CSC Blog

I received a couple of great emails in response to my call for two-wheel stories a few blogs down.   This one is super interesting from our good buddy Russ, and I’m sharing it here with you!

Hi Joe:

I own a 2012 CSC (Lil’ Boy Blue).  I’ve done serious miles on my larger bikes including 600 plus miles daily on my Honda Pacific Coast.  So…casting about this winter I found a group from Upland, Indiana that yearly takes an extended small scoot trip.  This year’s trip will be in October traveling from Indiana to Kentucky, West Virginia possibly North Carolina, back to Kentucky, and then home to Upland. 

Of course, I live in Iowa so it is a 504 mile trip just to get where they are meeting.  I guess it usually is a group of 15 to 20 older riders who will be touring about 11 days covering 1300 miles.  So, for me about a total of 2300 miles on Lil’ Boy Blue.  The group is www.wanderingwheels.org.   Bob Davenport is the contact.

The reason for this info to you is that I plan to document with pics and words (sorry no video) this trip and asking if any of this would be of interest to our CSC community?   I like videos but am not equipped to so do but that could change or perhaps another member of the group could share such footage? 

This question may better be directed to someone else at CSC:  I don’t anticipate any mechanical problems.  However, what small parts would be wise to include in my on board storage space?  I can think of maybe??  Spark plug, chain links, inner tube, light bulbs, and what else?   The bike currently has 2010 K on it.  And do the current dealerships for CSC carry any parts?   Also, how does the engine handle mountainous altitudes, say up to 1700 elevation? 

Joe…as soon as I can gather some pics of my “STORAGE” on the bike I will forward them to you.  It includes a small bag out front below the windshield, a tank bag, a top box, saddle bags, and a sissy bar bag.  Yep…a sissy bar bag!!!!!!!!!!   Fortunately I weigh about 170 as the trip will call for camping equipment as well as the other necessities. 

Any advice offered will be appreciated.

Russ

Russ, thanks for your kind letter.  You bet, it would definitely be cool to see photos from your upcoming adventure!  We’ve had other riders do this (most recently our good buddy Howard who took an extended trip through the West with his CSC 150), and we love reading about and posting our riders’ adventures!

Regarding spare parts…wow, what a great question!   When I go on longer trips, I generally take along my Gerber pliers (they’re kind of like a Leatherman pair), duct tape, and bulbs for the headlamp and taillight.  That’s about it for me.   The last big trip I did was the Hell’s Loop Rally…there were three of us on that ride and we had no problems whatsoever.   When we did the Baja trip (that was about 2200 miles through some pretty rugged terrain) we had essentially no problems on the production configuration bikes.   We had one or two bulb replacements, but that was it.  Incidentally, you can read about that adventure here.

Thanks again for your inputs, Russ, and give us a call if you have any more questions!   And for the rest of our readers, if you have a good story, let’s hear it!   Don’t worry about spelling or grammar…if you make any mistakes we’ll fix all that stuff before we post it!

Whoa, what’s that?   Well, we’ve had more than a few calls asking if we could offer an unpainted bike.   Yep, that’s right…a CSC motorcycle with the tanks and the fenders left in the bare primer.   Seems like a lot of folks want to start with a blank palette and customize their bikes with their own paint jobs.

Steve listened, we’re responding, and that’s exactly what we are now offering…the CSC Basic is now available in both our 150cc and 250cc P-51 models.  The only differences between these bikes and our other offerings are that the tanks and fenders are primer coated only, and the price is substantially lower than any of our other models.   Give us a call at 800 884 4173 and we’ll fill you in on the details.  If you want to create your very own custom CSC motorcycle, have at it!

And just to get those creative juices flowing, take a look at just some of the many custom bikes we’ve done!

My good buddies Josh and Ron posted a question on the Pro One blog not too long ago:

          What was your first bike?

That elicited some very interesting responses.   It made me think about my first bike and when my interest in motorcycles first emerged.  Harley even had an ad along the same lines a few years ago, with the great tag line:

          When did it start for you?

Take a look at the photo in that ad…

The tag line says it all...

I remember for the first time I ever took a hard look at a motorcycle.  I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, and it was in Pennsylvania.  My Dad was a world-class trapshooter (seriously, he held most of the state trap shooting titles in the northeastern United States back in the 1960s, he was a 27-yard shooter, and he was on two U.S. Olympic trap shooting teams).   What that meant for me as a kid was that I tagged along when he went to many of the events.

When my Dad wasn’t shooting, I kind of explored the areas around the shooting clubs.  One time at a shoot in Pennsylvania, there was a restaurant across the street from the trap club, and one day a motorcycle club was at that restaurant.  Those guys rode Harleys, all were full dressers, and they were mesmerizing. 

A Harley from "those days..."

I wish I had a photo of those Harleys so I could show them to you, but I don’t need it for me to remember the scene.   The photo above is of a Harley from that era and that’s about what they looked like back then.   I can see those bikes in my mind today as if I was seeing them in a 24-megabyte digital photo.  I remember everything…the paint, the bicycle-pedal kick starters, the studded saddlebags, the serrated exhaust pipes, the tinted lower windshields that matched the paint on each bike, and more.  It was awesome.

That, boys and girls, was when it started for me.

Let’s now fast forward to the 7th grade.  I would have been 11 or 12 years old.  I grew up in a rural area, so our high school housed both junior high and the high school (grades 7 through 12). 

There was a senior in my high school (his name was Walt Skok) and old Walt had a 1964 Triumph Tiger.  In those days, the 500cc Triumph was called the Tiger.  It had a single carb and it was white and gold.  It was magnificent.   It just dripped with power, a sense of adventure, and coolness.   It had a chrome luggage rack on the gas tank (Triumph called it a “parcel rack”), a big tach and speedo, and chrome wire wheels.  It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and I was out in the parking lot staring at it every chance I had. That’s another one I can still see as if I had just looked at it this morning.

A 1964 Triumph Tiger, just like the one Walt Skok rode...

That’s when it really started all over for me again.   Hard to believe it was 50 years ago.  It seems like it was yesterday.

And that’s it for now. I’m on the Cal Poly campus this morning and I’m headed over to the CSC plant this afternoon where I’ll see Steve and talk to him about the upcoming Hollister event (there will be lots of great bikes there).  If you have a cool recollection you’d like to share with us, shoot it to me in an email (jberk@californiascooterco.com), and we’ll put it here on the blog.  If you have a photo, send it along, too!

Ride safe and I’ll talk to you later.

Well, not quite, but there are similarities in the story lines, folks. I just saw Buzz Kanter’s video posted on YouTube….good stuff…

It reminded me a lot of this one we did a couple of years ago…that’s when we set the 150cc scooter world speed record on a specially modified California Scooter piloted by Sylvain Binau…

More good news…it looks like the cold snap we’ve been having here in California has finally broken…more to follow…

I heard that term in a post on ADVRider.com yesterday and it immediately struck a nerve…

The context was a discussion about the 2014 Corvette. Chevy showed it for the first time this week, and the news has dominated the Internet gearhead discussion forums.

The 2014 Corvette...I think it is ugly

Most of the comments about the 2014 Vette that I’ve read haven’t been flattering.  My post was that it was the ugliest Vette I’d ever seen, and more than a few people agreed.  That’s when the “geezer pleaser” comment emerged on ADVRider.com, and it sure made me laugh.   For a lot of reasons, too.  I turned 62 this week, and I guess by some standards, that makes me an official geezer.   And, I have a Corvette.   Mine is a 2004 and I’ve had it for almost 10 years, so I naturally notice other folks who drive them.   Almost without exception, they appear to be geezers, too.

My 2004 Z-06...the best looking Corvette ever made

So what exactly is a geezer? According to the online Merriam Webster dictionary, a geeezer is “a queer, odd, or eccentric person — used especially of elderly men.” Hmmm. I’m odd and probably eccentric, and at 62 I guess I’m elderly (at least in some folks’ eyes). Other sources go on to say that geezer comes from the word disguise or disguiser and somehow in olde English “disguiser” became “geezer.” Whatever.

We’re finally getting some reasonable weather here today. It was bitter cold again at 5:00 a.m. this morning, but it is supposed to get into the 70s today, and this geezer is going to fire up the Baja Blaster and get out for a short putt this afternoon. I didn’t have a new photo handy of my bike as I was putting this together, but there’s another red Classic CSC 150 out in the showroom right now, so I grabbed an iPhone photo for you…

The ultimate bike...a red CSC Classic!

More good news…our good buddy Carla King is going to be in town this week, and she’s stopping by for a visit.  Carla rode a Ural around the US and wrote a great book about it (American Borders, a wonderful story…you should pick up a copy, and you can do so by clicking on this link).    I first met Carla on the Tahoe ride, and I really enjoyed that event.   She’s a great rider and a very interesting person, as you might imagine.

Carla rode another bike around China, and she has a book in work about that one.  I don’t know all of the details about that ride, but I believe it was on one of the Chinese BMW clones.   They are pretty interesting bikes in their own right.  When I was in China on my first trip about 10 years ago, they had four companies making these bikes.  

The Chinese did about the same thing as the Russians…they copied the basic BMW design and starting building their own bikes.   The Russians actually purchased BMW motorcycles and worked with BMW to create Ural; the Chinese kind of snuck the bikes into China and did an unauthorized copy of the BMW boxer engine.   Or maybe I have it backwards.   Anyway, just like the Ural is a Russian copy of an older BMW design, so are these old Chinese Boxers.  

Three of the four Chinese companies (at least when I was there 10 years ago) actually copied the pre-war BMW flathead designs.   Yep, you got that right…the flathead (and not the OHV version) of the BMW engine.  I believe the flathead Chinese bikes were based on the 1932 BMW design.  It was wild seeing current production flathead BMWs running around Shanghai and Beijing.   It must have been a real adventure riding one of those bikes in China.

Ride to live, live to ride...or something like that...BMW clones in Beijing!

A modern Chinese BMW flathead

Carla’s first book is awesome, and I’m going to ask her to sign my copy when she visits.   I wanted to ask her to sign my copy of her book on the Tahoe ride, but I forgot to bring it with me.  Old guy (geezer) memory deficiencies, I guess.   They say it’s the second thing that goes.   Can’t remember what the first one was.

So my plans for today…get on my CSC 150 and ride.   Find my copy of American Borders and have it ready for Carla to sign.  Good stuff, folks, and good times.   Especially for a geezer.

My buddy Pauly B just sent an email telling me that the Hollister motorcycle rally is back on this year!   I spoke a bit about Hollister a few blogs down, and this sounds great!  Look for a good showing by folks on California Scooters….and I’ll be one of them!

This is going to be good…we’ll have the Mustang book finished by then, and it might make sense to have a spot set up to sell copies. It would also be a good spot for showcasing another CSC custom…maybe we could call it the Booze Fighter or the Hollister…or maybe the Chino or the Marlon!

Jimbo, it would sure be good if you could roll on down for this!

Whoa, I can’t believe I’m the guy who’s writing that.   But folks, I ain’t getting any younger and going for a putt when it’s 30 degrees outside just isn’t my style anymore.  I was even thinking of going for a bicycle ride with my buddy Greg this morning, but I chickened out of that, too.    Just for giggles, I checked the weather in Bangkok (I sure had a lot of fun there last year) and it’s 81 degrees.  And I checked my hometown back in New Jersey, and it’s actually warmer there than it is here in So Cal!  Yikes!

So I’ve been playing around on the Internet and working on the Mustang book.   I saw this neat ad for a capgun (remember having those when you were a kid?) posted by my good buddy Denny over on the Ruger board, and the photos brought back a flood of memories…

Cool stuff, and the comments on that ad make for cool reading.

Stay warm.   I might post a photo or two of some classic Mustangs later today, so stay tuned!

After just mentioning Gatlings a blog post or two down…this popped up on the Mustang Seats’ Facebook page…this is a rider who knows how to handle unruly traffic!

Here are the photos I promised earlier…these two shots are one of several 250cc P-51s headed to Eddie Brown’s in Oklahoma (Brown Ford is one of our dealers)…

These bikes sure look good, folks!

Boy oh boy, we sure have been having a cold snap here in California. I must be getting old, because it’s been cold enough to keep me from riding for the last several days.  My buddy Jim W and I got out to the rifle range yesterday, and it was so cold up there it was snowing!   The Baja Blaster is stashed away in my garage with the trickle charger on it.  If it gets a bit warmer I’ll fire it up this weekend and grab a few photos.  One nice thing about the cold weather is there’s snow in the mountains and the air is clear…and that makes for some great photos!

The new 250cc P-51 CSC motorcycles are coming off the line now and they sure are sweet. I just came in from the plant (it’s cold out there, too!) and I especially noticed a black P-51 with wire wheels.  It is just awesome.  The 150cc bikes are nice (and that’s what I ride), but that 250 is a big step up.

The 150cc and 250cc bikes are physically the same size; it’s just the engine and gearing that’s different. I’m the guy who did a lot of the high speed runs during the 250cc development program and I helped Steve and the engineers determine the final gearing.   Yeah, I’m bragging.   That sure was fun.  I’ll put some photos of our recent production bikes (including the 250cc P-51s) on the blog later today.

One of our 250cc test mules, with the engine strategically hidden in this photo. I touched 80 mph on this bike!

More good news…I’ve been going hot and heavy on another project that I finished up a couple of days ago (it’s a book on engineering creativity, and if you want to buy a copy you can do so here).   I especially like the cover photo.   It shows a simple gate latch and a 1909 Mauser. It’s been said that Paul Mauser (who perfected the bolt action rifle) drew his inspiration from a gate bolt.  The book’s cover shows it well.

You know, most engineering designs are not brand new – they are improvements to existing products. And many engineering designs borrow heavily from the past. One of my favorite examples are the modern gun systems used on high performance aircraft.

An early Gatling gun. Note the barrel cluster, and compare it to the modern Gatling below.

A modern Gatling gun, based on a century-old design.

I worked on Vulcan gun systems when I was in the Army, and I was surprised when I learned that they were based on the original Gatling guns.   Really cool stuff, with parallels with what Steve did with the California Scooter Company.   He used the original Mustang as his inspiration.  Then, when CSC created the new 250cc motorcycle, we based its name on the original P-51 Mustang airplane.  It’s all very cool.

Steve with a Greaser and a P-51 Mustang.

One of our first P-51 customs...which had a World War II aircraft paint theme!

Speaking of which, if you haven’t picked up the latest issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine, you should.  It has our story on the original Mustang motorcycle and an accompanying story on California Scooter Company.   It’s a great read.

So, the engineering creativity book is done, and now Jim Cavanaugh and I can turn our attention to the next project…the Mustang and CSC book.  I’m going to dig into that one this weekend, and Jim and I will have it wrapped up in the next 90 days.  The Mustang book will have lots of cool photos of vintage Mustang and CSC motorcycles, and we’ll keep you posted on its progress here in the blog. You’ll be able to buy it through CSC and other outlets, and trust me on this….this is a book you will want to read!