Saturday, August 31, 2013

Roller Magazine

I recently found these bike photos from a Japanese magazine called Roller.























I have extremely mixed feeling about bikes like these. On one level I really appreciate the esthetic, I'm not a huge fan of most of the most of the 60's show bikes that seem to be such a trend right. I'm growing pretty tired of seeing them all the time too, even if I was actually into them. The Japanese bikes are simply much closer to the sort of bikes I'd build myself.



On the other hand I suspect a fair percentage of the bikes started as very complete original unmolested bikes. Some of these bikes ridiculously rare as well, a finite resource. I suspose most of the bikes could be returned to stock form fairly easily.

I suppose I should just be thankful they aren't butchering flawless original bikes to build choppers like a lot of other people are doing. It sucks to see bikes that miraculous survived  60 years without being cut up. There are so many bikes that were hideously chopped in the 70's or reduced to basket cases at some point. Why the hell don't people use those sorts of bikes instead. It just sucks.

Before

After




Weird Pieces

I find despite being lucky enough to have an excellent hardware store near my house I still have to comb through industrial supply places occasionally to solve weirder custom motorcycle problems. I suspect if you've built a custom bike you ride very much you'll know what I'm talking about.





My old standby for this sort of stuff has always been McMaster-Carr. I was searching for such an item last night and stumbled across AmazonSupply. Amazon is calling the site "beta" so there's no guarantee it will around forever. If you are an Amazon Prime member it could do a lot to help with the ever frustrating $7 shipping on a $3 part routine.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Triumph Rocket III

Too funny. I had no idea Monty Python had so much influence on the Triumph assembly line procedures.

Ran When Parked

1948 Indian Chief - More than maybe any other motorcycle I love unrestored late model Indian Chiefs. I suspect it's because some many for the ones you see are so over chromed, over accessorized and over restored. In my opinion all that stuff detracts from the flow and beauty of a Chief. Shame this one was involved in a fire.


GP 500





New Thunderbird

Clad in white overalls, three of the riders of the new 6T 649cc Thunderbird talk to Edward Turner at the conclusion of the very impressive, high speed launch at Montlhéry.

Triumph's crisp white coverall budget must have been enormous in the 50's.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Oil Tank Vent

I've decided I'm done with the oil tank vent on Olivia blowing oil all over everything.



Currently there is just a vent hole drilled in the top nut and a small piece filter foam. If I over fill the tank or run for a prolonged period of time at high RPM it makes a mess. Part of the problem is I never wanted to run a vent hose



I'm considering trying to adopt an air compressor style vent fitting that will vent oil vapor without passing so much oil. I'm looking something like this. Problem is they are all pretty chunky. The smallest one I've found so far is this one. Ideally I'd like to drill and tap the the underside of the cap so it's not viable.



If you have any clever ideas or suggestions please let me know.

Legacy

I found this wonderful photo of Flathead Rob and Tom Samuelsen on Wayne Hamilton's blog. I'm sure they aren't talking about old motorcycles...


Saturday, August 24, 2013

Lemay Vintage Motorcycle Festival

Fathead Rob and I made the trek to the Lemay Museum for their Vintage Motorcycle Festival.  It was a really cool/fun show.

I read somewhere the 1938 Triumph Speed Twin I followed being restored here was going to be at the show. I'll admit I was really looking forward to seeing it. I was able to meet and chat with Terry for a bit too. He has some amazing bikes.

Tom Ruttan stopped by to chat with me about my '51 Tiger too. After chatting with him for a bit it occurred to me that he was the guy that built the Triumph GP replica I had been following at MidAmerica last year. I loved that bike.  He mentioned today that he is now building a REAL Triumph GP. 151 GP's and 15 spare engines where originally built. Tom is building the real one around one of those 15 spare engines. I'd kill to see that bike someday.


BMW fanatic and need a tow rig? This is what you are looking for.
Cossacks Central
The obligatory priceless Flying Merkel
Original paint 3T
47 Velocette - my Dad's first bike in High School
Triumph row
Someone's pile of crap
Terry Clark's 1937 Tiger T90
Terry Clark's 1936 Tiger T80
Terry Clark's '38 Speed Twin
Billy of Hellmut's Triumph - cool guy. I really enjoyed chatting with him.
Red's '48 Tiger. He's owned it 50+ years
This Scout Jr. had a great story
The owner's Grandfather and uncle. 
The paint on this bike was stunning
This original paint Jefferson boardtracker was one of the coolest bike's there
The quality of the bikes present was unbelievable . Earlier in the day I told my wife there was 0% chance either of my bikes would place in their class which I was just fine with. Both my bikes came in second in their class. I'm still not even sure how.



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