CSC Blog

When I rolled into the plant on my motorcycle yesterday, Lupe was putting the finishing touches on this Florida-bound beauty… 

Folks, the photos just don’t do justice to this latest tractor-themed California Scooter P-51 custom motorcycle.   It’s beautiful, and there are lots of subtle touches that make it so.   Let’s take a look at these in detail…

The colors are the best place to start describing this custom motorcycle.   The tractor green frame, tank, fenders, and fork lowers…the billet aluminum…the yellow wheels…the yellow seat…the yellow pin striping.  It all works.   Like I said…this beauty is a show stopper.

Here’s a view from the starboard side.   Hey, a play on words…the custom painting on this beauty was artfully applied by our good buddy Doug at Starside Designs…on both the port and starboard sides…

The seat completes the bike.   We had a standard black seat on the bike for our road test, but this bike’s new owner specified a custom seat in matching yellow.   It works!

I like it!

Here’s another profile view, showcasing the powerful P-51 engine OHC engine…and folks, that counter-balanced overhead cam powerplant really puts out the ponies.   These things are fast!

Did you check out the detailed matching green paint on the kickstand, the forward controls, and the chainguard?   It’s the little details like these that really make a custom motorcycle stand out.  

Here’s another nice touch…our Pro-One custom billet mirrors!  

Wowee!

Yellow wheels complete the look of this bike…these are our stock CSC wheels with paint matching the bike’s pin striping.    I like the look.  

You know, painting the wheels to match different parts of a bike is a nice touch.   Sometimes we’ve gone the other way, too, like when we prepped a silver bike, and the silver tank and fenders were painted to match the wheels and the engine.  

These bikes are palettes…there’s a lot you can do to create an exclusive look.

 And here are two last photos, showing the P-51 Green Meanie from both sides… 

I sure like this bike, and I’m still having the same problem I’ve had for the last 4 years…every time a new custom rolls out of the plant, I’m convinced it’s the most beautiful bike we’ve ever done!  

That’s exactly how I feel about the Green Meanie tractor bike…I really think it’s a show stopper.

The mean streets of Florida will never be the same!

Folks, this is a very mild custom touch…it’s our standard blue tank with a hand-painted Mustang logo…and it really works!

I just happened to spot this in the plant yesterday.  It’s cool.   I want one!

It sure is, folks…this 250cc P-51 Greaser is a demo bike Steve built up for use around the factory, and he’s  blowing it out at a price that I can only describe as awesome…

The Greaser is one of our most popular bikes…and this one only has 100 miles on it!

So, the answer to your question is this:  The Boss is knocking $500 off of MSRP!   I know, you can’t make money by giving stuff away!   I think the price is too low…but hey, I only work here…and what the Boss says goes.      If you want this puppy, you better act fast!

I’ve got two or three up my sleeve, folks (cool photos, that is)…a great one spotlighting three of my favorite people at CSC, a dynamite custom CSC gas tank, and the one I’m showing in this blog entry.   It’s totally unrelated to motorcycles,  but I know a lot of you blog aficionado guys and gals like things that go boom in the night.  

Well…check this out!

Serving as Number Two Gunner on Tredegar twelve pounder howitzer: night firing.

I wish I could tell you this photo is one I grabbed, but it’s not…it’s from my good buddy Doug, who’s another college prof.   I met Doug at an Army function at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, about 5 years ago, and we’ve been friends ever since.   Doug teaches history, and I just love that subject.     Funny how life changes…I couldn’t have cared less about it when I was going to school, but I have a deep interest in it now.   Wave a book about Theodore Roosevelt in front of me and I’m in.   The same thing is true about the Civil War.   And World War II.   And the….

Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, my good buddy Doug posted that photo on Facebook earlier today, and I immediately asked him if I could use it on the blog.   Here’s his response…

Joe, certainly, you may use the photo. A number of years ago I was in a reenactment battery called Bankhead’s Battery. The original battery was organized at Memphis in 1862 by a local lawyer and many of the officers and men were lawyers.

The battery served with distinction, but was overrun at Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga in 1863. The tribute battery to which I belonged to has had several original guns. At one time there were two original Confederate cast tubes, the one in the photo; a 12 pounder howitzer shown in this photo. The other was a 3″ rifle cast in 1863 at Noble & Brothers in Rome, GA.  I have not been a member in recent years due to time constraints only.  I really like shooting black powder muzzle loading artillery. We were at the 100th anniversary of both Shiloh and Gettysburg.

Fascinating stuff, Professor, and thanks for letting us see that photo!

Folks, there’s more to come in the next few blogs….a custom tank, a custom bike or three, that photo I mentioned of my favorite folks, and a P-51 Greaser that Steve has on sale…so stay tuned!

In the mid-60s, the ultimate street bike was a Triumph TT Special.  

The regular Bonneville was a pretty hot number, but it came with mufflers, lights, a horn, and all the stuff it needed to be street legal.   Those bikes were pegged at 52 horsepower, and although that sounds almost laughable now (as does thinking of a 650 as a big bike), I can tell you from personal experience it was muey rapido.   I don’t believe there were any vehicles on the street (on two wheels or four) that were faster than a Triumph Bonneville.   And there was especially nothing that was faster than the Triumph TT Special.   It took the hot rod twin-carb Bonneville and made it even faster.   And cooler looking.   Those bikes will always hold a special place in my heart.

I had a spare hour a day or two back, so I did what I normally do when that happens and I’m on the road.   If there’s a dealer nearby I’ll stop in, and that’s what happened.   The dealer was Bert’s in Covina, and what do you know, they had a Triumph TT Special on display…

I didn’t have my Nikon with me, but I did have my iPhone, and like they say on the high seas, any port in a storm will do.    I asked the sales guy if I could take a photo or two, he was cool with it, and what you see above is the result.   It’s the real deal…a Triumph TT Special.

You know, I had to wonder what most folks think when they see the TT Special in that dealer’s showroom.  They sell to a mostly younger crowd (you know the type…kids who just got a licenses and go for 170-hp, 170-mph sports bikes), and my guess is they don’t really “get” the TT Special.   I sure did.   Like I said, back in the mid-60s the Triumph Bonneville ruled the streets, and the TT Special would absolutely smoke a standard Bonneville.  

Back in those days the Triumph factory rated the TT Special at 54 horsepower (as opposed to the standard Bonneville’s 52), but let me tell you there was way more than just 2 horsepower separating these machines.     The TT Special was essentially the starting point for a desert racer or a flat tracker.   They were racing motorcycles.   The TT Special was never intended to be a street bike, but some of them ended up on the street.   If you rode a TT Special…well, you just couldn’t get any cooler than that.

I only knew one guy back then who owned a TT Special (Jimmy something-or-other), and he did what guys do who wanted to put their bikes on the road…a small Bates headlamp, a tail light, and a single rear view mirror.   The first time Jimmy got stopped by a cop on that bike was because, well, he was a young guy on a Triumph TT Special.    Back in those days, that was probable cause.    After checking over the bike carefully, the police officer gave Jimmy a ticket for not having a horn.  It was what we called a “fix it” ticket, because all you had to do was correct the infraction and the ticket was dismissed.   Jimmy didn’t want to spend the money (and add the weight) that went with wiring, a switch, and an electronic horn, so he bought a bicycle bulb horn.   You know, the kind that attached to the handlebars and had a black bulb on it.   It made noise when you squeezed the bulb.   Ol’ Jimmy (old now, I guess, if he is even still around…but young then) went to the police station, honked his horn, and the police officer dismissed the citation.   With a good laugh.   It was a good story 50 years ago and it’s still a good story today.  Simpler times, I guess.

So, fast forward to the present…I fired up  the KLR this morning to ride over to the plant, and I took the long way through the mountains.   I hadn’t run the KLR in a long time and it doesn’t want to idle right, so I guess in the next week or two I’ll be tearing into the carb to clean the jets.   Good times today up on Glendora Ridge Road, but truth be told, I’d rather be on the Baja Blaster.  I’m convinced that little 150 is faster through the corners than the big KLR, and the CSC-150 sure is a lot easier to get on and get off. 

There’s a lot happening in the factory.   Steve and the crew have three really beautiful customs they were wrapping up today, but you’ll have to wait for the next blog entry to see them.  

Later, my friends…ride safe!

Similar to others, but different enough to make it very interesting, with an even deeper green and yellow….

Nothing runs like a…CSC P-51 motorcycle!

Here’s an article and a photo that caught my eye this morning…it was in the LA Times…

The ultimate Triumph: Stolen motorcycle retrieved 46 years later

By Joseph Serna, November 4, 2013, 1:55 p.m.

Cool stuff, folks, and kudos to the US Customs Service!

Our good buddy Brad recently sent this note and photo to us…

Thought you might like this pic of my bud’s kid on an early Mustang that was found and restored.   The engine was added in the early 60’s.

Wow, that is most impressive!  An Indian V-twin in a Mustang!  I’ll bet that puppy really rips!

We’ve talked about this before, and I’m still noodling alternative engines for a Frankenscooter project I might play around with.   The fact is, though, that the P-51 CSC 250cc OHC engine has a lot of power…when we were testing the prototypes I was well north of any legal speeds on the California freeway system.    I can’t tell you exactly how fast because we dialed it back just a bit on the production P-51s, but I can tell you the first number began with an “e” and it sure got my attention when I realized why I was flying by everyone else.  On those 12-inch wheels.   With the wind screaming in  my ears.   And with the bike as stable as a locomotive.   Wowee, was that ever a fun day!

Ride safe, my friends, and don’t speed.   The adventure described above was for test purposes only…

Wow, here we are in November already, with all that it brings.   We’ve already made the time change…it gets light out earlier, but this business of it being dark at 5:00 p.m….I just don’t know about that.

So Halloween has come and gone…and just in case you’re one of the three people left on the planet who hasn’t seen the Halloween pumpkin bike, here you go….

Belt drive, no less!   The pumpkin bike is pretty clever, and orange is a hot color this year.  

I think I like this one a lot better, though…

Well, folks, Thanksgiving is right around the corner….I wonder if some clever person will make a motorcycle out of a turkey!

Happy November, everyone…enjoy the cooler weather and the earlier sunrise, and ride safe!

…and to celebrate the holiday, I stopped by the shop and grabbed a photo of this beauty…

Silver works on a California Scooter, and the powerful P-51 engine and wire wheels make this one even nicer.   I like the look.   This is another one of those deals where our guys are selling these bikes two at a time.   The silver beauty you see above is shipping with a real pretty Babydoll, and both are going to a husband-and-wife team in the great state of Florida.

I had a nice conversation with Steve this afternoon…and you know what?  We’re almost sold out of 2013 motorcycles!   There are just a few more left, and then it will be a couple of months before the 2014 models are available.    If you’re thinking of pulling the trigger, there’s no time like right now!

So, how many of you are going trick or treating tonight?   I’m already dressed for it…I’m going as a motorcycle blog writer!

Later, my friends…