CSC Blog

Just a quick photo, boys and girls…here’s one of Simon Gandolfi with our Sandy in front of the plant today.   Simon, as you know, is a world-renowned British novelist and adventure rider, and he certainly has a way with words.   The caption for the photograph below is one Simon crafted personally…

Handsome and extremely youthful man with beautiful young lady.

I have another photo I grabbed of Simon when we were shooting yesterday that I especially like…

Simon Gandolfi, checking out the sidecar-equipped Classic California Scooter

Simon is not riding the sidecar bike; he just thought it was cool, like we all do.   Simon’s bike for this trip will be the Rockstar Classic.   You’ll see lots of photos of it once we’re on the road.

A few quick things to take care of in the morning, a dinner for our Baja-bound riders tomorrow evening, and we’re off!

Sold today...my old Tiger

I sold my Triumph Tiger today.  I had a lot of fun with that motorcycle and I took some great rides on it, but truth be told, it’s a huge, tall, heavy motorcycle, and I just didn’t feel like wrestling with it anymore.  When I first bought it I was attracted to its awesome dual sport styling, and I thought I might actually go offroad with it a bit.  The first time I took it on a dirt road in Mexico, though, I sure changed my mind in a hurry.   It was a handful.  The Tiger is really a sportsbike styled like a dual sport, a fact I think Triumph recognized when they changed the styling in 2007 and made the Tiger a pure streetbike.

Undergoing a preflight inspection...my Baja bound CSC Classic

Still, that Tiger was a great motorcycle, and it sure looked good going down the road with its new rider.  For a brief instant, I had a pang of regret, but it passed quickly.  The guy who bought it seems like a nice guy, and the bike’s a good bike.  He’s happy, I’m happy, and if the Tiger could talk, my guess is it would tell us it’s happy (I haven’t ridden it much since I got my California Scooter, and the Tiger deserves to be ridden).  Like they say, a win-win situation all the way around.

When I stopped by the plant earlier today, my little red California Scooter was up on the lift and the guys were checking everything out prior to the Mexico trip.  It’s looking good, and our Baja team is pumped. 

Simon Gandolfi arrives in Los Angeles tomorrow (he is flying in from the UK as I type this), and I’m picking him up in the morning.  Yep, I unloaded one Brit (my Triumph) and I’m picking another one up (that would be Simon).  I’m really excited about meeting Simon face-to-face.   I read his blogs about his trips across India and down to Tierra del Fuego, and his book (Old Man on a Bike) is one of the best I’ve ever read.  The man is awesome, and his writing is hypnotic.  

I think the conversation on this trip will be more than worth the price of admission.  It’s going to be one of the world’s all time great runs.   And I’ll do my best to find a way to get stuff posted as we meander through the magic that is Baja.  Keep an eye on the blog, boys and girls…

And speaking of blogs, we’ve got a couple of other cool ones going about the upcoming Baja trip.  They’re very, uh, presidential.   Both are written by company presidents, and both presidents are going to be riding along with us to Cabo San Lucas (sorry, Barack, but you didn’t sign up in time for this presidential getaway).   Arlene (she’s the president of Go Go Gear) wrote a very nice Go Go Gear blog entry on the upcoming trip, and J Brandon (president of American Sahara) wrote a cool piece on the American Sahara blog.  My advice to you is to bookmark all three blogs (this one, Arlene’s, and J’s)…I think it will be interesting to read their impressions of this trip in addition to mine.

It’s just over 2 days until we make our run for the border…so stay tuned!

An ice-cold Tecate overlooking Bahia de San Quintin

A little less than 5 days and we point the bikes south.  Seriously south.  As in not turning around until we are a thousand miles into Baja and we run out of land.  I am having a hard time falling asleep at night thinking about how much fun we are going to have.  I love riding in Mexico.

I’m an east coast guy (I grew up in New Jersey), and I really didn’t get exposed to the rest of the world until I went in the Army back in the early ‘70s.  I didn’t know anything about Mexico, other than what I saw in the old Zorro TV shows.  I got lucky, though. I joined the Army and my first post was to Fort Bliss, right on the Mexican border.  I quickly made a new friend, Mark Collier, another east coast boy who was a worldly and mature guy.   At 27, he was much older than me.  Mark drove a Porsche Targa, he wore a Rolex, and he’d already been in Vietnam.  He was my hero.

Mark invited me to a Mexican restaurant the first day I met him, and the invitation shook me up.  Back in the ‘50s and ’60s in New Jersey we weren’t as global as we are now.  There weren’t any Mexican restaurants off Exit 9.  Mexican food?  Man, I just didn’t know.  Veal parmigiana, sure.  Gefilte fish, bring it on.  Bagels and lox? Hey, don’t scrimp on the schmear.  But Mexican food?  Couldn’t you catch a disease or something?

Fortunately for me, Mark was a very cool guy.  He took me to this little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that was right on the border.  I looked out the window and Juarez was just a few feet away on the other side of the river, although the fabled Rio Grande didn’t look like much of a river (I guess I was expecting the Mississippi).  I could have waded across the Rio Grande. Or maybe even walked on the rocks in it without getting my feet wet.  It couldn’t have been more than a few inches deep.

Mama Espinosa's lobster burritos in El Rosario

The waitress, a pretty young woman with beautiful dark eyes, brought the menus over and I was in a pickle.  I didn’t know what to order.  Burritos?  Man, I shuddered to think what was in those.  Quesadillas?  Couldn’t even pronounce that one, but for some reason I was pretty sure it had armadillo in it.  Pollo?  What’s a pollo?  Mark laughed when he saw me reading the menu, and he took it from there.  “Dos Tecates con lime y sal…” a pause…“dos chile rellenos,” he said, and that was the prelude to one of the best dinners I’d ever had.  Ice cold Tecate beer with rock salt around the edge of the can, and a wedge of lime you squeeze into the beer.  Incredibly soft and long, cheese-stuffed, battered peppers.  Beans.  Rice.  Chips.  More Tecate.  I was hooked then and there.  Still am, as a matter of fact.

So, here I am, 40 years later, and all I can think about is finding more little places like that restaurant as we meander south a thousand miles into Mexico and then back on our California Scooters.  Maybe I’m trying to relive my youth, doing the ride on a bike inspired by one that was in production when I was in grade school.  Maybe I’m excited about spending quality time with Simon, Arlene, J, and John.  Maybe I’m excited about the great photos I know we’ll grab down there. Maybe it’s the real Mexican food I know we’ll be enjoying.  You know, as I wrap this post up, I know there’s no maybes…it’s definitely all of the above, and more.  And we’ll keep you posted.  Right here.

Yep, that’s right, we’re getting close.    And we’re getting excited.    And we’re getting ready.

I had a great conversation with Geoff Hill at BajaBound.com insurance earlier today.  As you know, they are one of our sponsors for the Baja trip, and what they are doing to help us is really exceptional.   I’ll tell you a bit more about that a little later.

Arlene brought her bike to the plant yesterday to have the guys check it out, and I did the same thing today.  Tony, Steve, Carlos, and Tom are going over the Scooters with a fine tooth comb to make sure everything’s right.  I rode Simon’s bike to lunch yesterday (he’ll be riding the Rock Star), and it’s running strong.  John’s going to be on a new black Classic, and I’ll check that one out on Tuesday.

You might wonder…what do you bring with you on a trip like this? 

How not to pack on a motorcycle trip...

I’ve been taking these kinds of motorcycle trips for the last 40 years or so, and if there’s one thing I learned, it’s this:  Travel light.  There’s less stuff to lose, less stuff to cart around, and less stuff to pack and unpack everyday.   Even on the long trips, everything I need goes into a small gym bag.

It’s always entertaining to see folks new to adventure touring pack for these trips.  They pack like they’re moving.  I remember one time a few years ago…we were doing an overnighter to San Felipe (it’s only about 130 miles on the other side of the border) and this one fellow showed up on a full dress Harley that was loaded to the gills.   He proudly announced that he had packed enough to be on the road for a week.   Me?  I had a change of underwear.  I told him I had enough to be on the road for a week, too. 

On this trip we’ll have the advantage of J’s Power Wagon, so space won’t be too much of an issue.   I don’t plan on bringing anything on the bike, other than me and my camera (which I’ll be wearing).  The rest will go in that small gym bag and that’s going in the back seat of the big Dodge.

On motorcycle trips, my usual stuff is:

• A camera (I listed this first…it’s that important to me).
• My Mexico insurance, passport, license, and registration (I put all this stuff in a sealable sandwich bag so it will stay dry no matter what the weather).
• Two pairs of jeans (no matter how long the trip…I’m a cheap dude, and I buy mine at Wal Mart).
• Rain gear (my rain stuff is made by First Gear).
• My motorcycle jacket (I have a fluorescent yellow Olympia I really like; I want people to see me).
• My motorcycle gloves (I like Joe Rocket).
• My helmet (I love my carbon fiber HJC).
• My boots (I have a cool pair of HAIX Austrian combat boots that work well, and they’re comfortable for walking).
• Toiletries (deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, etc.).
• Underwear (not more than 3 pairs usually).
• Socks (same thing, not more than 3 pairs).
• My Victorinox Swiss Army knife (I love those things).
• A small toolkit (I customize my tool kit to the bike; I make sure I’m only carrying tools that fit the bike…there’s no sense carrying tools the bike doesn’t need).
• A tire repair kit.
• A small LED flashlight (I usually don’t ride at night, so the flashlight probably isn’t really necessary, but the one I have is about the size of a chapstick).  
• A small bottle of 90 wt that I use for chain lube (it works just as well as the fancy spray cans…and I lube the chain every night). 
• A dozen or so zip ties (they are the modern equivalent of baling wire).

I usually don’t carry oil with me because you can get it anywhere, but we’ll be taking extra on this trip because we’ve got the Power Wagon.  We’ll be taking some spare parts with us (again, because we’ve got the Power Wagon), but I normally don’t even do that.  The few times in my life I’ve needed fasteners I’ve been able to find a hardware store (even down in Baja), and if a bike needs a lot of bike-specific spare parts, I’ll let other people buy those bikes.   I like to stick with bikes that are reliable, which is one of the reasons why in the last few years I’ve mostly ridden Kawasakis and Triumphs.   And now, California Scooters.

We’re going to be putting a lot of miles on our California Scooters, and we’ll probably learn a few things we’ll want to incorporate on future models, but hey, that’s one of the reasons we’re doing this trip.

Oh, and speaking of insurance for Mexico…our thanks once again to Geoff Hill and the fine folks at BajaBound.com insurance.  These are the “go to” guys for insurance in Mexico, and they’re sponsoring a significant portion of this trip.  Geoff told me the guys and gals in his office are as excited about this trip as we are, and they’ll be talking about it on their site, too.   BajaBound.com is the only insurance I use for my Mexico trips, and they do a great job!  Geoff, we are deeply grateful to the BajaBound.com team!

We just learned that Walneck’s, a well-known national magazine focused on vintage and other collectible motorcycles, selected our very own Steve Seidner, California Scooter Company President and Chief Executive Officer, as Biker of the Month!  Mike Brown, the Walneck’s writer, tells the story way better than I can, so without further ado, here’s the article Walneck’s is going to run in their October issue…

Steve, our congratulations to you!  This is well-deserved recognition for the guy who created this great company, and I promise we’ll lift a Tequila or two to toast you during our upcoming Baja adventure!

Armstrong Olives...they are the best!

I had a nice conversation with Mike Armstrong earlier today.   We delivered a custom-painted Classic to Mike up near Porterville in California not too long ago, and Mike called to let us know just how much he was enjoying his new California Scooter.   Mike told me his only regret is that he isn’t able to put as many miles as he wanted on his new Scooter.  (I know that feeling only too well, but I’m going to make up for it on the Baja trip!)  Mike told me about his classic car, his interest in motorcycles, and how much he and his friends are impressed by his California Scooter.

Mike Armstrong's California Scooter on its way north

Mike with his new custom-painted California Scooter Classic

I think I surprised Mike just a bit when I told him how much we enjoyed what he makes.  You see, Mike knows a thing or two about making a first-class product.  He’s the founder of Armstrong Olives, and there are a lot of parallels between that fine organization and the California Scooter Company.   Both are family-owned and operated companies.   Both are headed by the husband-and-wife team that founded the business.  Both are successful companies that employ American workers.  Both are growing, vibrant organizations.

And both offer truly great products.  

I know this about the California Scooter Company because, well, you know why.  I ride a California Scooter, and you already know how I feel about these iconic bikes. 

You might be wondering, though, how do I know about Armstrong Olives?  Here’s the reason:  Mike is a nice guy (isn’t that the case with all successful entrepreneurs?).  When Tony delivered Mike’s gorgeous new California Scooter, Mike gave him a couple of cases of olives to share with the CSC team down here in La Verne.   Josh told me about it the next day, and I wasted no time in picking out a bottle of Mike’s finest.  I grabbed the hickory-smoked-and-almond-stuffed variety, and I gotta tell you, they are wonderful.  Beyond wonderful, in fact.  The blend of flavors is perfect.  I cooked up a nice dish of pasta last night (with an olive oil, garlic, artichoke heart, sun-dried tomato, and asparagus sauce), and we had Mike’s olives as a side.   They were just awesome.  I would have grabbed a photo of that dinner to share with you guys and gals, but the aroma was so enticing Susie and I sat down and ate before I remembered to get the shot.  Next time, folks.

Mike, thanks for buying a Scooter, thanks for the incredible olives, and thanks for doing the same thing California Scooter Company is doing – making great products and creating jobs right here in the good old USA!

We’re down to 11 days, boys and girls…and then its’ wheels in the wells for Baja and our California Scooter contingent!   Lots of excitment, so I’ll just let you in on the emails as I received them…these are the responses coming in from J, John, Arlene, and Simon after I asked about leaving on the 10th instead of the 11th…

From Simon (he’s flying in from the UK for this trip):

Joe, I am along for the ride. What ever suits you all, suits me.

From John:

I was just looking at it a few minutes ago.  I think that it’s an awesome schedule.  That’s one of the things that will make this trip a huge hit.  You’re familiar with places to stay and things to see, so everyone can see some of the true highlights of the trip (like the date palms) without wasting time seeing things that really are a waste of time.

I only have a couple of suggestions.  Rather than push day 6 from Mulege to El Rosario, why don’t we stay in Mulege on the way down, and stay in Santa Rosalia on the way back.  Thus, Day 2 would take us from Catavina to Mulege and Day 6 would take us from Santa Rosalia to El Rosario.  These should be pretty equal in mileage.  This will also reduce day 3 (the long day), and we don’t have to possibly spend two nights in Catavina.  I don’t think that we need to change your itinerary.  It’s just something to keep in our heads as an option on our way down.  As you mentioned, regardless of the plan, we’ll probably play it by butt to some degree. 

One last reminder, we should carry a gas can in the truck since Catavina will likely be out of gas, and there’s no guarantee that the guys in pickups will be at the Punta Prieta Junction when we pass through.  We may also want to bring either small bills (nothing larger than a $20) or bring one or two hundred in pesos so that we can buy small items from a vendor (like Antonio’s Fish Tacos) and not break their bank giving each of us change.  A $20 bill is a lot of money to some of the street vendors and small stores.  We can stop at an ATM in Ensenada to get the pesos.  On a weeklong trip like this, you may actually get a better overall exchange rate by using pesos throughout.  I imagine that Simon would be the best person to give advice in this area. 

Just a note, we previously stayed at La Perla in Lapaz.  It was the place that served American food, and it was the worst food of that trip.  The lesson learned was stick to local cuisine.  Although it was a nice hotel, I would prefer checking out other places.   

Great job, and thanks for taking the time to create the itinerary.

From J:

Regarding fuel:  I have four 20-liter jerry cans and was planning on bringing them, full of gas. The bikes take premium fuel, yes?. The truck uses mid-grade gasoline, I don’t think that is available in Baja so we’ll run it on premium and have a single fuel for all the vehicles. Fuel range on the pickup is over 400 miles so I don’t expect it to be an issue.

And water:  I also have four 20-liter jerry cans with food-grade linings and dedicated for water transport. I was planning on bringing those, full of municipal water from my house. It’s easy enough to carry and we won’t have to worry about finding bottled water. I’ve got a 40-liter fridge in the back seat. If everyone brings two water bottles for their personal use, we can rotate them into the fridge and always have an abundant supply of cold drinking water.

The extra weight in bed of the truck makes it ride a lot nicer so unless there is a good reason to eliminate the extra gas and water, I plan to bring it. I’m pretty sure the extra scooter will still fit just fine in the bed and leave room for individual luggage.

It’s gonna be a great trip.

From Arlene:

Wow! You guys are all so fantastic I can hardly wait to get this ride underway! We are going to have a fantastic time!!! SOOOOO looking forward to it!!!

From John:

I agree.  The enthusiasm is awesome.  I’m thinking Arlene may take off a couple of days early.  I have no doubt that this will be one of the best Baja trips that I’ve done. 

Just a question for Joe.  From what I can tell in your write-ups, the scooters have proven very reliable, however we are riding 4 of them 2,200 miles in 7 days.  I understand that we are bringing a spare bike, but are we bringing any spare parts (tube, tire, spark plug, coil, etc), or a service manual and tools to make minor adjustments if necessary.

Note from me:  John, we’re bringing spare parts and tools based primarily on what we’ve experienced with the preproduction bikes.  Steve and the boys did a good job engineering these motorcycles; we’ve actually had very few warranty issues on the production bikes.   We’ll be well-equipped for this trip, though.  I remember your Kawasaki’s petcock leaking on the last trip; I’ll bring along an extra one of those for you in case you need it.  And then there was that time your Yamaha got a flat in the jungles north of Puerto Vallarta; we’re bringing a couple of extra tires and a pump, too. 

From J:

Baja Bound is officially on board as the Mexico insurance provider for the California Scooter Baja Buzz.  Geoff and I just got off the phone and I’m very happy to report that Baja Bound will take care of all of our south of the border insurance needs for our upcoming trip.   I’m writing this note to introduce you two gents to one another. Geoff had a couple of questions and I’m sure Joe will want to personally thank BajaBound for their support on this trip.

Note from me:  That’s great news, J!  I’ll call BajaBound this afternoon and coordinate with Geoff.  What a great outfit!  They’re the only insurance company I use on my Baja travels.

From John:

I hope I’m not being a pain in the butt, but in the back of my mind I find that I’m always thinking about this trip so I have questions that pop into my head now and then.  Due to the nature of this trip, I would suggest that we think about certain places that we definitely want to take photos, and how we want to take them.

For example, we should probably take a photo of the bikes crossing the border into Mexico.  Since the bikes aren’t fast enough to get caught on police video, I suppose that we should figure out a way to take a picture since this is both a chaotic and congested area.  Probably the simplest way would be for J to take a picture from his truck as he follows us.  Of course, he would also need to know what you want to see in the picture; i.e. the border crossing sign above the freeway.  Do you want him to lean out of his truck or just take it through the windshield?  Or maybe you want to get ahead of us, pull over at the side of the road, and take pictures as we pass by.  Then we’ll pull over into that covered area on the right after we cross the border and wait for you.  This is just one example.

I know that you will capture pictures along the way while we eat tacos, chat with the military at the checkpoints, drink our cervezas while we ride through the desert (oops, scratch that one), but you may want to think strategically about certain pictures, such as the example above, before the ride starts, and how you want to stage them to ensure that you get the pictures that you want.

Note from me:  John, we are going to grab plenty of great shots.  I’d encourage all of you to bring a camera…this will be a grand adventure!

 Boy oh boy oh boy, this is gonna be a good one!

My buddy Jim and I rode our California Scooters to Glendora last night to help Steve, Josh, and Kyle at the Glendora Flashback Car and Motorcycle Show.  The weather finally broke here in southern California, and we went from temps in the 105-degree-range last week to a cool 80 degrees.   The cooler weather felt great.  

Steve and the guys already had the booth set up, so all we had to do was park our bikes under the California Scooter canopy.  We had a spot right smack dab in the center of the show, and the cars and bikes in the show were beyond show quality.  I’ll bet the attendance exceeded 2000 people.  

Our spot at the show was just to the right in the photo below… 

As always, folks loved the Scooters, and as always, we loved showing them.   Let’s see if I can tell the story with a few carefully-selected photos…

If you flashed on that silver Mercedes in the photo above, my compliments to you – you obviously recognize and appreciate automotive exotica.   It’s a 1955 300SL Mercedes Benz, one of only about 1400 gullwings that Mercedes made back in the day (they call them gullwings because of the way the doors open).  These cars sold for just under $9K back then (that was a ton of money in those days), but it’s a pittance compared to what a 300SL goes for today.   You can Google it yourself, and you’ll find the prices on these classics ranging upward of $600K! 

Here’s a cool shot…my buddy Jim’s black Classic framing the Mercedes 300SL… 

I was really blown away when I saw this car rolling down the street…it’s only the second one I’ve ever seen in my life.

The 300SL was way ahead of its time.   The frame was constructed of tubular steel segments, kind of like Ducati’s trellis frames are made today.   Aerodynamics drove the body style…those ribs above the front wheels actually cut down on the aerodynamic drag.   And the engine was a slant 6, canted to the left to keep the hoodline low.  It had the world’s first fuel-injected engine in a street vehicle.

The show wasn’t only about fully restored, concours condition imported sports cars, though.   Mostly it was about hot rods and American classics.   Take a look at this Woody…

And this early Chevy pickup truck…

The bikes, like always, drew a crowd.   Everybody wanted to know about them, touch them, and sit on them.  Some of the folks were exceptionally photogenic…

My friend Adam, who’s ‘do is kind of a direct opposite to mine…we’ve been talking about going after a younger market…

My friend Bill, moto mechanic and rider extraordinaire (yep, we use the same barber).  Bill makes the Sarge look good, don’t you think? 

Beep beep!  A Plymouth Roadrunner!  

The Plymouth Roadrunners are cool cars.  They were Chrysler’s answer to the low-cost muscle car challenge in the late ’60s and early ’70s.  Chrysler paid a ton of money to Warner Brothers for use of the Roadrunner logo, and they spent another ton of money developing a horn that sounded exactly like the cartoon roadrunner’s “beep beep.”  Those were cool days.  The Roadrunner’s base engine was a 383-cubic-inch wedge, but you could also get them with a 440-cubic-inch wedge or the Big Daddy 426 Hemi.   My best friend in high school, Bobby O’Connell, had a Hemi Roadrunner back when we were kids.  It was an awesome car.

 A Willys pickup with a monster motor.   This car was beautiful.

I asked this young lady if she wanted to check out the Sarge.   I think she liked it! 

Theresa on my red Classic… 

A young family under the spell of our purple-flamed Greaser.   They even dressed this little lady to match the bike!

Like I said, we’re targeting a younger market…

There were awesome motorcycles at the show, too.   Check out this metric cruiser and sidecar…the military theme is alive and well.  At first glance, this looked like a Ural, but it wasn’t… 

A 955cc Triumph Daytona, and every bit of bodywork on it was carbon fiber! 

Wade, who builds big bikes for us, also helps his friends build bikes.   This is a bike Wade assembled for Justin (that’s Justin in the photo below…he’s the LA Harley service manager).   Justin’s bike took 2nd place in the show last night.  It’s a magnificent machine. 

I grabbed this shot of a very cool Chevy pickup beneath the lights just as we were getting ready to leave…it was one of many, many cool cars we saw at the Glendora Flashback event… 

We’ve got another fun week in front of us, folks…planning continues for our Baja trip…just 12 more days!   We’ve had lots of emails flying back and forth between myself, John, J, Arlene, and Simon…and I’ll be posting them in the next several days.   Boy oh boy, things are happening!

We had a great ride on our California Scooters last night, and I’m going to tell you about it in this – our 100th post!

We saw on Facebook that NoHo Scooters, one of our dealers, was having a get together for a ride to Philippe’s (I mentioned it in one or two blog entries ago), and the guys thought it would be cool to ride along. 

You might remember that a week or two ago I bought a new Bell helmet from Mike at NoHo Scooters, and I thought I’d wear it for the first time last night.  I kind of thought my headgear would stand out…little did I know what kind of crowd we’d be riding with!

My not-quite-politically-correct new Bell helmet on my red Classic

On the ride to NoHo, we must have had a hundred cars give us the thumbs up, ask about our Scooters, or just look at our Scooters and smile.   One guy even produced a camera and took a bunch of photos from his car!  Steve was on the Sarge, and that bike always gets the stares.  Josh and Kyle were on custom Greasers (both had apehangers), and those bikes are cool.   TK was on a box-stock Greaser, and with its flat black paint, red wheels, and wide whitewalls, it’s one of the best-looking bikes I’ve ever seen.   We’re still a new company and there are still a lot of folks who haven’t heard of us, so five radically new bikes moving slowly through traffic sure got folks’ attention.

Josh, Kyle, Steve, TK, and I took surface streets all the way from La Verne to North Hollywood…right through rush hour traffic!  It took a bit longer to get there than I thought it would, but our Scooters held up well sitting in traffic as we crept through La Verne, Covina, Duarte, Monrovia, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Glendale, Burbank, Toluca Lake, and finally, North Hollywood.

Mike had quite a turnout at NoHo Scooters, and it was a great crowd.

Scoots lined up in front of NoHo Scooters last night

Lots of folks came over to chat with us (Mike had about 40 riders show up for the ride), and the scooter crowd is definitely a different group than the folks we normally meet on motorcycle rides.  They were fun, and friendly…just nice people who don’t take themselves too seriously.  I could tell we were going to have a good time.

Ketty (pronounced Cat-T), a Vespa scooterista from Italy...check out her cool helmet!

Steve and others checking out an older Honda Elite

My new friend Sic rode all the way down from Sacramento (about 400 miles north of LA) for this ride on his Aprilia 500cc scooter, and he had a cool helmet, too…check this out…

Sic, an Aprilia rider, and his Viking headgear...he's a cool guy

Sic and Rowan on Steve's Sarge

It was starting to get dark, and I wanted to grab a few photos before the ride started.  Here’s one of a scooter parked in front of the NoHo Scooter showroom…I noticed the chrome stereo speakers on the handlebars (they matched the helmet).  Like I said earlier, these are interesting folks with interesting rides…

Check out the California Scooter sign in Mike's window

And here’s another interesting one…small displacement, but check out the carbon fiber exhaust canister on this scooter…

Carbon fiber, anodized aluminum, custom suspension, big bucks...

After socializing for a bit, Mike led our scooter platoon through LA to Philippe’s, and what a ride it was! 

I had never ridden with scooter people before, and I guess I thought it would be a pretty laid back (read: slow) slog through traffic.  Boy, was I ever wrong!   These folks were fast! 

Yep, that one...

Mike led us through parts of Los Angeles I’d never been through before.   It was dark, and I lost any concept of where I was.  We wound through tight twisties in very exclusive neighborhoods with no street lights, and I can only guess that either a water main had burst or those folks watered their lawns pretty aggressively.  The roads had lots of thin mud in different places, and it was slick.   I was concentrating on keeping the rubber side down, and scooters were flying by me.   These guys were used to the roads and I wasn’t.  It was as exciting as any sportsbike ride in the twisties I’d ever been on.  Climbing, twisting, descending, more twisting and climbing…I wondered where in the world we were.   I felt like I was in some small European town up in the mountains…it wasn’t the LA I thought I knew at all.   At one point (one of the very few times we stopped at a stop sign), I noticed Steve was right alongside me.   “Where are we?” I asked.   He told me to look to my left, and to my great surprise, we were high up in the hills, right alongside the famous Hollywood sign!  Wow!

Suddenly, after more of our scooter grand prix through the hills of LA, we were back in town, and I saw the sign for Philippe’s.  That was a good thing, as it was already 9:oo p.m. and I was hungry!

Philippe's...our pit stop in the Los Angeles Scooter Grand Prix

Philippe’s is super-well-known in Los Angeles, and from what folks tell me, the rest of the world, too.   It’s been there for almost 100 years, and it’s where Philippe (who else could it be?) invented the roast beef dip.  It was accidental…he dropped a sandwich into the beef juice, tried it, and the rest is history.  You know, I’d been there before, but the food tasted even better last night.   There’s a psychological phenomenon called pleasure transferrance that basically says if you’re doing something you enjoy, everything else becomes more pleasurable, too.   I think that was definitely in play last night.  I was having a great time on my California Scooter with these scooteristas, and that roast beef sandwich was the best sandwich I ever had in my life.  My new friend Justin (a scooterist, advertising consultant, and all-around cool guy) recommended trying it with bleu cheese and some of Philippe’s mustard.  It was beyond awesome.

The real deal...roast beef dips with bleu cheese at Philippes...it just doesn't get any better!

We hung around Philippe’s for about an hour, enjoying our sandwiches, chatting it up, and just feeling that all was right with the world.  I really had a lot of fun.  

Dinner at Philippes...what a great night!

I could have stayed longer, but I would have probably had another sandwich, and that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.  We closed the place, though, and when we rolled out onto the LA streets at 10:00 p.m., we had a cool ride home.   What a night!

And there’s more to come…we’ll be at the Glendora Flashback show tonight (we have a booth), so please stop in to see us if you make it out there.  My bike’s going to be one of the ones on display, so I have to sign off now…gotta polish it up for the show!