Friday, October 30, 2009

Craigslist

Vintage, rat, old school, chopper/bobber. 1948 Harley Davidson Panhead . Loads of patina. Ran perfect when parked 10 years ago. 100% complete. Rebuilt engine. Needs a little work. Should start right up with fresh gas, a new battery and the points adjusted. Selling it for a friend without the Internet. $19,000. Will consider trade for a Yenko Camaro and cash. No calls. Just e-mail and I will promptly ignore you.

key word: jet ski, wave runner, 4x4, atv, go cart, dirt bike, motor cycle.
  • Location: Courtacousin, Ar
  • it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Von Dutch

I had no idea Von Dutch fancied himself an engineer.

Jason McCann

This Trump is sorta cool. Another David Bird hardtail. Still Like the Firestone Deluxe Champs.

Perfection

Man, I may have to get a subscription to Greasy Kulture. I've never even had the chance to thumb through an issue as it's usually not available through retail outlets. They are supposed to be doing a Scout vs VL feature in an upcoming issue.

Money Pit

I always wanted an RD as a kid. I eventually got too big. Everyone I've ever known that owned one in a super high state of tune said that financially they were a little like owning a boat. I remember always thinking those gold anodized DG heads where the shit.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Need a Pre-Unit?

Weekly CAD Report

Fun day at CAD today. Steven Gorrell was there again with yet another ridiculously cool HD. This time a period perfect Knucklehead bobber painted to match the 352nd Fighter Group P51's. Long list of impossible to find parts like a NOS Crocker taillight. Sorry for the S#$@ty picture.



Michael Breeding was riding a '51 Indian (yellow bike below). Intersting guy who makes some crazy Indian, VL, Henderson, etc. parts. Checkout his site, you never know when you'll need a siren, center stand or some wacky fork part. His jewelery page is well worth a look.



Finally, I met a guy named James Mosher that was shaking down a newly purchased '69 Triumph Trophy for PJ of PJ's Triumph. I got the impression he really knows Triumphs/Vincents/Nortons and offered to hook me up with some dyno time to get my carbs and timing spot on. Apparently his real bag is hot rod Indians and restorations of all types. His site is a great way to lose at least an hour! I later relized a '40 Indian Scout he restored was also up there today.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

More OCD

Since my parts are still at the painters and I haven't been able to ride much recently I had to find something new to obsess over.

I'm not that fond of the way my air cleaners stick out both cosmetically and because they sometimes get in the way.



I think velocity stacks would look really killer but they seem like a pretty dumb idea for practical reasons.



I finally stumbled across these. They are actually made for Mikuni's but they sure look like they will fit Amal 930's. I may have to find some place local that stocks 'em so I can look at one. I think the common bike they fit is a KLX 110.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

More Craig Bikes

I was poking around looking for pictures of Theo Ozen's lakes bike and stumbled onto a couple of bikes tied to Craig Murray.

First, I'm 95% sure this flat track bike was sitting in Craig's shop the other day. This thing is just stunning in person.



The pictures are from an article on Keith Martin. Keith build's Craig's race motors and built the Salt Shaker Bonneville bike Craig pilots. Here's a pretty sick picture of the Salt Shaker without the bodywork.



I remember reading this article in print originally at my nephew's basketball practice in Seattle. Told you Flathead45 was a bad influence.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Metal Meet

I discovered a new forum today, Metal Meet. I haven't had a chance to really dig into it but there seem to be quite a few members asking questions about restoration and hot rodding related metal fabrication. I got the feeling people were also fairly tolerant of offering fabrication advice even in instances were the member posing the question had pretty limited tools at their disposal.

CAD

Interesting day for Brit bikes at Coffee at Dawn this morning. When I got there I saw a nice '48 Norton 500 I'd seen there before, pretty much identical to this one. I love that bike.



Next a '50s Ariel Square Four pulled in. It was actually a little nicer than this one (sans the goofy sidecar).



Finally a 1951 Vincent pulled in. At the time I thought it might have been a Rapide but after a little more research I think it was actually a Black Shadow.



I'm not accustomed to my bike being the lamest vintage Brit bike up there. I could get used to it. I tried to talk Craig into riding the Gene Romero triple next week. In my opinion seeing that on the road would have trumped all the others.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

1965

I'm not sure this was supposed to be funny...

Grease Monkey

I'd consider putting a pillion pad on my bike if I could adopt one of these guys.

OCD

Flathead45 sent me a rag with a great Triumph Bonneville feature story. I proceeded to obsess over the fricken steering damper knob on the TT on the cover. Guess what happened? Unpolish, unpolish, unpolish. I should be committed.



I found a video of the same TT, now I'm ready to pull the pipe baffles out of mine too... Nevermind, my neighbors already hate my bike.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

TR6

I posted some build pix of this one previously but now it's finished. The bars work pretty well on this build. Still makes me want a set of Firestone Deluxe Champs for my bike. My back tire is wearing pretty quickly...

RIP Buell

Bummer. It's really refreshing to see a guy that cares this much about the legacy of his company though.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Pre-Unit

I've been lusting after the Pre-Units lately. This one has the rare optional braking system developed by Dr. Frankenstein during his brief stint at the Meriden factory.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Twinline Motorcycles

Any of the Seattle Syndicate been by this place? Looks sorta cool. Might be worth a look if only for a t-shirt.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

More Craig Stuff

I was digging a little more on some of the stuff I saw at Craig's today. Craig built an exact replica of Gene Romero's Trident race bike. Gene both raced and signed the replica at one of the Sandia Classic races. The bike is just killer, 1000cc (Tridents are 750's stock). Craziest thing... it's street legal. Craig's bike does not have the headlights pictured below but instead has a number plate painted over mesh. There are tiny spots hidden behind the mesh. I would love to hear the thing run. Hopped up Tridents sound absolutely wicked if you've never heard one.

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.




Friday, October 9, 2009

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

Thursday, October 8, 2009

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...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

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.

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