Vespa Riverside Auction
Went to the Vespa Riverside abandonment auction. The former owners, Bosch Auto Group, had left all their old parts in their corporate offices. I bought about 90% of the Vespa items. I scored some vespa signage, a scooter tire balancer, a nice display case, and a ton of parts for the shop. The four scooters they had could not be auctioned since the lien sale had not been completed.
1986 Honda Elite CH150 Scooter
We just picked up this cool retro 1986 Honda Elite CH150 scooter. This is the one that Devo did the ads for back in the eighties. It has just over 3000 miles on it. We are keeping it around as a shop bike and a picure car rental. It has a cool pop up headlight.
Ava behind the wheel of Daddy’s Caddy
Cute pic of Ava sitting in the drivers seat of my 1956 Cadillac
Giant Tea Kettle in South Central
Spotted this giant tea kettle building from 1929 while delivering a scooter today. It's at 607 W Manchester Ave in South Central Los Angeles. It's being used as storage for the smog test station that shares the property.
Mike goes to the International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach
Went to the annual Long Beach International Motorcycle Show. Kymco and Genuine skipped out this year, so I did not have to hang around all weekend. The major manufacturers scaled down their booths this year due to the recession.
Had a good talk with the reps at Royal Enfield, who I have applied to be a dealer for. They will finally have California legal bikes this year. California Scooter Company was also there with their modern version of the old Mustang Scooter.
Honda brought out two new scooters, the Elite 100 and SH150. Yamaha showed their Tmax and Zuma scooter models. There were two companies showing Chinese knockoff scooters.
There were two vintage scooters in the classic bike display. Mario from South Bay Scooter Club had his fenderlight Vespa on display. There was also a Series One Lambretta.
Hopefully The economy and the motorcycle industry will recover by next years show. It's always a must attend event.
Kindles Donuts (Big Donut Drive In)
Was picking up a scooter in South Central today when I spotted Kindles Donuts at Century and Normandie. It was formerly part of the Big Donut Drive In chain. The most famous Big Donut is Randy's on Manchester in Inglewood.
Ava at family gathering today
We went to a gathering for the Graves side of the family today. We took Ava, who everyone wanted to hold. Her younger cousin Westly was there as well. They are only a month apart. Here are some pictures I took.
Bob’s Broiler In Downey, CA
I was in the area on shop business, so I decided to stop by Bob's Broiler in Downey. It originally opened as Harvey's Broiler and was later known as Johnny's Broiler. A few years back it was in bad shape and in use as a used car lot. Some idiots decided to tear it down illegally. The city found out and put a stop to the already in progress demolition. Bob's Big Boy stepped in and restored and rebuilt what was left using the original plans. As you can see the results are very cool.
Bob's Broiler is easy to find on Firestone about halfway between the 605 & 710 freeways. They have a classic car night on Wednesdays.
I had the patty melt, which was excellent. They have those real ice cream shakes that rule! I also picked up a sweet Bob's t-shirt with a picture of the building.
