CSC Blog

Folks, that’s the Hanjin Germany, which left Shanghai very early this morning (our time) and is on its way to Long Beach, California!  If you look very closely, the first half of the vessel’s containers are all filled with your favorite motorcycles (well, maybe I’m exaggerating just a bit…).   The Germany can carry 10,000 shipping containers!

She’s making a stop to pick up more containers in Pusan, Korea (my old stomping grounds back in the day when OD green was my favorite color), and she will arrive in Long Beach on the 6th of March.    Due to the current labor unrest roiling our coast, the berthing date is currently scheduled to be on the 23rd of March.   Maybe it will be sooner; things are happening in labor negotiations and hopefully the ship will be unloaded more quickly.   We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

One more thing…if you want to track the Germany’s progress, here’s where she is right now…

Good times, folks…our RX3s are on the way!    Me, I’m going for a motorcycle ride up on Glendora Ridge Road in just a bit to celebrate.   Photos to phollow…

One of the things you may have noticed about our posts here on the blog, on Facebook, and on the Internet forums is that we always invite folks to stop by the plant if they want to ride the RX3.   I’m usually the guy who gets to take our fans out, and my favorite route is to head into the San Gabriel Mountains.

I was in the plant this morning working on the setup instructions we’re providing as part of the service manual when Steve mentioned we had somebody stopping by for a test ride.

“Where they coming from, Boss?” I asked, lost in the photos I was assembling for the setup instructions.

“Georgia,” Steve said.

“Georgia, as in the one on the east coast?”

“Yep, she flew out here just to ride the bike,” answered Steve.

I was intrigued.   Georgia.   Just to catch a ride on the CSC RX3.   Wow!

Folks, meet Anne…

It was a fun ride, and Anne is going to stop by tomorrow for another run.   After all, she flew in all the way from Georgia just to check out the RX3.    And the weather’s been perfect.   And I need more photos for the blog.    And….well, you get the idea…

I know what you’re wondering.    Yes, they actually pay me to this.   No, my job is not available.  No, I don’t need any helpers.  Yes, I’d do it even if they didn’t pay me.   But don’t tell Steve.

You asked, and we’re answering:   The CSC Baja Inaugural Run is tentatively scheduled for mid April!

All of this depends, of course, on the west coast dockworker situation and a host of other factors, and it’s subject to change if those folks can’t settle their differences.   The RX3 motorcycles are in Shanghai right now (they’ve completed their journey down the Yangtze River), and they should be loaded on the ocean-going container vessel later this week (we’ll post info on that as we receive it).   But we need to start planning, and that’s what we’re doing!

I had thought we would be good to go for a trip on 22-27 March, but I posted those dates on the blog just a short while ago, and within a few minutes we heard from our shipping broker.   The ship is due to arrive at Long Beach on the 13th of March, but with the current labor situation we’re guessing at how long it will take to get the bikes off the boat.   As we know more, we’ll let you know.    I’ll do my best to keep you posted.

Shoot an email to me at jberk@cscmotorcycles.com if you’re in!  In the meantime, I’ve got a page on the Motofoto.cc site outlining past Baja rides, so if you want to live vicariously until we point the Cyclones south, just find your way to http://motofoto.cc/mexico.htm to get a feel for what this wonderland is like!

More to follow, boys and girls, so stay tuned!

We sure have been busy.   We have some new faces at CSC (we’ll tell you more about those folks in the near future), we’re continuing to work the RX3 accessories line, and I’ve been spending most of my time working on the Service Manual.   It’s going to be good, with four sections (setup, the motorcycle, the engine, and the Delphi engine management system).    We’re taking what Zongshen provided, tailoring it to our US and Canadian markets, and adding lots of illustrations.   You’ll like it.

I took the Z-06 to the car wash on the way in to the plant the morning, and because I had the D3300 Nikon with me, I took a few photos.   Check out this awesome Chevy truck…

I was shooting toward the sun, which is why you see that little bit of flare on the fender just above the front tire.  I am really liking this new Nikon and the lens it came with.   It does a great job.

More good stuff…I want an Alaska Leather sheepskin cover for my RX3, and after contacting those folks, one is on the way to us.   I had one on my KLR, and the difference a sheepskin cover can make after a long day in the saddle is incredible.   The stock RX3 seat is good, but I’m planning on wearing out lots of tires on my new RX3 (i.e., I’ll be doing a lot of riding), and I have strong ideas about what I like.  An Alaska Leather sheepskin cover is firmly on that list.   I contacted them over the weekend, they asked for seat measurements, and I grabbed them morning.   Here are the dimensions on the RX3 seat…

And more…while I had the camera out, I had to grab a photo of our liberated war zone CSC-150 in desert camo.   I really love the look of this bike…

Still more good stuff…we received a nice letter from James.   Our good buddy James lives in  Mustang.  Yep, there’s a town named Mustang and it’s in Oklahoma.   Here’s James’ note to us:

This is my 2013 CSC Mustang.

Notice the Stash Tube on the crossmember under the seat (a perfect fit).  I made the chrome strip on the tank, custom chain guard and one of a kind battery cover.  I also added the fringe seat and fringe on the handle grips along with the heal-toe shifter.

The Mustang is special to me because it goes along with the town and street I live on.

James
Mustang Road
Mustang, Oklahoma

We’ll be posting more in the next few days as the RX3 motorcycles launch on their journey across the Pacific. The RX3 motorcycles are in Shanghai today, where they will be transferred to a larger ocean-going container ship.  We’ll post the details soon.

A quick update on the dockworker labor actions affecting the western US…it’s still ongoing, and the LA Times reported this morning that there are now 32 ships waiting out at sea for the labor unrest to end.   It’s affecting businesses worldwide now, and the Feds are stepping in to do what they can to get this unhealthy situation resolved.   My feeling is that it will be resolved soon; when the Feds get involved, it has to motivate both sides to find a solution.   We’ve got time before our bikes cross the Pacific.   Let’s hope they get back to work quickly.   We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

Ride safe, my friends.

One of my students told me about a site he thought I might enjoy after he saw me on campus with my CSC-150.   He was right; I thought the site was great, and you can see it here.

Oh, and that guy in the photo above?  That’s James Dean in his earlier days.   No kidding.

I received a nice note from my good buddy Duane yesterday…

Joe:

When it gets hot at home like it did today, I like to take a drive up into the National Forest, where the air is even cleaner and hang out in the pine trees at 5200 feet,  at Crystal lake, where it was a cool 68 degrees.

Duane

We have been having some great weather out here, folks, approaching 90 degrees without a cloud in the sky.   Good times.

The Minben is making good progress and she has nearly completed her journey down the Yangtze River to Shanghai.  Here’s her position just a few minutes ago…

When she gets to Shanghai (a little town of about 20 million people), our containers will be transferred from the Minben to a much larger container ship.  The Minben is a river vessel; the larger cargo ship will carry our bikes across the Pacific.    The labor unrest on our side of the pond has not subsided, but I read in the papers this morning that Obama is weighing in on that situation now.   That’s good news, as it might move things along and by the time our bikes arrive hopefully it will be settled.  I’m a union member at Cal Poly, so I kind of understand what these guys want…but the dockworkers make a hell of a lot more money than a college professor does, and we do okay.   I just hope it gets settled quickly.   I don’t care much about which side wins (hopefully, both sides will); I just want to get my new motorcycle!

You might notice the town of Suzhou just south of the Minben’s current position.  I’ve been there when I last visited Shanghai.  Suzhou is about an hour and a half away by car, and it’s an interesting place.  It’s like Venice…everything moves by water, and canals dominate the city.   It’s a pretty cool place.   China has its own Venice…who knew?

Later, folks.   I’m headed out to see American Sniper with Susie in a bit.

As the title states, it’s our latest on our securing CARB approval, and you can read it here!

Someone asked about the RX3 width with the stock saddlebags and with the optional Tourfella accessory bags.   We put the Tourfella bags on our blue RX3 yesterday, and it looks great!

After I shot the above photo, Steve and I measured the bike width across the bags on both bikes.   For the standard bags, the width is about 29 inches…

And with the larger aluminum Tourfella bags, the width across the bags is about 35 inches…

Here’s one more thing we’re adding to the accessories stable that I thought I would share with you today…it’s a gel-filled, sheepskin-topped seat cover.

The price for the sheepskin/gel seat cover is $119.95.

That’s it for now, folks.     As always, stay tuned…

I’ve already put my order in for 7 (yep, one for each day of the week)!   How about you?

These will be here in about 2 weeks.   For S, M, L, and XL, the price is $19.95.   For you grownups (XXL), the price is $23.95.   Give us a call at 909 445 0900 and let us know how many you want!

Short, sweet, and to the point:

The California Air Resources Board approved the CSC RX3 for sale in California today.

Watch for our press release on this tomorrow, folks.

Several of you have asked what the capacity difference is between our $849.95 Tourfella accessory bags and the RX3’s stock bags.    We have a set of Tourfellas in stock right now, I found a tape measure earlier today, and here we go…

I guess I should mention that all dimensions are approximate…I was eyeballing the tape as I was doing this and trying to account for measurement parallax as best I could.  On the Tourfella bags, they won’t have that big gaudy “Tourfella” red label on them (this was just a set I photographed in China).   The aluminum Tourfella bags are elegant and they are very well constructed.   On the Tourfella bags, the left and the right bag are identical.  They are a heck of a deal at $849.95.

The stock RX3 bags are resin (that’s a fancy way of saying plastic), and they’re nice, too.   They are different on the right and the left; the right bag has a cutout for the muffler.   Here are the stock luggage dimensions…

Some of you guys have asked how many liters the bags hold.   Guys, I don’t know.   I could attempt to get liters from the dimensions you see above, but what would be the point?  Are you going to pour soda pop or something in there?   And even if I did make the calculation, it would have to account for the angled surfaces on the bags, the inside corner radii, and, well, you get the idea.

So, on to the next topic.   You know I’ve been thinking about a new camera.   Well, that’s one of the things I’m thinking about.   Like you, I’m spending most of my time thinking about my new RX3 on its way down the Yangtze River enroute to me, and I’ve been thinking about the Baja trip.   And the trips we’ll have following that ride.    It’s a good set of thoughts.   But you already know that.

Well, today I bit the bullet and I bought a new Nikon.   Actually, I bought two of them…one will be a dedicated motorcycle trip camera and the other will be my bigger one for other stuff.    I want to talk about what makes a good motorcycle camera in this blog.

I am just getting over the worst case of bronchitis I ever had, and to compound the felony, I had an adverse reaction to the antibiotic my good doc gave me.   Wowee, that’s not something I’d care to go through again!  Anyway, I’m back among the living now, and I decided to give myself a treat.  Actually, like I said, two treats.   I bought a D810 Nikon today (that’s the big flagship Nikon), and I also bought the smallest digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera Nikon makes.   That’s their D3300 model.   The D3300 is going to be my dedicated adventure touring camera.

There are lots of reasons for getting the small D3300 Nikon.  For one, it’s small.   My old workhorse D200 has served me well for 10 years, but that thing is a tank.  It’s heavy.   And it’s big.  By itself, with its case and a couple of extra lenses, it basically took up the entire top luggage case on the RX3.   Wearing it around my neck while I was riding was uncomfortable, but I needed to do that to get the best photos from the cockpit.  Nope, I wanted small and I wanted light, and that’s why I went for the D3300.

Some of you might wonder:  Why not just get a little “point and shoot” digital camera?   The short answer is that the photo quality from a point and shoot camera can’t compare to a DSLR.   The little point and shoot cameras have a time lag, too, between the time you press the shutter and the time it actually takes the photo.   Nope, this boy needs a real camera.   I demand nothing less.   So do you…the photos you’ve been seeing here in the blog for the last several years are DSLR photos.   You demand good stuff, and so do I.

So I bought the D3300 this afternoon, and I’ve been playing with it a bit tonight.   Folks, it’s awesome.   I set it up to account for the ambient lighting (it somehow figures the white balance out on its own), and snapped a few photos in my mancave to see how it would do.   In a word, it’s incredible.   Way better image quality than the D200, but that’s what 10 years of digital camera engineering will do for you, I guess.    I grabbed one shot to see how faithfully it would capture the wood grain in a few gun stocks, without flash, and well…you be the judge…

You’ll be seeing more photos here on the blog from the D3300, and I want to plant a seed in your mind.

Folks, this D3300 Nikon camera sells for $499 with the lens.   I paid $2,000 for the D200 without any lenses 10 years ago, and it doesn’t do as good a job as the new D3300.

Next thing to consider…having photos from any motorcycle adventure really adds to the adventure, both during the ride and after the ride.   I’m just more tuned into the scenery, the people, the food, the bikes, the road, and everything else when I have a camera with me.   I’m thinking about how what I’m seeing will make a great shot.   It really adds to the experience.   And then there’s what happens after the ride.  My good buddy Dick Scott, whom you read about a few blogs down, tumbled me to that fact 20+ years ago when he told me he felt like he was taking a ride all over again when he looked at his photos.   Boys and girls, you need a camera, especially if you’re going to ride with us in Baja.

Hey, that’s it for now.

Ride safe, keep an eye on the blog, and just think…your RX3 is on its way here!