CSC Blog

Old, new, slow, fast….you’ll see all kinds of moto exotica at Newcomb’s Ranch on the world-famous Angeles Crest Highway!

Our next company ride is going to be on 6 May 2017 (that’s a Saturday) and our destination will be Newcomb’s Ranch on the Angeles Crest Highway.  It’s one of my favorite rides.

Angeles Crest Highway is a great ride through the Angeles Forest to one of the world’s all time classic motorcycle destinations.    I wrote a piece about it for Motorcycle Classics magazine a while back and you can read about it here.    We’ll have a great time and I guarantee you’ll love it.   We’re posting about the ride on our Meetup.com page, too (you can get to it here).   If you’re planning to ride with us, please sign up on the CSC Meetup.com page.

We’ll leave from the CSC plant at 9:00, so if you’re going to ride with us please make sure you are here no later than 8:45 with a full tank of gas.   We’ll have a pot of coffee going when you get here (along with our famous Donut Man donuts).    It will be an easy roll west on the 210 freeway and then we’ll pick up world-famous Angeles Crest Highway near Glendale.

We’re looking forward to seeing you on the 6th!

So, give me another 60 days, and Moto Baja will be available!   This one will be heavy on photos, it will be in full color, and it will tell one hell of a story:  How we first started riding Baja, the bikes we’ve ridden there, and why our CSC adventure rides through this magical land are a key part of our marketing strategy! (Hint…it works, and it’s fun!)

Keep an eye on the blog, folks, and we’ll keep you posted as Moto Baja progresses!

Wow, another great adventure by our good buddy Joe Martin and his RX3!  I just received this note from Joe:

Last weekend I participated in the Stumpjumper’s Desert 100 event.  This is the longest running desert race in the United States and is located in Odessa, WA.  They have multiple events going on during the weekend.  I joined in on the Adventure/Dual Sport Poker Ride.  140 mile event with about 30 miles of asphalt, 70 miles of gravel and sand roads and 40 miles of full on desert singletrack.  I rode my RX3.  It did great!  I on the other hand am still a noob and had a few bobbles.  No injuries to me or the bike.  Hope you enjoy!

Joe, this is just awesome. Congrats on your accomplishment and thanks for sharing it with us!

There’s an absolutely magnificent writer named A.J. Baime who does a regular column for The Wall Street Journal focused on folks who have owned cool cars for a long time.  They don’t have to be extremely rare or ultra exclusive cars, either…the thing that makes them interesting is they have been in the same family for a very long time and they all have an interesting story.   For example, Baime did a WSJ story a few months ago about a traveling salesman who bought a new Chevy Impala back in the ’60s (and he’s still using it for his sales duties).   There was one last month about a young Army officer who bought a used MG TD when he graduated from West Point, he did his 30 years in the Army, and he recently attended a US Military Academy class reunion (and he drove to the reunion in that same MG).   And this morning I read a Baime story about a grandmother who drives a ’64 Corvette she and her husband purchased new in 1964.  All of Baime’s stories are great human interest pieces with just the right amount of automobilia (if that’s a word) in the mix.  You can read his latest story (the one about that ’64 Vette) here.

Baime has also done a few stories on motorcycles (including one on a Harley WLA), and they are similarly captivating.   You can get to them most easily through his Facebook page (Facebook.com/AJBaime).

Wow, was I ever surprised this morning.  I received an email informing me that the assets of Paisano Publications (the company that publishes Easyriders and a host of other custom V-twin magazines) is up for auction.  The link for more info is here.

My first published work ever was in Easyriders magazine.   It was back in the 1980s and I had this idea about being a published writer, so I wrote a short story and mailed it to Easyriders (I actually typed it on paper and mailed it via the US Post Office, as word processors and email had not yet been invented).   After not hearing anything for several weeks I called the good folks at Easyriders, and a very nice associate editor explained to me that my short story really wasn’t very good.  I asked what she didn’t like about it, she told me, I retyped it to address the things she didn’t like, and a few short weeks later it was published.  And they paid me for it.   Whoa, that was cool, I thought.

It’s hard to tell how the Easyriders wave is going to crash on shore.   The auction has a reserve price of $3,000,000 (think of it as 770 RX3s, or 1,367 TT250s), which means if that price isn’t reached it won’t sell.  I just don’t know that printed media periodicals are doing well these days, and I think the custom V-twin outlaw-wannabe fad pretty much went south with the advent of the Great Recession back in 2009.  It’s kind of a double whammy if you have a print magazine that focuses on custom Harleys.  We’ll see what happens.

This is a very cool video of the ride in Baja’s Sierra San Francisco Mountains to the cave paintings…as seen by my good buddy Matt, one of the outstanding folks we rode with last month!

Matt, this is great stuff! Thanks for riding with us and thanks for capturing the ride so well!

Wow, the notes just keep coming!   I was glad to get this email and several photos from good buddy Pete, one of the great guys who rode with us on the recent CSC Baja expedition!

CSC Baja Ride 2017: What a great time!  This type of ride is on every motorcyclist’s bucket list and it proved to be an excellent sample of what Baja has to offer.  I’m looking forward to going again.

Each rider on the trip brought their own RX3 and was responsible for any issues encountered.  There weren’t any of real consequence.  A few bolts on one bike needed some Loctite, checking fluid levels, tire pressure, chain tension and lubricating the chain was the sum total of maintenance performed during the ride.  We were one of two motorcycle groups encountered on the trip that didn’t have a chase vehicle which speaks to the confidence CSC and the bike owners have in the RX3.   Basically this bike goes where I point it, it gets me there and more importantly brings me back.  I use it almost daily here in Scottsdale AZ, on and off road.  It has become my “go to” motorcycle for 1-up riding.  Affordable, under 400 pounds, good fuel range, carries the gear I need for local and adventure riding, good choice for how and where I ride.

Thanks to everyone at CSC for handling the logistics and for being our guides.  After completing this ride I feel I can intelligently talk to others about the RX3 so the affiliate paperwork will soon be filled out and on its way to CSC.

I heard you say you don’t always get pictures of yourself on these rides, so I included one of you!

Pete

Pete, thanks for the note and for the photos.   I think that might be the first photo I’ve ever seen of myself with the whales, and it is a great one.  I’m glad you had a good time and I am looking forward to buzzing through Baja with you again!

We sure had a great company ride Saturday, even though the flowers are holding back blooming a little longer than we anticipated.  The weather was absolutely perfect.

So, what about the next one?  We have our CSC company rides the first Saturday of each month, and I’m looking for ideas on the next ride.  If you’d like to nominate a route, well hey, shoot us an email (info@cscmotorcycles.com) and we’ll take a look at it.  We’re looking forward to your ideas!

And that would have to be our good buddy Carlos, who has absolutely mastered the art of selfie photography on Facebook.   It got to where everybody on the recent Baja trip was trying to get into one of Carlos’ selfie photos.   Carlos is a great guy with a great sense of humor and a beautiful family, and getting to know him a little better was one of the many high points of the Baja ride for me.   I was really happy to receive an email and accompanying photos from my good buddy Carlos today…

First of all, I would like to thank CSC for allowing me to join them on this incredible journey. It had always been a dream of mine to go on an adventure motorcycle ride. I am usually accustomed to travel by myself or with my family, never as a part of a group. This experience opened me up to be part of a team of amazing people who I am very grateful for. I enjoyed the company, the conversations, the food, and the scenery. Everyone that I talked to was very wise and always had something interesting to share with the group. I was able to connect to everyone and to exchange stories. This experience was amazing and it will be engraved in my memory forever.  Thank you all!

Carlos E. Vazquez, Baja Signs, Owner

I forgot one picture from the person that made me laugh the most!

Carlos, thanks so much for writing to us, and for riding with us in Baja!  You made the trip fun for all of us, and your expert translation skills helped enormously.   I hope you’ll ride with us again!

I sold my KLR yesterday.   I had given up on the idea of selling the bike because every time someone came in the plant and compared it to a new RX3, they went with the RX3.   That’s okay.  That’s basically the same decision I made every time I went for a motorcycle ride.

The KLR was a good bike and I had a lot of fun on it, but the fact is I just wasn’t riding it any more.  I don’t think I put even 200 miles on the KLR in the last couple of years, and that’s entirely due to my RX3 and TT250 motorcycles.  I just find that, to me, a 250 is the perfect size bike for the kind of riding I do.  Don’t get me wrong…I enjoyed owning the KLR over the last 11 years and it never let me down.  I had a lot of fun with it both here in the US and in Baja (that photo above is from a trip into the Vizcaino Desert several years ago).  I feel good about sending the KLR down the road because I know its new owner is going to have a lot of fun with it, and I know that the bike is in excellent condition.

So how did all this come about?  Well, during our recent CSC Baja ride, Tuan told me that his friend wanted a KLR, and he asked if I was interested in selling mine.   Yep, I said, I am.   And a few short days later, Daniel arrived at my home, paid for the KLR, and it was gone.   Just like that.   Dan and I both felt we struck a great deal, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.  Best wishes with your new KLR, Dan.   Tuan, thanks for setting up the deal.   The next beer is on me, boys, and of course, it will have to be in Baja.