CSC Blog

When I stopped by the plant today, I met two CSC riders…Oregon Adam and So Cal Jeff.

Jeff was just leaving on his new TT250 when I pulled in.   I was getting out of my Subie when Jeff popped his visor open and said, “I’m Jeff and I know you…”

Turns out Jeff reads the blog avidly, and he buys CSC motorcycles the same way.  Jeff bought three TT250s, and he just ordered the new RC3.   Wow!  Jeff and I spoke about the TT250, and I told him about a few of the performance mods I’ve made to my personal TT.

Then Adam stopped by.  Adam rode down from Oregon on his RX3.  Wow again!

That’s putting serious miles on the RX3, but hey, you know and I know these bikes are built to go the distance.  Adam is a retired US Army NCO, and we had a great conversation about the Army, the RX3, Mosin-Nagant rifles, and more.

Good times.   I always enjoy seeing folks on their CSC motorcycles, and that’s happening more and more since we brought these great bikes to America.   If I’m in the plant when you stop by, please do say hello.   I’ll buy you a cup of CSC coffee (it comes from Colombia, you know) and, with your permission, I’ll grab a photo of you and your bike for the blog!

Yours truly in Nor Cal last weekend.

I rolled up north in my Corvette last weekend to spend a day with my buddy Paul, a guy with whom I’ve been friends my entire life (literally, my entire life…we were next door neighbors back in the Land of Tony Soprano when we were kids).

We had a great time visiting, tasting Tequilas, telling tall tales, talking about the sad state of politics in the land, and of course, sending lead downrange at the local gun club.

Paul and I grew up in a different time.  We could shoot guns in our backyards, which ended where the woods began.  It’s not that we were rich or anything.   It’s what working class blue-collar guys (our Dads) did in those days.   They bought a couple of acres and built their own houses out in the boonies (the ‘burbs hadn’t been invented yet).  It was a great way to grow up.  Our Dads were both world class trapshooters, hunters, reloaders, and gunsmiths.  These two apples (Paul and yours truly) did not fall too far from that New Jersey tree.

Paul was just finishing up a custom muzzle loader, and his new creation is awesome.  It’s art…a thing of great beauty.   It’s one of the reasons I went up there…I wanted to see it.   Paul builds these custom black powder rifles from the ground up, starting with a barrel, a maple plank, and not much more (other than a hell of a lot of talent).   The amount of craftsmanship that goes into a custom rifle like this is overwhelming.  Here’s an idea of what my good buddy Paul does to create one of these muzzle-loading masterpieces:

• He fashions the stock with a saw, files, chisels, sandpaper, and linseed oil.
• He cuts, files, crafts, and fits the metal pieces together.
• He beds the barrel and the action in the stock.
• He does the rust bluing.
• He casts the fore end tip of silver.
• And a whole lot more.

You get the idea.  Paul was approaching completion on this .50-caliber beauty, and I got to help at the range as he finalized the rifle’s fixed sight adjustments.   This is a rifle with hundreds and hundreds of hours of hand labor, and it is a world-class work of art.

Check out some of these photos, folks…

A custom-crafted black powder rifle. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Custom hand-fitted maple quilted maple, with 10 coats of linseed oil.

Loading a muzzle loader takes time.  It’s one shot at a time here, folks.  It’s all about skill.

I had the Nikon with me, of course, and I grabbed the above photos and a video of Paul in action.  Here’s a cool video of the first shot fired through Paul’s latest custom creation…

I asked Paul what inspired his interest in black powder firearms and crafting custom muzzle loading weaponry.  I knew Paul was a history buff, but he surprised me when he told me it was the Davy Crockett TV shows we watched as kids (and if that doesn’t date us, nothing will).

I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised.   Those old TV westerns and frontier shows had an impact on all folks who grew up here in America.   It wasn’t too hard to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys were, and the shows somehow managed to be entertaining (riveting, actually), without the boorish behavior and senseless violence that passes for entertainment these days.  It was a good time to be a kid, I think.

Those old cowboy shows were the same reason both Paul and I like the old single-action sixguns, too.   And yes, we both had ours on the range that same day.  I caught this very cool shot of Paul and his Single Action Army .45 Colt just as it fired.  If you look closely, you can see the thunder and lightning escaping from the barrel/cylinder interface in the photo below…

Good times, folks.   More to follow.   Stay tuned.

Sunrise in San Felipe, looking east over the Sea of Cortez…what we’ll see on the CSC TT250 Baja Run!

Whoa, the summer is getting away from me!

I want to do a TT250 Baja run, but a lot of folks have yet to receive their bikes and I don’t want to have anybody miss our TT250 expedition because they don’t have their bike yet.   And, as you know, yours truly and my good buddy Joe Gresh are taking a trot around China the last week in June, all of July, and the first week in August.  Yeah, I know…I actually get paid to do stuff like this.  Hey, somebody has to do it…

So, back to Baja.  When I return from China, I’ve got secret missions in Singapore, San Jose, and Turkey.   It’s looking like 19-22 August (that’s a Friday through a Monday) is going to work.   I’ll be posting more on this ride in the near future, but for now, here are the particulars:

• CSC TT250s only (don’t ask if other brands can ride with us; the answer is no).
• No two-up riding.
• You’ll need Mexico insurance.
• You’ll need a Mexican visa (we’ll get those as soon as we cross the border).
• You’ll need a US passport.
• The ride will be about 80% pavement and 20% dirt, including some soft sand.
• You’re responsible for your own maintenance and spares, and all of your expenses.
• I’ll be leaving at the announced departure times each morning; if you can’t make it, you’re on your own.
• The ride will be to Mike’s Sky Rancho and San Felipe, and it will be about 750 miles.

I’ll post more as our TT250 Baja run planning firms up.

Baja, folks!

Wow, the photos continue to come in!   Check out this one from Michigan Bob…who tells us he is enjoying his new toy in northern Michigan!

Bob, your bike looks great!

And here’s a note from our good buddy Scott, complete with a photo…

CSC:

I’ve had my 2016 RX-3 for almost two months and 1000 miles now, and couldn’t be happier!  

My riding mix has been roughly 75/25 street to dirt and the bike is more than capable enough for me.  I enjoy riding it more than my ’03 YZF-R6.  F

or maintenance, I changed the oil, topped up coolant and lubed/adjusted chain at 500 miles.  Performed valve clearance check and adjustment at 800 miles.  The delay on valve clearance was because I was having too much fun riding and didn’t want to stop!  I did need to adjust the exhaust valves, so I do not recommend pushing the first valve clearance check.  Also, I shredded the aluminum viewport on the left crank cover trying to remove it.  New one was in my mailbox two days later.  Will be changing oil again this weekend. 

The bike runs even better now that when I first fired it up!  

Scott

Wow, thanks for that, Scott.

And, hey, one more note and several photos…this time from my good buddy Mark, who rode with us on the last CSC Baja run!

Joe,

Mark here.  I was on the 2016 RX3 Baja ride and took delivery of a TT250 a couple weeks ago.  I took a trip to the South Central part of Colorado over the weekend and thought I’d share a few pics of the TT250 in its intended environment.  I was riding with a couple of buddies who ride Honda CRF 250 and 450’s.  We rode in the San Isabel National Forest near the Spanish Peaks.  We climbed up some very rough rocky jeep trails up to approximately 11,000 ft until we hit the snow line.  The TT performed really well up to this altitude.   What a great little bike.  I can’t stop smiling.

Regards,

Mark

Mark, we’re glad you’re enjoying both of your CSC motorcycles.  Thanks for your note and the photos!

We love getting these notes and photos from our riders.   If you’d like to see your motorcycle on the CSC blog, just drop us a note and a photo!

I received this nice note yesterday from our good buddy Rhode Island Dave….

Hey folks,

Just wanted to share with you a couple pics of my wife, riding her 2016 CSC RX-3 in the back woods of Rhode Island today!

This was her first time doing anything other than forest roads in state parks.  She dropped the bike 2x and was able to pick it up and have no damage!

Kerri is 32yrs old, Mother of two, and learning adventure riding on your motorcycle.

Thanks for importing an adventure bike light enough for her to ride!

Dave

P.S. Ship my dang TT250 already! 🙂

Dave, the guys are working overtime to get the TT250s on the road to you and all of the other good folks who have ordered these wonderful bikes.  Hang in there, Amigo!

Ryan forwarded this great photo of Ohio Dan’s RX3 to me last week…

I’ve been on the road so much I am just now getting caught up with the blog.  More to follow, folks!

This is going to be grand, folks.   The excitement is building.  My good buddy Joe Gresh and I will be airborne en route to Guangzhou in less than 2 weeks.  Check this out…

In the next day or so, I’ll translate the above so it’s all in English.  My guess is that by the time Joe and I return, we’ll have learned a little Chinese.   Ni hao, my friends.

And as you’ve seen before, here’s the route…

I’ve been to China perhaps a dozen times going back nearly 20 years now, but I’m going to see much, much more of it than I ever have before.  Check out the mileage (or perhaps I should say kilometerage?) on the itinerary posted above.  Those are some serious travel days on small bikes.

I will keep you posted, contingent on connectivity.  It’s going to be grand.

Well, sort of.   My good buddy Tom sent this to me.   Incredible stuff.   Enjoy!

Well, sort of.  I was poking around on Facebook a few moments ago, and I saw my buddy Joe Gresh’s name.   I clicked on it to get to his page, and there was the usual stuff (lots of things about vintage Japanese two-strokes, speculation on the proper rpm for initiating a burnout, and so on).  One of the things that caught my eye was a link to Zongshen’s site, so I clicked on it.  You can, too, by clicking here.  Imagine my surprise when the link took me to one of my CSC blog posts (complete with photos, including my favorite of the entire Western America Adventure Ride, which is the photo you see above).

Enjoy, my friends…

Wow, the lead photograph in Ride Apart magazine’s Overland Expo story (written by my good friend Fonzy Palaima) is of a CSC RX3!  And that’s our very own Gerry standing off to the right!

You can read the Ride Apart article here!