CSC Blog

Next week my good buddy Paul and I are headed to Arizona.  We’re hunting Russian boar.  I’m excited.  It’s been close to 30 years since I’ve been out chasing pigs, and I am really looking forward to it.   You may remember I wrote about the gorgeous curly maple Model 70 I bought earlier this year specifically for this purpose, and we’re ready.

I’ve got the right load and we’re pumped up about going.  Paul will be hunting with a Model 70, too.  His rifle is a classic pre-64 Model 70 in .270 Winchester that used to belong to his father.   The pre-64 Model 70s are the real aristocrats in the fine rifle world, and .270 Winchester is the quintessential cartridge.  It’s a fine rifle and a fine cartridge.

I’ll be posting about our trip from the field, and hopefully I’ll have a few good photos to include.   Stay tuned!

My good buddy Rob just forwarded this Constant Contact email to me about Malcolm Smith’s Baja tour.  You can get to the site promoting it here.  Now, the purpose of this blog is not to slam Mr. Smith or his dealership.  I’ve met Mr. Smith and he’s a fine gentleman of incredible accomplishment (if you look up “living legend” I believe the dictionary will tell you “see Malcolm Smith”).  Nope, I’m using Rob’s email as a prompt to tell you about our rides.

What grabbed Rob’s attention (and then mine when he forwarded the email to me) was the cost of the Baja Tour.  The Malcolm Smith tour is 7 days and if you sign up early, it’s $4,199.   Rob sent me his note to recommend raising the price for our 8-day tour.

Just so you know:  Our price (drum roll please) is exactly $0.00.   On our rides, you have to pay your own expenses (hotels, meals, and gas), and that works out to less than $100 per day.  I always tell people to bring $800 and they’ll go home with money in their pocket.

You might ask why we do this.   The answer is simple.  We’re not in the motorcycle tour business.  We’re in the business of selling the adventure riding experience, and we’re convinced the best ticket in is a new RX3 or TT250 motorcycle.   Our tours are an important part of our marketing strategy.

So what’s it like on our rides?  Well, we’ve had four CSC runs through Baja since we started selling Zongshen motorcycles, and one before that on the CSC 150 scooters.  In a word, they’re great.  Awesome beyond belief, actually.   I’m writing about them now in Moto Baja, and I’m making good progress.  And I’m having fun reliving each of these grand adventures.

Moto Baja is a look at my personal experiences in Baja, starting with my first foray in 1994 and continuing through the CSC adventure rides.   I’m having a blast just going through and selecting the photos, and Moto Baja will include many photographs never previously published.  Oh, it will be in color, too.   That bumps the price up, but the photos are too awesome not to show them in color.  Here are just a few favorites…

Would you like to ride with us on one of our adventure rides?  We have the Destinations Deal tour coming up…that’s an all-US run through California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, and it’s right around the corner.   It’s an ideal reason to buy a new RX3, and we’d love to have you ride with us.

Want a ride with an international flair?  Hey, let me know if you want in on our next Baja ride in March 2018.  We limit participation to 15 riders, and there’s no time like the present to commit to going.

That’s it for now, folks.   Ride safe, and like always, stay tuned!

I had a nice note in my inbox this morning from good buddies Mike and Christy (of Motos of Michigan fame)…

Hi Joe,

My first ride ever was on a 74 Harley with a sidehack outfitted for the 1960 JackPine Enduro National. On that day I was completely bitten by the bike bug and the sidecar rig as well.

I have always wanted a GL1100 Standard and when this under 30,000 mile ’83 showed up with the Vetter TerraPlane the pin wasn’t just pulled it was EXTRICATED!

Christy absolutely loves riding along in the rig and handles the road map (Michigan Gazetteer) as we knock about the Great Northern Swamp.

I thought you were owed “picture proof” that I’m still a motorcyclist and by my standard, more so than ever.

Best Regards,

Mike & Christy

That’s very cool, Mike and Christy!   You’ll have a lot of fun and it looks like you really scored with a dynamite rig.  My experience with sidecars is limited to the CSC 150 Steve had built by Doug Bingham several years ago.   It was fun and one of these days I’m going to have to get one.  Thanks for the note and for sharing your new ride with us!

Sue and I stopped at the local Starbuck’s this morning (I know, I know…please, no jokes…and no, I did not buy a BMW GS).  As we were walking toward the entrance, I saw this all original, super cool 1963 Dodge Dart…

I really liked it, and while I was drooling over that old car, the owner sprinted out of Starbuck’s and hopped in the front seat.  He was a young guy with a beard.  I guess you could say he was a hipster.  Or maybe he was going to an audition for a Smith Brothers cough drops commercial (let’s see how many of you are old enough to get that one).   He was clearly in a hurry, but I asked him if it was a ’62 or a ’63.

“You’re pretty good,” he said.  “It’s a ’63.   Bought it 6 years ago and it was the best $2,500 I ever spent,” and with that, he started the engine and was gone.  The car sounded great.

“Wow,” I said to Sue.  “That sure is a cool car.”

“You know why he was in such a hurry?” Sue asked.

“Yeah, I wondered about that,” I said.

“He was parked in a handicap space, and he didn’t have a handicap sticker,” Sue said.

“Ah, I see,” I said.  I missed that aspect of the encounter entirely.

More interesting stuff…we’re boosting a Facebook ad right now featuring the Destinations Deal.   That’s our upcoming October trip through California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada.   When we first starting bringing the RX3 to America, we had our fair share of loonies posting negative comments on the bike strictly because it was Chinese and it was “only” a 250.   For the most part, the keyboard commandos crawled back under their rocks as the RX3 proved itself.   People experienced our superior customer service and our complete parts inventory.  Folks participated in our trips in the US, Mexico, Colombia, and China through the Internet (and in many cases by actually riding with us).

But we still get a few loonies and liars who pop up and post silly stuff.   We’re polite, and many times that infuriates them even more.   The bike is only a 250?  Hey, read this.  The bikes won’t go the distance?  Hey, check out our tours and read our books.  You can buy a used (fill in the blank with whatever motorcycle they bought used) for the same price?  Hey, no kidding, but then you’d have a used bike with no warranty.   The bike is Chinese?  Hey, nothing gets by these trolls, other than the fact that whatever they’re riding already has significant Chinese content.

Logic and politeness doesn’t always work, though, and after politely answering such comments with reasoned and accurate answers, a few of the trolls will post outright lies or become profane (usually they do both).  It’s a very predictable outcome.  We just delete their comments and block them, and in a few cases, that ratchets them up even more.  Ah, well…it’s the downside of using social media to get the word out, I suppose.  It opens you up to the world, and the world still has weirdos with WiFi.

Nope, not on a custom bike…we’re freshening up the CSC showroom!

I’ll post more photos when it’s all done, folks.  These are exciting times, so stay tuned for more updates.   You’ll hear it first right here on the CSC blog!

…and the book is Turner, the man behind the motorcycles.  The motorcycles, of course, were Triumphs.  Edward Turner was the engineer and executive behind Triumph’s success.   It was a journey that reached its peak in the 1960s, and it was a glorious time.

When I was a teenager, a Triumph Bonneville was the ultimate in high performance motorcycling. You know, it’s kind of funny…due to the successful brainwashing many of us underwent by Japan, Inc., today we would regard a 650cc motorcycle as a small bike.  Back in the day, though, the 650 Bonneville was the big bike we all aspired to as we worked our way through 90cc, 160cc, and 305cc road bikes.  I rode that route, and when I finally graduated to a Bonneville, I felt like I had really arrived.

The Turner biography, written by Jeff Clew, is an outstanding read.   They say you can’t tell a book by its cover, but I knew this one was going to be great when I saw the killer cover photo.  That’s Rita Hayworth behind Mr. Turner in front of Johnson Motors in Pasadena, the western US Triumph importer.   Other parts of the book were equally compelling, including the lengthy letter Turner wrote to his management team after visiting Honda in Japan.  Turner was shocked at how far ahead Honda was, and his letter (written well before the demise of the British motorcycle industry) pretty much predicted how things were going to go if Triumph didn’t change its ways.  They didn’t, and Turner’s predictions were realized.    Turner is a great read and for me it was a page turner (no pun intended).  You wouldn’t be making a mistake if you picked up a copy.

My good buddy Greg at Rider Magazine has an online story running on what’s new for 2018, and they included our Cafe Racer motorcycle.   You can read the story here.

Carlos caressing a CSC 150 Babydoll

Yep, we actually manufactured our CSC Mustangs in a pink-and-white version we called the Babydoll.  It was a hot seller, and while we were producing them, I never missed an opportunity to take one out on the test ride we did on every bike.  Yeah, I’d get a lot comments questioning my masculinity at stop lights, and if I followed through with my threat to hit every guy who said something with my purse I’d probably still be in prison.   They sure were fun bikes, and say what you want, no one could walk by a Babydoll without a second look.

Wow, this is cool!

Nevada’s ExtraTerrestial Highway…one of many roads we’ll ride on the CSC Destinations Deal tour!

Motorcycle Classics picked up our ride, and you can, too!  You can read the MC article here.  It’s cool!  We’re riding to several of the spots I’ve written about in Motorcycle Classics magazine for the “Destinations” column.  Our ride is just six weeks away, and it’s going to be awesome.

California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada:  All I can say is Wowee! And if you want a great deal on a new RX3 motorcycle and special pricing (it’s a special deal for anyone who is riding the Destinations Tour with us), just give us a call at 909 445 0900!

When I arrived at the CSC plant yesterday, I saw a visually-arresting Cadillac V parked in our parking lot.   Those V cars are amazing in any flavor, but this one was especially riveting…

Jimmy is the guy who owns it, and it turns out that he (like us) is a real gear head.   The finish is actually a wrap, and it was stunning.  It’s a mirror finish with a blue hue, and on that Corvette-engined Caddy, it was just flat beautiful.

But that’s not the only thing that was amazing about Jimmy.   Turns out that in his earlier days, Jimmy had an itch he never scratched….he wanted a Mustang.   You can guess where this story is going.   Yep, Jimmy scratched that itch yesterday.

That’s Jimmy on the left and Steve on the right, with a vintage Mustang that Jimmy just bought. He’s holding photos of some of his other toys.

Jimmy came in to look at a consignment CSC 150 Bobber, and he ended up buying three bikes – two CSC 150 Mustang replicas and an original Mustang.   That’s pretty cool, and we like it when people buy three bikes at a time (don’t get me wrong, we like it when our customers buy one bike at a time, too).

That’s it for now, folks.  As always, stay tuned…there’s more good stuff coming your way.