Saturday, January 31, 2009

simple winter project

OR IS IT?

The (lack of) braking power on my 70's vintage Suzuki GT550 scares me. I could get all obsessive and trick - swap the entire front end with something modern, but I'm lazy. The easiest, cheapest way to add stopping power: add a second caliper and rotor on the left side from another model of the same period.

A used GT750 caliper (and rotor) from eBay. Clean and mount it up. Will it go smooth, or turn into a total pig-fuck? Stay tuned.


click for larger view

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Monday, January 26, 2009

modern caveman paintings


click for more pictures

cheesy Photoshop mashups of pix scabbed off the Interwebs is good snow-day fun.

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Sunday, January 25, 2009

wow

On Southsiders MC' blog HERE,
something wonderful, old and good.

continue reading wow...

Saturday, January 24, 2009

AWESOME Flickr Photoset

vintage motorcycles at auction
Click for Slide Show

El Caganer's "Las Vegas Antique Motorcycle Auction" Photoset on Flickr. Super good.

Open Thumbnail Page in a new tab/window.
View Slideshow in a new tab/window.

El Caganer's other Motorcycle-related photo Collections.

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Friday, January 23, 2009

iron fist. velvet glove.

cafe racer motorcycles
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.)

continue reading iron fist. velvet glove....

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Ride Free

the new rollie free
The Reincarnation of Rollie Free

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Snow motorcycles

Waiting for spring, looking out the window at the snow. What I need is a SNOW-BIKE.
snow runner motorcycle
Out of China, the Snow Runner (pictured above). Probably not in North America yet.

An American company in Idaho, 2Moto, manufactures bolt-on kits for your dirtbike they call the Radix. As proof of its strength (and their own insanity) they mounted one on a turbocharged 650 Husaberg. Nice.

The concept goes back to the late 70s with the Chrysler Snorunner.

There's also the ready-to-run Snow Hawk, available in adult and child sizes.

And there's the Explorer track kit from AD Boivin Mfg.

NONE of them in my front yard. All I got is snow.

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non ass-ey chinese motorcycles

Foraging through the bountiful treasure trove known as the Global Interwebs, I found some chinese bikes that don't look like ass.
good looking chinese motorcyclesThis tough-looking beast from Hi Bird tops the list. A 250cc Dual Sport pumping out 30hp. A bit porky at 300 pounds, maybe due to the weight of an electric starter. But the 5 gallon plastic fuel tank is the deal breaker - that will never pass DOT regs.

(more bikes below)   --- Click the pix to see larger images ---

What's this? A blatant rip-off of the Sachs MadAss perhaps? Except with rims, handlebars and USD forks all pimped out in gold. It's a ghetto fantasy moped from some factory in China.

Everyone (as in every Japanese company) is fielding a 250cc Supermoto this year. Of course the Chinese will respond to any dominant trend. This particular one comes in a horny color scheme and a Space Age name to boot: the Apollo Orion Supermoto... available sometime, somewhere, somehow, or maybe not.

New sporting single... or vaporware? 500cc, 50 hp, 370 lb, EPA and CARB certified. The picture looks good. Yeah, i like the picture. Does it exist?

Motorcycle or Scooter? This stylish red thing appears to be a motorcycle. The shape is motorcycle-ey. A CVT automatic tranny, 300cc motor and 90 MPH top speed look promising. But WhatTHUHhellIZzit? It's sort of a mystery.

Side-valve boxer motors and drum brakes. What is old is new again.
I REALLY love these 45 inch (like that? I called 'em 45 inchers) knock offs of decades-old designs. Take your pick - with or without side hack.

Will these become available in the U.S.? Will dealer networks supporting chinese imports grow here? Will our current recession/depression kill, help or hurt the chinese bike market? Which brands (factories) will begin to gain a reputation for quality and reliability, if any?

Is China the Sleeping Giant of the motor vehicle industry as some claim?

I guess we wait and see.

continue reading non ass-ey chinese motorcycles...

Monday, January 19, 2009

cute dainty little turbo bikes

small displacement turbocharged motorcycles
Who is Yuji Ochiai?

Apparently he's some dude in Tokyo who builds turbo bikes.

Not your average Euro-American style mega bikes. In Japan 400cc 4-cylinder and 250cc twins must be more common because his company Metal Speed Inc appears to have turned a bunch of them into forced induction mini hyper bikes.

Poke around his site a bit and you'll find a Kawasaki 1100 twin turbo beastie.

Crazy.

As Yuji so succinctly puts it: "Turbo is NO.1!"

Damn right, baby.

continue reading cute dainty little turbo bikes...

Got Mid-life-crisis?

2009 yamaha vmax
click for more pictures

Well then. This will cure your ills when a suitcase full of Viagra and Roofies fall short. The 2009 V-Max.

Even guys like me, who aren't into the whole "Boulevard Cruiser" muscle-bike thing, give a nod of respect to the balls-out insanity of such machines.

210 horsepower? TWO-hundred-ten... HOLYJEEZZUZGAWD!

Thank you Yanaha. I'm sure your attorneys are NOT pleased.

Yeah, I can picture myself aboard a V-Max with a broadsword slung on my back... wandering the post apocalypse urban wastelands - foraging for food and slaying vampire-zombies in my spare time.

What? It could happen.

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what gear am i in?

motorcycle gear indicator
click for more pictures


Back in the day when I was a wee lad still shooting blanks I rode a dinky little 60cc Yamaha JT1. It had a "4 down" shift pattern with the neutral at the end. Sometimes when cutting fast through a tight turn, I'd downshift at the apex and goose the throttle only to be greeted with the engine freewheeling and screaming in neutral. Being leaned over for the turn, the bike would swiftly thud sideways down onto the dirt. Oops.

In the early 70s, Suzuki started putting high tech red LED gear indicators on their street bikes. They used a rotary switch attached to the end of the shift drum

Nowadays gear indicators require microchips and sophisticated algorithms to calculate what gear you're in based on "gear position signals" or road speed/engine speed calculations. This is what is known as "progress" - you need a tiny thumb-sized computer to figure out what a 50-cent switch used to do.

In any case. They are certainly a lot brighter than the hair-thin 7-segment LED display on my old GT550 smoker.

Various models from various manufacturers for various bikes. don't be an assclown and get the wrong one.

The Gipro unit has some "Timing Retard Eliminator" feature that is supposed to make certain bikes run better.

continue reading what gear am i in?...