Wes

Ran into a guy named Wes with a pretty sweet '70 TR6R at the gas station just down the street tonight. Amazing how many cool bikes there are hanging out in any given neighborhood.

Leaf

Wow, I don't know about that fender leaf... JK

Triumph

Lifted from Blue Collar Moto. Pretty cool. Gotta love them shouldered rims.

Speedo

CB550F

CRM250

Lifted from Pipeburn. Started life as a 2001 CR250. I bet it's quick!

Cannonball Finish

Very nice writeup on the Cannonball finish over at the Vintagent. I might have a little bit of a crush on Katrin after reading about her requirement to bump start the JAP at every single stop. No wonder it looked so f-ing effortless at the hotel... lots of practice.

Time To Kill

Have you ever spent an absolutely absurd amount of time making something?

I had gotten really tired of buying 1157 bulbs by the metric ton. LED bulbs a tricky to deal with with positive ground vehicles. My half-assed method for mounting my taillight bulb is a huge part of the problem anyway. How hard could it be to make a purpose-built, positive ground taillight assembly? $40 in parts and maybe $1200 in labor and this is what you eventually get. Flathead45 may never come home again. Sorry bro...

Motorcycle Cannonball

Flathead45 flew down from Seattle to intercept the event. We were amazed how cool everyone we chatted with was despite lots of visible exhaustion and the prevalent mechanical open heart surgery being performed in the parking lot. We brought my 5 year old along who is a monster gearhead. He had a great time getting lots of attention and swag, most of which Dad & Uncle where left saying "But I want one too..." Awesome event. I do wish Albuquerque had shown the riders a little more hospitality. Very little fanfare considering this will almost certainly be the Albuquerque motorcycle event of the decade.



1911 Indian boardtrack racer. This bike is rad. Sean (the rider) was without question having more fun than anyone else. The monster rain the morning they where leaving was a major concern for everyone. Sean was overhead rattling "mag in a bag, bag in a bag" referring to his impromptu magneto weather proofing.





This is a local Albuquerque BSA there to watch.





I'm torn between this one and the Indian above as a favorite. 1907 250cc JAP. A German woman was riding it.



This bike is one of the most amazing stories of the event.



Even the sag wagon's were ridiculously cool





This Flying Merkel's engine was completely in pieces when we first rolled in.



V's favorite, thanks for the museum swag. Not convinced this event is tough?





Vince Martinico’s Pope, the mystery machine (it’s a mystery why the thing keeps running), is going strong in spite of the fact that it is held together by bailing wire, duct tape, and bubble gum. An absolutely amazing motorcycle.



Shinya's Indian. He had a long night in Albuquerque.



Jeff Decker trying my Triumph on for size. Jeff: "I don't know that much about Triumphs but I have this JoMo 100R..." Me: "Yep, I've enviously studied pictures of it." He was frantically wrenching on his bike so we really appreciated him taking the time to hang out.

1937 Show

Lifted from "The Haints Co-Op."

Matt Olsen Out of Cannonball

Matt Olsen crashed out on stage 5 of the Motorcycle Cannonball. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Matt.

Cycling

The photo from the link referenced below in the comment by Vorhese:



I spent a HUGE portion of my life on BMX bikes and used to take pretty serious pride in the stuff I could pull off. That said, that's just crazy!

Carnage

Damn. I broke the same oil tank mounting bolt I broke back in 12/2010 again. I'm getting pretty good at extracting those things now. Note to self, no more offroad hare scrambles or catching air on 'Liv. Found stainless hardware this time. If that does hold I may just have to attempt to weld it or something. Remember, all good mounts should be triangulated.

Last ride took a pretty healthy toll.

First Annual(?) 9/11 Ride

Today was Tommy's B-day and he planned a marathon ride. Almost all two-lane. Amazing views. About 11 hours in total. The two guys with modern bikes quit about 1/3 of the way in. Relatively few mechanicals give three 40+ year old bikes were involved and no sag wagon safety net. Rode about 10 miles of dirt "Jeep" road. Grueling stuff on a rigid. My bike was almost unrecognizable in the end. Might post more later and hopefully some pictures. Wiped.


View Larger Map

Day 2

This Matt Olsen post gives you a good idea of what day 1 was like for at least one guy.

HD 59

Austin Speed Shop

Sometimes you forget just how cool Jesse James is. This is the business that affords him a little anonymity and I suspect allows him to build something cool once in a while. Video was made by students from the University of Austin

Cannonball

Shinya posted a number of new Cannonball photos today. I can't F-ing wait!

JT

I remember staring at this page for hours thinking "I want one of everything." Alright Neil, how many of these guys can you name?



Sorry Marty. I'm afraid the days of pot-bellied champions are forever behind us, even if they are as talented as you where...

Vincent

This photo from the Falcon Motorcycles blog is just about too weird for words.

Duck

Keira Knightley on a Ducati. Sorry, I know it's a little lame but...



Ironically I always match my cat suit to my bike when I'm towed to simulate riding too.

Salt Ghost

OK, I know I've posted a lot of pictures of this bike already. Jon Glover took some amazing photos of the bike at Bonneville this year. There's some entertaining discussion about the bike going on over at JJ too.

Bonneville seems like the only remaining motor-sport largely devoid of huge commercial ties. I can't get over how cool that is and wonder how much longer it can possibly last. I kinda feel like I have to get there to see it soon before it's all destroyed by the Discovery Channel, Red Bull or Calais.

Cutdown & Bob Job

C@D Report

Justin, Tommy "Too Late" and I made the trek today. Tommy took the Norton. Justin took some cool "from the saddle" shots along the way. There were more bikes than I expected this morning, holiday weekends are usually kinda spare. Very few vintage bikes. The people there were clearly bound actual rides.



This 1959 BSA Goldstar was there. I was pretty psyched to see it as I've passed it going the opposite in the East mountains a couple of times before. Goldstars are relatively rare and somewhat race specific. They were riginally fitted with Amal GP's etc.



A handful of guys asked us to ride along with them up to Sandia Peak. Beautiful day up there. Unfortunately we saw a couple of guys (not in our group) that appeared to have gone down along the way. Justin was kinda running from the group despite riding a 40 year old bike with Chinese tires.



I should have gotten a pic of the shirt Justin was wearing today. Says "Real hotrods don't have valve covers" on the front. The back just says "Flatheads Forever" in black on black. Very cool.