Monday, December 27, 2010

Pre-Unit

For some reason I can't stop thinking about pre-units tonight... Thanks for having us Robbie! This is close to the bike I'd like to build.

MidAmerica

I blew an hour or so looking at bikes in the upcoming MidAmerica auction. As always there is some interesting stuff. 3 or 4 Cannonball racers are up for auction.

The Gene Romero replica Craig Murray built is again up for sale. Craig sold it at the same auction last year. I saw it up at Craig's place but I never did hear that thing run. 1000cc Trident... I bet it sounds nasty.



I love this crazy YamaHonda hybrid racer.



My favorite Knucklehead of the show (a 1938).



Should my wife hit the lottery between now and January 6 2011 I will be picking up this 1939 T100. This year and model is pretty much my absolute favorite Triumph.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Struts

I'm not normally much a fan of strutted Triumphs. This one from Mike D's blog is sorta cool.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Triton

There's more than one way to build a Triton. A riding buddies 2006 Bonneville powered Triton project. He's already got a beautiful traditional Triton. Should be fun to watch.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Mooneyes

The stuff coming out of Mooneyes is interesting as always. Japanese attention to detail is fascinating. Some of the paint is just unreal. In terms of stripping etc. they are genuinely starting to do "us" better than us. I was fascinated by the finishes on this bike. All the chrome is done to the hilt but lots of the aluminum stuff is instead done flawlessly satin.



The MCM label on the fork covers is flown Minnie Pearl style so you know it's the real thing. It's always cool to see bikes that are perfectly period correct and I love seeing funky oddball NOS parts but the "Bates label" status stuff makes me a nauseous.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Egli-Vincent

What about building a cafe on a Dollar Store budget keeps leading me to this kinda stuff?

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Triumph Triple

I'm not sure about the origins of this illustration, found it on a cafe forum. This has to be about the coolest thing you could do with a modern Triumph. I want one.



Rob North Racing triple it's loosely based on.



The illustration even has a toned down version of "ray gun" muffler found on the original Trident. BSA management actually paid Ogle Design for those god awful ray gun mufflers & breadbox gas tanks. I can hear the the conversation in the boardroom now. "The Japanese are kicking our ass. What should we do? High reving 4 cylinder, twin front disks, better performance & reliability... Na, let's make our bikes uglier than the Japanese competition too!"

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Taylor's Knuck

I was digging through my digital "junk drawer" and found this. Wish could remember where I found it so I could credit the painter. The bike is Hank Young's "Taylor's Knuck."

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Vincent

Jim Mosher's '51 Rapide. The Bate's style cafe tail section was made by AirTech, the company that is making mine. I like it.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Seat Mounts

Still waiting on the cafe seat section. I've thinking some about how to attack the mounting but can't get too are without actually having it. The pics below are the approach one of the "Lord of Loud" guys is using. I've got to figure it out before Flathead45 comes down in case he needs to whip out some bungs on the new Atlas. I always have to force something weird into his luggage so TSA doesn't get too bored...




Fin Overload

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Bonneville

I was watching a documentary on early Bonneville cars tonight and saw lots of legendary cars I'd seen before (some in person at the Peterson Museum). I don't remember ever seeing the Chrisman Coupe before. Man that thing is rad.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Ducati

I just read Ducati's Sports Classics product line is getting the axe. Kind of a shame in my opinion.



The Paul Smart edition (below) is the one showroom stock modern Ducati I couldn't help ogling every time I saw one. Beautiful bike. I think that bike was a limited edition anyway but this shouldn't hurt it's value over the next several years.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

GS Update

I got the clutch lever I've been waiting for in the mail on Friday and finally got to ride the GS. I was surprised just how different it is power wise than Olivia. It's fairly gutless until about 6000 RPM and then comes on pretty strong (for a 400). Ride it for a while and Olivia seems like an absolute beast. I got the idle mixture sorted out too.



I think I've decided to just run the stock side covers so I need to buy a stock size battery. Then just need to find the internal front brake master cylinder parts and a headlight shell.



I can't wait to buy a seat base so I can start doing some actual cutting and fab!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Vintage Art



Stumbled across this eBay listing for a 1936 Triumph Sales Brochure. Thought the cover art is pretty cool...

Crazy Chris' Beezer Liquidation Sale

I saw a post on CL that Kent Chris is selling off all his BSA stuff. No fear he's keeping all the Triumph stuff:

For 40 years or more, this amazing assortment of BSA parts has been accumulating in a warehouse on the hill above Kent. Now a decision to concentrate his efforts on Triumph parts and service has resulted in this offering to sell the Beezer pile as a lot. Included are frames, titles, engines and transmissions and many other parts, mostly disassembled and stored separately. Models covered are mostly A65 twins from the '60s and '70s, with a sprinkling of single cylinder and older parts to keep it interesting. Some are new old stock. The pictures below only hint at the size of the pile. You'll have to come see for yourself if you are interested. Call Chris at 253-852-4019 to arrange a showing. Keywords Triumph, Norton, British bikes.

Fork

There's a cool little pictorial over at Full Throttle or Bust on Fork. They are the folks that made my beloved points cover (thank you Joey).

Warms my heart to see the Fender bass propped in the corner. It looks just like the Fender P Flathead45 and I refinished. Saw my kid killing it live on it just last night! Proud papa.

Triumph Trophy

On eBay right now. Not too shabby.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

GS

The GS is making a little progress. It's running. I pulled the original butt ugly airbox and added some pod filters because box was in really bad shape, must have sat with water in it. Now I'm gonna need to re-jet it. Got some Clubman bars & grips. I've spent a bunch of time cleaning stuff up, painting etc. starting at the front end. I have seals and wipers for the forks but haven't torn them down yet. The paint on the tank was pretty thrashed from cleaning it out so I finished stripping it. Really need to find a clutch lever and a master cylinder rebuild kit. Pretty boring stuff but a couple of people have asked me where it's at.



The best part of working on it is having a steady wrenching buddy. It's unbelievably cool to have a kid that likes this stuff. I'd bet money he's building super cool stuff by the time he's in HS. He's got impeccable taste... In cars/motorcycles, not pajamas.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Scene

From The Vorhese Blog. Was on his blog but it's never been on my blog before...
Too damn funny.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

PJ's First Annual Bike Show

Justin and I went down to PJ's First Annual Bike Show today. Some cool bikes, met some really cool guys and the Icon Stunt Team was pretty damn cool despite riding on about the worst imaginable surface.

Two trophies, my girl 'Liv had a pretty good day for a woman in her 40's. I guess $20,000 of carbon fiber doesn't necessarily = coolest bike...

The Horse

I guess it's finally out (Issue #104 I think). Justin sent me this photo, hence the beautiful backdrop. I haven't found a copy anywhere yet. Seems like the photos aren't very good. I guess we'll see.

Friday, November 12, 2010

GS Seat

I've been doing lots of build planning and research. I'm using this post primarily as a way to save some referenced URL's.

I've been looking around quite a bit both from the perspective of building my own seat or finding a pre-built one I really like.

This CB75021M seat so far is a favorite. I suspect I can probably buy one like this cheaper than I could build one. A seat pan is available too.



Been kinda thinking a '50 Pontiac taillight would look pretty cool.

I've learned my lesson that running filament bulbs on an old bike is a PITA. Should probably get an LED. Frenching buckets are available too.

I might end up just running a Lucas 525 taillight under the seat/fender. Some of the knockoffs have a built in license plate bracket.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

GS Cafe Progress

I got the gas tank back from the radiator shop last night and started Joey's GS for the first time. It's always cool to hear something run that hasn't for 10+ years.

It's only running on one cylinder. It has good spark so I'm thinking I must have missed something in the left carb. It was a real mess.

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