CSC Blog

As some of you know, I run a page featuring police motorcycles over on the www.motofoto.cc site, and I often receive interesting photos from folks who visit that site.    Here’s one I received earlier today from Mr. Donovan, with his note to me below it…

Al Donovan on his 1950 Police Harley in Clearwater, Florida

Here’s what Al had to say…

Al Donovan on his 1950 Harley 61 ci. It would run 93mph with a tail wind. But with big a big sprocket it was good for a drag which made it practical for city work.  The radio had tubes and we had to keep the transceiver shut off as the battery wouldn’t hold up. To send a message we had to stop and turn it on. The siren was run by friction off the front wheel so it was useless if you slowed way down and stopped. One of my favourite non-approved things to do was to go downtown at late night and rev the engine in a low gear and retard the spark and cut the throttle and enjoy hearing the great loud backfires reverberate off the building walls of the empty businesses. The steering head had damper which was manually tightened or loosened to help control handling. All bikers learned early to retard that spark when kick starting the bike or else it could throw you up and off. My regular police cap was without the wire shape stiffener as with it in the thing would blow off even at slow speeds. So when we ran down the highway it looked really silly as it billowed up like a large blue chef’s cap. My regular beat was Clearwater Beach and the causeway over to the island. We worked 6 days a week back then and the key word was we worked a minimum of 48 hours week. If your day off came on a holiday you just lost it, there was no such thing as overtime. Our starting pay was $150 a month but after a year it rose magnificently to $175. We were allowed to park the bike when it rained or if the temperature got below 32f. That only happened once. I remember one cold day riding by the beach on New Years day and looking at all the Yankee tourists swimming in the water while I had on every bit of clothing I could get on and freezing to death. Ah! The good old days!

Al, you made our day with this photo and your note…thanks very much for sharing it, and the next time you’re in California, please stop by.  We’d love to let you ride one of our California Scooters and get your impressions of how it compares to your police motor!

Yep, we made the news again…the Whittier Times, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, and the Pasadena Star News all ran stories about California Scooter Company motorcycles being fully ADR-compliant (“ADR” stands for Australian Design Rules).  You can read the story here.

The holidays are fast approaching…and we’re still going to get some riding in.   Arlene’s coming over on Friday, and we’re gonna fire up the Scooters and head for the hills.   If you’re in the neighborhood, why don’t you join us?  We’re gonna be up on Glendora Ridge Road, my favorite riding spot.  

And guess what?  Motorcycle Classics magazine is using one of our GRR rides as its next “Destinations” piece (please be sure to pick up a copy).    Our good friends at Motorcycle Classics are going to use this photo of Steve on the Rockstar bike, looking at a few of Glendora Ridge Road’s 234 curves!

Steve and the California Scooter Rock Star on Glendora Ridge Road

I’ll grab a few shots on our Friday ride and post them here!

Oh, and if you like reading about Baja, pick up a copy of RoadBike magazine.   The January/February issue has a great story about riding in Mexico’s Baja peninsula, with a lot of photos you haven’t seen before.

That’s it for now, folks…ride safe!

We recently received this email from Macrae Brunker of the Brown Ford dealership in Cordell, Oklahoma (one of our highest volume California Scooter dealers)…

Greetings from Cordell, OK.  Thought you’d like to see Henry Ford riding a California Scooter.  We get a lot of double-takes from people thinking it’s a real person and he’s been the center of a few practical jokes around the dealership.  Have a good day!

Like Henry used to say, you can get a California Scooter in any color you want, as long as it’s black, red, blue, pink and white, flat black, or any one of John Esposito’s custom colors…

Hey, Macrae, thanks for sending your photo to us!

Yep, that’s right, we’ve passed all the tests, filled out all the forms, and California Scooters are ready to rock and roll in Australia.  We’ve been selling the big Pro-One Performance V-twins for years Down Under, and now our California Scooters are good to go, too! 

I had a lot of fun watching the guys loading a 40-foot shipping container this morning with 18 California Scooters, 6 Pro-One bikes, and lots of accessories.  It’s all headed for Magnum Performance, one of our dealers.  

An Australian collection of bikes and other good stuff, all headed for Magnum Performance!

Good stuff, this is!  And if you’re reading this in Australia, the answer is yes, we are looking to expand our dealer network…give us a call if you are interested!

The Lone Star State, and one of our best sales areas…we’ve sure had a great group of folks buy California Scooters in Texas.   Did you know that Texas was one of the best sales areas for the Mustang motorcycle, too?    What do you think…is it something in the water, or do those good ol’ boys just recognize a great thing when they see it?

Our good buddy Fred sent us this photo from Bluff Dale, Texas, which is a bit southwest of Fort Worth and Granbury.   As you may know, “Foat Wuth” is where the west begins…just ask anyone who lives there! 

Check out Fred, a proud Texan on his brand new red Classic…

Our good buddy Fred, riding tall in Texas!

What a great shot!  I wish I could say I took that photo, but I didn’t.  That Texas flag behind Fred sure looks good, too!  And that would be a great color combo for a custom Scooter…maybe we would call it a “Texas Two-Wheeler” instead of…no, Steve might not go for it.

I gotta tell ya, I used to live just outside of Fort Worth, and those roads through Granbury and the surrounding areas are awesome.  I’ve explored a lot of them on my Harley and my Triumph back in the day.  I love everything around Fort Worth and, well, Texas in general.   Camp Bowie Boulevard, the Amon Carter Museum, Angelo’s Barbeque, the warm summer nights…it’s a great area with great people.

Fred, I’m jealous…

This arrived in the mail today…it’s my Mexico moto buddy John Welker’s video of Sylvain at speed last Sunday, setting the new land speed record at 74 mph on a 150cc California Scooter.   Take a look at Sylvain flying below the cloud cover!

Great job, Syl!

Our Holiday Specials are gonna be running flat out starting next week…just like Syl on the LSR bike!

Call us at 800 884 4173 after this Thanksgiving weekend to learn more! 

This won’t last long, folks, so give us a call!

And have a great Thanksgiving!

Our good buddy Fred just bought a red California Scooter Company Classic (my favorite color for these great bikes, as you well know), and he sent a nice note to TK about his new toy arriving yesterday…

Hi T.K…….

Hope you guys are at work today because I need to brag a bunch more about the bike, the packing and just general customer service.  I’ll probably put a lot of words on you….but just hit the delete key when you’ve had enough!!  The Bike came yesterday as I mentioned in my previous memo.  The packing and crating was like opening up a surprise package.  Everything was there and arrived in “perfect” condition…..well built skid and crate.  The transportation guys took very good care also…..and I was super relieved.  The entire order taken by you was in the box, except for the paperwork and that came in the mail today.

The bike is built well and is heavy gauge steel and should last for a whole lifetime…..nothing tinny at all.  Looked over all the parts and everything looked good at first blush.  Thanks for installing the windshield hangers in the proper place on the forks.  The chrome pipe didn’t seem to be in a large enough package…..but as I opened it, there were the pieces all laid out.  Was surprised to find the pipe came in two pieces and that it is really a “Sneaky” chrome pipe.  I didn’t expect the header pipe to be so thick and stout….and the fact that the chrome piece covers the black pipe makes it even better.  Now I won’t have to sit under a tree and polish the bluing off!!!  The most amazing assembly line plus was when the handle bar grip was slipped on the throttle sleeve, the guys left me enough room to add a vista throttle lock without having to horse the grip back 3/16”.  I could go on and on but this memo would be 3 pages!  Very nice professional job throughout the process from you, T.K., taking the order, the order verification, the payment method, crating, transportation and the paperwork.  All is complete…..except for a couple of pics I’ll zap to you probably Friday after Thanksgiving.

It’s time for me to get out and add the reflectors, check the windshield, fire up Little Red and take her for a spin.  Tell everyone thanks and Happy Thanksgiving.  Catch you again on Friday.

Fred

Fred, you’re going to have a lot of fun.   Ride safe and drop us a line to let us know how you are doing.  We’re looking forward to receiving your photos, too!

Yes, we set a record…with “we” being the genius of Steve, Tony, John, and our rider, Sylvain.

But that’s not the good news…the good news is how much fun we had on Sunday at the Motor Scooter International Land Speed Federation time trials yesterday!

Syl Binau at speed, working to keep the front end down on his LSR California Scooter

It’s official: We are the fastest 150cc hybrid motor scooter on the planet.  We’re called a hybrid because we’re not a step-through scooter, and the good folks at MSILSF created a special class for bikes like ours.  And yours. 

Can we go faster?  You bet.  But we’re not in business to make land speed records.  We’re in business to make motorcycles, and we want to make one for you.   We want you to set the next record. 

Think about it, folks…where else in the world is there a motor sport where you have a shot at doing what Sylvain Binau did this weekend – set a land speed record – for under $5K?

Walt Fulton on a Mustang at 100 mph

You might be thinking there’s no way you can compete with the factory, but we want you to.  And we want you to smash our record.  And we want you to top what Walt Fulton did on a Mustang back in the ‘50s, which was to top 100 mph on a Mustang.  Walt had more than twice the engine displacement we do, but we have 60 years of internal combustion engine and transmission advances.  We think it can be done, and we want to help you do it.

We’ll share everything we did to this bike.  No secrets here, boys and girls…we want you to take what we did and do it better, and we want you to do it on a California Scooter!

I gotta tell you, I froze my butt off on Sunday, and the weather was atrocious, but I can’t remember ever having this much fun. Take a look at some of the photos we grabbed for you…it was wonderful!

Jerry Nelson on a California Scooter

I suppose I should back up a bit and tell you how all this came about.   My good friend Jerry Nelson (a retired LAPD police officer, committed motorcyclist, and scooter rider) sent an email to me one weekend about a bunch of guys planning to hold land speed record trials for motor scooters.  After an initial smirk (which is probably the reaction a lot of people had), I sent Jerry’s email to the boss.   Within just a couple of minutes, Steve fired an email back.  “This is great,” he said, “we’re in!”   Whoa, I hadn’t expected that.

One thing led to another, and before I realized it, the entire shop was fired up about taking the trophy home.  It was exciting!  Everyone had ideas on everything…the frame geometry, the engine, the handlebars, the gearing, the colors.   You name it, and the guys who designed and built the land speed record (LSR) bike had lots of input.  Things moved along nicely.  

The real stars of the design and build effort are John, Tony, and Steve…and this bike is magnificent.   The boys just finished it last week, and there really wasn’t any time to dial it in, but wow, this bike is something special!

John and Tony, assembling the Beast

Your's truly, working the Nikon, capturing the LSR bike build

I knew this would be great, and I knew there would be a lot of opportunities for capturing some great photos.   There are so many cool things that went into this bike.   Like the number plate.  We had to have one on the front of the bike.   One of the guys said let’s just paint the headlight black and put the number on it.  I got a shot (and posted it) of the black headlight before we put the number on.  “Why the black light?” we heard….and we answered, “it’s infrared…we’re doing our test runs at night!”

We knew we’d need a rider.   Oh, all of us can ride motorcycles, but we needed a real jockey.  A light, small, wiry guy with lots of talent.   One night we went for a ride with the NoHo Scooters crowd, and after racing all over LA, we wound up at Phillippe’s for dinner.   When Steve and I were standing in line to order our sandwiches, he nudged me and pointed to a guy behind me.   “He could be our LSR rider,” Steve said.   The guy looked thin.  I didn’t know who he was.  Never met him, but he rode in on an R1 Yamaha and he handled it well.

“How much do you weigh, Dude?”  I asked.

“104 pounds,” he said.  Wow.  That’s exactly half of what I weigh.

“You wanna be a famous motorcycle racer?”  And the rest, like they say, was history.   Sylvain Binau became our factory rider.

Syl and John with the California Scooter LSR bike days before the event

We were going to use stock wheels, but Syl suggested we go with something lighter.  Steve designed our 3-spoke billet wheels, which shaved over 4 lbs off each wheel.  And their looks are awesome. 

Syl came out to the plant and rode the bike around the building.   We had just three days before the race.   It was the first time Syl had been on the bike.

We heard that it was supposed to rain over weekend, and sure enough, on Saturday morning, it looked bad.  Steve and I jumped in his Ford pickup (it’s more like a limo…that truck is a sweet ride), and we headed up into the Cajon Pass.  Lots and lots of rain. 

When we got to the track, the gate was locked.   We tried to find a back road in, and after exploring every dirt road in the Cajon Pass, we went back to the competition staging area.   By then the gate was open.  Mind you, this was not the day of the race…it was Saturday (the day before)…and we met Alan Spears for the first time.   We made small talk standing in the rain.   We liked the guy immediately.  Alan’s a lawyer, and Iraq war vet, and a scooter geek, and it’s fun listening to him speak.  Alan’s the guy who put this whole thing together.   He did a great job.

Alan Spears, aka "Scootermeister"

My Mexico moto buddies J. and John came down for the event (you met them on the Baja trip blog), and they stayed at my place Saturday night.   Good food, good drinks, and good company.  

We were up with the roosters Sunday morning.   More rain.  Lots of rain.  We rolled over to the plant where Steve had the gear packed and ready to go.   Syl arrived with his Dad and his friend Piedad, and we were off.   Like they say, off to the races.  For real.  The day had arrived.  It would be the first time Syl would have an opportunity to get the bike past 3rd gear.

So, let me shut up for a bit and I’ll let the photos do some of the talking…

Checking in on a very cold and wet morning

Syl getting a tow from Steve to the starting line

It was pretty miserable weather, but we were having a great time.   There was excitement in the air, and everybody was in high spirits.   Hey, anybody can race in dry weather.   This was going to be something special.   And the bikes…wow, they were awesome.   They ranged from ultra-exotic classic scoots to modern stuff.   The common denominator was a love for anything with two wheels, and the excitement of competition!

Moto-exotica! A Salsbury! They made less than 2000 of these, and this one had a sidecar!

Syl checking out the track on a stock Classic California Scooter

Syl ran up and down the track a few times on a Classic (wow, it looks wet in that photo above, and it was!), and then it was show time.   How much of a show?  Well, check out Syl on his first run of the day…

Syl, staying ahead of the snakes

He looks good, doesn’t he?

Syl clocked a 73 mph run on his very first pass down the track.   I was busy snapping photos, but I noticed the streamer behind the LSR bike.   My first thought was that the guys had left the tow strap on the bike, but then TK told me it was the heat tape coming off the muffler.  That was our only mechanical issue the entire day.  Our very own Crocodile Dundee (that would be TK) whipped out a titanium knife and cut the tape off when Syl returned to our pit area, but not before I had a little fun with him.   Syl had never been to the Cajon Pass before, and a couple of days before the race I told him to watch out for the big rattlesnakes we get up there.  After his first run, I asked Syl if he saw the snake chasing him.   Then I showed him the photo.   We had a good laugh over that one.

I was in awe of the guys and gals on their scooters.   I grabbed some great photos, too. 

Take a look…

A scooter with a sidecar dodging the raindrops

And I have many more like the one above, but take a look at Syl rolling back into our pit area after his first high-speed pass…

Syl rolling back after one of his runs

Steve and Syl during a break in the rain

A T-max at V-max

This next one was very cool, too…it had an expansion chamber with a great sound!  It was only a 50cc bike, and this guy was doing well.  

It was a hoot watching all of this!

A 50cc bumblebee

I’m not knowledgeable enough to identify all of the scooters I caught with the Nikon, but I sure enjoyed seeing them. 

This one below…what do you think…is that an auxiliary gas tank?  Or maybe a nitrous oxide tank?

At speed in the rain

The riders were having fun, but they were serious on the track.   Check out the concentration and determination in these pictures…

An older Lambretta

This Buddy Blackjack caught my eye…it’s the same color as our Greaser.

A Genuine Buddy Blackjack

Check out these fellows in the pit area…they are on a Mustang and a Valmobile.   Never heard of a Valmobile?  I sure hadn’t.  Yet here it was.   Japan made these bikes in the ’50s and ’60s.  I have another photo of it below…

A Mustang and a Valmobile

Yessirree, a Valmobile.  These 49cc two-strokes folded up into a suitcase.  They weigh about 75 lbs and they are reputed to get around 165 miles per gallon.   Amazing stuff, this is!

A Valmobile...the first one I've ever seen

And here’s another shot of that beautiful Mustang!

Mustang!

A minimalist scooter, stripped down and at speed!  The photos don’t do these riders justice…here they are, riding in a downpour, in temperatures just a bit above freezing, and having a great time.

Scoot Speed!

This next photo is one of my favorites…it’s my new friend Kirk on his 1966 Vespa.  He cranked out 72 mph!  This bike started life as a 125, but Kirk bored it out to 135cc.   He told me when he wants to ride on the street he just puts the headlight back in.   This is hot rodding at its finest!

A very hot Vespa...this bike ran 72 mph!

Another cool shot.   There were a lot of female riders.

Zoom zoom zoom!

This looks cool, doesn’t it?

Another scooter at speed

I’m not sure what the original bike is, but this bike has had a heart transplant…it’s powered by a 250cc Kawasaki motorcycle engine.   I think this bike hit 80 mph!

A 250cc hybrid scooter

These things are interesting inside, don’t you think?  Check out the pipe!

Scooter innards

Sylvain’s dad Patrick is a rider, too…he pilots a 600cc Kawasaki sports bike.   Here’s a shot of two great riders…can you feel the pride here?

Syl and Patrick

Later in the day the sun finally put in an appearance, but it stayed cold.   The snow line was only a few hundred feet above us, and the sky was a very, very bright blue.   It was a beautiful morning.  My buddy John and I walked down to the starting line and a grabbed a few shots of the riders as they started their speed runs.

The sun is on!

John Esposito…a serious bike artist!  John is a great guy…he’s a lot of fun to be around.  Nobody can do what he does when it comes to painting a motorcycle.  It’s magnificent stuff, and if you follow this blog, I’m not telling you anything new…you’ve seen lots of John’s work here.  John painted our LSR bike, and it is a show stopper.  And a land speed record holder.

John Esposito, artist extraordinaire

I noticed this fellow using an 8mm film movie camera.  Wow, I hadn’t seen one of those since the ’60s.  This is Oscar, a rider from Tijuana, who came up for this event.  Cool stuff.  Classy gear.

Oscar and his 8mm movie camera

We ran into a lot of interesting people at the MSILSF land speed trials, including Josh from Scoot! magazine.   He’s a cool guy.  We talked for a bit.   He may ride with us on our next Mexico trip.   Josh has a scooter trip lined in Italy.  I’ll bet that one’s going to be fun.

Josh from Scoot! magazine

And one last shot of that magnificent Salsbury – an absolutely gorgeous machine.   It’s the first one I’ve ever seen.   My good buddy Jim up at Raceway Motors (our dealer in Oregon) tells me that a Salsbury can go for upwards of $20,000.  This one was beautiful, and with a sidecar, it’s got to be a rare animal.   What a bike, and it’s obviously not a hangar queen…it was out here racing in the rain, like everybody else.   Well done!

That beautiful Salsbury one last time

Well, folks, that wraps up this blog entry.   I probably put too many photos in, but hey, I’m having fun!  In another day or two, I’ll add some videos, too. And if you’d like to see what the other folks did yesterday, check out the MSILSF results right here.

So, are you feeling lucky?  You wanna race?  Give us a call, and we’ll get you started!

Get on a California Scooter, and run with the big dogs!

Sylvain Binau setting a new 150cc land speed record on a California Scooter! Go Sylvain!

Cold, wet, more cold, and more wet…but Sylvain showed ’em how to do it!

We’re all pretty tired, and I have a lot to talk about…so hang in there and in another day or so I’ll have the whole story up here on the California Scooter blog!  It was fun!

One quick note…yep, we set the new record, but we don’t want it to stand.  We have a few ideas about what to do next year, but what we really want is for you to compete, too!  Our bike created a new class, and when you get your California Scooter out on the track, we want you to run against us!  We’ll share all of our engine and bike secrets with you, and we’ll help dial you in with the accessories you’ll need to run with the big dogs…you know, guys like Sylvain! 

So come on out…and run with us (and against us) next year! 

Keep an eye on the blog…because this is gonna be fun!