GeekBobber

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Ran When Parked

1950 Triumph T6 Thunderbird - Cool bike. With exception of the carb it appears to be very original.

Monday, July 1, 2013

One of the casualties of my relocation was my BMX bike. I won't bother with the gory details but I will say I'm quite confident one of the packers/movers that handled our move decided to steal it. Atlas Van Lines could not have cared less. They were perfectly happy to offer me a $20 settlement for a $500 bike. Next time you shop for a mover do me a favor and drop Atlas from any consideration you might have.

USAA was amazing as always when it came to settling the claim. I feel so lucky to be eligible for their coverage. I've never had any experience with them that was anything shy of awesome.

I've really missed the bike I had. I'm old and suck almost beyond belief considering what I used too be capable of on a BMX bike but I really do enjoy knocking around the 'hood with Vaughn.

I finally replaced the old bike today. I gotta say the quality of current mid-priced box-stock BMX bikes is amazing. The bikes I raced 30+ years ago were a no expense spared type of deal and this bike largely blows them away. Braking performance, handling, quality of components etc. is nothing short of amazing. It's cool to see V-brakes, Campy style cupless and threadless headsets, cassette rear hubs, European bottom brackets. It's cool to see all the improvements the MTB and road bike world have introduced so widely embraced by the BMX world.

The shop I spoke to said they could have the bike I wanted available the next day. Crazy turnaround until it occurred to me Redline was a local company. What didn't occur to me until I picked it up was that they were based in Kent, Wa. Their corporate headquarters live about 5 minutes from my house. I had to drive farther than that to find a Redline dealer...

I had also forgotten that Redline got their start building high quality motorcycle frames for flattrack, TT, speedway and motocross way back in 1970. It's cool to be able to still throw them a bone.

Duplex

All this stuff is in effect a doodle pad for me. I'm only posting all this crap here so I can find it all again easily. Nothing to see here... move along.

Early 50's Rigid - Duplex Comparison

Duplex Graft-On

Rigid Duplex

Rigid Duplex on the mind.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

"The Man" in Maricopa

On the off chance you aren't familiar with Shorpy, it is one of my all time favorite Internet time wasters. Flathead Rob pointed out this photo.

Phoenix in 1953. "Photographs show teenagers, mostly male, participating in the Maricopa County, Arizona, programs for teenage delinquent drivers. Includes boys working at Juvenile Farm; teens attending Attitude School; policeman with boys and their hot rods; teens driving on Phoenix streets." Photo by Earl Theisen for the Look magazine assignment "How to Tame Teenage Drivers."

Bubblevisor Wheels & Waves

Forgive me for reposting but I absolutely loved the photos from this Bubblevisor post. BMX, old motorcycles, all the cool stuff.

For the record - this is everything a motorcycle is supposed to be

Re-read the caption above

You know your motorcycle collection is pretty killer when your '51 Triumph Tiger is background fodder

This may be the single coolest MC photo I have ever seen!

Douglas World Cruiser - Seattle II

Vaughn got me out of bed too early on Saturday morning, primarily so he could ride in Flathead Rob's 1933 Plymouth Sedan. Rob had arranged for some old car friends to bring a few cars down in support of the christening of the Douglas World Cruiser - Seattle II. There is no shortage of cool things to do on summer weekends in this area. Still, my favorite part was Vaughn's ride in a 1915 Model T. Pretty cool day. It's really nice to have Rob's wife taking real photos so you get a break from some of my shitty cellphone photos.