CSC Blog

Wow, talk about extreme changes and challenging environments…

I left Barbados at 4:00 a.m. this past Sunday enroute to my next secret destination (hint…it’s the title of this blog), and it was one of the toughest travel days I’ve ever had.  I had three flights in front of me that day, and the one from Barbados was the easiest.   It was a balmy 85 degrees at the Barbados airport (they only have one airport down there) and we left on time, but it was an exciting flight.   A woman took ill on the flight (seriously ill, apparently…it was one of those “is there a doctor on board?” situations).   Turns out there was, and whatever the medical condition was, the pilot put the pedal to the metal and told us we were going to make a “rapid descent.”   We dropped from our 38,000 ft cruising altitude to the runway in what felt like three minutes.   You could feel and see the airplane’s nose-down attitude.  It was wild, and we were 30 minutes early rolling into Miami.

My next flight was from Miami to Charlotte, and I could tell getting out of Miami was going to be a problem when I saw this board…

Lots of flights were cancelled and lots of flights were late.   I wasn’t too worried because I had a two-hour layover in Charlotte before I had to be on the plane to Kansas City, Missouri.   I did get a tiny bit nervous when we were about an hour late getting on the little jet in Miami, though, and a bit more nervous when we sat on the runway for another hour.   Wow, that would be cutting it close.

But you know how it goes.  In Charlotte, I found out that my flight to KC had been delayed for an hour.  Then two hours.  Then three hours.   I had my first meeting at 7:00 on Monday morning, and it was 80 miles north of KC.   Hmmm. 

Finally, at midnight, we boarded the flight in Charlotte.  Hmmm.   After 15 minutes, the pilot announced that the airplane’s refueling valve was broke, and they had to power down and start up the airplane’s electrical systems again. Pitch black, and then a slow reboot.   No luck.  These clowns tried that three times before they sent for a new valve.  They said that would take an hour.   Finally, after sitting on the plane for another 45 minutes, they announced that they were getting a new plane for us, but we had to all get off and check in again.   Wow, are these folks for real?

We got off, checked in again, and got on the new airplane.  Finally, we were in the air.  Two hours later, at 4:00 a.m., we were in KC, where it was 23 degrees.  I was dressed like a Barbadian (I even had on a tropical shirt).   The rental car bus didn’t roll around for another 45 minutes.  Talk about cold!

Check out the thermometer on the dash of my rental car!  Folks, I’m a California boy, and I sure didn’t like seeing numbers like that.   When I realized just how cold it was, I also realized there was ice on the road and it was snowing…and after running on empty (from a sleep perspective), I figured I better dial it down a notch…

It was a rough night and a rough drive.   Snow.  Ice.   27 hours with no sleep.  But I made that 7:00 a.m. meeting.   Lots of coffee, a long day, and I sure had no problems falling asleep Monday night!

The cold weather aside, there are a lot of nice things about Missouri.  The people are real and the place is conservative…the nonsense I have to politely listen to in California just doesn’t exist in Missouri.   Surprisingly, the little town I’m in right now has the best little Thai restaurant this side of Bangkok, and last night the chef prepared an absolutely awesome Kao Soi dinner for me.  You just don’t get this kind of cooking in California.  The chef told me she lived in California for a while when she first came to the United States, but when she had kids she didn’t want them to grow up in La La Land.  California’s loss is Missouri’s gain…seriously, I haven’t had Thai food this good since I was in Thailand.

One more good thing…this nice little Missouri town in which I’m conducting clandestine operations has a good old-fashioned Dairy Queen, and they still do soft cones dipped in cherry.  I haven’t had those in 30 years, but I’m having one every night I’m here!

Later, folks…ride safe!

Wow, 70 degrees, no humidity, and I’m right on the Caribbean.   All I need is an Aston Martin and the theme from James Bond playing in the background.   As far as secret missions go it just doesn’t get much better than this.

Biking is big in Barbados, with the emphasis on small bikes.   The roads are perfect for bikes in the 150 to 250cc range.  Here’s a shot of Neville, a Barbadian KLR 250 rider…he was pretty excited when I showed him photos of my CSC.

Tough duty, folks, but somebody has to….ah, you know what I’m going to say.   I’m glad it’s me!

Here are some miscellanous shots I grabbed with my iPhone in Christchurch Parrish, my home base for the next few days…

Barbados is an interesting place.   They drive on the wrong side of the road here (the British influence is heavy), and I have to tell you that makes every ride an extreme adventure.    It’s okay if you’re in traffic because the other cars kind of remind you where you’re supposed to be, but when there are no cars around it gets pretty confusing.  The roads are awesome, though, and this is a perfect place for a California Scooter.   Good times.

That’s it for now, boys and girls.   I’ve got to check in with M.  

Ride safe.

Wow, three 3-hour flights today, and I am on the second one right now.  LA to DFW, DFW to Miami, and Miami to Barbados, all in the name of continued prosperity and a continuing stream of secret missions.   The flight out of DFW was delayed for a cool hour while they looked for a part on the nose landing gear (you can bet you won’t ever have that problem on a California Scooter; we keep all parts in stock all the time), but I think I’ll be okay in Miami.   I think I have two-hour layover there (I’ll check the itinerary when I dig into my bag when I’m done here). 

All of the feedback we’ve received on the new CSC website has been positive, and we’ve had more than a few emails on it.    We’ll be making changes to the site frequently, so keep checking it to see what’s new.  I’ll be putting more videos on the video page, and I’ve got a ton of custom bike photos from the great work Steve and the folks in the shop have been doing when they help make your dreams come true.

My buddy Pauly B was down from Hollister for the weekend and we spent a lot of it on the rifle range.   We’re both gearheads (you’ve heard me write about Pauly before), and Pauly had just finished building a couple of custom guns.  Cool stuff and cool times.   If you can imagine a couple of geezers shooting at tin cans with high power rifles giggling like little kids, you’ll have a pretty good picture of what went on this weekend.  Just like old times growing up back in New Jersey.

I’ll try to get out a bit in Barbados and grab a cell phone photo or two.  Stay tuned!

Folks, we’ve added a factory customs page to our CSC website and it’s being updated as I write this.  Check it out by clicking right here!   And here’s something that’s really cool…in prepping for the move next month, we found a couple of factory custom Bobbers we stuck in the R&D area and forgot all about!

Give Steve or TK a call at 800 884 4173 and you could be bobbing around on one of these!

Nope, that’s not a name I made up…Ol’ Horst is one of the Elephant Rally dudes in a cool YouTube my good buddy Carl sent to us…

Carl, thanks much. It was 80 degrees here yesterday, with more of the same predicted for today…

Yep, it was time for an update, and we’ve done it.   Check out our new home page at www.CSCMotorcycles.com!  We’ll be migrating to the new, cleaner format in the coming weeks on all the pages in our CSC website using the same style as the new page.

Ride safe, my friends!

This popped up as a suggested view on YouTube when I was watching my video below.   I’ve got a ton of stuff to get done today, but this video just looked too cool to ignore.  It’s long, but it’s a good one…grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

I’ve been to a lot of the places in that video.  I’ve seen the giant beaver, I’ve ridden the Alcan, and I’ve been through Dawson Creek.  I’m certain I stayed in the Comfort Inn they showed just south of the Canadian border.  A very cool video, and when I watched it, I knew it was going on the CSC blog.  I’ll look for the follow on video later.

Seeing Rich’s photo below with all that snow made me think about how lucky I am to live in sunny So Cal, right here in the foothills of the magnificent San Gabriel Mountains.   So, I put together a quick 2-minute YouTube of yours truly riding the Baja Blaster to the music of Duane Eddy and the Rebel Rousers.   To all you good folks who are snowed in…come take a virtual ride with me!

Ah, life is good…riding the CSC and living large!  Great day today…super dinner and an extraordinary dessert with two wonderful friends and Susie…life is good!

My good buddy Pauly B is driving down from up north to spend a few days with us, so watch for more good stuff right here on the blog.  The week after that and I’m on another secret mission, this time just off the coast of Venezuela.  Yep, I’ll be touching down in Barbados on business (hey, life is tough!) and then it’s on to the big K in Missouri.  Let the good times roll, and I will keep you posted!

Check out this great photo and the caption accompanying it that our good buddy Rich in Connecticut just posted on Facebook…

Since I got my scooter the week after Thanksgiving, I have only been able to put 27 miles on it. As you can see in the pictures, we are not having great cycling weather here in Connecticut. One day we had 30″ of snow in 20 hours. But next week it’s suppose to be in the 50’s.

Rich in Connecticut

Riding in the winter wonderland!

Rich, that’s absolutely awesome, and we love the helmet! Thanks for sharing your great photo with us! You look like you are part of Patton’s 3rd Army racing to Bastogne!

One of my all-time favorite rides!

Anybody wanna go again?