Carl Williamson - 1957

Here's a little moral support for Flathead Rob. He is currently working on a motorcycle trailer built/owned by Forsberg Indian, an Indian dealer located in the Capitol Hill area in the 1940's. Rob, where's your boat windshield?

Carl Williamson - 1957

Forsberg Indian - 1946

I am absolutely obsessed with the dirt track pipes on Carl's bike. I'm still looking at ways to reproduce them.

Decay of Detroit

I was chatting with a former Detroit resident while waiting in line at at restaurant today. He was mentioning how dramatically Detroit is becoming a ghost town. Ironically I later got home and happened across this Weather Channel Secrets of Earth episode about how nature is reclaiming Detroit in an almost Chernobyl like fashion. It reminded me of the drone shot footage of the old Packard plant. If you didn't watch that footage when I posted it before I definite recommend checking it out.

These photos of the Packard plant and the Fisher Body plant shot by French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre from their book “The Ruins of Detroit“ give you a good feel for what the video is like.

Crocker Hot Rod

In addition to Crocker's turn key motorcycle offering customers could buy the hemi-head engines alone for use in projects like midget racers. Pictured above is a 1939 engine #106 in a WWII era rigid Triumph single frame.

The Crocker 61c.i. made 50 hp. The factory "Race Kit" offered for the dramatically lighter all alloy Triumph 500's made 42 hp. Just like today it's sometimes hard to say if this conversion was more about performance or shock value. It's still pretty cool and quite a feat to shoehorn all that Crocker into a Triumph single frame. The full story of this bike is told in Vincent in the Barn for the truly inquisitive. The bike was reportedly spotted under a porch in Colorado by a utility meter reader.

Leather

Another fine Triumph related piece from GeordieBiker.

Happy Day's Leather Tuscadero (played by Suzi Quatro). I remember thinking as a prepubescent kid that skin-tight one piece leather jumpsuits were a pretty wonderful invention.

 I'd forgotten Suzi was a bassist. See... I told you bassists could be sex symbols.

Crocker - Muroc Dry Lake

Crocker engineer Paul Bigsby with rider Sam Parriot at Muroc dry lake, 1940.

Scrub-a-Dub

This is easily the oddest image I've come across in quite a while. Obviously bikini bike washes are not what they used to be.

Stakes His Claim

I spotted this over at GeordieBiker. Even if I wasn't both a Triumph fan and a "cat guy" this is a pretty damn cool piece of art.

They Say It's Your Birthday

Happy Birthday Flathead Rob!

Prime-time Pre-Unit

 I happened to catch this tattoo in passing on a prime-time reality TV show recently. It belongs to Erin Willett, a contestant on "The Voice" and "Biggest Loser." Granted, it's hardly newsworthy but it seems like unusual subject matter for a twenty-something woman. I wonder if there's a story behind it. 

 

Ran When Parked

1965 ESO Rickman Metisse - I love motocross and it has played some part in my entire life. That said, there aren't a lot of MX bikes that make me sappy from a vintage motorcycle perspective (obviously bikes my heroes rode like Bob Hannah's 1979 Yamaha YZ250 OW40 don't count). This bike is simply stunningly beautiful. 

Bomber Gas Station 2.0

I've posted content on the B-17 gas station in Milwaukee, Oregon before.  I was pleased to see The Old Motor has put together a wonderful feature on it. As I've mentioned previously I recall vividly see the station as a kid, my Dad always enjoyed pointing it out. As is often the case as a small kid the whole station seemed so much bigger as a kid.

I did a fair amount of research on this a few years ago and don't recall finding B-17 Alliance or the Art Lacey Story. I've heard several stories about how the B-17 station happened but I don't recall hearing about the $5 bet that set it all off.

Great Dirt Dyno

Ever wonder what it looks like to sit-on 650cc pushrod Triumph and set a speed record. Naturally aspirated open class with no fairing. Pretty incredible.

Onboard video of the Alp Racing 650 A/PF Triumph land speed racing bike at the El Mirage dry lake in Southern California, it currently holds four SCTA world records and two national AMA records.