CSC Blog

Zelley stopped by on Friday on his 2007 Street Glide to pick up some of our Pro-One parts.   The Harley was beautiful and Zelley looked photogenic.   I asked, he said okay, and here you go…

My new buddy Zelley looks like one tough hombre, but all that changed after the last photo.    I told Zelley if he gets any movie deals from these photos I get 10% of the gross.   That line always gets a laugh and it sure worked this time.   But, the camera was already going back in the bag when I said it, so it’s the tough hombre look for the blog, amigos…

Thanks for stopping by Pro-One, Zelley.   Your Harley is awesome (the blue pinstriping really works against the gloss black paint).   Ride safe and we hope to see you again!

My sister Eileen (not the play…my sister’s name actually is Eileen) sent this to me earlier this morning, and I think it’s great.  Seems some of our guys in Afghanistan wanted to spoof the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders video, and they did a….well, here…take a look!

I think it’s great! Well done, guys, and thanks for your service!

I’ve been bopping around on secret missions and spending time at the rifle range…too much time, I guess.   I hadn’t been in the plant all week, and my good buddy Steve (as in Steve, the boss) sent a note to me.   He asked me to send a photo because he’d forgotten what I look like.

Okay, I can take a hint…and it’s a good thing I did, boys and girls.   The factory just finished a black 250cc P-51 Classic, and it’s awesome….tons of chrome and jet black paint!

Enough words, and on with the photos!

Whoa…check out the chrome!

The port side view…with more photos to follow

The powerful 250cc P-51 powerplant!

A jet black fuel tank with chrome center strip and a custom fuel cap

Chrome engine guards and chrome foot controls

A chrome chainguard

Chrome seat spring caps

Chrome controls and levers

Chrome billet triple tees, handlebar risers, and speedo case

Polished fork lowers and chrome wire wheels

Chrome spotlights and bullet LED turn signals

Chrome luggage rack and bullet rear LED turn signals

I know I probably didn’t catch everything with these photos, so here’s what the complete options list for this puppy looks like…

Wowee, boys and girls!   It just doesn’t get too much better than this!

Chrome and black just go together on a custom motorcycle, and it sure works on the P-51.    This is just an idea of what a CSC motorcycle might look like if you like chrome, and I sure do.

We’ve got a lot of things going on at the P-51 plant, folks…including some new toys that the boss bought for his own personal use.   I can’t talk about those yet, but in a few more weeks you’ll see even more really cool things right here on the blog.

Oh, and speaking of the boss….Steve, that photo you wanted of me?

Well, here you go!

Have you seen this child?

Ride safe, my friends!

I received this email from my good buddy Marty…

Here’s a link to a Shell commercial shown in Europe. Ostensibly, they’re selling gasoline, but the cars used in the video steal the show.  Ferrari pulled several of their race cars from various ages out of storage, flew them around the world and filmed them running through the streets of Rome, Rio, New York, Hong Kong, Honolulu, and Monaco.  No computer graphics, these are the original cars on the original streets.  The best part is the sound from the basso-profundo notes of the early, front-engine era, each scene cuts to a later generation, ending with the wail of a modern F1 car.  The sounds alone bring a tear to the eye.  Even if you’re not a gearhead, this video will stir the soul.  There’s just something about 3 liters and 14,000 RPM!

And here’s the video…it’s awesome!

That video is just too cool, folks…and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Ride safe, my friends…

For a new rear tire, that is…

When the tire gets down to the wear indicator (or maybe even a little bit before that), your bike needs new shoes.  Or at least the shoe that’s worn out.   I get about 2500 miles (sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more) out of a rear tire, and two to three times that on the front tire.   As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.   I tend not to use my rear brake (other than as a hill-holder once the bike is stopped); for me, it’s all about the front brake.  That’s where all the braking power is, and it’s just the way I ride.   That will make the rear tire last longer.   Others rely more on the rear brake, and that would make it wear more quickly.

The smaller tires and wheels on a small bike (like a CSC motorcycle or a Vespa) means the wheels are spinning faster than, say, the tires on a bike with 18-inch wheels, and it’s that increased contact with the road that will wear out a rear tire in 2500 miles.   But it all depends on the motorcycle, too.   I would go through a new rear tire every 3,000 miles on my TL1000S (it had big wheels and tires, but that was a 130-hp 425-lb motorcycle, and there were lots of times when I used every one of those 130 ponies).    My old Harley would get 8,000 miles out of a rear tire, but that thing was so low on power in its stock configuration that folks on Vespas would clean my clock on Angeles Crest Highway.

You know, the thing about motorcycle tires is once they look worn (like the one on my Baja Blaster in the photo above), they wear very quickly.   You can go from one that looks like that down to the cord in just a few miles.   Take a peek at this photo…

That happened to us on one of the trips to Baja.   One of my friends had a tire that was worn down almost to the wear indicators before we pointed the bikes south.   He thought he could get another 1000 miles out of it, but within a couple of hundred miles it was completely bald. If you look at where the arrow in the photo above is pointing, you can actually see the cord starting to peek through, and we discovered this about 150 miles south of the border.   We rode all the way home at a very sedate 45 miles per hour, not wanting to blow the tire.   After all, there aren’t too many places in Baja where you can buy a new tire for a BMW motorcycle (my friend’s ride).

We’ve got nice weather here today, folks…we had a couple of overcast and rainy days yesterday and the day before.  I wanted to ride to the plant yesterday for a new rear tire, but it was raining.    When I can’t ride and I’ve got some time, that means I’m off to the range, and that’s what my buddy Andrey and I did yesterday morning.   We wanted to keep the planet green by recycling some lead with the 9mm and .45 handguns.   The firing line has a roof over it, so the rain was not much of a problem.

We had a good time, and I had my Flip video in the car.

Yep, you can guess where this is going…here’s a quick video of yours truly and the .45 auto my friend TJ (of TJ’s Custom Guns) souped up for me…

Fun times.

So, keep an eye on your tires, and when it’s time for new shoes, give us a call!

Our good buddy Duane ventured back up to Glendora Mountain Road and sent me a note…it’s open again!

You can see the fire damage, but the road is open and that means we’ll be scheduling a company ride in the near future!    Keep an eye on the blog and we’ll let you know when.

Duane, thanks for the update!

Ride safe, folks!

Wowee, what a moment I had Sunday night.   I was in Claremont for dinner with a couple of friends, and having arrived early, I walked around the downtown area for a bit.   Much to my amazement, an original 1959 Triumph Bonneville (the first year of production for that iconic motorcycle) rolled right on by in the original powder blue and tangerine colors….

More shocked than anything else at spotting that bike, I suddenly realized I had my iPhone with me.  It took a moment to unlock the thing and get it in the camera mode, and it was already dusk out there.   Normally I take great pride in my photos and I wouldn’t show anyone a photo as out of focus as that one above, but hey, it’s all I had and I only had time for the one shot.  There’s an old saying about halitosis being better than no breath at all, so with my apologies, I’m including that ’59 Bonnie photo above here in the blog.

Here’s a shot I grabbed off the Internet of an original ’59 Bonneville.  It’s in focus and you can see what they looked like…

Those original colors are so iconic that Triumph offered a special limited commemorative model in 2009 (the 50th anniversary of the Bonneville) in the same color scheme.  Here’s what it looked like…

That’s it for now, folks.   Stay warm out there…we’ve been hearing about the brutally cold weather and we hope all of you are doing okay.

Wow, what a day!  I visited the plant yesterday and Steve showed me a magnificent gun-metal-gray P-51 with wire wheels and a very tastefully done Mustang logo as a custom touch (along with the deep, rich, dark silver paint job).   This beauty is on its way to Texas and one lucky owner…

A magnificent gun-metal-gray CSC motorcycle with a custom paint job and hand-painted Mustang logo

A tighter shot of the hand-painted Mustang logo…it’s done in real gold leaf, and the colors really work!

As it turns out, that wasn’t the only gray Mustang on the premises….while I was there, an awesome early Ford Mustang rolled in.   Steve and I were admiring it when we asked the owner if it was a ’64 or a ’65.

Turns out it’s a ’65, and what surprised me even more was that I knew the owner, Frank, a former engineering student of mine at Cal Poly.   Small world, isn’t it?

Whoa, folks, check this out…a 2012 consignment CSC motorcycle with just 77 miles on the clock!

Ruby red metallic, chrome wheels (a $750 option!), a luggage rack (a $250 option), and just 77 miles for only $3,000!

This one won’t last, folks…give us a call at 800 884 4173!

An interesting week, this one was….you all heard about Steve’s travails with the forest fire last week, what with being evacuated and all.   We had to cancel the company ride, but Duane and I were able to get together for a short Scooter ride up the hill anyway.

Duane on the way up to Mt. Baldy

That was a good day…and at the risk of making some of our good friends jealous, I will tell you that the weather here has been absolutely awesome.  Sunny, warm, and not a cloud in the sky.   Contrast  that with what’s going on in the rest of the country and, well, you know.   It’s cold out there!  I spoke to my Mom on the way home from work yesterday.   It was 80 degrees here in So Cal.  It was 4 degrees in New Jersey.  Yikes!

My buddy Marty and I visited my good friend TJ (a top notch pistolsmith) on Saturday for a bit of work on my .45 auto.   What a day that turned out to be.   We wanted to stop at our favorite Italian restaurant for lunch, but they were closed, so we moseyed up the road and found a dynamite little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place (Armando’s in San Gabriel).  The food was awesome, but we experienced something we never had experienced before.   One of the folks ordered fajitas…you know, the food comes out on a steel tray at about a zillion degrees, and the whole enchilada (sorry, couldn’t resist that one) is sizzling and steaming.   I’m not sure what kind of peppers and other spices Armando’s had on that hot plate, but within seconds the entire room (including yours truly) was coughing and sneezing.   The waitresses were running around opening all the doors and windows….they had clearly done this before, and nobody seemed troubled or bothered by it (other than the coughing and sneezing).     I had chile rellenos, and my lunch was awesome.    One of these days, though, I’m going to try the fajitas there.   They’re obviously something special!

So after we left, we had to get back on the San Bernardino Freeway, and when we saw the entrance we were off.  The only problem was that I grabbed the wrong entrance…I picked up the one that was for the high occupancy toll lanes.  Once I had turned onto it, I saw that the regular freeway entrance (for the poor folks like me who don’t like to pay tolls for roads we’ve already paid for with taxes) was just beyond the entrance I grabbed.   I was committed, though.  And there are cameras all over the place.  I don’t have the transponder deal, so I expect I’ll be getting a hefty bill in the mail for that mistake.

But wait…this story gets better.   Once I was on the freeway, I got out of the toll lane as soon as I could…and here’s the clincher:   I exited the carpool HOV toll lanes right in front of a California Highway Patrol officer.   Yikes again.   A carpool lane violation.   That’s a $500 ticket, folks.  On top of the big bill I know I’m going to get for being in the HOV lane without the transponder.   Oh, this was turning out to be a red letter day!

The Chippie lit me up and Marty and I pulled over.   He was a good guy, though…I told him what happened, he checked my license, and he let me go with a friendly warning.   Wow.   I felt like I needed to run out and buy a lottery ticket right away.

And you know what?  When I get the letter from those toll road folks, I’m going to contest it.   The toll entrance was deceptive, and there was no way to get out of it once I started to enter.    Got an ace up my sleeve, too.   My buddy Marty will testify for me if it goes to trial.   Marty is actually a superior court judge, and he just might make a decent witness.  We’ll see.

My refinished Mosin Nagant 91/30…a really fun project rifle!

A few blogs ago I told you about a couple of older rifles I’ve been playing with.   One is a Russian Mosin Nagant.   I am actually having a lot of fun with it.  Those old Russian rifles are inexpensive, they are crude, and they shoot well.

I’ve had the Mosin Nagant to the range a couple of times already, and it sure is fun.   Mine was made in 1940.   It just feels cool firing a rifle that is almost 75 years old.

The Mosin Nagant sure was rough looking, though.   Mine was absolutely caked with dirt and cosmoline.   I guess the cosmoline did its job…there’s no rust anywhere on this 75-year-old rifle, but it sure was funky.   The cosmoline had seeped into the wood as well as the metal work, and you don’t get that stuff off with solvents…you have to heat up the rifle and melt it off.   I bought a heat gun at Harbor Freight for just that reason, and that little heat gun has been earning its keep this week.

This week I took the thing completely apart and I worked on it for hours to get all of the cosmoline, grease, and dirt out.  Then I stripped the stock and  refinished it with 8 coats of TruOil.    It looks amazing now.   In fact, I had it out to the range this morning, and it shoots even better than it did before.   I was out there doing my best impersonation of Vasily Zaitsev (Google that name, or better yet, watch Enemy at the Gates).   The Mosin Nagant is the same rifle old Vasily used at Stalingrad.  It’s a hell of a story.

On the way back, I stopped at Pegasus Hobbies.   That place is awesome.   We work a few projects with our engineering students at Cal Poly that require Tamiya motor and gear kits, and Pegasus helps us with these.   I love that place.  I used to be a big time model builder, and I still love seeing what’s out there in kit form.   It turns out that Tom, the owner, is a serious biker, too.  He’s got Nortons, older Kawis, and other classic bikes.   Some of the kits were awesome, and I snapped a few photos for you…

A Brough Superior 1000…I saw a real one once I and wanted to own it badly, but Susie wouldn’t let me sell the house to buy it!

A Suzook Katana…I had an ’82 that I just recently discussed on the blog!

I always wanted a Guzzi…and this may be as close as I ever get!

I’ll be at the plant tomorrow…Steve and the crew have a couple of new custom CSC motorcycles they just finished, and the word is out that they look good.   I’ll grab a few photos for you, so check back in a day or two right here on the blog.

That’s it for today, my friends.   Ride safe, stay warm, and keep the shiny side up!