steal (both for the rifles and for the RX3’s aluminum luggage)!

Well, we are a motorcycle company, so I guess I should get back to motorcycle stuff.  I’ll be in the shop tomorrow morning with my Nikon, and I’ll capture some more photos for you.

Steve is talking to the Long Beach Harbor folks, our shipping agent, and everyone else who has any impact on our bikes arriving in Azusa, and we hope to have answers on that question soon (as well as the next big question, which is, of course:  When are we going to Baja?).

You for sure will want to bring your camera on the Baja trip!   Our guy Matt has been doing a magnificent job on the new blog layout, and he’s given me some features I have not had before.  Let’s see if I can do this right…here’s a panoramic shot stitched together from nine photos of the area around Baja’s Guerrero Negro lighthouse…it looks like it’s only 650 pixels wide (the width of the blog column), but click that photo and see what you get, and then click it again!

Baja, folks….it’s coming up!  And you’ll know the dates as soon as we do!

It has been a busy weekend.   The big news, of course, was watching the Xin Fei Zhou dock in Long Beach.   I’m just hoping we have accurate information and our bikes are in fact in the shipping containers on that ship.   I’m real sure they are, but I don’t want to give anybody bad information again.  The big questions now are when will they be unloaded, and when will they get through Customs?   Steve will be talking to our shipping agent on Monday, who probably won’t be able to tell us this information yet, but you can bet we’ll stay on it.

The next big question is when are we going to Baja, and I guess another question is how far down the peninsula are we going on our CSC RX3 Inaugural Run?  So here’s the answer to both questions:  I don’t know yet.   I’ll have a better feel once we see how the freight is moving through the dockside operations area.    As soon as I know, you’ll know.

On our Baja scouting trip a couple of weeks ago in the Subie, we got some good info (in addition to rolling smack into the middle of a labor riot).   Tonight’s blog is a good news, maybe some bad news, and more good news story.

The first bit of good news is that the labor riots appear to be over.   They pay those poor folks $10 a day.    That’s probably shameful, but I will admit all my sympathy went out the window when those folks threatened Susie and me, and then keyed my car for good measure.  They wanted $20 a day, and the big agribusinesses countered with $10.60 a day.   More riots.   They bumped it to $11.00 per day, and the unrest continued.   Then $12 a day and things started to get calmer.   When the owners agreed to cough up $13 a day and the labor unions said no, the workers apparently looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and went back to work.   The bottom line is that all is well down there now.

Here’s some mildly moderate bad news:  The whales bail out of Baja in April.   The whales ain’t stupid, and they know with warmer weather on the way it’s time to swim back to Alaska.  The Malarrimo tours stop at the end of March.  There are still some whales down there in April, but most of the tours end with the end of March because the tour operators don’t want to spend the additional fees to the Mexican government to go that extra month.   But I spoke with Emilio Achoy, who owns the Malarrimo operation, and he told me to email him when we have our dates squared away.   He’ll ask around to see if any of the other tour operators are still running when we roll on down there.

Back to more good news:  If we don’t take the half day (actually, more like two-thirds of a day) to see the whales, we can probe further south, and that would be my preference anyway.  Maybe that’s not fair because I’ve already seen the whales, but I really would like to show you guys San Ignacio and their beautiful mission, and Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez.  It all depends on how many miles you guys and gals want to do each day.  I’m ordinarily a 500-t0-600 mile per day guy, but that may be a bit much.  We’ve talked about 250 miles per day, but I think that would be too little.   I think if we target 350 miles or so each day, we can really get a lot of good stuff into this trip.

So, about that little town of Santa Rosalia…it’s awesome.  It would be right on the Transpeninsular Highway (again, don’t let the name fool you…it’s just a two-lane country road winding through the mountains and the Vizcaino desert).    After we stop for fish tacos in Guerrero Negro from my buddy Tony Lopez….

…we’ll continue diagonally southeast across the peninsula to hit Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez.   Every red-blooded adventure rider has to ride to the Sea of Cortez.   When the other beer-bellies are talking about their rides to Cook’s Corner and the rest of the cliché moto-stops, you’ll be able to tell them about a real ride…

If you’re wondering about accessorizing your RX3 and what are the best things you can put on your new motorcycle for the Baja expedition, allow me to make a recommendation.   You need the sheepskin seat cover.   Folks, I’ve done a lot of riding, and my motto is this:  Nothing but the best for my butt, and for my money, that’s the sheepskin seat over.   These things just flat work!

If you call my good buddy Ryan at 909 445 0900, he’ll hook you up with one.

On to Santa Rosalia…it’s one of Baja’s gems.   Baja has a lot of gems, but this little town is unique.   It was a copper mining town for much of its life (and the copper is coming back).    Think back to the late 1800s and the electrification of the entire world.   Copper was king…the power companies and everybody else needed it for electrical wiring.   And Santa Rosalia had it.  The Mexican government sold a 70-year lease to a French mining company (Boleo), and Santa Rosalia grew up as a Boleo company town.   Unlike most other towns in Mexico, the architecture is French, and the homes are made of wood rather than stucco.   It’s a cool little place.

One of the neatest places in Santa Rosalia is the Frances Hotel.   It’s all wood, it’s old world, it sits high on a hill overlooking the town and the Sea of Cortez, and it’s just flat cool…

If we work it right, this can be our turnaround point, and we’ll spend the night at the Frances Hotel.   They have Internet there, and you won’t need an alarm clock or wake up call.   The roosters will take care of that!

The French company bakery was owned by Boleo, and the Boleo panaderia (that’s Spanish for bakery) is still in business.   Muey cool, my friends.   We can wander over there after dinner for a dessert pastry…

The sun will still be up, and an after-dinner stroll to take in some of the town’s sights (and I’m only showing you a few here) always works well…maybe a cup of coffee…

Or maybe just a chance to grab a few more photos…

And of course, no visit to Santa Rosalia would be complete without a visit to the town’s Gustav-Eiffel-designed church…

And that’s it for tonight, my friends.   All the Santa Rosalia photos you see here and that one of my good buddy Tony Lopez were shots I grabbed a couple of weeks ago when Susie and I rolled through la zonas de disturbios (that’s Susie you see in the photo above standing in the doorway of Santa Rosalia’s Eiffel church).    When you make this trip, boys and girls, bring a camera!

Easter Sunday and I’m up with the roosters.  Too excited to sleep, I guess.   You probably already know this because I posted it on Facebook:  The Xin Fei Zhou docked yesterday afternoon in Long Beach…

The marine tracking service is impressive…you can even see the tugboats that pushed the Xin Fei Zhou into position.   Now, it’s all over except for the waiting.  The ship has to be unloaded, the containers have to be moved (that’s where the real backup is occurring, we’re told), the containers have to clear Customs, and then they can be transported to our plant.   As always, we’ll keep you posted.

I’d like to go for a motorcycle ride today, but I think I’m going to run out to the range this morning and punch holes in some paper.

I know you guys are wondering about the Baja trip.  So am I, folks.   As soon as we have more info on the dockside activities, I’ll post the dates.   The good news is:  We’re going!

More to follow, so keep your ojos on the blog!

I’m waiting just like you folks are.   The Xin Fei Zhou is still sitting just outside the harbor entrance.   In the meantime, I saw this Baja video on Facebook’s Motorcycle Mexico page.  It’s really good…it captures the spirit of the place superbly well…

Our shipping agent tells us the Xin Fei Zhou should be berthing soon.  I’m hesitant to share the date, as we’ve got that wrong before, but the news should be good.   Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted!

Good stuff, folks, and as promised, we’re providing a comprehensive RX3 accessories update.    There are a lot of things here and due to a few limitations with this software, it’s taking a bit longer than I’d like to add all of these items.   I’ll be posting stuff throughout the day, so check back often for new items.   If you see anything you like or if you have more questions, give my good buddy Ryan a call at 909 445 0900!

Motorcycle Accessories Grips

Lighting Kits

Centerstands 

Oil Changes

Tools

Fluids

T-Shirts

And that’s it for now.   We’re adding new things all the time, so keep checking the blog for our latest new products!

Boys and girls, it’s been an interesting day!   I was in the plant this morning to grab some photos so I could share some of our newest RX3 accessories and support gear, and like always, things are hopping.

You might have seen the photos on the Motorcyclist magazine Facebook page up on GMR and in front of the plant.    Lots of Facebook “likes” on those, my friends!   Here are the photos…one from our ride showing Ari Henning wringing out the RX3 up on Glendora Mountain Road….

And another showing Ari talking to an old bald fat guy in front of the plant…

That sure was a fun ride.   Motorcyclist is doing a story on smaller displacement bikes, and Ari told me he thought the RX3 was great.   He said he’d been testing small bikes all week and all of the others had glaring deficiencies, but he gave the RX3 a thumbs up.   Ari knows his stuff!

More good stuff…after leaving the plant today, I decided to take some personal time and head over to the range.   It was great and I had the place to myself this afternoon.    It’s relaxing, it’s fun, and I had a chance to put my bright stainless steel Colt .45 and the Springfield Armory 9mm through their paces…I love shooting those handguns…

My club is in a remote location up in the San Gabriels and it requires driving a couple of miles on dirt roads to get there.   On the way out, I spotted what I thought was a Pacific ribbon snake on the side of the road, so I stopped, grabbed my iPhone and walked right up to it to grab a photo…

You can imagine my surprise when I leaned over the thing and saw the rattles.  Whoa!    I guess it’s springtime, and young rattlesnakes are out doing what they do when the weather gets nice.   You may recall the one Susie and I saw on our way to see the cave paintings in Mexico last week…

You know, the iPhone does an okay job when taking pictures, but it just doesn’t compare to a Nikon with a big lens.  That “up close and personal” photo of the Mexican rattler was with a 70mm lens…I was in the Subie and the snake was just outside my car window.   It looks like the thing is about to kiss me, but trust me, I was a good 4 or 5 feet away.   In the photo up top (the one I grabbed with my iPhone), I was nearly on top of the thing.  In both cases, neither snake rattled.   They were checking me out and I was checking them out.   The things fascinate me.

Okay, enough of the snake stories.  On to more interesting stuff.

Everybody wants to know when the Xian Fei Zhou is going to unload.   I wish I knew.  Our shipping guy is telling us between the 1st (that’s tomorrow) and the 4th.   As soon as we know, we’ll post it here.

Next topic…what’s happening in Baja?   The LA Times has published stories on the labor riots in and around San Quintin for the last week.   It looks like the riots have subsided.   Here’s a photo I grabbed off the Internet (it’s not mine)…

It was pretty scary when Susie and I got caught in it, but it’s calmed down considerably.   We’ll be okay when we ride through there.   We just have to get the bikes off the boat and into your hands so that we can head to Baja, and we’re doing what we can to make that happen.  We’re as impatient as I know you are.

More good stuff.  I’ve got an updated accessories and supplies list for the RX3.   That’s the good news.   The bad news is that I ran out of steam tonight.   Keep an eye on the blog…I’ll post the updated accessories and supplies list tomorrow.

Later, my friends.

A blog or two down I mentioned that our motor maestro Rich was doing a hop up on our good buddy John’s CSC 250.   It’s a cool project…a ported and polished, milled-down cylinder head…

Rich had the head milled 0.035, and he got to that number by doing a clay impression of the piston at top dead center to make sure that the modified motor would have sufficient valve clearance.  Milling the cylinder head reduces the combustion chamber volume, which bumps the compression, which increases power.   Very cool stuff, and nobody is better at it than our guy Rich.

A quick shot of the engine…

And a photo of the completed bike in our “skunk works” area…

The CSC 250 you see above is a tastefully-accessorized motorcycle (these bikes look awesome in gloss black, but then, they look good in any color).  With the engine mods, it is going to be one quick scooter.   John, you’re going to have a lot of fun with this bike!

Yep, we were up in the mountains again today, this time with Ari and Brian from Motorcyclist magazine.  Good times, folks…

The orange RX3 in the photos above is absolutely stock with the exception of the handguards.   We’ll have those with the CSC logo (the handguards in the photo above are preproduction items) for just $49.95.

Here’s a shot of the blue RX3…

The blue RX3 has our Tourfella aluminum bags ($849.95) and the 19-inch front wheel ($199.95 for the wheel only; $269.95 for the wheel, tire, and matching CST dual sport tire).  I rode the blue bike today.  It was fun.