{"id":736,"date":"2018-08-18T17:26:46","date_gmt":"2018-08-18T17:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=736"},"modified":"2018-08-18T17:28:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T17:28:55","slug":"high-end-high-class-small-bikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/08\/18\/high-end-high-class-small-bikes\/","title":{"rendered":"High end, high class small bikes…"},"content":{"rendered":"

On its face, it seemed like a weak market to target…folks\u00a0 who want very high end, small displacement, expensive custom motorcycles. But it worked.<\/p>\n

When CSC revived the Mustang motorcycle concept 10 years ago, the company didn\u2019t really have a grand plan, a handle on the market, or even a clearly defined name. CSC was originally California Scooter Company, and the original plan was to re-introduce a concept pioneered by the Mustang Motor Company in the postwar 1940s.<\/p>\n

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Original vintage Mustangs. Both of these bikes, along with more than a dozen others, are in Steve Seidner’s personal Mustang collection (the largest vintage Mustang collection in the world).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea was to spin off of Pro-One Performance Manufacturing\u2019s line of very high billet and other accessories (and complete large V-twin custom motorcycles), and apply it to a small, modern version of the Mustang.\u00a0 Pro-One, CSC’s sister company, was founded by Steve Seidner (the same guy who started CSC). \u00a0 And boy oh boy, did those little bikes sell. They were beautiful little creations. Jewels, actually. Hand made, and built to extremely high standards. Mirror-like paint. Billet. Chrome. Little choppers. Expensive little jewels you could actually ride.<\/p>\n

Ah, but that name…the California Scooter Company. It created confusion. People would see the new California Scooter modern Mustang and ask: Is it a scooter or a motorcycle? They didn\u2019t get that the name was old school. Back in the day, antiques (folks like yours truly) called any bike a scooter. A Harley was a scooter and so was a Triumph…as in \u201cI\u2019m going to ride down to Cabo on my Scooter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Me? I wanted to tell anybody who asked that question (is it a motorcycle or a scooter?) that they were too dumb to ride either, but I couldn\u2019t do that. Then one day, the boss hit on the idea of just calling the company CSC Motorcycles. You know, go with the tradition of other world-class marques with three-letter names: BMW, BSA, AJS, KTM, and more. And that worked.\u00a0 The dumbass scooter or motorcycle questions stopped, and the bikes continued to sell.<\/p>\n

Back to the modern Mustangs…the initial thought was that the bikes would sell for $4,995, and they\u2019d be a hit with young folks.<\/p>\n

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The modern California Scooter Greaser in the San Gabriel Mountains. Folks loved this bike and it was one of the best-selling paint themes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ah, what we didn\u2019t know. The market will tell you what it is. Plans and fancy marketing studies mean nothing. A hit with young folks? The problem with young folks is that they don\u2019t have any money and they don\u2019t buy motorcycles. Hell, a lot of them don\u2019t even want driver\u2019s licenses. Just, like, you know, call an Uber.<\/p>\n

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Good buddy Walter B, back in the day, on his Knucklehead Harley-Davidson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What we found out at CSC 10 years ago was that our modern Mustang market squarely centered on older folks (who often have a lot of money). Specifically, older folks who wanted a Mustang back in the day, but Dad said no. Or folks who rode big bikes way back when and who still wanted to ride, but they didn’t want to wrestle with 800-lb monsters.\u00a0 Fast forward 60 years, Dad\u2019s no longer around, an Advil a day is just the ticket, and what do you know, I can buy that Mustang I always wanted and still ride. And they did. In droves.<\/p>\n

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A near-standard CSC Mustang on the right, and two custom versions on the left. Nearly all California Scooters were extensively optioned with additional chrome, billet, and custom paint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Almost no one bought the standard, no-accessories, $4,995 CSC 150. They could have (that bike featured a slew of custom high end stuff, like billet and chrome all over the place and a world class finish). But those old guys who were denied an opportunity to scratch that Mustang itch as teenagers wanted more. A lot more. They would call on the phone (\u201cI don\u2019t do the Internet\u201d), option the little California Scooters up to over $10,000 with lots more bling (custom wheels, custom paint, and more), and then put it all on a credit card. They wouldn\u2019t attempt to negotiate price. California Scooter buyers wanted to spend more. Negotiate a lower price? Nope, that would demean the purchasing experience. It was full boat, full freight, and here\u2019s my security code number…<\/p>\n

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A custom California Scooter. This was the “Bobber” variant. Note the gangster whitewalls, chrome wire wheels, and other custom touches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Steve Seidner built a personal aviation-themed custom California Scooter he called the P-51 (get it?…the P-51 Mustang).\u00a0 Steve intended to keep the bike, but I put this photo on the CSC blog and it sold within an hour. Someone called with a godfather offer (a deal Steve couldn’t refuse).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Those little bikes were awesome. I owned one of the very first ones, and I found I was having more fun on 150cc than I had on bikes with ten times the displacement. I rode mine all the way to Cabo San Lucas and back, but that\u2019s a story for another blog.\u00a0 The Baja trip did a lot for CSC, too.\u00a0 The 150cc bikes had Honda CG clone engines manufactured in Asia, and the Baja trips showed the bikes were supremely reliable. \u00a0We invited famous people to ride with us in Mexico and that was a force multiplier.\u00a0 The press coverage was off the charts.<\/p>\n

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Simon Gandolfi, British novelist and world traveler, on the road in Baja with a California Scooter.\u00a0 He cuts a commanding figure, doesn’t he?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Simon, suspenders flying, at speed on my CSC 150, just north of Cabo San Lucas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Arlene Battishill, CEO of Go Go Gear, on the Sea of Cortez with her custom California Scooter.\u00a0 Arlene later appeared on the TV show, Shark Tank, with this motorcycle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the things that sticks in my mind is the uninformed and the ignorant occasionally posting somewhere on an Internet forum that you could get a used Sportster for the kind of money people were happily spending on California Scooters. These keyboard commandos just didn\u2019t get it. You could actually get a new Sportster for that kind of money, but that wasn\u2019t the point. California Scooter buyers didn\u2019t want a Sportster. They wanted, and were happy to pay top dollar for, a custom-crafted bit of motorcycle jewelry that could be both admired and ridden. A current classic.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a market for such a thing. I know. I was there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On its face, it seemed like a weak market to target…folks\u00a0 who want very high end, small displacement, expensive custom motorcycles. But it worked. When CSC revived the Mustang motorcycle concept 10 years ago, the company didn\u2019t really have a grand plan, a handle on the market, or even a clearly defined name. CSC was … Continue reading “High end, high class small bikes…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[63,72,96,140],"tags":[170,171,78,147,172,169],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baja","category-china","category-feel-good-stuff","category-vintage-motorcycle","tag-arlene-battishill","tag-california-scooter-company","tag-csc-motorcycles","tag-mustang","tag-shark-tank","tag-simon-gandolfi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":748,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions\/748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}