CSC Blog

Yep, tomorrow!

Be at the plant at 9:00 a.m. with a full tank of gas, and we’re heading for the hills….bring an appetite, because we’re going to have lunch at the Mt. Baldy Lodge.

See you tomorrow…

Folks, our good buddy Florida John sent this note to me yesterday…

Hi Joe,

I wanted to share with everyone some of the changes I made on my Greaser.

I love to ride this bike.  I was at a bike show this weekend & had more activity around my bike……so much fun.

You can see the pad I made to cover the saddle bag bracket.  Hope you and all enjoy the pictures.

Thanks,

John from Venice Florida

John, your Greaser really looks awesome!   You did a great job on it!

Thanks for sending these pictures to us to share with all of our CSC blog readers.  Ride safe and we’ll see you on the road!

Now that, my friends, is a sign that the boys on American Pickers would surely love to find.   Wowee, an original Mustang dealer sign, complete with the patina of age that makes it real.

That photo above is just one of many I grabbed at the CSC plant this morning.   I had my Nikon with me and I was having fun.

So here are just a few Mustangs I shot this morning, folks…wow, that didn’t come out the way I wanted it to!   You know what I mean…just a few of Steve’s Mustangs I photographed.

First, a 1961 Mustang Stallion…

The Stallion is awesome.   And you know, of course, that we can duplicate that paint on a CSC motorcycle.   We’ve already done CSC motorcycles with similar two-tone paint jobs, and a bike in the Stallion’s paint theme shown here would really look good.

Here’s that ’59 Pony I showed you in the last blog entry…

My good buddy Jimbo wrote to tell me that it’s actually a Bronco, not a Pony (the Pony did not have a front brake; the Bronco did).    Jimbo, we’ll certainly bow to your superior knowledge.

And here’s a 1963 Thoroughbred, the Mustang with swing-arm rear suspension…

How about an absolutely perfect DeliverCycle?   This one in yellow is a 1955…and it’s one of four in Steve’s collection.

Cool stuff, folks, and most definitely an awesome collection of vintage bikes.

You know, I was getting pretty excited about being around these, and I asked Steve if he would ever consider selling any of these original vintage Mustangs.   The answer was a qualified “maybe.”

Hmmmm.   I’m hooked on my CSC 150 (I love that bike and I’ll be riding it this weekend on the company ride up in the San Gabriel Mountains).    But you might want to own an original.   You never know.  Give Steve a call.   Let me know what he says…

Folks, our company ride is coming up real soon…it’s this Sunday, and we’ll be leaving from the plant at 9:00 a.m. sharp.   Give us a call or drop an email to let us know if you’re going to be there so we’ll know how many to expect!

In the meantime, here’s a bit of eye candy…check out this drop dead gorgeous 1959 Mustang Pony from Steve’s extensive inventory of vintage Mustangs…

You know, when Steve first started CSC Motorcycles, he used the Mustang Pony as the model for all that would follow.   I’d say he nailed it!    Take a look at my personal ride, compare it to the photo above, and tell me if you agree!

That’s it for now…we hope to see you on Sunday!

Lots of good stuff this week, folks.   Susie and I are headed out to Reseda in a bit…we’re getting our Turkish carpets cleaned at a place that specializes in this sort of thing.   I kind of fell into the Turkish carpet thing when I was doing a lot of business in, well, Turkey back in the 1990s.   Turkey is an amazing place, and if you ever have an opportunity to visit, it is something you wouldn’t want to miss.

Anyway, during one of those earlier visits, I visited a Turkish carpet factory outside of Kayseri.  It was the most vertically integrated factories I’ve ever seen.  They literally had sheep walking in at one end of the factory and finished carpets coming out at the other end of the factory (beautiful carpets, too, I might add).   Wild times and wild stuff.  I brought home several (the prices over there were obscenely low).   The U.S. Customs guys at LAX were kind of pain about me carrying them in, but hey, I got through that okay.

So our trip to Reseda later today is only part of the traveling I’ve up doing this week.   My good buddy Landon over at Motorcycle Classics wanted an article about riding in the San Bernardino Mountains, and it doesn’t take much for me and the Nikon to hit the road.   There’s just something about a ride in the mountains, snow-dusted roads, and a country breakfast up in the pine-scented air.   I had a great time, and I thought I’d share some of the photos I grabbed with you here in the blog.

This first shot is Silverwood Lake, on the way up along Highway 18.    I guess I should mention that all of the “view” shots you see here are courtesy of my 12-24 Tokina wide angle lens.   It is one of my favorites because it always returns great shots, they are sharp, and the polarizer really makes the colors pop.

This next few shots are from the “Rim of the World” Highway along the southern edge of the San Bernardino Mountains.  It was cold up there, but it was great.

Here’s the little mountain town of Running Springs…it’s where I stopped for a magnificent breakfast.

Ah, the Old Country Coffee Shop in Running Springs. These folks know how to do it right!

Two eggs over medium, coffee, extra crispy bacon, and well-done hash browns…the breakfast of champions…with some cool artwork thrown in for good measure!

After that great breakfast, it was back on the road for the run up to Big Bear Lake…

And here’s a view of  Big Bear Lake from the southern end, right at the dam…

I had a great time and a great ride…and I stopped for this low wide angle shot of Highway 138 on the way down near Onyx Summit.

Cool stuff and a cool ride…speaking of which…

Next Sunday, folks…it’s our next company ride.    That’s the 13th of April, and we’ll do it up on Glendora Ridge Road, leaving from the CSC plant at 9:00 a.m.   Watch for more details right here!

I had so much fun on my recent Glendora Ridge Road ride I did a couple of things….I took a photo of myself (a “selfie”) up there with the Baja Blaster, and then I took another ride up in the San Bernardino Mountains to Big Bear and beyond.   The Big Bear ride was yesterday, and I had to do it in the Subie CrossTrek (it was cold up there, and Lupe was putting a new tire on the Baja Blaster for me this week).

First, the selfie….

Yours truly, with the Baja Blaster…yep, we  had shirt sleeve weather out here a few days ago!

My friends said I look good.   Ah, I don’t know.   I’m still vertical, and I guess that’s good!    The real stars of the photo above, of course, are the San Gabriel Mountains (they are glorious) and my CSC 150.   I’ve had that bike four years now, and it looks just as good today as it did the day I picked it up!   I really like the colors, and I really like how the red wheels go with the rest of the bike.  It’s a great looking ride…just a beautiful motorcycle.

Watch for the photos from my Big Bear trip right here on the blog…I grabbed some good ones and I’ll post them this weekend!

Spring is upon us, folks…let’s fire those CSC motorcycles up and ride!

My good buddy Jimbo came through (as always) regarding our request for stories about Mustang road trips…check this out!

Joe:

I have a story about a Mustang trip but the dates fail me…I think this happened about 1960.

Our Waco Texas dealer Roy Stone rod a Mustang (double) from Waco, Texas to the Mustang plant on Concord Avenue in Glendale, California, and then on to Disneyland.  I did a valve job on their bike while they were visiting….Here’s a photo of them while they visited.

From left to right: Howard Forrest, Chief Engineer….J.Wade Brunson, Sales Manager…Roy Stone and his son (I forgot his name).

Roy Stone is still alive and has never missed a Mustang National Meeting…he was our best dealer and he sold many units to the Shriners.

This story had been told many times in the club but the real story from Roy Stone himself should be told. He has been around and his adventures should be told.

This is the only long distance trip that I can remember.   Perhaps if you ask in the Mustang Forum you might get results.!

Cheers!

Jimbo

Jim, that sounds like a fine ride, and thanks very much for sending this to us!    And folks, if you’ve got a story (with or without photos), please send it in!

We’ll follow up on your suggestion, Jim, and I’ll post a request on the Mustang Forum this weekend.   And for everyone…I recently joined the Mustang Owners Club and it is a hoot.   I have a couple of the newsletters and their forum is awesome.   Watch for more information on this fine group in the very near future!

Ride safe, folks!

Hey guys and gals, I’m looking for information on any long trips folks have made on Mustang motorcycles.   I know about the long ones intrepid adventurers like Arlene, Howard, Simon, and yours truly have made on our CSC motorcycles….but I’m trying to find out about similar trips on the original Mustangs.

Howard exploring the world on his CSC

Chasing Arlene and TK in Death Valley

Arlene in Baja

Simon Gandolfi, somewhere in Mexico

Simon and yours truly near the southern end of Concepcion Bay on the Sea of Cortez

If you have any information about any such Mustang trips, please shoot it to us!   I’d like to incorporate it into our upcoming book on Mustang motorcycles.   You can send it to us at info@cscmotorcycles.com.

Thanks in advance.

Check out yet another awesome photo from Steve’s collection of vintage Mustangs and related memorabilia….

Those are Model 2 Mustangs, which are (as the name suggests) the second model the original Mustang Motor Products Corporation offered.   The Model 2 was made necessary by Villiers cutting off Mustang’s supply of two-stroke engines (used in the original Colt).   The Colt was a tiny bike; the Model 2 was a scaled up version that used Mustang’s new 322cc flathead four-stroke engine.

You can tell the bikes above are the Model 2 by the exhaust manifold.   On the original Model 2, both the intake and the exhaust were at the rear of the cylinder head, and that fancy manifold you see above routed the exhaust to the classic Mustang chrome pipe.   Later models turned the cylinder head around, so the Model 2 is the only one with the “U-turn” exhaust manifold.

Very cool stuff, and my guess this photo (assuming these were new Mustangs at the time) would have been taken around 1948 or 1949 (when the Model 2 first appeared).   I’ll go you even one better…I think I recognize the location!   My guess is that it’s at the very beginning of the Angeles Crest Highway (CA Hwy 2), overlooking Glendale, California.

Glendale, of course, is where the original Mustangs were built (just of few miles from our current CSC location).   And folks, this is muey cool for a number of reasons….not the least of which is that the Angeles Crest Highway is one of our CSC premier motorcycle rides.   You’ve seen photos of us on that magnificent road numerous times right here on the CSC blog!

It’s kind of cool to think of CSC motorcycles on the very same roads as the Model 2 Mustangs.   Awesome, actually…the same motorcycle concept on the same road, separated by 65 years!

That’s it for now….I’m off on another secret mission.   It will be warmer than the last one, and it involves meeting with another moto manufacturer.  Can’t tell you who, but the name begins with a K!

Let the good times roll!