Another One Bites The Dust

I noticed my buddy Jeff's (Duke City Rockers) Triumph on Craigslist today. Times are tough. Bummer...

European Union

One of my co-workers took some very cool pictures of my old girl and his Beemer hanging out today. He's a Jaco Pastorius fan too... seriously, how cool can a guy be?

Madrid

Norton Mike, Justin & I made the run to Coffee at Dawn and then out the Madrid today. The weather was pretty killer and the Triumph ran like a top, probably cruising 75 MPH a good portion of the time. The roads out there are rough... I looked the bike over good for anything broken or loose after I got home. Good time though.



Ironically Justin's tail light (an original '32 Ford) was jettisoned when he arrived back in ABQ. Unbelievable he circled back and found it with only some slight enhancements to it's already fine patina. I'm betting a Chinese repop would not have faired quite so well. Probably not the first 30's Ford tail light to rattle loose on that road.

"New" Norton

40 years old and still in the packing... Unbelievable. Belgian auction site

JJ Triumph

Those baffles are crazy cool, I've never seen anything like 'em. I wonder if he made 'em. Nice bike.

Bad News

Update

I got my new floats installed and finally have the level set right, the old floats were WAY off. I took a wild assed guess on the main jet size required for the velocity stacks (skipped from 190's to 210's) and I think I nailed. It seems to be running really well. It's much easier to start but I expected that. Tires are different but I like 'em so far. I will probably try to make CAD in the morning.

Tires

I got the Deluxe Champs mounted today. Sorry for the crap pictures. Super hectic day today and the weather has sucked (snow & rain). I haven't even ridden 'em yet.

Happy St Patrick's Day

According to folklore motorcycles painted green are bad luck but no one seems to give a consistent reason why. Some say the olive drab Harleys used by couriers in World War II were often sitting duck targets and the association stuck. I've also heard that in the early days of flattrack HD's were frequently being dominated by Triumphs, many of which were British racing green. I think HD's team racing color has green for a while so I'm not sure I buy that one. Let me know if you have any other back story.

I'm sure you'll be fine painting your bike green as long as you run a gremlin bell...

Bultaco

How fricken cool is this image?

Triumph Photography

Reliable sources say a couple of people that regularly read this blog are photographers. This pretty much blew me away.

Firestone Man?

Move over Michelin Man. Got the tires as expected today. Looks like V is gonna employ his super Dizzy Gillespie abilities to mount them. I'm assuming that's the front... looks BIG.

Herd

Owl Cafe To Harla May's

Rode with Justin from the Owl Cafe in Abq to Harla May's in Belen today. We stopped and hung out at Moto Authority for a while on the way home. Bike ran well and it was a pretty good time.

Stacks & Filters

Of course I'm gonna have to re-jet it and I'm still waiting on main jets & floats (from Amal in the UK no less). I do think the stacks and filters are actually gonna work though. The rest of the parts and my tires are due in while I'm in San Fran. It's gonna be a long week.

Manny

I've always thought Manny was kind of an ass kiss but after tonight I'll be keeping closer tabs on him.

Original 'Captain America'

Cool post over at the Vintagent today.

Parts

...are slowly coming in. One delivery down, four to go.

Tires

Blew some tax return money on tires tonight. Hope I made the right choice...

Burnout Pit

IMO the burnout pit is easily the stupidest manifestation of bike abuse I can think of. Surely it only exists so show organizers can sell replacement tires to gullible morons. I'll reluctantly admit I've seen a few bikes abused over the years in novel ways that involved some unique level of skill and occasionally found myself somewhat entertained or impressed. No skill involved here, just stupid.

This poor sap burned his Panhead to the ground in Daytona last week. Maybe a few doo-rag sporting dentists will see it, take the hint and just stop.

More Daytona

Lot's of cool photos from Daytona making the rounds today. Here's one from Matt Olsen's blog taken by Speed King Photo. Pretty sure I'll be getting this bike for my birthday.

Jameville '37 U

Lifted from the Jameville blog in Copenhagen. I think I'd actually prefer this bike with 18" wheels but they do build some really cool stuff.

Ride For The Cure

Joey convinced me to go on PJ Triumph's "Ride for the Cure" today (and it's her birthday, is my wife cool or what?). I ended up meeting a guy named Justin with a pretty cool Triumph cafe. It's hard to tell from this photo but some of his fabrication is very sweet. He's also working on a model A truck hot rod too which judging from his bike should be pretty bitchin'. Seems like a cool guy. Unfortunately there were not really any other old bikes there to speak of.

Silver '70 Bobber

Parts!

I had an in-laws sponsored birthday parts shopping spree this morning. Woo hoo! I'll take two of everything.

37 Knuck

I've kinda been following the build thread for this '37 Knuck on JJ.The builder just posted a picture of the motor. Total bike pr0n.

Black Bobber

Found this one while screwing around on the Interwebs. Like it.

Life Celebrates Daytona

Too cool, gotta check this out.

Broked 2.0

Not to be outdone by Flathead45's mad bracket fabrication skills (siblings are competitive), I had to break something so I could show off my own skills. Ever wonder if you were diligently replicating every detail of a part someone else made in their garage and that's why it failed? It doesn't seem like that Sparx/Zenier heat sink weighs all that much. Whatever, I'm ready to ride again and missed a day of incredible weather today.