CSC Blog

 I’ll bet everyone who reads this blog has seen Steve McQueen’s The Great Escape.  Released in 1963 (about the same time as the original Mustang company folded), I believe The Great Escape is one of the greatest movies ever made.  If you’re you’re into bikes (hey, you’re reading this blog, so you gotta be!), you know about the scenes showing Steve McQueen racing away from the bad guys on a motorcycle… 

The purists among us recognized that the movie dudes took some liberties here…McQueen was on a 650 Triumph in the film, and the Germans didn’t use Triumphs.  The movie folks modified the Triumph to make it look like a German military bike because it would have been a lot harder doing this scene on an old and underpowered BMW.   And, the guy who jumped the bike over that barbed-wire fence wasn’t really Steve McQueen…it was a previously-unknown desert racer and stuntman named Bud Ekins (more on him in a bit).

Here’s the original, actual Triumph motorcycle used in that movie…

The real deal...the actual bike used in the chase and jump scenes in The Great Escape

So, how did all this come about?

Bud Ekins in action

Most of you probably know that Steve McQueen was a serious motorcycle guy.   In his day, he was an avid collector, racer, and rider.   McQueen got into motorcycling almost accidentally.  A guy who owed McQueen money offered to give him a Triumph motorcycle to repay the debt, and McQueen said okay (this is good stuff…it’s what actually happened…I can’t make up stuff this good!).  McQueen took his bike to the local Triumph guru to learn how to ride it, and that guy was none other than a racer and mechanic named Bud Ekins.   The two guys became riding buddies and (pardon the pun) fast friends.

So, fast forward a bit, and McQueen’s got this gig to star in a movie called (you guessed it) The Great Escape.   There are cool motorcycle scenes in it, including the iconic jump scene shown in the video above.   McQueen’s bosses wouldn’t let him do it, so McQueen turned to his buddy, Bud Ekins.   Bud had never been involved in any Hollywood stunt work prior to this request.

Ekins and McQueen met with the folks in charge of the movie and learned that the script required jumping a 15-ft fence.  Ekins explained that the highest he had ever jumped

Frank Bullitt's ride

a motorcycle was perhaps 5 or 6 feet, but he thought he could do it.   McQueen and Ekins worked at it, building up Ekin’s ability to jump greater heights through a series of experiments with ramps, velocity, and ropes.   When Ekins felt confident, they filmed the scene above.  In one take.   That’s all it took.

Ekins negotiated a whopping fee for his jump:  $1000.  Yep, that’s right…there aren’t any zeros missing.   It was a cool thousand dollars.  It almost seems laughable now, but at the time, it was the highest fee Hollywood had ever paid any stuntman, and it made news. 

Jay Leno speaking at the Warner Brothers service for Bud Ekins

Imagine that:  A thousand bucks for one stunt.  Wow.

Ekins made the jump, and his stuntman career took off.  Just about any action scene you’ve ever seen in any movies during the last 50 years or so (if it involved a motorcycle or a car) had Ekins doing the real driving.   In Bullitt, he drove both the Mustang (the green car, that is…not a Mustang motorcycle) and the motorcycle that crashed during that iconic chase scene.  In The Blues Brothers, that was Bud behind the wheel of Belushi’s and Akroyd’s trashed out police car.   In Smokey and the Bandit…well, you get the idea.

McQueen died young a long time ago.   Ekins passed away just a few years ago, and I was lucky enough to get to go to a tribute for him at Warner Brothers Studios (you can read about that awesome event here).  There were a lot of speakers at that event, including big wheels in the movie business, McQueen family members, Ekins family members, and Jay Leno.   The thing that stuck in my mind was one of the speakers telling us that during the ’60s and ’70s a lot of guys, if they could pick anyone they wanted to be like, well, they’d pick Steve McQueen.   But if you asked Steve McQueen who he wanted to be like, the answer was always instant and consistent:  Bud Ekins.

Hey, it was the ’60s and these were the Shangri-Las.   Those of us who were around back then enjoyed those years…

Remember this one?

Yep, the Shangri-Las.   And that guy…that’s actually Robert Goulet!  This video came from the TV show I’ve Got A Secret, in which Goulet participated in a skit with the hottest group around, the Shangri-Las (check out their hairdos!).  

“The Leader of the Pack” hit the Number 1 spot on the hit parade back in 1964, the same year that the Hondells released “Little Honda” (drop down a few blogs and you’ll can listen to that one, too).   I was 13 that year.

Motorcycles were very hot in 1964…

I grabbed this quick shot just a few minutes ago in our loading dock area.   These are the five bikes we’re going to display at the SEMA show in Las Vegas next week.   These are the three Classic colors (gloss red, blue, and black), the pink and white Babydoll, and the flat black Greaser.   It’s a complete collection of our standard offerings, and when TK commented how cool it looked to see them all together, I ducked in the back to grab a shot.

SEMA stands for Specialty Equipment Marketing Association, and it’s basically the place to be if you’re a gearhead.   Here’s a link to the SEMA site, so if you want to know more about this show, take a look.  The show runs from Tuesday through Friday.  We hope to see you there!

John and Tony with the LSR-engined standard bike...it's shot in silhouette for a reason...lots of cool tricks here, boys and girls, and they're staying secret!

We put the Land Speed Record engine Grant Matsushima built for us in one of our standard bikes, and it’s awesome.  Here’s a rundown on this very special CSC 150 engine:

• We kept the displacement stock at 150cc, because that’s the class we’re running in.   We also have a stroker crank and bigger pistons, but we’re sticking with the stock piston and the stock stroke for this effort.  
• We milled the cylinder to bump the compression (yep, you read that right…we milled the cylinder, not the cylinder head).
• We ported the cylinder head, with lots of extra space leading to and from the valves.  This baby will breathe easy!
• We have a bigger carburetor.  Way bigger, in fact.  The motor’s all about top end.
• 

  Sylvain Binau, the future 150cc LSR record holder

  John Esposito fabricated a reverse megaphone.  It’s trick, it looks cool, and the bike sounds like a Triumph flat tracker.  It absolutely sounds unlike any 150cc bike I ever heard.   Awesome is too mild a word.

• We have a cam with lots more lift.   The way the cam grinder did this is pretty clever.   But that’s a secret I’m not gonna spill.  I’ll just say there was no welding involved.
• Our new CDI doesn’t have a rev limiter.   This little puppy will wind until the cows come home.   I cranked it out until it scared me…but no valve float, and no limits.  And the sound…it was wonderful!
• Grant incorporated lots of friction reduction tricks.  Some of it’s classified, but other stuff is not.  We originally thought we’d be eliminating the electric starter, for example, but it turns out that the kick starter adds a lot more friction than the electric starter, so….   Yep, it’s gone.

There are other things we’re gonna do, but the engine really rocks now.   I took it out on the street after listening to Tony and John riding it around the building (we could hear the bike all the way around the plant), and the power is impressive.   Let’s just say I never expected a 150 to pull like this thing does.

We have a straight stretch of road in front of the plant that is about a half mile long, and when I wound it up, the bike was going faster in 4^th than my stocker goes in 5^th, and I just ran out of room (I was coming up to the end of the street).  When we install this engine in the LSR bike with our rider Sylvain on board, we are expecting great things.   Sylvain weighs exactly half of what I weigh, and the LSR bike is now under 200 pounds (hmmm, come to think of it, our LSR bike weighs less than I do, too).  The LSR bike is in the paint shop, and when we are done with the cosmetics, our Matsushima mill goes into it.

November 21^st folks, at El Mirage dry lake…it’s gonna be a day to remember!

Mike at NoHo Scooters just posted this on Facebook…

Mike Love and Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) wrote this song and the Hondells recorded it way back in 1964.  Yep, this song is 46 years old!

You know, the scary part is I have this song on a CD, and I still listen to it nearly every day on my way to work…

Yep, it’s coming in March of next year….the first annual Salton Sea Endurance Rally!

This is an event designed specifically for scooters, and it’s going to be a hoot.

If you’d like to get the Rider’s Handbook for the Salton Sea Endurance Rally, shoot me an email (jberk@californiascooterco.com) and I’ll get it right out to you.  I know of two California Scooters (so far) running in this event.   Yep, my Baja Blaster is one of them!  

Will we see you there?

Another great day, another great ride, and awesome food…wow, did we have a good time today!

No, the Oinkster is not a new motorcycle from, well, you know.   Read on, and I’ll get to these porcine delights in a bit…

I gotta tell ya I was itching to get on the road again.  This was the first ride of any length for me since the Baja trip, and it felt great to be back on my Scooter…the excuse this time (not that anyone needs an excuse to go for a motorcycle ride) was the open house at NoHo Scooters in North Hollywood.   They’re one of our dealers, and Mike Frankovich invited us to his place.   As an added treat, a few of LA’s gourmet food trucks were there, and that made the event even more appealing!  TK, Steve, and yours truly hopped on our California Scooters and pointed them west…

Steve and TK on the road to North Hollywood

Like I said, it sure felt great to get back on my Scooter.   I’ve read that guys who travel great distances on motorcycles feel kind of lost when the trip ends, and after my ride in Mexico last month, that’s exactly what I’ve been feeling.  Don’t get me wrong…it was great to be home again, but not being on my motorcycle felt strange.  I felt like something was missing.   Getting my knees in the breeze was what I needed.  It felt great.  

As an added treat for me, the boys in the shop changed my oil after the Baja run, and I made a discovery.  We use a good motorcycle oil (Drag Specialties 10-40W) in our California Scooters.   You should, too.  It’s a good oil, and it’s specially made for motorcycles.  You never want to use a motor oil intended for cars, as automotive motor oils contain friction inhibitors that cause problems in motorcycle engines.   The most common problem is clutch slippage, because the friction inhibitors prevent a wet clutch (which is what we have in the California Scooter) from working properly.  

Another bit of advice…it’s generally not a good idea to use a synthetic oil in a new motorcycle, because the added lubricity of a synthetic oil can prevent the engine from breaking in properly.  Once the engine is broken in, though, a good synthetic motorcycle oil is a good idea.

Well, I am coming up on 3000 miles on my California Scooter, and it’s broken in (especially after that 2000-mile putt through Baja).   The best motorcycle oil I’ve ever used is Mobil One 4T racing oil, and I had the guys put that in my bike.  Wow, what a difference!  The bike feels better throughout the rev range, and the improvement in shifting is unbelievable.  

If you want to go this way, just make sure you get the Mobil One that’s intended for motorcycles (not Mobil One for cars).   Mobil’s 4T oil is usually available at Triumph dealers, and in my neighborhood, the local AutoZone carries it, too.  The bad news is this stuff is over $12 a quart; the good news is you only need one quart (that’s the California Scooter’s oil capacity).  What you want is Mobil One, the 4T type, in 10-40W.  

TK waiting at a light in Pasadena

Okay, enough about oil…let me get back to the main story about our ride to NoHo Scooters today.  We took surface streets all the way from La Verne to North Hollywood, and the riding conditions were perfect – overcast skies, temperatures in the low 60s, and no rain.   We rolled along and experienced the usual rockstar treatment…folks rolling down their car windows and taking pictures of us with their cell phones, talking to us at the stop lights…if you ride a California Scooter, you know the drill.

TK and Steve on the Colorado Boulevard art deco bridge

Rolling along on surface streets is cool…you get to see a lot of things you don’t notice when you are in a car, and you see things you wouldn’t find at all if you were on the freeway.

Somewhere along the way... a boxing club on Colorado Boulevard

For a good part of our ride today we were on the original Route 66.  In Glendale, we rode right by the building that housed the original Mustang motorcycle factory (if there are ghosts in there, you can bet they took notice when we went by).  And the aromas…ah, they’re incredible…chargrilled hamburgers, grilled onions, french fries, salsa, pickles, pastrami…it’s all part of the motorcycling experience, and we hadn’t even arrived at NoHo Scooters yet.  These are the fragrances you pick up on any motorcycle ride along Colorado Boulevard!

When we arrived at Mike’s NoHo dealership, he gave us a warm welcome.   The place was packed, and the bulk of the scooteristas hadn’t even arrived yet (they were still on the road).  

The Man...Mike Frankovich of NoHo Scooters fame

Mike is a pretty cool guy.  He’s been into scooters forever, and he’s probably forgotten more than I’ll ever know about them.   The exterior walls of his operation are decorated with graffiti artwork (hey, it’s California), and the place is colorful.  So are the people who hang out there. 

In addition to the normal crowd of riders (if normal is a word that can ever be applied to us), there were some very unusual vehicles, too.   Check out the Bajaj taxi below (it’s pronounced buh-jhajh).

Another Mike in his Bajaj scooter taxi thingamajig

I talked to another Mike (the guy in the Bajaj) and he told me his is a 2004 model.  Some dude brought a bunch of them to San Francisco thinking they would catch on as taxis.   Well, they didn’t, and when he liquidated his inventory, guys like Mike bought them.  If you want something no one else is going to have (at least this side of Mumbai), a 2004 Bajaj three-wheeler might be the way to go…

The lines for the food truck were insane.   People were waiting over an hour to get a grilled cheese sandwich.  I don’t know about you, but to me a grilled cheese sandwich is something you make when there’s no other food in the house.  Or so I thought…

An hour's wait for a grilled cheese sandwich!

This guy’s grilled cheese sandwiches are apparently really something special.   He has a massive following on Twitter, and when he tweets where he’s going to be, an army of Angelenos descend on him.   Hey, like I said, we live in California.

When I saw the sandwiches, I was intrigued.  Take a look at Mike Frankovich’s lunch…

A gourmet grilled cheese sandwich...after living in California for 30 years, some of this starts to make sense

Steve, TK, and I talked things over.   We live in California, but we were hungry, and tweet or no tweet, there’s no way we were going to stand in line for an hour to get a grilled cheese sandwich.    The boys let me take photos for a bit, but they had a plan.  Steve had seen another place on TV famous for its sandwiches, and we’d be passing right by it on the way home…but I am getting ahead of myself again.   First, our photos…

The Baja Blaster, with Mike's graffiti in the background...check out the Mama Espinosa decal on my windshield...this is a restaurant in Baja with the best lobster burritos on the planet!

TK's Classic California Scooter against a graffiti background

My new friend Tea on TK's bike

Shelby, the Hungarian Vizsla hunting dog...her personality jumps out of this picture!

Sylvain, our land speed record bike pilot, hooked up with us at Mike’s and he rode with us when we left.  Sylvain is a cool young guy.   You mark my words…this young fellow will soon be holding the 150cc scooter land speed record!

Sylvain, our good friend, and the future 150cc land speed record holder

As we rolled through Burbank, Sylvain spotted a car that you would only see in LA….does this DeLorean look at all familiar to you?

Back to the future...

So, back to the present and our lunch for today…

Steve had heard of this place called Oinkster’s, and he wanted to try it. 

No kidding.  Oinkster’s.  

Ah, California.   It turns out that Oinkster’s was recently on television (the food channel, I guess).  The place is a gourmet pastrami joint…they actually make their own pastrami right on the premises.  And their signature sandwich is…you guessed it…the Oinkster.  

Melissa dishing out Oinksters...and they were good!

The Oinkster is not your everyday pastrami sandwich.  It’s dipped, it has caramelized onions, red cabbage, and mustard, and like I said, they make their own pastrami.   The Oinksters were awesome.   And, the folks at Oinkster’s took a shine to us (especially Melissa, the young lady in the photo above).   Melissa wanted to know all about our California Scooters.   She’s a rider, and she was intrigued by our bikes.

After Oinksters, we had a spirited ride home, and my luck held…it started to rain just as I pulled into my driveway.   It was a super Saturday…a great ride, great company, great motorcycles, and great food.  We did about 100 miles, and all I can think about is getting on the road again.

More than a few of our blog readers are guys and gals my age or older, and that means you probably remember the old TV show, Then Came Bronson.   That show didn’t last too long, and a lot of the bike scenes were so phony as to almost be comical…but it was better than a lot of the stuff that passed for television entertainment back in those days (or these days, for that matter).   Someone found this on YouTube and posted it on Facebook today, and I thought I’d include it in our blog for you to see….

Take note of the scene where Michael Parks is riding that old Sportster across the world-famous Bixby Bridge.   That’s on the Pacific Coast Highway south of San Francisco (a magnificent motorcycle ride), and it’s one of the places we’ll be seeing on a future California Scooter Adventure Tour!

CSC's 3-spoke racing wheels

Our LSR rider Sylvain contacted me a few days ago with suggestions for our land speed record bike, one of which was reducing wheel weight for this very special California Scooter.   It was a great idea…and when I mentioned it to the boss, Steve immediately agreed.  

What you see here is the result.   These wheels are not available to the public…these are very special custom wheels made exclusively for our race bike.   They are nearly 40% lighter than a stock wheel, and if you’ve ever switched to lighter wheels, you know how much of a difference that makes in the bike’s overall feel, responsiveness, acceleration, handling, and everything else.   That’s because two things happen when you run with lighter wheels…there’s the basic weight reduction (which is always a good thing), and there’s the reduction in inertia (it’s easier to make the wheels rotate).   This was a great idea, and I think these new wheels really look cool, too.  Sylvain, this was a super suggestion!

Hey, here’s another cool freebie…our latest California Scooter decal with the CSC logo.   These 4-inch diameter stickies are free…if you want one, just shoot me an e-mail at jberk@californiascooterco.com with your snail mail address and I’ll get one mailed to you right away!   The one you see here is on my Subie WRX, and I’m gonna put one on my KLR 650, too. 

Want a decal? Shoot me an email at jberk@californiascooterco.com and I'll mail one to you!

We’re headed out to Mike Frankovich’s open house at NoHo Scooters in North Hollywood this Saturday…Steve, Jim, me, and one or two others on our California Scooters.   One of the many things Los Angeles is famous for is our gourmet roach coaches.   No kidding, these are mobile food vendors with incredible high end delicacies served right from their trucks.   Mike’s gonna have these guys at his NoHo Scooters open house.  We hope to see you there!

I just got back from Grant Matsushima’s shop…you’ll remember that he’s the wizard who’s preparing our Land Speed Record bike engine. 

Grant is deep into the guts of our motor now, and it’s cool stuff.  We’re keeping the stock displacement, but everything else is getting the Matsushima magic…it’s going to very, very cool.   And fast.   This is gonna be fun!

Mr. Matsushima's magic is being inserted here!

We’ll keep you posted on the LSR bike and its engine as development continues…imagine that…going for the 150cc Land Speed Record!