Nice Bike, but what is it?

Looks nice to me, but what make do you think it is, take a minute before you click on the title to think what it is.

Old Adverts

Just can't help myself, more BSA unit twin "stuff".

Franks Pick up

The finished truck, and below how it started off







As a follow on from the nice pics of Franks Chevy pick up Larry has sent in some before pics as promised. Hes certainly done a great job of it!
Click on title to go to the original post.

Mechanical Bike Art

What do these two bikes have in common? Well the were built by Dieter Hartmann-Wirthwein. I don't know much about him other than he had a motorcycle accident in 2002 which left him paralyzed from the waist down, but that hasn't stopped him producing these engine conversions. The four cylinder Monkey Bike took about a year to build, starting early 07. If you click on the title it'll take you to the web site, then go to videos and listen to the small 125/4 engine, sounds great, nearly as good as a big Kawa... As far as I know the V8 Ducati is nearly finished, should sound nice.

Pic below shows the layout of the V8, there is a video of how it works on their web site.

Friday Bike

In the mid 80s SuperBike magazine ran a contest for their reader to designed the bodywork for a Tony Foale designed motorcycle, the Quantum 2 (Q2). The winning bodywork design would be used for the bike. I think the style that won was fantastic. As you can see with Dans Q2 above, it looks just right. If you want more info go to the Tony Foale site, click on articles and you will find a fair bit of info on the Q2.

I am not sure how many were built or have survived and that's a question Dan is trying to find out, if you know of any leave a message on Dans site, click title to go to his blog.

http://www.tonyfoale.com/

Race Retro 2011

I got this email from the ACE Cafe, you can too if you sign up with them, and it sounds like an interesting event, covering Classic cars and Motorcycles.
Wouldn't mind going myself but theres bikes to get ready for the Scottish Bike Show in March...

Race Retro 2011 - Ace Cafe London & Coventry Transport Museum

The iconic Ace Cafe London returns to Race Retro 2011 with a bang when the three day historic motorsport event returns to Stoneleigh Park from 25-27 February as the sponsor of the new "Fire Up Paddock". Classic cafe and road racing bikes will be brought back to life giving visitors the opportunity to hear the motorcycles, as well as see them in all their glory, to include some unique Italian legends raced by esteemed guests such as Giacomo Agostini.


Joining the Ace stand in Hall 3 at Race Retro along with Mick Duckworth, author of the soon to be available seminal book "Ace Times", is Coventry Transport Museum. The two world famous transport attractions, are working together to produce an historic exhibition entitlted "Coming of Age at the Ace Cafe", telling the story of the Ace and the era, opening at the Coventry Transport Museum on Friday 3rd June and running to Sunday 3rd October 2011. More info clive.skelhon@transport-museum.co.uk

Included in the line up of machines on the Ace stand is the Ace 904S Thruxton Special, built by T3 Racing in conjunction with Ace Cafe London's Stonebridge Motor Company. This stunning bike brings together the timeless lines of the classic British motorcycle with state-of-the-art hi-tech and modern high performance.

Ace Cafe London will also be choosing the Best Cafe Racer in the concours competition at Race Retro as well as awarding prizes for Best Mod Scooter and Best 'Rockers' Bike, with all the finalists on display on Ace Cafe London's Mods and Rockers themed stand.

To enter a bike in the Cafe Racer concours, contact David Alderson on tel: 07770 626 173 or by email at david@livepromotions.co.uk for more details and an entry form. To enter a Scooter or Rockers Bike in the Ace concours, contact Darren Williams at Ace Cafe London on Tel: 020 8961 1000 or email: Darren@acecafeevents.com

www.transport-museum.co.uk
www.raceretro.com (click title to go there)

Old Advert

1975 Kawasaki Z1B 900 sales brochure (USA), one of the many in my collection of Zed "stuff"

Friday Bike

Heres one to get you thinking... what is it?

Blazer

Blazer from Daniel Crouch on Vimeo.

BSA Overload

I've been busy looking for some British Bike spares and just remembered about Burton Bike Spares, who have an interesting site, parts, a gallery (the pic below copied from there) and some info on the effects of ethanol on fiberglass fuel tanks.
Bodger they also do new Victor alloy tanks!
Click on title for link to their site.




I copied this from their site just incase you cant log on to it

"Ethanol in modern fuel
The addition of ethanol to modern fuels is now widespread across the globe. This is having a disastrous effect for many Classic motorbike, car and marine enthusiasts in part due to the use of fibreglass fuel tanks and also non ethanol resistant carb parts and other rubbers/plastics. Referred to as E5 (5% ethanol) or E10 (10% ethanol) etc. It is generally said in the fuel industry that 15% is the maximum percentage for use in non-modified vehicles.

In USA many states ethanol is a minimum of 5.9% by law, but some states use 10-15%. This is usually labelled at the pumps.

For Europe, from 1st April 2009 EU directives to decrease the proportion of automotive fuel derived from non-renewable resources were introduced. Many fuel retailers in the UK are selling up to 5% ethanol currently. A new 10% ethanol fuel will be on sale in 2011 which will apparently be labelled. Retailers do not currently label their standard unleaded with it's ethanol content as it could be anything up to 5% depending on the source. It is no longer just supermarkets who add ethanol!

In Australia a legislation limits ethanol content to 10% but pumps must be labelled.

Effect on Fibreglass Tanks
The first signs to look for is the carburettors starting to gunge up with a sticky yellow substance. This is caused by the resin in the fibreglass starting to melt away into the petrol.

You may then start to see the fuel tank bubble and blister before eventually springing a leak.

Effect on Steel/Alloy Tanks
Steel tanks can corrode much faster due to the ethanol attracting moisture

Steel/Alloy tanks coated with old fashioned sealants will also be affected as the ethanol will eat away at the sealant and drag it through the carbs in the same way.

What should I do if my tank has been attacked by Ethanol?
The first thing to do is drain the fuel from the tank as soon as you can. We would then recommend thoroughly washing the tank out with hot soapy water (fairy liquid is best) and then dry with a hair dryer or similar"


For all you BSA fans theres a bit of BSA overload on Kevs site http://backstreetthunder.wordpress.com/

Plus there are more pics of Franks Chevy pickup a few posts back

kawa

Spotted this Z1000 MK2 based special over on the Rocket Garage, see link down right hand side. When you first see it you think its only low bars and a seat, but look closer and you notice a lot of nice touches... it sounds good too!

Old Advert

Work of Art... I think anyway!

Just a Photo

Another pic from Larry, it looks like a 1947 Chevy pickup to me, maybe Larry can confirm that. Its a project one of his co-workers has just finished, looks great.

Larry's just got back to me to let me know the owner Frank says its a 51 model

Just had a few words from Frank about his pickup







"This is my '51 Chevy.It was sitting in a man's garden just rusting away. It has pretty much been completely restored. It has a 302 Chevy engine (Yes a 302) Chevy only made that engine in 1969 for the Z-28 Camaro. So it "scoots" quite nicely. Free-wheelin' Franklin SMSGT(ret) USAF"

Cars

I was looking through some pics from my trip to NZ in 08, I came across this pic of a very unusual three wheeler, the Davis, in the Southward Motor Museum in the south of the North Island.
It was built in the USA just after the Second World War by a company called Davis Motor Car Company in Van Nuys, California. Due to various problems total production of vehicles were only just into the twenties... click title for the story of this unusual Car


pic from the Davis Registry.



The Southward Museum has a web site and heres the link http://www.thecarmuseum.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=87 (copy and paste) Have a look in their Gallery, some nice vehicles!

Friday Bike

If I remember right this is a post War BMW R51, more info later

Just a Photo

I found the site these pics came from a few years ago, he does some great shots of bike engines. Daniel Peirce is a professional photographer specialising in motorcycles and cars. He works as the head of photography for Tucker Rocky and Biker’s Choice, two of the largest distributors of motorcycle parts, accessories and apparel in the USA. Daniel produces photography for their catalogues and magazine advertising.
His own web site Trick Photography is were you'll find more engine pics, click title as usual

Old Adverts

Another magazine advert, this time for Norton and as usual for the time a female was draped over one of their bikes, there was a whole series of them




Just seen this Norton advert and had to add it

Peoples Bikes

Larry sent in a pic of his latest run a round, a Kawasaki EX 250

Friday Bike

A nice late model Ducati Scrambler/ Euduro, not sure of engine size, 250/450??

A Summer Run

I wrote this last year after a great day out on my MZ Skorpion, I posted it on http://mzskorpion.info/phpbb2/index.php a forum for riders of MZ Skorpions.
Thought it would remind us what nice days out in the sun are like....


Went out for a run on the Skorp yesterday, first time in about a month. Started off heading for Stirling with on real plan and ended up going up behind the Ochil hills on the Sheriff muir road, a nice road with the odd passing place and great views North and South. The road comes out on the A9, so not wishing to use the rat race road to Perth I headed for Braco and on to Creiff, was nice to have the road to myself most of the way. After a quick stop in Creiff I headed east a bit to the Sma' Glen road, fantastic bit of road, didn't take any pics as I was enjoying it so much, not in loony mode but just making progress.
Next stop was in Kenmore at the East end of Loch Tay, I just had to have an ice cream, so sat down outside the shop, ate it and done a bit of people watching. Just watching all the cars go by with all the sour face occupants (probably wishing they were home watching the re runs of the "Soaps") made me glad I was out enjoying the roads on the bike...
Where to head next, along the north Loch Tay road or that single track road(?) they call a road up through Glen Lyon. Well the Sun was out and I was in no hurry so it was off up the Glen road, and a good choice it was, the scenery was brilliant.




A stop at the Post Office/ tearoom at Bridge of Balgie was on the cards before heading over the hill on the Benlawers road.






Through the Village of Killin, didn't stop, too many tourists, and my first fuel stop at Lix toll Garage (famous for Land Rovers), 100km and 5.5 litres not too bad.
On the way South towards Lochearnhead there is a nice snack van at Glen Ogil, I stopped in , not for food, but to see who was there. No one I knew but did get chatting to a couple of guys with Vincents, and a someone out on their Ariel for a cup of tea.




A fairly un eventful run from there down to Lochearnhead and on to Comrie, other than some power rangers trying to wipe each other out, **** heads. Going in to Comrie I notice two bikes in the car park, they belonged to a couple of my mates, so a quick stop was had. A few tales of the day were passed about and a bit of catching up. So the plan now was the three of us to head to Perth, down (up) through Glen Farg , onto and down the side of Loch Leven. While passing the gliding school I try to keep my eyes on the road and not watch the gliders while riding. A few more miles and we were at James house for a cuppa and a wee look in the shed... all in a good end to a great day out an about

Just a Photo

My Rickman Kawasaki on the road just north of the Cairn O Mount.


Anyone have a pic of their bike they want to send in?? send it to the email address, top right.