CSC Blog

You’ve heard us talk about RB Mathis before…he’s the semi-retired Baptist preacher who convinced Eddie Brown (of Brown Ford in Cordell, Oklahoma) to become a California Scooter dealer.   I had a real nice conversation with RB a couple of days ago.   RB told me he learned about the California Scooter Company from another friend of his (a Cushman scooter owner).   That fellow had received our California Scooter mailer and he shared it with RB.   RB said he was immediately drawn to our bikes, and he rushed over to show his friend Eddie.   RB suggested to Eddie that they both buy California Scooters, and they did.   Eddie didn’t stop with one…he added the California Scooter Line to his Ford dealership and he’s bought a bunch so far.  They are selling well in the Sooner state. 

RB on his new Greaser, in front of a Mustang in Cordell, Oklahoma

RB's Harley Softail...it's on the block now that RB's got his California Scooter!

RB’s story is an interesting one.  He’s been a preacher for 40 years.  RB started in the clothing business and worked his way up to managing a department store, but he felt he was meant to do something else.   He left the department store business and become a preacher.  RB told me he’s been a Harley rider for years, and he has a lot of riding under his belt.  He started on a Whizzer as a kid, and then he bought a Honda Mini-Trail when he had kids.  His first Harley was a ’79 Sportster, and his current Harley is the fourth one he’s owned.  After buying his California Scooter, though, RB is putting his ’96 Softail Springer on the block.  RB told me he’s had it lowered and he put about $4000 worth of chrome into his champagne-and-black V-twin.   With only 9400 miles, that Harley is going to be a great bike for someone (RB’s asking $13K).  If you’re interested, shoot me an e-mail (jberk@CaliforniaScooterCo.com) and I’ll forward it to RB.

We’re 29 days away from starting our Baja adventure, and I can hardly wait.   I love riding in Baja, and this is going to be a grand adventure – over 2,000 miles on California Scooters through the most beautiful place on the planet.  My good friend Arlene Battishill (the Go Go Gear president and CEO) will be with us on her custom California Scooter.   My writing and riding buddy Simon Gandolfi, the novelist and international motorcycle rider (he rode a 125cc bike all the way to the southernmost tip of South America and back, and he rode across India) is flying in from the UK.  My amigo and Mexico riding partner John Welker is in.   And my good buddy J. Brandon (president of American Sahara) is taking his Dodge Power Wagon as our chase vehicle.   It’s gonna be a lot of fun!

The Baja Crew...John in San Vincente, Simon in India, Arlene in the San Gabriels, J in the Power Wagon, and yours truly in the CSC shop

I’m going to try to blog the trip while we’re on it, as some of the locations may have Internet access.  Things are pretty remote down there, though, so no promises yet.  You can bet we’ll grab some great photos, and I’ll be sharing them with you right here!

My good buddy Jim and I have been riding together for more than a few years, and like you and me, he’s kept up with the excitement at the California Scooter Company.   Jim and I hang out together a lot, riding bikes, talking bikes, looking at bikes, racing bikes, and doing other things related to (you guessed it) bikes.  Jim’s got a sleek BMW R1150R and an ultra-cool restored Moto Guzzi, but in the last few weeks, he’s been taking a hard look at the California Scooters.   

Steve invited Jim on one of our shop rides, and he offered to lend Jim a California Scooter to see how he liked it.  Steve wanted Jim to get a feel for how the Scooters ride and handle.   We’d been planning the ride all week, and today was the day.

As soon as Jim got to the shop, he wanted to see how things are progressing on the land speed record California Scooter.  While Tony and Carlos prepped a Greaser for Jim, he and I snuck over to our skunk works area…here’s an uncensored photo…Jim and our LSR bike in the CSC development lab…

We left early this morning to beat the heat, and like always, there was excitement in the air as Steve, Josh (aka BumbleBee), Carlos, Jim, and yours truly got ready to get their knees in the breeze.   You have to be with us on one of these rides when we get ready to leave the plant…it’s really cool.

Our first destination was the RedHill Cafe in Rancho Cucamonga (that’s really the town’s name; Jack Benny wasn’t making that up).   The RedHill is about 15 miles from the plant, and we had a nice ride over there.  This place has the best breakfasts in southern California.  You gotta try it sometime.   The coffee’s great, the people who work there are great, and the food is incredible.   Their omelets are awesome, and I had my standard…egg whites only, mushrooms, onions, more mushrooms, sourdough toast, mushrooms, and, oh yeah, did I mention mushrooms?    Like always, it was wonderful.   Steve, Jim, and I grabbed the counter, and Josh and Carlos grabbed a table.  We were lucky to get seats when we pulled up; the place is always packed.  We had a secret weapon, though…as soon as we parked the Scooters, they drew a crowd (just like they always do)!  While folks were oogling our bikes, we grabbed their seats!

Josh and Carlos, enjoying the best breakfast in town!

As a great breakfast spot, the RedHill attracts more than a few interesting motorcycles.  One of the guys at the RedHill had a high-end performance V-twin, and while he was admiring the Scooters I noticed his custom paint.   He said it was okay if I grabbed a photo of it…

After a very hearty breakfast (thanks for treating us to breakfast, Jim!), we made tracks for Mt. Baldy and Glendora Ridge Road.  You’ve heard me write about it on this blog before…it’s my favorite ride (I’ll be doing a Destinations piece on it for Motorcycle Classics soon, so keep an eye on that magazine for my story). 

The weather was great this morning and I grabbed a few more shots on this great road…here’s one of Josh and Steve with their California Scooters…

Here’s a shot of Carlos…

This was Jim’s ride this morning…one of the Greasers…

My friend Jim…

Jim and I go back a ways…we’ve had some great rides on the big bikes.   You might want to check out our ride to Prescott and Sedona for the Moto Guzzi rally last year when you get a chance.   That was a fun one.   They’re all fun.   Lately, though, Jim’s been watching the fun I’ve been having with my California Scooter, and he had a chance to experience the excitement first hand in an environment in which the California Scooters excel…twisting, tight, scenic mountain roads.  We were having a lot of fun mixing it up with our 150cc canyon carvers this morning!   When I fell back a bit (which didn’t happen too often!) I had a chance to grab a few photos of the guys on the way back down.   Here’s one on the way out of the San Gabriel Mountains…Steve is way out in front on this shot.

Here’s one of Josh and Carlos headed down the mountain, with a guy on an SV650 Suzuki going the other way…these are popular roads with local enthusiasts…

A shot of my good friend Josh while we waited for a light to change in Glendora, just below the mountains…

When we returned to the plant, we had a welcoming reception just like when we left.  Everybody wanted to know how the ride went, how much fun we had, and all the questions we hear when we get back from one of these magnificent rides.    This is what the California Scooter Company is all about, and everyone wanted to hear about it!

We also saw some of John’s latest custom paint jobs, including this slick set up with a yellow-and-black tank and matching fenders.   These John Esposito custom paint jobs are selling like hotcakes.  (I’m probably dating myself with that expression, but I go to IHOP regularly, and I can tell you, hotcakes do sell briskly!)   This is a good color, I think, for Josh.   It matches his new name (BumbleBee), and it kind of goes along with his attraction to bees of all sorts.

We had fun telling people about the ride, the Red Hill Cafe, the route we took, what the roads were like, where we stopped, and all the other fun we had this morning…everybody liked hearing about the ride and we all did our best to tell tall tales.   Drifting through corners, hitting 130 mph on the downhill sections, passing GSXRs in the corners…all the things we like to talk about, with maybe just a little bit of embellishment.   Well, maybe we embellish more than just a little bit… 

We were all telling good stories, except for Jim.  Jim was back in the showroom, taking an even harder look at one California Scooter in particular.   You can guess where this one is going…and it’s no tall tale…yep, take a look at Jim and Steve with Jim’s brand new California Scooter!

Jim’s pretty excited about his new toy, and he should be…it’s a great bike!  When I asked Jim what he liked best about it…his answer was immediate.   “There are lots of great bikes out there,”  he said, “but where else can you go for a ride before you buy with the guy who actually designed the motorcycle and is president of the company that makes them?”

Where else, indeed.

Jim’s not planning to let his California Scooter gather dust…if you’re in the area tomorrow, stop in at the Beach Side Cafe in Covina tomorrow night.   There’s usually a great gathering of interesting bikes and people, and we’ll be there on our Scooters!

And, oh yeah, 30 days to Baja!

I took a ride to visit my good friend Kevin in San Diego yesterday, and on the way down I stopped in to visit Continental Motors, our dealer in Oceanside, California.  Oceanside is about 30 miles north of San Diego, and Continental Motors was an easy place to find.  I’d never been to this dealership and I was eager to see it.  I called first and asked to speak to whoever knew about the California Scooters, and I was quickly connected with Don.   Don told me he reads the California Scooter blog every day and he was looking forward to meeting me (he made me feel like a celebrity).

My new friend Don and I in the Continental Motors showroom.

Wow, what a place!   Continental Motors is right on the main drag through downtown Oceanside, they’ve been around since 1968, and Don runs a first class operation.  Continental Motors sells new Saab automobiles, and I spent some time looking at them, too.   They’re sleek.  Don told me that the Saab division is doing well, and they have a new 9.5 model coming out pretty soon.  My friend John had a Saab a few years ago, and he’s always said it was the best car he’s ever owned.  When it’s time for some new wheels, I’m going to take a hard look at these Swedish rocket ships!

I really enjoyed meeting Don. He’s a cool guy, and more importantly, he’s an enthusiast.  Don loves the California Scooter motorcycles, and he feels that way for the same reasons we all do – the style, the workmanship, and the memories they evoke and create.  

Don told me the first motorcycle he ever owned was a lime green ’58 Mustang.  He said that when he sees the photos of Steve’s Pony on this blog he wonders if it’s his original bike (it isn’t; Steve’s is a ’53).  Don’s heavily into older British bikes, he used to race motorcycles, and he’s an all-around good guy.   You’ll like him right away.   I sure did. 

So, this morning I pushed my little red Classic out of the garage and fired her up, and I had a great ride into work.  When I arrived at the Scooter factory, things were hopping along (just like they always are), and I saw that our new sidecar-equipped California Scooter was parked out front.  But that’s not all!  Somebody left the keys in it!    Boy oh boy oh boy!

Hey, I’m no fool, and opportunities like this don’t present themselves every day.   I saw Lupe admiring Steve’s latest creation, and I asked her if she’d been for a ride in it yet… you can guess where this story is going!  I tossed my Nikon to Tony and we were off!  It was a blast.

I can’t wait to see what this sidecar project is going to look like when Steve and John finish working their magic on it.  I just know that it will be very cool, like everything else they come up with.  It’s already cool, and they haven’t even started the styling work yet!

And speaking of new projects…things are moving along nicely in the California Scooter skunk works.  Yep, the land speed record bike is progressing well.  

I grabbed a cool shot of the LSR bike and some of its features, but when our security guys finished censoring it, there’s wasn’t too much left.  Take a look, and you’ll see what I mean…

This record-seeking California Scooter is getting the works…a lowered frame, clip-on bars, special brakes, a revised seating position, and engine work I can’t even begin to tell you about (other than to say we’re keeping the displacement at the stock 150 cubic centimeters, and the engine will be normally aspirated).  

But the other things we’re doing….all I can say is wow!  Wait till you see it.  Steve and John have lots of tricks and magic they’re working on this puppy.   Steve’s even working on a parachute.   Yep, a parachute!  I can only guess at what kinds of speeds Steve has in mind…it’s getting all the good stuff.

Late this afternoon, we had a visit from our good friend Walt (aka “Skyy”).   We get a lot of guys popping in here on Harleys and other bikes, but it’s not often you see someone as well dressed as Walt rolling in on a motorcycle.  As soon as I saw Walt on his Harley I knew I wanted a shot for the blog, and Walt was okay with that.  He’s the Sergeant-At-Arms for the Roll’N Kings and Queens Motorcycle Club here in the Inland Empire, and if you take a look at Walt, I think you’ll agree that his stature sure qualifies him for this position!  I grabbed a shot of Walt on his Electra-Glide (an immaculate, gorgeous motorcycle!), and then I had to get another on my red Classic.   Walt was happy to help me.

If you’re thinking that I’m having a lot of fun…well, I’m guilty as charged.  And do you know the best part?  

Yep, our Baja ride is only one month away!  Five folks are signed up for this grand adventure (including a world famous novelist and adventurer who’s flying in from the UK).   So, how about you?

Haha…hahahaha….this is a good one, folks!  I watched Tony adjust the valves on my California Scooter today, and I gotta tell you, this is the easiest valve adjustment procedure I’ve ever seen.  

I speak with some experience on this subject, having adjusted the valves on my Triumph Tiger and on my KLR-650 (adjusting the valves on those bikes was a nightmare).  On the California Scooter…well, folks, adjusting your valves just doesn’t get any easier than this.   Steve told me that he designed this bike so anyone could work on it, and his selection of the Scooter’s 150cc overhead valve engine sure makes that a reality.  One of my good friends who recently purchased a California Scooter asked me about the valve adjustment process, so I thought I’d include a “how to” right here.

So, with no further ado, here we go.

The first thing you want to do is make sure your bike is cold.  Not “cold” as in freezing, but “cold” as in not having run for a few hours.  You don’t want the engine to be warm from a recent ride.   Let it cool down completely.   Once you’ve done that, take off the spark plug wire and remove the spark plug (see the first photos below).   There’s only one sparkplug (hey, it’s a thumper!), so this will only take a few seconds.   If your bike is real dirty, it’s a good idea to blow a little compressed air around the spark plug before you remove it so no dirt will fall down into the cylinder, but even if it does, don’t have a cow.  It will just blow out when you start the engine.

The next steps involve bringing the engine to top dead center.   This sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.   Take a look at the two photos below.  All you gotta do is remove the viewing port on top of the left crankcase cover with a screwdriver (look at the photo on the left and you’ll see the cover I’m talking about).   Put the bike in gear and roll it forward or backward to line up the index mark on the flywheel with the mark on the engine case (look at the photo on the right).

The above step is a tiny bit tricky because there are two index marks on the flywheel.   The one we want has a T by it (you can sort of see the edge of it in the above photo), but it’s a little hard to pick up.  The easy way to make sure the piston is at the top of its stroke is to lightly feel inside the cylinder with a probe (like a screwdriver or a pen).  If the piston is at the top, you’ll know it.

The reason we want the piston at the top of its stroke with the index mark as indicated above is the valves will be fully closed.  When they are fully closed, there will be a little gap between the rocker arm and the top of the valve stem.  It’s that gap we’re adjusting.   It all sounds a little complicated, but the photos coming up will make it easy to understand.

Before we can get to the stuff we’re going to adjust, though, we have to remove the valve cover.   Wow, is this ever easy on the California Scooter.  On my Triumph and my KLR, I had to remove the seats, remove the gas lines, and remove the gas tank before I could even see the valve cover.   That’s a built-in annuity for the Triumph and Kawasaki dealers, but there’s none of that nonsense here.  You don’t have to remove anything on a California Scooter to get to the valve cover.  It’s right out there in the open!

There are three bolts holding the valve cover on the cylinder head.  You just take those off and the valve cover lifts off.  The photo below shows Tony removing the first bolt; he has two more to go.   There’s another bolt on the very top of the valve cover (it’s the horizontal one to the left of the ratchet in the photo below, just below Tony’s fingers).   Don’t mess with that one; it stays with the valve cover and you don’t need to unscrew it.

The photo on the left shows Tony removing the valve cover; the photo on the right shows what the valve cover looks like from the inside.   Leave the gray rubber seal running around the inside edge of the valve cover in place.  You can reuse it when you put everything back together.

This is what it looks like underneath the valve cover from the right side of the bike.  The coil springs you see are the valve springs. They’re what make the valves close.  The little metal arches reaching over are what push the valves open (they’re called rocker arms).  The one on the right side is the exhaust valve, and the one on the left side is the intake valve.  And see those little nuts and threaded pieces on top of the rocker arms at both ends?   Those are what we’re going to use to adjust our valves.

Here’s a closer shot of what I just described above.  See that little gap in the photo below (the one labeled “gap’)?  Well, that’s what this is all about.   We are going to adjust that gap so that it is between 0.06mm and 0.08mm.  Here’s what’s going on with that gap…when the valve is fully closed, there’s a gap between the rocker and the valve (that’s the gap you see in the photo below).  As the engine warms up, that gap decreases, but we are adjusting it to a gap when the engine is cold so that when it warms up, there is still a little gap left.

If we didn’t have that gap, the valve wouldn’t fully close, and that would be bad.   If that occurs, hot gases go around the valve each time the cylinder fires, and that can result in lost power, poor fuel economy, and a burnt valve.   That’s bad stuff. 

The way we adjust the valve gap is with the adjuster.  We’ll loosen the lock nut, use a feeler gage, and turn the adjuster so that the gap is within that 0.06mm to 0.08mm range.

Here’s the adjustment being made with the feeler gage on the intake valve…

And here’s Tony doing the same thing on the exhaust valve…

There isn’t much trickery in this…perhaps the only thing is getting a feel for how the feeler gage should fit in the gap.   It should just go in snugly, and have a little drag on it when you pull it out.   If the feeler gage goes in and out too easily, the gap is probably a bit on the high side.  The other technique is tightening the lock nut so that the gap is where it needs to be.   I always check the gap again after I’ve tightened everything.  Once the valves are adjusted and the rocker arm lock nuts are tight, all you need to do is reinstall the valve cover, the sparkplug, and the sparkplug wire, and you’re on your way!

Making the adjustment with a threaded adjuster as shown above is really cool, and really simple.   Other bikes don’t make life easy for you like this one does.  When I did the valves on my KLR and my Triumph, for example, I found out that they both use a complicated system with shims.  Just to get at the valve cover, as mentioned earlier, I had to remove the seat, the fuel lines, and the fuel tank (try lifting a fuel tank off a bike with 6 gallons of fuel in it).  And once you’ve done the exploratory surgery and removed the valve cover on those bikes, you’ve gotta measure the gap for each valve, calculate how far off it is, take the size of the existing shim, and make calculations about the shims that you need to bring the gap back into spec.   Then you’ve gotta buy the shims (they’re not cheap, either).  The KLR has four valves per cylinder, and so does the Triumph.   That’s four valves to adjust on the single-cylinder KLR, and 12 valves to adjust on the Triumph three-cylinder engine (the Triumph and Kawasaki dealers charge hundreds of dollars for this).  It’s even worse on a four-cylinder engine.  I used to have a six-cylinder Honda CBX with 24 valves, and to adjust those valves, you had to drop the engine out of the frame!  And if I ever had to do this on a Ducati with their desmodromic valve concept, well, I wouldn’t even attempt it.  I wouldn’t pay a mechanic a thousand bucks to do it either…I just wouldn’t buy a Ducati.  Good lord, what were those engineers thinking!

So, that’s it, folks.  If it seems simple on a California Scooter, well, that’s because it is!  It’s literally a 10-minute job, and if you want to do it yourself, you can.

I noticed this tastefully-equipped black Classic in the shop on Friday and it looked so elegant I grabbed a shot to share with you…

This bike is shipping to its new owner on Monday.  It has nice chrome touches (fork lowers, handlebar controls, etc.), a windshield, a rack, chrome billet wheels, and a silver engine (instead of the stock black engine we normally put in the Classics).   The combination really works well.  It’s subtle, but the guys in the factory and everyone who stopped in to visit us took note.  This is a sharp motorcycle.

The silver engine in a California Scooter really works well.  We originally thought we’d only offer the silver engine in the Babydoll, but it works in any of the red, black, or blue Classics.  

You know what might be cool?  An all-silver Classic, done up like the original Fat Boy…silver frame, silver engine, silver tank and fenders, and the stock silver steel wheels.   That would look good.  What would we name it?  The Thin Boy? 

Hey, that’s enough for now.  Time to fire up my red Classic and get my knees in the breeze!

Mr. Sidecar on his newest creation!

My good buddy Jim and I took a ride out to Van Nuys this morning to visit Doug Bingham and his crew at Sidestriders.   You’ll remember that Doug is known in the industry as Mr. Sidecar, and we’ve had him cooking up a sidecar-equipped California Scooter.   Well, to cut to the chase, Doug did exactly that!  I’ve been blogging about it for a bit, and I was really excited about seeing Doug’s latest creation in person.   Wow, it was cool!  A California Scooter with a sidecar!

You know, I’ve always wondered about sidecars.   They just look cool,  but until today, I’d never ridden one.   I’ve seen them at shows, I’ve been to the annual Griffith Park sidecar meet in Los Angeles a few times (I even wrote an article for Motorcycle Classics magazine about the Griffith Park event), but I’d never ridden a motorcycle with a sidecar.  All that changed this morning!

Doug expertly and patiently explained the nuances of a sidecar rig to me this morning, and then before I knew it, he pushed the California Scooter out of his shop, hopped in the sidecar, and gave the keys to me.   Wow!  Imagine that!  Little old me, piloting a sidecar, with none other than Doug Bingham as my passenger!

Yours Truly, with Doug Bingham as my passenger. Nope, we weren't going to the barber shop!

This was a big deal to me, and Doug made it all seem pretty easy.    He knows his stuff, and he’s a cool guy.   Whatever nervousness I felt evaporated under his expert guidance.  What surprised me is that the added weight of the rig and a passenger didn’t seem to affect the California Scooter’s performance.   You have to watch what you’re doing when you accelerate and brake, as the side car wants to pull the bike to the right when you accelerate, and to the left when you decelerate.   Doug said you get used to that pretty quickly, and you learn to automatically compensate for it after just a few minutes of riding.   I gotta tell you it was beyond cool.   That big grin I’m wearing wasn’t for the camera…it was real!

Doug is still tweaking the rig a bit, but it already felt perfect to me.   We’ll have the bike back in La Verne next week, and then we’ll put some of our finishing touches on it (maybe a different body style, a matching fender, paint, etc.).    Lots of folks have expressed interest in a sidecar-equipped rig (you don’t need a motorcycle license in California for one…just ask Arnold S.), so we’ll see where we go with this option.   It is very, very cool.   We may even take this rig with us to Baja (we have four Baja riders already, including TK, and if you want to join us on your California Scooter, just let us know).

Well, that’s it for now.   I’m gonna cook up some dinner for my sweetheart, and then I have to give some serious thought to where I’m gonna ride this weekend.

Hmmhhhhh….

As you will recall when we ran our fuel efficiency tests a few months ago, our test rider Peter attained 98 miles per gallon on his California Scooter.   We thought that was pretty cool, especially since we were doing our testing on surface streets with no modifications to the bikes (the test represented typical riding conditions on a stock CSC motorcycle).   Peter’s a light guy and that helped, but 98 mpg is still pretty impressive.

Last night, I asked for an insurance quote from Geico for my California Scooter.  I’m an older guy (which would keep my rates low), but last year I had an accident on my Triumph.  The reason I started checking around was that my current insurance company (not Geico) doubled my rates from last year (they told me it was because of that accident).  My ripoff sensor works pretty well (I’d been paying these other guys close to a thousand bucks a year for over 20 years to insure three bikes with no claims, and after having one accident, they doubled my rates), so I thought I’d check around a bit.   Geico came back with a bare-bones insurance quote of $98.   I was sure that had to be wrong, so I called them…nope, they said, that was the rate.  Wow.  98 bucks a year.  I’m in.

The number 98 stuck in my mind.   98 mpg in our fuel efficiency tests.   $98 a year for insurance.   Hmmm….is 98 a special number?  Is 98 mph the speed we’ll hit in November on our hot-rodded California Scooter?

Stay tuned….and we’ll find out!

On a recent group ride we passed a couple of entrepreneurial photogs snapping pictures and selling them.  We found these guys on the Internet and bought a few photos, and I’ll tell you what…these folks know how to work a camera!   Not a lot of words on these photos…just enjoy the bikes and the art!

Steve on the Sarge…

Joel on the Greaser…

TK (it stands for Total Kaos) on the Rock Star…

Arlene on her Go Go Gear bike…

Tony on the purple-flamed Greaser…

Another shot of Steve on the Sarge…

And another one of Joel on the Greaser…

A group shot of the guys in the foothills…

And finally, yours truly on my mini-bagger…

Here’s just one more…and it’s a 51-year-old photo that comes to us all the way from 1959.  Our new friend Jack posted this on the StripersOnLine.com discussion board featuring our bikes (there’s an active thread going on over there right now), and he graciously gave me permission to post it here…

Here’s what Jack said when I asked if I could post it:

Joe, I don’t really have any real info on the scooter (bad case of CRS. Sorry.)  The day after that pic was taken (I’d had it since Christmas of ’58) I wrecked it and since I was only 14 at the time my folks never let me have another bike as long as I lived at home. The picture was taken in Waco, Texas and you can see the date on the top of the picture.

All that I can remember after 51 years is that it was a hoot to ride. It was my first bike and in many ways my favorite over numerous bikes I had throughout my adult life. It would embarass me no end to tell you what I’d do to have one of those 2010 models.

You have my blessing on using the pic on your blog. In fact I’d be honored.

Thanks,

                   WJ

Jack, it’s pretty hard to embarass me.  Give us a call and tell us what you’d give for one of our bikes, and you just might be surprised!  I’m thinking of an orange-and-white one that’s almost certainly perfect for you…

Gotta run, folks….one of my neighbors just called to tell us he cooked up a batch of chile rellenos, so I’m outta here!

This is shaping up to be another great week, boys and girls….lots of good things going on, not the least of which is we have only 39 more days until we point our California Scooters toward Baja!   Well, okay, actually it’s 39 days, 10 hours, and 56 minutes.  Not that I’m counting…

The San Ignacio Mission. Yep, it's on our itinerary. Still a working church after hundreds of years of use. My good buddy Dave shot this photo on his first moto trip down this way.

Stained Glass Inside the Gustav Eiffel-Designed Church in Santa Rosalia. This is the first town we'll see on the Sea of Cortez after descending about 1500 feet in just a few miles through the twisties in a region known as La Cuesta del Infierno (take a look at the video below)!

The La Cuesta del Infierno region is a cool ride…check out this video on the descent to the Sea of Cortez…what a blast…and we won’t be seeing it through a car’s windshield!

If you have a California Scooter and you want to ride along with us, you’re in!

So, in midst of all this anticipation, we have more than a few other super-cool things in the works.   I had a real nice conversation with Doug Bingham yesterday about our California Scooter sidecar project.   Doug is the guy who’s fitting a sidecar to a California Scooter.   That’s one of many cool things about Steve and the rest of the California Scooter crew…if they’re going to do something, they always go to the best.   And when it come’s to sidecars, Doug Bingham is that man.   You’ve seen his work (perhaps without knowing it) if you’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Great Escape, or just about any movie with a sidecar in it.  In that great Steve McQueen chase, yep, it was actually Doug Bingham piloting the sidecar.   And when the bad guys were chasing Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, well, it sure wasn’t Harrison Ford piloting the rig…it was none other than our man Doug.  

The Sidecar Chase Scene With Indiana Bingham...Our Motorcycle Sidecar Maestro!

Doug invited me out to his shop later this week, and if I can swing it, maybe I’ll grab a few photos for the blog.   Boy oh boy, this is gonna be fun!

I’ve also been in communication with Bill Murar this week, our Scooter Cannonball rider.   The Scooter Cannonball is just around the corner…a tiny bit more than a month away.   While I’ll be cavorting in Baja on my California Scooter, Bill will be racing from Vancouver to Maine on his bright blue Classic.  Oh yeah, things are happening!

But wait (as they say on those late night TV commercials), there’s more!   John and Steve showed me what they are cooking up for our 150cc Land Speed Record bike.   This is good stuff and it’s classified TOP SECRET, so no photos yet (actually, I forgot my camera today, but in a week or so I should be able to get a photo or two for you). 

And there’s lots more.  All good stuff.   But my focus is on Mexico!!!  It’s gonna be great!