CSC Blog

WARNING!

The Surgeon General of the United States has determined that the photos and video you are about to view and the California Scooter blog may be habit forming.   Viewing these items may induce uncontrollable urges to ride or purchase a California Scooter.   If you experience such symptoms, you should immediately call the CSC Control Center at 800 884 4173 and ask for TK or Steve.

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Folks, the ride yesterday was one for the ages…it was one of the best I’ve ever had.  

Oh, I’ve ridden these roads before (many times, in fact), but there was just something about yesterday’s putt that was incredible.  Perfect weather, great bikes, and great roads were a big part of it…but let’s get to the point:   It was the group.   The guys on this ride are awesome.  

Take a look…

From left to right, that’s Howard, Bill, Bruce, Steve, and Steve…great folks and super riding buddies!

The clear cool weather yesterday made it all…well, I was going to say awesome, but I’ll have to be careful not to overuse that word.   But it was awesome.   And the photography and photo ops….wowee!   It just doesn’t get much better than what we experienced yesterday.

So here’s how it went…we all met at the CSC factory in Azusa early in the morning, fired up the Scooters, and headed north into the mountains.  

At our very first photo stop, I was clicking away like a madman with my Nikon.   I caught some great shots. 

I really like this photo of Bill and Howard…

So who are these guys?  Well, let me tell you a bit about each…

Our good buddy Bruce has ridden with us several times.   I always like to joke around with Bruce…he’s ready to ride anywhere at the drop of a hat, and he’s been on all of our company rides.   Bruce likes CSC motorcycles so much he actually owns two….but the one he mostly rides is his P-51 250cc custom in turquoise and white…

Bruce is a particularly photogenic guy.   I’ve grabbed a bunch of photos of Bruce on our different rides, and they always look great.   This is one of my favorites from yesterday…

There’s a spot up in the mountains where three roads come together at the western end of Glendora Ridge Road, and we always stop there.   The views are great, and so are the photo ops. 

Here’s another photo I really like of Howard and Twin Peaks Steve… 

Howard is an interesting man.   So’s Twin Peaks Steve, but we’ll get to him in a minute. 

You’ve seen Howard on the blog before.   Retired from the US Air Force, Howard covers a lot of miles.   He rides a P-51 motorcycle, and he was the undisputed mileage king of our group yesterday.     As you know from Howard’s exploits, he’s been all over the country on his California Scooter.   He came in from Nevada just for this ride!

During a great lunch at the Mt. Baldy Lodge yesterday, Howard told us about his travels.   Lots of places and lots of miles.  Several of us, like Howard, had been to the Black Hills of South Dakota, but none of us other than Howard did it on a California Scooter.   It was a cool conversation.   Buffalo, antelope, deer, porcupine, bighorn sheep…riding through the Black Hills was like riding through a zoo.   And Mt. Rushmore.   And Crazy Horse.   You get the idea.   Good food and good conversation.

One of the things I noticed about Howard’s P-51 was its tank-mounted GPS.   Check this out, boys and girls…a CSC set up for serious road burning…

Twin Peaks Steve is another regular CSC club rider.    Shooting, ultra-light aircraft, motorcycles…Twin Peaks Steve has some interesting hobbies.   He came down from his home up in the San Bernardino Mountains to roll with us on his drop-dead gorgeous Bobber.  

You’ve all seen Twin Peaks Steve’s Bobber…it’s one of the prettiest customs we’ve ever done!   Here’s a shot I grabbed of that bike when we first built it…

But that wasn’t the only Bobber on our ride yesterday.   Our good buddy Bill had his as well…check this out!

This was our first ride with Bill, and he’s a cool guy.  Bill’s another one of those folks who likes CSC bikes so much he owns two of them! 

It was fun watching the two Bobbers weaving and, well, bobbing around the curves yesterday.  In fact, I hung back at the end of the group for a couple of reasons…I was catching it on video, and I just liked watching the bikes carving up the twisties.   It was awesome (there’s that word again).   But you’ll see…wait ’til we get to the video!

You all know this guy…our fearless leader and motorcycle maestro Steve.   That’s Steve’s personal ride, the Sarge.  It’s one of our very first customs, and it was the start of our Military Series line…

Steve’s bike is a show stopper.   Shoot, they’re all show stoppers!   But the Sarge has something about it that just demands attention.  

While we were enjoying our lunch yesterday, we saw a woman snapping photos of the bikes parked outside the Mt. Baldy Lodge’s entrance.   She came in and asked about the bikes, but she was most interested in the Sarge.    It just sort of grabs people.  It’s a cool bike.

You know, after that happened, our lunch conversation turned to the rock star phenomenon thing.  It’s an inherent part of the CSC ownership experience.   We’ve all experienced it…every where you go on these bikes, folks want to grab photos and get close to them.   Maybe there should be a Surgeon General warning about that, too!

So that’s the guys on the ride yesterday.  

You might be asking where’s a photo of yours truly (you know, me…the blogmeister).  

Steve took a couple of photos of me with my bike.   They turned out well, but I’m the guy in charge of the blog and I get to pick the one I like best.   For that, I selected my self-portrait…a photo I grab on every ride with Bruce…

If Bruce ever loses those sunglasses, I’m in trouble!

Here’s another shot I like…the boys joking around up in the mountains…

And folks, make no mistakes…we were all boys yesterday.  

I felt like I was maybe 12 or 14 years old.   I’m not…I’ve had more medical issues than they teach you about in the first year of medical school, and I have enough pills to open a well-stocked pharmacy.  I think I’m old enough to actually start collecting Social Security.   But yesterday, up in those mountains on my California Scooter, hanging out with the great guys you are reading about here…I was a boy for the day.   I’ll bet every one of us felt that way.

Like I said…it was awesome!   I can’t remember having as much fun or enjoying a ride more.

Here’s another favorite photo of the boys…

So, enough of this boys being boys business….

Let’s get on these bikes and ride!

It was awesome!

Oops, there I go again!

As you can see from the tail end of the YouTube video above, we stopped at the Mt. Baldy Lodge…

After lunch, a couple of guys were just pulling up on Triumphs.  

The Triumph riders were intrigued by our California Scooters (there’s that rock star thing again), and we were having a great time showing off our bikes.  

One of the Triumph riders mentioned that he had read about CSC in one of his motorcycle magazines and he knew that Steve Seidner was the CEO and Founder of California Scooter.   I pointed out Steve to him, and to everyone’s surprise, the guy announced “Steve, I was your high school history teacher!”

Whoa, what are the odds of that happening?    Check this out, boys and girls…Steve Seidner and Mr. Taylor!

So that’s it for now, my friends.   But it’s only for now.  

I mentioned that Howard came in from Nevada just for this ride.   Howard has a travel trailer that he pulled in with his pickup, and he spent the night down here.

That got Steve to thinking about the next grand event.   It will be our First Annual Spring Fling! 

We know many of our riders also own RVs.   Well, we’ll coordinate with a local campground to get you set up for a few days next March, we’ll have a big barbeque dinner, and we’ll run a series of rides up in the San Gabriel Mountains like we did yesterday.   

Start your planning now and let us know if you’ll be attending.  I promise you…it will be…   

Awesome!

Just got back from the ride, folks.   Let’s see…how can I put this….

Today was one of the best rides I’ve ever had!  

Yep, it was that good!    Take a look at the view from my saddle just a couple of hours ago…

And if you want to see how I grabbed that photo…well, here you go!

That’s the boys riding the ridge (as in Glendora Ridge Road).   And it’s just a quick teaser…there’s much, much more to follow on the blog in the next day or so.   Steve, Bill, Bruce, Steve and Howard, thanks so much for an awesome experience!

Folks, stay tuned!

Every time I read the latest issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine, I wonder how they possibly can make the next one better….and then they do!

The Rumarosa Grade on the way to San Felipe.  Check out the car wrecks down in the rocks.

Folks, I’m not saying that just because I write many of the Motorcycle Classics “Destinations” pieces…I say it because of all the other articles and photographs this great mag features in every issue.   Landon Hall, Richard Backus, Margie Siegel, and all of the other great folks at MC really do an outstanding job.  If you’re not a subscriber, you should be.   And if you’re into CSC motorcycles and Mustangs (and hey, if you weren’t, why else would you be reading this blog?), make sure you see the stories Jim Cavanaugh and I did on both the original Mustangs and the California Scooter Company!

That photo above is the Rumarosa Grade, a series of nightmarishly fun twisties in Baja on the way to San Felipe.  It’s a great weekend getaway, and it’s the featured destination in the current issue of Motorcycle Classics.   I’d like to get a group together to do it on California Scooters sometime in the near future.   Anybody want to ride along?

I had a nice phone call from my good buddy Indiana James last night.   You’ll recall the custom CSC-150 Steve, Lupe, TK, and the rest of the crew put together for him…

The Indiana James custom CSC Greaser…a beautiful bike!

Nice chatting with you, Indy, and thanks for being a loyal CSC rider!

That’s it for now, boys and girls.   I’m going to wash my bike for the big ride tomorrow.   The old gal is a little funky and I want her to shine when I ride with the rest of the group!

The Baja Blaster…the old gal is getting a bath today!

Stay tuned, because I’ll have some great photos and video for you in another day or two!

It’s going to be fun, folks…the forecast is for sunny and warm weather down here in the valley, and that means it’s going to be crisp and clear up in the San Gabriel Mountains!

You bet...this is where we're going to roll!

We’ll have a nice turnout, too, with more than a few folks coming from different parts of the CSC kingdom for this ride. Don’t be surprised at some of the folks you’ll see on the blog following the ride.

If you haven’t made plans and you’re free Friday, be sure to show up at the Azusa plant by 9:00 a.m. Friday morning.

Wow, this is going to be a great ride!

This popped up in my search, too…it’s either a 400cc or 500cc/550cc Honda four engine in a Mustang.     Whoa!

We don’t get to hear the engine run in this puppy, but I’ll bet it is awesome.

More food for thought, folks!

Yep, here’s another…this fellow put an old 250cc single-cylinder BSA engine in a Mustang…

Of course, today you could skip all of the above and simply pop for either a new 250cc P-51 California Scooter or the P-51 upgrade kit.    And if you did that, you wouldn’t have to cut up a vintage Mustang motorcycle and you’d have a fully street legal, electric start, modern motorcycle!

The bike in that video above is nicely done, though.   Our compliments to the guy who engineered it!

Saw this on YouTube and it got me to thinking….

Triumph engines are getting pretty hard to find, and when you do find them, the collectors are willing to pay a premium.   But I wonder…what about a Suzook GS500 engine?   500cc, twin carbs, air cooled, more power than the Triumph engine, and lots of those Suzukis are out there….

Hmmmm….it might be time to visit a salvage yard with a tape measure and a checkbook…

Well, not exactly this particular one, but 23-window VW vans are the holy grail, and that’s what a 23-window recently sold for at the Barrett-Jackson auction.

When I pulled into the parking lot at the CSC plant the other day, I saw this one leaving…

Wow, was I ever disappointed…I missed something that rare by a minute.    

Steve told me the 23-window VW bus you see above belongs to our good buddy Ray, who lives not too far from the plant.   Ray buys parts from the VW accessories side of our Pro-One business line, and he’s a great customer.  

“But I missed getting photos,” I said.

“No problem, Joe,” said Steve.   “I grabbed a few and I’ll email them to you.”

These things are really cool, folks.    And Steve, thanks for grabbing the photos!

I’m ready for  it!   It will be a great one, folks….and I was out scouting around today to check on the route…

We hope you’ll be able to ride with us.   We’ll be leaving the plant at 9:00 a.m. and heading for the hills through some of the most scenic riding in California.   Lunch will be at the Mt. Baldy Lodge.   Plan on being out for about 5 hours, and show up with a full tank of gas!

See you on Friday!

This was one of those mornings when I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and knew I was wide awake.  No sense trying to roll over and continue sleeping when that happens, so I got up, made a cup of coffee, and fired up the old television.  The choices were watching the talking heads scream at each other on the political shows, cartoons, lions catching and eating stuff on the National Geographic channel, or DVR-recorded American Pickers reruns.   Hmmmm…no contest there.   So I clicked on Mike and Frank poking through other folks’ stuff and whoa….check this out!

The Von Dutch XAVW as seen on the American Pickers TV show

Yep, it was the show where the boys found Von Dutch’s old XAVW….a Volkswagen motor in a conjured-up motorcycle all topped off by an original Honda 450 black bomber gas tank!   And somehow, with the Von Dutch pin striping, it all just sort of melded together into something that just flat worked!  

There’s lots of stuff on the Internet about the XAVW, and one of the neatest things is that this bike now resides at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa.   That’s near and dear to me because I wrote an article about the National Motorcycle Museum for Motorcycle Classics magazine a couple of years ago.   Trust me on this….if you’re ever in that part of the country, you need to visit the National Motorcycle Museum.

Our good buddy Doug over at Starside Designs does our custom painting.   He’s today’s edition of Von Dutch, and his artistry is right there.   I rode over to Doug’s shop with Steve a couple of days ago.  

Doug Starbuck of Starside Designs

Doug is doing several custom paint jobs for us right now…a turquoise-and-white P-51, a custom Military Series bike, and another one in the green-and-yellow theme we call the farm bike (you know…nothing runs like a CSC).   All cool stuff, and when those are done, I’ll show you photos of them here on the blog.

More cool stuff…my dear friend Simon Gandolfi just recently completed his moto journey in India.   You can follow reports about his trip on Facebook or in the UK newspaper The Guardian.   Simon’s posted some great shots, and my favorite is this one…

Simon Gandolfi, somewhere in India, proudly wearing a California Scooter Company T-shirt

Very impressive riding, Simon, and thanks for the great ride reports.

That’s about it for this Sunday morning, folks.   I’m going to install the bolt and spacer I picked up from Steve yesterday on my CSC motorcycle and get out for a putt a little later.

Ride safe, everyone.