CSC Blog

Yep, today is a milestone…it’s our 500th CSC blog!

I wouldn’t have guessed the CSC blog would be so well received, but apparently you guys and gals out there in the motorcycle world enjoy reading it. We get a lot of compliments on the blog, and we’ve had more than a fair number of positive comments float in from many of you.  My mission in writing the blog, as I see it, is to provide entertainment and to inform. The entertainment aspect of it is pretty easy to understand. The informational aspect is little more abstract. I write the blog to explain what it’s like to be a part of the California Scooter family and to convey to you just how much fun it is to ride these little motorcycles.

CSC Motorcycles...the Military Series (available in OD green and Desert Camo), the BabyDoll, the Greaser, and the Classic (available in six dynamite gloss colors)

We’ve actually done very well, especially measured against the economy.  California Scooter started production at what many might view as the worst possible time….in the middle of a terrible industry-wide motorcycle sales slump and during the worst recession since the Great Depression.  That’s the bad news.

The good news:  We’re selling fun transportation, a motorcycle that is becoming a real cult bike…a bike that gets over 90 mpg when gas is approaching $5 per gallon. We’ve sold a lot of these great motorcycles and we put a lot of smiles on our riders’ faces.

Let’s turn to a new topic.   You might wonder…how did the CSC blog get started?

My old Speed Triple

Well, as the saying goes, there’s a silver lining in every cloud.  It actually started, sort of, with a motorcycle crash.

Back in November 2009, I was on my way to Cal Poly Pomona one morning (I’m a teacher there in the College of Engineering). It was just another normal morning for me. Up early, check my email, coffee, breakfast, push the Triumph out of the garage, and I’m on my way.

What started as a normal morning went south pretty quickly, I guess. I say “I guess” because I don’t remember hardly any of it. One minute I’m cruising in to school, and the next thing I knew I’m being loaded onto a helicopter. I thought I was having a bad dream, except I remember thinking the helo noise and rotor wash seemed pretty real for a dream. I remember the pilot looking back down at me as I was being hoisted up into the Huey, and then the next week was pretty much a drugged-out blur. I had what you might call a pretty bad day. I either ran a red light on my Speed Triple, or somebody rear-ended me. To this day, I don’t what happened. I don’t remember anything (it’s called event amnesia, and I’m told it’s fairly common in these kinds of events). I do know the results, though. My left hip was busted in two places, I broke my back, I had a severe concussion, and I had a few loose teeth. Yikes.

Yours truly...you can just make out the lower fracture line starting between the 6th and 7th screws from the top...this was the one that required a second surgery

So what could possibly be the silver lining in what was admittedly a pretty dark cloud?

After the accident, I spent a month in different hospitals. About a week after I got home, my good buddy and riding partner, Joe Lee, called me about a brand new motorcycle company called California Scooter. Joe knew that I ran a couple of websites and that I posted a lot on a site called ADVRider. Joe Lee used to work for Steve at Pro-One Performance, and he’s friends with Steve and Maureen.

Steve and Maureen are the Pro-One owners, and they are the folks who started the California Scooter Company.  Steve and Maureen needed somebody who know his way around the Internet and could respond to posts on various Internet forums about our bikes, with a view toward starting the blog.  I told Joe that I was interested, but I was in a wheel chair and I would be for some time.  I couldn’t get in for an interview, but once I regained enough of my mobility, I’d sure be interested in talking to these folks.  Joe just smiled.

Joe Lee, on a ride with me somewhere deep in the Baja peninsula

In a few days, the doorbell rang, and there stood Joe and Maureen. Maureen, Joe, and I had a nice chat, one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was working for the California Scooter Company. For the first several meetings, Maureen drove to my house. It was a good month or so before I graduated from the wheelchair to a walker, and when I did, Maureen drove me over to the plant. I remember putting lots of scratches in the new floor with that walker hobbling around the office and the production area. Maureen pretended not to notice.

Maureen, as it turned out, became my real boss at California Scooter (we let Steve think he is in charge, but trust me on this, I know who really calls the shots).

One of the nuttiest things I ever did in those early days? I actually had Tony help me get on a California Scooter while I was still in the walker. I once knew a one-legged guy who rode a Gold Wing, and I figured if he could do it, I could, too (as long as I didn’t need to get off the bike). It was the first time I had been on a motorcycle since the accident. I thought I’d be scared, but I wasn’t. Fact is, it felt pretty darn good to get my knees in the breeze. I rode a cool 50 miles. I couldn’t walk yet, but I sure could ride.  I even did a blog entry about that one.

My first ride on a CSC motorcycle...my walker was just outside the photo's field of view!

You’re reading the blog, so you know I am a Baja nut. The first time I ever saw a California Scooter, I had two crystal clear thoughts:

• This is a cool bike (especially in red), and
• Riding a CSC motorcycle to Cabo San Lucas and back would be a very, very cool thing to do.

You know how that trip went…I and four of my best friends rode our CSC motorcycles all the way to the tip of the Baja Peninsula and back.  We used to get calls all the time from people wanting to know if the bikes are street legal, and the Baja ride put that question to rest forever.  You gotta read the story.  It was awesome.

The CSC Baja crew...Simon, Arlene, J, John, and me. That's the Sea of Cortez in the background. We were about 700 miles south of the border in this shot, and it was the hottest time of the year in Baja.

A few serious motorcyclists make the Baja trip, but we may very well have been the first people to ever do it on 150cc bikes.  Maybe others did…I don’t know.  For sure, we were the first ones to ever do it on California Scooters.  And although I didn’t know it at the time, I was almost certainly the only guy to ever do it with a broken leg.  Yep, all 2,000 miles, riding with a broken leg.  I just didn’t know it at the time.

As it turns out, my leg had been giving me a lot of grief (ever since the accident that had occurred nine months prior to going “wheels in the wells” on our CSC adventure in Mexico).  I figured the pain was just part of the deal, but a few months after my return from Baja, the pain increased big time.  A trip to Doc Bones confirmed what I had feared…one of the fractures never healed. My leg was basically being held together by the metal plate and screws you see in that photo up above, and when that let go, I sure knew it. In a weird sort of way, I was actually glad when that happened. I knew things weren’t right; I just didn’t know why.  Now I knew.  That called for another surgery about 14 months ago, and I believe the guys got it right this time.  They pulled out all of the metal you see in my “I got screwed” photo above and stuck a steel rod through the length of my femur.  Kind of like our trip to Cabo…all the way down and back.  And it worked.  I am doing great now.

I bounced back from the second surgery very quickly, the pain is gone, and I am (as the saying goes) back in the saddle again.  We’ve had some fabulous rides, and there are a lot more good ones coming up. Hell’s Loop was awesome.  We’re going to do Baja again.  We had a great company ride a couple of weekends ago.

So, back to the original premise of this, our 500th CSC blog:  Getting the word out.  If you’d like to help us, please spread the word. Tell your friends about us, send them the link to the blog so they can get a feel for what it’s all about. If they’re on Facebook, send them to our Facebook page.

And if you’re one of those folks who follow the blog but you haven’t pulled the trigger yet…there’s no time like the present.  Give us a call.

Another cool license plate, folks…our good buddy Jim reminded me that we featured his bike in the 11 November 2011 blog, and here it is again!

Thanks again, Jim!

So, anybody else out there with an interesting CSC tag?

Just like the title suggests, we’re very interested in finding out if anybody else has custom tags on their CSC motorcycle…check this one out!

If your CSC has a custom plate, please send us a photo of it and we’ll get your bike on the blog!

We sure have a large color palette from which you can select your CSC motorcycle…one made even larger by the ability to mix and match components and create easy-to-implement custom color combinations.

In a recent blog I asked for suggestions from you, our loyal blog followers…and boy oh boy, did we get great inputs!   Take a look at what our good buddy David (an obviously adept digital artist!) sent to us…

Steve:

Here are some fun color concepts. . .a little weird, but I enjoyed playing around with the options.  If there are any color schemes you would like to see applied to this model, I’d be glad to prepare them for you.  They can be rendered in any viewing perspective you might want. 

Cheers. . .

David

The last two are my favorites.  I like the idea of a powder blue bike with slightly-lighter-shaded blue wheels…it just seems to work, kind of like the two shades of yellow on Ol’ Yeller (our test mule bike…you can see it below in an earlier CSC blog).   And I especially like David’s lime green rendering with yellow wheels.  It looks a lot like the John-Deere-inspired custom we did a couple of months ago (a bike that sold within minutes of appearing on the CSC blog), and the original 1953 Mustang Pony that inspired Steve to create the California Scooter Company.   I inset a photo of the ’53 Mustang in David’s artwork.

David, thank you for sharing your titanic talent with us!  Your work is awesome!

Keep the  ideas coming, boys and girls…we love hearing from you!

Turns our that our good friend Gordon is a regular Cecille B. deMille! On our company ride last weekend, ol’ Gordon had his GoPro camera on for a good portion of the ride, and the results are almost like being there! Here’s the view from Gordon’s CSC saddle up in the San Gabriel Mountains…

Just a super job, Gordon! Thanks very much!

My good buddy Jerry sent this to me and I thought a lot of you would enjoy it…take a look…

Yep, that’s what that earlier blog was all about…check out another one of our CSC custom motorcycles…a blacked-out Classic with silver tank and fenders…

This one is just awesome, folks…the photo doesn’t do it justice.   The bike is visually arresting.  Trust me on this: It will stop you in your tracks and slap the cuffs on!  Funny thing is we did it just to see how inexpensively we could do a custom bike with a new look, and it ended up looking richer than anything we’ve made so far.   Think black axle adjusters, tail light, turn signals, hubs, handlebars, risers, seat springs, cups, headlight, air can covers, fender struts, mirrors, gas cap…and the list goes on.   You get the idea.  Steve painted the tank and fenders the same silver as our stock wheels and fork lowers, and the color combo is awesome!

The obvious question is this…how much would a custom CSC motorcycle like the Silver cost?   Well, folks, you’d be surprised.  Give us a call at 800 884 4173.   You might want to lock up your credit card before you do, though.   With our retail financing and this bike’s cost, it might just be too tempting…

While we were looking at the Silver the other day, I thought about other bikes we’ve done with matching wheels, tanks, and fenders.  There’s my Baja Blaster, of course…

I love that photo.   I took it in Panamint Springs when we did the Hell’s Loop Rally through Death Valley.   I use it as the desktop on my computer.   I still smile every time I see it because I remember what a great 400-mile one-day ride that was.

We’ve done a number of red-on-red Classics in the past.  They’re fun to do…the Greaser’s red wheels are an exact match to the Classic’s lipstick red.   When I first saw one I knew it was what I wanted, and Steve and the boys were happy to fix me up with one.    We’ve done a number of bikes in this “Little Red Wagon” color scheme, and for reasons that are obvious, they’re very popular with firefighters!

Another matching set of colors I really like is our Military Series bike in OD green.  Those colors just flat work.    Steve’s Sarge bike has been a showstopper from Day One.  Speaking of which, here are a couple of guys admiring it at the LA Roadster show…

And how about the test mule we did a ways back…Ol’ Yeller…another show stopper if ever there was one!

Ol’ Yeller was a funny deal…we didn’t build it to be a custom.  Tony just cobbled it together from parts he had in the shop so that we could evaluate some engineering changes.  The yellow wheels don’t quite match the bike’s yellow tank and fenders, but the look sure works.  I can’t go anywhere on that bike without people asking about it.   It even happens at traffic lights, and then the light usually changes before I can answer.  I once had a lady follow me back to the shop to get a better look!

You get the idea. There are a lot of possibilities when crafting a custom CSC, and one of the easiest things to do is match the wheels to the tank and fenders. Any specific color combos you folks think will work?  Let us know…like I said earlier, we really do enjoy hearing from you!

Yep, our guys are at it again!

That’s Art in the photo above, and he’s been working with Steve, Lupe, Wade, and others in piecing together a new Bobber prototype.   Here’s the word straight from the Boss…

Here are a few shots of the new Bobber…it has drag bars, a small front fender, a bobbed rear fender, and a side mount tail light and license plate.  We’re trying 2-inch lower seat springs and a smaller solo seat moved back 2 inches.   Our preliminary plans are to offer this bike in flat black and flat candy blue.  The bike in these pictures is just the prototype.  It’s rough, but the finished product will be as nice as our production bikes.

Steve

We’re still in the exploratory stages with this one, folks, and I don’t have any word yet on when it will be available.  We do bikes like this on occasion just to see what they’ll look like, and to gage the reaction from our riders (and our potential riders!).   Take a look at a few more shots…

Personally, I like it.  A lot.   But I already have a CSC motorcycle.   Your opinions are a lot more important to us.  So, what do you think?  Let us know; we always love hearing from you!

Well, it’s a year and a few days away…and I’m thinking about it…

The real Cannonball…my buddy Alan over at MSILSF must have a mind that goes 24/7!  What a cool idea!   And hey, I couldn’t resist…I had this photo in my collection from an April 2007 visit to Sandy Hook’s Fort Hancock…take a look a one of the shore battery defensive cannons and a couple of, well, real cannonballs!

Arlene’s already entered in the Cannonball…it most definitely would be a great ride…and we would get to see the US from the ground…

Speaking of which, one of my good buddies was actually my next door neighbor back when I was a kid…literally from Day One for me.   Paul is a couple of years older than me, so he was there when the folks brought me home when I was born, and we still talk regularly via e-mail.   Talk about a life-long friendship!  So anyway, Paul sent me one of those cool emails that make the rounds (we’re both gun nuts), and it kind of ties in to the Cannonball because it talks about different parts of the country.  Here’s the note I received from Paul, with a few comments from me…

On the news this week was a story about a southern California man put under 72-hour psychiatric observation when it was found he owned 100 guns and allegedly had (by rough estimate) 1-million rounds of ammunition stored in his home. The house also featured a secret escape tunnel. 

My favorite quote from the dimwit television reporter: “Wow!  He has about a million machine gun bullets.” The headline referred to it as a “massive weapons cache.”  (Note from me:  “dimwit television reporter” is a bit redundant, don’t you think?)

By southern California standards someone even owning 100,000 rounds would be called “mentally unstable.” 

Just imagine if he lived elsewhere: 

• In Arizona he’d be called “an avid gun collector.”
• In Arkansas , he’d be called “a novice gun collector.”
• In Utah , he’d be called “moderately well prepared,” but they’d probably reserve judgment until they made sure that he had a corresponding quantity of stored food.
• In Montana , he’d be called “The neighborhood ‘Go-To’ guy.”
• In Idaho , he’d be called “a likely gubernatorial candidate.”
• In Wyoming , he’d be called “an eligible bachelor.”
• And, in Texas , he’d be called, “my huntin’ buddy.”   (Note from me again…I used to live in Texas…and I had more than a few huntin’ buddies just like this guy.)

Good stuff, and good for a laugh with my morning cup of coffee.  Keep ’em coming, Paul.

And speaking of firearms…another cool story.   I bought a rifle through one of the Internet gun auction sites a few months ago, and when it arrived, I had to wait 10 days to take ownership (that’s the People’s Republik of Kalifornia’s mandatory 10-day waiting period…I sure miss living in Texas).  After waiting my 10 days, I took possession and I was disappointed.  The Leupold scope had a cracked lens and there were a few other things wrong with the rifle.

I called the guy from whom I had purchased the rifle, and he claimed it must have happened during shipment.   Right.  Sure.  You know how that goes.  Anyway, I don’t get too upset about these kinds of things at my age, and I wanted the rifle.  So I sent an email to Leupold’s service department asking what it would cost to get the scope repaired.  They gave me an estimate of $60 to fix the thing (which seemed pretty reasonable), and off it went for repairs.  Leupold is the Rolls Royce of rifle scopes, and to me it was worth a relatively inexpensive repair.  Shoot, that’s less than what it costs to fill my car’s gas tank.

The bottom line to this story?   The scope arrived in the mail yesterday, in literally better than new condition.   The repair charge?  $0.00.   You can bet I’ll never buy any scope other than a Leupold.  Nicely done, guys, and thanks very much!

We had a great ride up in the mountains yesterday.   I guess I should start out with an apology (always a bad idea), but the fact is the weather was so beautiful yesterday (and the riding was so awesome) that I didn’t grab too many photos.   I was just having too much fun.  It had been too long since I’d been on a good ride, and I was more focused on the riding than my Nikon was on the scenery!

Yours truly, Bruce, Arlene (the "Shark"), and Steve all the way at the top of Highway 39!

The anticipation started this week when we planned the ride.  The Donut Man.   The ride along Sierra Madre.   Highway 39 up into the San Gabriel Mountains.   East Fork.   Glendora Ridge Road.   Lunch at the Mt. Baldy Lodge.   Glorious riding.  Grand weather.  You get the idea.

Lupe had put new brake pads on my Baja Blaster the day before.   I spent a couple of hours detailing my bike up on my Harbor Freight motorcycle lift that night.   My red Classic glistened.  I was ready!

I was up at 0:Dark:30, I quickly dressed, I did my normal Windex faceshield wipe, I had a quick cup of coffee, I pulled on my CSC Tourmaster jacket, and I rolled my CSC out of the garage.   I made the usual obligatory pre-ride stop at the local larcenous petrol pusher (give it your best shot with your $4.40 per gallon thievery, you crooks…my ride gets 98 mpg!).  On to La Verne and the CSC plant!

I arrived way early (I was too excited about the ride not to), and Bruce and Gordon were right behind me.  We ducked over to Merendero’s for a cup of coffee and then we went back to the plant.  After picking up Steve and Arlene, the ride was on!

California Scooters lined up in the Donut Man parking lot!

Our first destination was the Donut Man.   It’s famous, both locally and beyond.  The LA Times even did a story on the place a few years ago (a brief departure from the usual silly stuff they repetitively regrind).   The Donut Man is an icon…a true So Cal original.  The line was long (it always is), but the wait was worth it…the donuts are works of art.  I ate my own little Picasso (it was so huge I could only eat half), and one of the customers waiting in line recognized Arlene from her appearance on Shark Tank.  Everybody joked about how TV puts 10 pounds on you (you could only have a conversation like that in southern California).   I think that must be my problem.  Yeah, that’s it…I must have been on TV too many times.

The weather yesterday was absolutely perfect.   70 degrees.  Sunny.   Not a cloud in the sky.   We wound through the surface streets into north Glendora.  Awesome riding, with the promise of even more just up ahead.

We turned right onto Highway 39 and headed north into the San Gabriels.  I should have hung back and grabbed more photos, but I was just having too much fun.  We were in the twisties.  The bikes were singing.   Lean to the right, lean to the left….lean to the right again.   The little CSC took it all in stride.   I chose a careful line and many of the corners effectively become straights bordered by undulating asphalt on either side.   Cutting corners to get through quickly…it’s where the expression “cutting corners” must have originated.  Man, this is fun!

The view from up front...

Bruce on one of the Turquoise Twins tooling up on Highway 39

Our next turn was way up ahead (the East Fork Road), but I smoked right past it.   Highway 39 dead ends high up in the San Gabriels.  Our plan was to run up to the end, and then turn around.  When they built Highway 39, the original concept back during the WPA days (the original economic stimulus package enacted during the Great Depression) was for Highway 39 to run all the way to Highway 2, the Angeles Crest Highway.   I guess their recovery occurred a bit too soon, though, because work stopped before the two roads intersected.   Parts of Highway 39’s northern end fell into disrepair (it was the classic highway to nowhere), and whoever it is that decides these things closed the northern part of the road.  You know you’ve reached the end because there are big orange gates spanning the road.

This morning, though, was different.  We came to the first Highway 39 gate (which is normally closed), and it was open.  Wow.  Onward and upward (literally).  We came to a second gate (which is the highest I’d ever been on this road before).  It, too, was open.  Wowsers!  We kept going.   Yet a third gate was open.   We were a good 20 miles further north on this road than I’d ever been before we finally hit a gate left unopened.   If they ever do open this road all the way to the Crest, it’s going to be beyond glorious.   Yesterday, it was absolutely glorious.    What a ride!

Gordon and Bruce at the northern terminus of Highway 39

Our good buddy Bruce Montgomery in the San Gabriel Mountains

Looking back down at the road we had just climbed on our California Scooters!

We stopped, grabbed a few photos, and headed back down.   When we arrived at the East Fork, we took it, skirting through the canyon carved by the San Gabriel River’s, um, East Fork.   Awesome twisties and more awesome riding.   I was out front.   I was living large.   My good buddies on their California Scooters were right behind me.   Great riding.  Great day.

Bruce at my 6:00!

A quick right turn, and we were climbing up into the hills again.  Like always, I was amazed that a little 150cc engine could haul my been-on-TV-too-many-times fat butt up these hills.   The bike was absolutely purring.  We hit the three-way intersection (East Fork, Glendora Mountain Road, and Glendora Ridge Road) and turned east again on Glendora Ridge Road.  There were a bunch of bikes parked at this intersection (it’s a popular spot for riders to stop and socialize), but we pushed on.  Lunch was waiting for us at the Mt. Baldy Lodge.

Glendora Ridge Road...right on the ridge!

And a grand lunch it was, too.   Great conversation.  Bikes.   Dealerships.  War stories about getting ripped off by car dealers’ service departments.   The merits of doing your own work.   Discussions about bikes, handling, seat heights, and riding (in other words, the usual motorcycle ride lunchtime conversation).  Just your typical day in paradise.  There’s nothing in the world that compares to it…especially on motorcycles, and especially with the exclusivity that comes with owning and riding a California Scooter!