CSC Blog

Susie told me this morning I needed a haircut.   That’s pretty rich, considering I don’t have much hair, but hey, it’s a good excuse for a motorcycle ride.   Not that I need an excuse to get out on the bike…it’s Saturday, it’s a beautiful day, and going to the barber shop is as good a reason as any to fire up the Baja Blaster.

Maybe next time I'll get a Mohawk...

I have mixed emotions about getting a haircut.   I actually like visiting the barber shop, but I still am a little nervous around barbers (more on this in a minute or two).    The barber shop I went to today had a couple of really cool old chairs.    I like old stuff, and these two chairs in particular were kind of neat…

Two antique barber chairs...I was in the one on the left earlier today

Like I said, I like barber shops.   I like the talcum powder smell, I like the happy vibes that seem to permeate any barber shop, and I like the fact that I don’t have to go too often.   For starters, as explained already, I don’t have too much hair.   And then there’s the trick I learned from my Dad about cutting grass 50 years ago.

Dad was always fooling around with machinery and cool stuff, and one day he came home with this lawn mower that looked like it was designed to cut down forests.   It was called the Big Snapper (don’t laugh…that was its real name) and it was a delightfully crude piece of gear.   It had a big 8-horsepower Wisconsin engine and a big flat hunk of diamond plate that doubled as its frame.   We grew up in a very rural part of New Jersey (it’s not all like Hoboken back there), we lived on a couple of acres, and the Big Snapper was perfect for what we had to do.

Dad on the Big Snapper back in the 1950s...

Before you start thinking we came from money, let me stop you right there.   Having a couple of acres in the sticks back in those days was not a sign of wealth…it was a sign of not being able to afford living closer to the city.   What it meant to me was that I had to mow two acres of weeds in the summer, and that riding mower looked mighty good from that perspective.

Dad figured out pretty quickly that the blade height on the Big Snapper was adjustable, and once he learned that, he adjusted it to give the grass a Marine Corps haircut.   The blade was as low as it could go.   “Won’t have to cut the grass as often,” Dad said.    As the guy who did most of the cutting (and as a guy who loved anything with a motor), it sounded good to me.

So back to this business of being afraid of barbers…

When I was a little kid, we had a “country” everything.   Country store, country barber, and a country doctor.   When I was about 5, my Mom took me to get at haircut at Charley the Barber’s (our country barber), and I was propped up in the little kid’s chair while Charley worked on me.   It was a cool barber shop built into one of the rooms in Charley’s house (in those days when you lived out in the sticks, lots of businesses were built into peoples’ homes).

Charley was one of these barbers who used a scissors more than a clipper, and those scissors were in constant motion.  He kept  the things snipping even when he wasn’t actually cutting my hair, and in fact, I’m guessing that maybe one snip in 10 actually went towards cutting hair.   Watching Charley keeping those blades dancing around my head always made me nervous, but what happened next really put me in orbit.

Milburn Stone, aka Doc Bristol

As I mentioned, we had a country everything.   While Charlie (our country barber) was snipping away on my little head, our country doctor popped in for a haircut.  That would be Doc Bristol.   He looked exactly like Milburn Stone, and if you don’t know who that is…well, he was the doctor in the old Gunsmoke series.  (If you’re not old enough to remember Gunsmoke, I can’t help you.)

“Hey, I see you got little Berky in the chair,” said Doc Bristol.  “Cut one of his ears off…I need the business!”

Whoa!   That was all it took.  I mean, I was 5 years old and I didn’t quite get sarcasm yet.  I went nuts.  So much so that my Mom had to take me home.  With half a haircut (but fortunately, I remember thinking, both my ears).

I would not go back to Charley’s.   Ever.    To make a long story short, my Dad (who loved gadgets anyway) bought a hair trimmer that day.  And yes, my old man cut my hair from that day forward.   All the way up to the time I went in the Army.  I still get a little nervous around barbers, but Dad’s been gone for 30 years now and you do what you gotta do.

Lupe, my Spanish tutor...

Anyway, after several decades I got to a place in my life where I can walk into a barber shop without my blood pressure going up.

I actually enjoy the experience now, and in particular, I enjoyed the barber shop I visited today.   I still go for cheap haircuts and I always have them use the No. 1 clipper (remember the lawn mower story; it’s the shortest one they have).   I refuse to pay big bucks for a haircut, and if I’m the only guy speaking English in the shop, that’s even better.  I’m trying to learn Spanish and visiting the barber shops gives me a chance to learn a bit more.  I was actually able to follow some of the conversation in there today.   I’m doing the Rosetta Stone thing with Spanish and Lupe is helping me a bit.  It’s cool.

There were two moments of truth at the end of my visit today.

One was when the barber handed me the mirror and asked if I liked the haircut.   Hey, it’s a lawn mower special with the blade as low as it will go!   You bet.  I love it.

The other moment of truth was when I walked over to the register.  The sign said haircuts were $11, but the senior cut was $8.   Maybe my barber wouldn’t think I was a geezer.

“That will be $8, please…”

Why is it that the most clever commercials always come from the beer companies?

Yep, the guy riding this motorcycles actually said “shoo” to an angry ram…

Here’s an interesting video of a close encounter in New Zealand…it’s ram versus motorcycle, and I think the ram won…

I’m always a little unnerved when encountering wild animals on a motorcycle…I had a similar experience with a much more benign result several years ago while riding my old Triumph Daytona across British Columbia.   My buddy Marty and I were riding in the 2005 Three Flags Rally, noting the signs to watch out for the mountain sheep, when we spotted this guy way up the road…it was a mountain sheep standing right next to the sign.

I was still shooting film in those days and I had my Nikon N70 in my tank bag.   I had a super wide angle 17-35 Sigma lens on the camera, which was useless for photographing something that far away, and I remember frantically rooting around trying to get my 70-300 lens on the camera.   You know the drill…don’t drop the bike, get the right lens on the camera, and get the shot.  I did, and I grabbed the photo above…while still straddling the Triumph.    I was feeling pretty good about that until…

What happened next was really wild.   I remember thinking that the animal was likely to run off into the woods at any second, which is why I was desperate to get the right lens and take the shot.   Instead of running off into the woods, though, the thing looked right at me and started walking towards us.   Uh oh.   Marty and his BMW were right behind me, and I remembered the joke about the two guys being chased by the bear.  One says to the other “Man, we’ve got to be faster than this bear…” and the other guy says “No, I only need to be faster than you…”

The sheep was getting closer and now I had the opposite problem…I had a telephoto lens on the camera and the sheep was getting closer, and closer, and closer.   Hmmm, I wondered.   Do mountain sheep bite?   Or do they just butt their heads into you?    I could see the headline…Triumph Rider Gored By Sheep.     What a way to go, I remember thinking.  It would be, you know, really baaa-aa-addd (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one).

Still, this would be a fantastic photo.   Another frantic lens change followed…this time back to the original wide angle Sigma lens.  That’s when I grabbed this shot…

Curiously (and unlike the experience that poor dirt bike rider had in the video above), this animal wasn’t hostile at all.   He just kind of circled around, looking at me, and then he (or maybe she) just wandered back into the woods.   Whew!

In thinking about it later, Marty and I decided that they were probably used to being fed, and it most likely approached us looking for a handout.

Interesting times.

I’m going to guess none of our blog followers rides an Amazonas, but if I’m wrong, please let me know!   And if you don’t know what an Amazonas is (or was), here’s a photo…

Yep, the Amazonas is a monster of a motorcycle.  Made in Brazil to get a big bike while skirting that country’s trade restrictions,  it was based on a 1600cc VW engine.  Just awesome.  I can only imaging the engineering meetings in which the Amazonas concept emerged.  In many ways, this bike paved the design path ultimately picked up by the Honda Gold Wing.

Today, we routinely see cruisers and touring bikes offering more displacement and more cylinders, but back in the day, this thing was pretty awesome.  I couldn’t find much information on the Amazonas bikes, mostly because there’s not much out there.   I’m guessing some are still being ridden in Brazil, but I don’t know if they are still in production.  I’ve never seen one in person.  If you have more information, please let me know.

So why the interest in the Amazonas?  Well, while poking around in the new CSC plant, I have been learning a lot about Pro-One (our sister company).   Pro-One offers V-twin and automotive accessories, including parts for VWs.   The EMPI line of performance products is particularly cool, and we sell a lot of those in our new showroom.

The VW world is very interesting.  I had a ’73 Super Beetle back in the day, and it was one of the best cars I ever owned.   It wasn’t fast but it sure was pretty (mine was powder blue), and the workmanship on it was way ahead of everything else.  I drove that car all over, including from New Jersey to El Paso when I was in the service.   My Dad (like a lot of people) thought I was nuts for buying a foreign car back in 1973, until he drove it.   Then he fell in love with the thing.  Dad drove that little VW when I deployed overseas for a year, and when I came home I had a hard time getting it back from him.

Anyway, all of the Pro-One gear related to VWs got me to thinking about my old Beetle, and that naturally steered my thinking to the Amazonas.  Cool stuff, and all part of the history of motorcycling.

You can keep up with the goings-on in our Pro-One world by liking our Pro-One Facebook page (please visit it and give us a “like”), and in the meantime, please let me know if you have any information on the Amazonas (thanks in advance).

“When I saw Twin Peaks Steve’s Bobber on the blog, I knew I wanted those wire wheels on my bike!”

That’s what San Marino Bill told me when I stopped by the plant a short while ago.  Bill was loading the newly-accessorized Bobber onto his bike rack.   That’s when I grabbed this quick shot….

And you know what?  Those wire wheels and whitewalls absolutely make Bill’s Bobber come alive!  They look just great!

Bill is an interesting guy.  We had a great conversation while TK was selling him a few more accessories for his Bobber.  It was a fun morning.  Bill actually bought two California Scooters…both were project bikes we featured here on the blog and on our CSC Classifieds page a couple of weeks ago.   We still have one of the project bikes left, and it’s a honey…

You can see more photos and learn more about this bike on the CSC Classifieds page.   I think there’s still one brand new Bobber in our inventory, too.   It’s a real pretty Satin Blue, another color that just flat works on these bikes.   Give Steve or TK a call at 800 884 4173 and they’ll fix you right up!

Ride safe, folks…

Lots of cool email recently, folks.  Check out the photo and the nice note from Howard…

Joe… I am on the road again and this picture is on The Going To The Sun Road in Glacier Park, MT.

I rode from West Glacier, up to and over Logan Pass and down the other side to  St Marys.  Then back over the pass to West Glacier.  Just a great ride on the bike.

Hope all is well with you and I will send more pics when I can..

Take care..

Howard

That’s a great photo, Howard!  Thanks for sending it to us.

Here’s another letter, folks, that TK received from our good friend Larry…

Hey T.K.,

Just a note about my experience with my new 250 P-51 Scooter: I started riding Harleys while on the San Antonio Police Department in late 1959 and haven’t stopped since, except for some short spaces in time. Last year I decided that being in my 74^th year it was time to give it up; brittle bones and slower reflexes that come with that many birthdays made my decision for me. As soon as the Road King left my garage I felt a loss.   Nobody likes walking away from something with the knowledge you will never be able to do it again.

Then I decided that I would buy some type of scooter just to “keep my hand in.”   Since I had ridden a Mustang belonging to a friend in the 1950’s, I began my search. That’s when I found your website. Steve answered the phone when I called and about twenty minutes later I had a new 250, bought and paid for. I was told it would take a week to build, and would be delivered to my front door. All went as promised, and I have never regretted my decision. I have enjoyed every minute riding the 250 around Rockport, Texas, my retirement home.  At every stop, convenience stores, Wal-Mart stores, and local parks, I am queried about my ride. In most cases it is old duffers like me, and most mention that they either owned a Mustang or knew someone who did. I have passed out several of your brochures.

In short, I would encourage anyone who has reached the point life where it is closer to the end than to the beginning to “Get a CSC Motorcycle” and put some excitement between your legs—they are fun, safe, and built like a tank.

Larry

Larry, we sure appreciate your writing to us.   We’re glad you are enjoying your new motorcycle.  I know what you mean about people talking to you when they see the bike.   I experience the same thing myself.

Here’s one more email to TK, this time from our good buddy Pat over at Rolling Thunder…

TK:

Here are a couple more photos for you.

The black and Maroon 150’s are the immediate POW/MIA Raffle Bikes. No 1, 20 Sept. and  No 2,  25 Dec.

The White 250 Police Clone will be raffled early 2014 in conjunction with the completion of the “Texas Fallen Heroes First Responders Memorial Wall.”

The POW/MIA bikes are displayed with the Fallen Military Wall.

In the meantime, I am riding it and/or trailering it to events . Easy sell on tickets when bike is present.

Regards,

Pat

Pat, our thanks to you for the great work you are doing.  If any of you would like to know more about the raffle bikes, you can get more information here: http://www.rollingthundertx2.com/

That’s it for now, my friends.   Keep those emails and photos coming, and as always, ride safe.

That’s what it’s been…it was August 7, 1983 when Susie and I tied the knot!  It’s been great…and I just had to put a photo of my sweetheart and me on the blog today!

Susie and I like to travel, and that photo above is in the Badlands region of South Dakota, about 100 miles east of Sturgis.  We were there during the rally 5 years ago doing a Motorcycle Classics piece on South Dakota’s Black Hills region, one of the best riding areas in the world.  Oh, and about that shirt…CSC Motorcycles had not yet come into being, or I would have been wearing one of my California Scooter shirts!

So, Susie…thanks for a great 30 years, and here’s looking forward to the next 30!

You guys and gals will remember our good buddy Howard and his travels throughout the western United States.  Howard’s installed the new 250cc P-51 engine in his CSC motorcycle, and he’s on the road again.  Here’s a shot of Howard’s upgraded motorcycle on the Yaak River, northwest of Sidney, Montana…

Howard, thanks for the great photo!  And to all the rest of our good buddies, keep your photos coming!  We love showing your bikes here on the blog!

The title says it all, folks.  Check this out…

Well, the colors don’t really scare us…but they sure are attention grabbers!   Check out our two latest custom 250cc P-51 motorcycles and their dynamite paint themes!

The above two California Scooters round out the Todd family’s collection of CSC motorcycles to an even four bikes.  Wow!   Folks, Houston will never be the same!

Nor will Acapulco.   Check out Damaris on her Bobber, with her family…TK grabbed this photo for me a week or so ago…

Damaris had us add red wheels and our gangster whitewalls to the above bike, and it’s gone down the road all the way to Acapulco!  You can see the bike with its new colors a few blog entries down.

And the last name in the title of this blog…Paris…she’s actually my technical expert on a variety of cool things.   Just spoke with her this morning, her name rhymes with the other words in this blog’s title, so into the title it went!

Oh, and there’s more about our customs and other cool stuff on the CSC website.  Be sure to check us out at www.CSCMotorcycles.com!

Folks, it’s another beautiful day in So Cal, so that means I’m either off to the range or on my California Scooter!   Stay tuned, ride safe, and keep an eye on the blog!