1098

I took Norton Mike to pick up his 4th bike tonight, a 2007 Ducati 1098. Ironically it's a lot like the Norton. Both are the state-of-the-art European sport twin of their era. You'd never mistake either one of them for a Japanese bike, even with your eyes closed.

Coffee At Dawn

Norton Mike and I went up to CAD this morning. I was kinda stoked to finally meet Craig Murray. Craig was the AHRMA BEARS national Champion several times campaigning a Triumph T-140 and the man behind the now legendary Sandia Classic vintage race event in ABQ. Craig lives close to CAD so he invited me by to check out his bikes. He had a handful of bikes near completion for the upcoming MidAmerica Auction in Las Vegas. He showed me the several of the parts for his own bobber project and had some pretty nice things to say about my poor dismantled bike. I also got to check out all his race bikes, wow. His race bikes are displayed in a room done up with perfect 60's swingers decor complete with vintage Playboys etc. Quite a setup.




Craig has retired from road racing and race promotion but is still piloting a Triumph twin for Keith Martin who is involved in all kinds of cool BUB related projects and restorations. Word is the two of them are plotting a crazy turbocharged Triumph Trident based triple in hopes of cracking 200 MPH. Some retirement. Apparently there where recently some big fairing rule changes in for their class. Sounds like they could us an aerodynamics nerd... The bike in the foreground is the boring old twin. I sure felt like a noob today but he was a really cool guy.

Vaughn's New Ride

This is what Vaughn picked out at the grocery store today. He mumbled something about maiden year Knucks being buggy but that he'd take it since the store was too lame to have a Crocker. I wasn't really sure what he was talking about.

Tri-Spark

I'm posting this mostly for my own later reference. Tri-Spark is an Australian competitor to Boyer/Sparx. The systems are kinda $$$ but entirely contained under the point cover. Pretty slick. They are supposed less sensitive to low battery voltage too. I've heard Boyer quality control has gone to hell since they were bought out.

Triumph Bonneville

Artist - Vaughn Root

Chronomatic Speedo

This face is the special revo-meter style which was used on the 1959-ish Triumph Bonneville. It's kind of an half-assed attempt combine the speedo and tach into one instrument. I love it. It's about the only way I'd actually want to add gauges to my bike, short of a fix-it ticket. All the chrono speedos I've seen (used '40s thru early '60's) are pretty damn cool. Unfortunately I've also heard they the typically spend a fortune to rebuild them so they work for a week Smiths gauges affair. If I were possible retro fit the revo face to my later speedo I'd still consider it...

WWII Triumph

Just got a circa 1977 EasyRiders Antique Motorcycle book, with lots of original ads and info. Most pertain to American Iron, but this was in there. Thought you would enjoy it.

Vasectomy

Survived, no bike for a week.

Easier

Norton

Purdy.

BSA Prototype

Love this bike!

Triumph Custom

This is sorta cool.