Philly trolley - i like trains too.

When the city of Philly was having a hard time financing the building of new cars on it's relaunch of the 15 line ("Girard Avenue trolley"), some genius came up with the idea "Let's just Hot Rod the old ones!"

So they took some shells of old 1940's era PCC trolleys, did some blasting and sanding, cutting and shutting.

Painting, pimping, retro-fitting.

They ended up with the sweetest Public Transpo hack of the last decade: The rebirth of the old school Philly trolley car - complete with modern newfangled air conditioning.



The Broad Street subway and Frankford Ave "El" gets you to Girard Ave on the north side of town.

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Recession... what recession?

The results for the recent Mid America motorcycle auction in Las Vegas are interesting.

Some people couldn't bear to part with their precious at any price.

But someone snagged a late 70s XR750 for a cool $17K, and there was plenty of under-$8K semi-old iron that moved, so not all the reserve prices were up in the stratosphere.

Seeing what DIDN'T meet reserve, that gorgeous Harley Peashooter that sold for $25.5K seems like a steal.

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a tough tracker for foppish fancy lads

This Deus tracker with a surfboard rack (???!!).

I guess riding a badass tracker isn't enough cred. You gotta be headed for the beach to get in some surfing too. If that ain't enough, you can grow a full beard and smoke unfiltered Camels... start dating Supermodels. Whatever it takes.

Yeah, I'd lose the surfboard rack. The rest is about as simple and perfect as you get.

Spotted at Smith+Butler, a Brooklyn "biker chic" store for refined and dandy gentleman in Boerum Hill. Or is that Cobble Hill?

errr... Carroll Gardens?

I dunno. Somewhere above my pay grade is all I know. Check it out if you got the scratch.

and now for some very non-foppish, non-dandy action. The real deal:

click above pix to see the vids

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Works Engineering / Brand X 2009 motorcycle picture gallery

The spread of machinery at the 14th street vintage bike block party in Greenpoint was pretty f*ckin epic.

Just so's you know - Brooklyn rules.

Dig the iron:


click for big picture gallery

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funky good supercharged motorcycle

otto nero posted this beauty:

A nicely crafted cafe racer - Jawa single mated to a separate gearbox and supercharged too.

What I found particularly appealing is the single-sided swingarm with what looks to be a drum brake with a hydraulic line going into it. Crazy cool.

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iron fist. velvet glove.

click for more pictures
One fine looking RD350 and one tough mother of a T500.
(The Cafe Racer Magazine booth - the last of my pictures from the Javits Center last week.)

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the blower, man!

click for more pictures (and a Road Test video!)
"Look at the blower! She's meanness put to music, and the bitch is born to run."

I can not believe I have never heard of these cats before today. TTS Performance in the UK specialize in integrating Rotrex centrifugal superchargers with cars and motorcycles. Belt-driven superchargers: forced induction just the way god meant it to be.

They have kits. For motorcycles. Supercharger kits.

They cost anywhere from £2,000 to £5,000 for a complete kit. There are kits for the Triumph Speed Triple and Rocket-3, BMW 1150, various Jap 4-bangers and Harley-Buells.

Centrifugal blowers allegedly have a very smooth power delivery. Though I don't know how smooth 200 horsepower can ever feel as it runs through the one little tire patch of a motorbike. Clearly, further investigation is warranted.

Someone... get one of these. Now.

Go for it. What are you? Chicken?

• TTS has more info HERE and HERE.
• Z1000 ride report at 2 Wheel Forum.
• TES Performance GSX1400 Streetfighter picture gallery.
• and a PDF article of the same GSX1400 from Streetfighters Magazine.

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triplet smoker fetish

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There ain't nothing like a triple with castor bean oil in it's DNA.

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