CSC Blog

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!

In reading through our CSC blog entries about the recent Baja trip, it occurred to us that due to the nature of blogging it’s hard to get a feel for the trip from start to finish.  We did a more-easily-followed version showing the entire trip, and you can see it right here!

Simon Gandolfi on the road north of Cabo San Lucas

Are you on Facebook?  If you are, you can click here to get to our Facebook page, too.  Please do so, and become a friend of the California Scooter Company! 

The whole nine yards….do you know where that expression came from?   Send us a note with the correct answer, and we’ll send you a high-res digital copy of any single photo you’d like from anywhere on our California Scooter blog!

Boy oh boy!  Just learned about this one….a 400-mile, one-day scooter endurance rally around the Salton Sea!  It’s next March…will we see you there?

Here’s another cool video…it’s unnerving just watching these guys!

We don’t make or sell Lambrettas, but this video is too cool not to share…

We just finished a super fun photo shoot yesterday to get a few more pictures into our latest catalog.  Sandy did an incredible job putting the new catalog together…and the good news is this:   If you’d like to get a high resolution pdf copy, just shoot an email to me at jberk@CaliforniaScooterCo.com, and we’ll get a copy to you right away!  And I promise…we’ll never give your email address to anyone else.

The latest California Scooter catalog is now available!

More cool stuff…we are going to be on the inside front cover of the next issue of Cabela’s magazine.   Cabela’s is the premier outdoor, camping, hunting, and fishing store (my wife hides the checkbook and the credit cards everytime I mention going there).   Here’s a copy of that ad, and we’ll make you the same offer…if you want a copy, shoot me an email and I’ll get a high res version out to you.

Our latest ad...showing the greatest bikes in the world!

An interesting day at the Scooter factory and an interesting night out, boys and girls…it all started with a visit from engine-builder extraordinaire, Grant Matsushima.   Grant normally spends his time building ultra-high performance sportsbike engines…we’re talking race bike stuff here.   Grant is the go-to guy when it comes to wringing maximum performance out of 600cc and liter bike engines, and he’s the guy we have focused on the engine upgrades for our land speed record bike.  But don’t take my word for Grant’s magic…you can check it out on the Matsushima Performance website.

Grant Matsushima, engine-builder extraordinaire

Grant’s personal ride is a very unusual performance V-twin…it’s based on a Suzuki TL1000S engine, and it’s awesome.   It’s kind of the big brother to our Greaser…the same stealth black color scheme, the same hardtail rear end, and lots of performance.   This is an awesome bike.  I wanted to put a California Scooter decal on the tank, but I couldn’t get Grant distracted long enough to sneak it on there… 

Grant's TL1000S-based chopper

So, allow me to depart from the motorcycle stuff for a moment…last night we visited the legendary Redhill BBQ restaurant, and it was incredible.   On our comfortable California evenings, you can smell the BBQ aroma a mile away…and it tastes even better than it smells.   Ribs, hot links, BBQ chicken, brisket…boy oh boy oh boy, this place has some great food.

The Redhill BBQ in Rancho Cucamonga

I asked my new friend Marcus if I could grab a shot of him cooking the best BBQ in southern California, and he was happy to let me do so…

My new friend Marcus, a BBQ maestro

 Yep, it tastes even better than it looks, and you gotta admit, it looks good…

Redhill BBQ hot links

And speaking of flat black bikes (ala Grant’s TL1000S performance hardtail), one last thing I saw before I left the plant last night…this is lucky Joe’s new Greaser.  It’s headed to Joe in McAllen, Texas, this week…and it is a very cool bike.  Joe specified flat black billet wheels to complement the Greaser’s flat black tank and fenders, and the color combo really works… 

Texas Joe's Stealth Greaser...Tom just finished building it and he's prepping Joe's bike for shipment

The weekend’s coming up…and that means more miles on the red Classic…life is good, folks!

Saturday night Steve and I went to the Village Grill’s Cruise Night in Claremont, California.  This night was sort of special, as it was billed as the last Claremont Cruise Night ever.   I don’t know if that’s really the case, but I’ve been going to these things for years and I didn’t want to miss this one.  There were some great cars and a few bikes there, and here are the photos I grabbed…

Our California Scooters parked outside the Village Grill, right behind a Packard

A couple of days ago I posted a shot of Roger Lamb’s gorgeous Cushman 1959 Iron Eagle, and I promised a few more, so here we go…

Roger Lamb on his 1959 Cushman Iron Eagle at the Claremont Cruise Night

Roger has done an absolutely outstanding job on his Cushman, and it has a few custom touches as well.   The cylinder head, for example, is machined from titanium.    It doesn’t get much more exotic than that!

A titanium cylinder head...wow!

Cushman scooters are pretty cool bikes, and there are a few of them that we see around here.   We don’t make a bike that looks like the Cushman (yet), but the thought of doing so is intriguing.  The original Cushmans had 8 or 9 hp (depending on the model), and the idea of coming out with a modernized version is intriguing.  It could be either a twist-and-go, or a manual shift model like our current Scooter.  What do you guys think?

Okay, enough tantalizing thoughts about potential future models….check out some of these gorgeous cars!

A beautiful old Chrysler

A Packard hood ornament

A Cobra replicar, with a '56 T-Bird right next to it

This fellow needs a California Scooter Greaser to match his car

A '58 Chevy coupe with lake pipes

A '68 GTO....I used to own a '68, and Steve had a '69

A gorgeous T-bucket

A bathtub Porsche...another beautiful car

A '54 Ford...the white-haired guy in this photo is our family physician, and he restored this car to look exactly like the one he owned in 1954!

A Woody...another Wow! car

The grill on a '69 El Camino...big block Chevys ruled the world in those days

A turquoise '57 Chevy convertible...this would be a perfect match for our Beach Cruiser bike!

A stunning '55 Chevy...a very elegant car...and this one would match my red Classic perfectly!

A '63 split-window Stingray, the first year of production for the Corvette Stingray...when I first saw these on a TV commercial (I was 11 at the time), I knew I'd own a silver Corvette someday...and that '04 Z-06 in the inset photo is mine!

After the Cruise Night, I rolled toward home on my red California Scooter Classic (the same one I’d just been to Cabo San Lucas on), and it occurred to me I was hungry.  One of the great things about riding a motorcycle on a cool California night are the magnificent aromas from the different restaurants, and when I picked up on the grilled onions and fries, I decided I had to stop and have one of the best burgers in the world…

In-N-Out, the best hamburgers in the world!

My good buddy TK is pretty excited about a bike the guys are putting together for our friend Jim in Lakewood, California.   I’ll grab a photo or two of it and post it on the next blog!

Steve and I rode our California Scooters to the Claremont classic car show Saturday night…I’ll have more photos in another day or two, but take a quick look at this one I grabbed downtown…it’s Roger Lamb’s fully restored Cushman Iron Eagle!

Roger Lamb's Cushman...a very beautiful motorcycle

More to come, folks.   This one is so pretty, though, I didn’t want to make you wait!