Have a great 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And a massive thank you to everyone who's read my garbage over the last year, your support is really appreciated. Thanks too to my fellow bloggers for all the work you put in.
Keep on keepin' on!

Hard as nails

Shapely jap cafe with a wicked blend of menace and fine engineering.

Damn STRAIGHT

Yet another mind-blowingly nice xl custom. I'd love to know more about this one- it's a subtler look than some similar, but all the better for that. Lovin' the seat, fender, skinny tank and those tracker bars- nothin' you ain't seen before, but when it's done this right...

was santa good to you?

Thanks to my top bird of a missus for a year's sub to 'iron horse' mag- must be Californian cos she ordered it in November and it's not being sent out til Jan!- and my mate Bry who knows I have an (un)healthy obsession with 1% clubs,so give me this top book (highly recommended by the way, I've already done 300 pages!)

old skool...

old skool 'fighter that is- ZRX goodness ideal for going fast and looking cool. Even better with a coupla inches 'up the swinger' ooh er.


Jeez, if I eat any more chocolate/dinner/cake/lager I will burst. Such is my natural state of being. Beats workin'.

Merry Xmas one and all

Here's a proper 'HAPPY XMAS' - have a great holiday everyone, and may your 2011 be a great one.

Feast yer MINCE PIES on these

Oh yes, I said YULE love it- here's a pair of crackin' digger style CB750s, one the famous Pink Taco (what could he possibly mean?), both (I believe) belonging to upholsterer extraordinaire Duane Ballard. This is REALLY how they did it back in the early 70s.

Random fighter fun

a little tasty Italian exotica for ya with a late Duke, and a mind-poppin' CBX Honda 6 pot. That's wot ya call a proper motor.

Check back tomorrow for a xmas cracker, yule love it

Brit chopper

...is one of the newer UK mags. I don't know much about them, but their forum is EXCELLENT, and Twizzle is a regular on it!

I found issue 1 at 'the magazine man', so (you better sit down for this):- I SHELLED OUT for a copy.

Man, I hate spending out (other than co-op czech lager).

stretched swingarm fighter bling

Get on, shut up and hang on fer your life! Pair of badass 'busa fighters for ya.

Ghostrider

I have a print of this famous pic somewhere. That's OK. I still have 'The David Mann Bike' episode of American Chopper on my Sky +...that is deffo NOT OK! I guess we're all allowed the occasional guilty pleasure.

Everyone loves Mann's stuff, he was an absolute legend, and his work captures so much that words alone can't say. 'If I had to explain' and all that.

s-w-e-e-t cafe

Hmm, late model 750 methinks. All honda manx-style bikes should have that long skinny cafe tank (and ideally an inline 6 motor!)- this one looks beltin' thanks to the aforemantioned tank/seat combo, plus those to-die-for spoked rims. Daddy likes. Not the crumby 4:1, but still a great bike.

walkin' the walk #2

Following from the shots the other day- my 75 Honda 750 hardtail, 2002. Note new seatmount, frisco'd tank(ok, you can't see that), new fender struts, dogbones, dyna coils, pod filters, tyres, and loads of other bits. Last incarnation- of which i can't find a pic- featured a tiny battery box(kick only), twin mikuni vm34 carbs on custom manifolds(cycle-x), and Mac 4:4 drags. Looked great, never ran too good- smoked a lot despite a rebore etc.

That's enuff past glories- I sure hope to bring pix of a fresh project before too long. If you think I'm a BS merchant, yeh I am, but I'm also doing a law degree alongside my fulltime job as a paramedic, with 2 young kids it doesn't leave a lot of time for building chops at the moment. That's my excuse anyhow.

Regrets- I've had a few

Not really, just a line from a song- more like, 'crap bikes- i've had more than a few'. Well near the top of the list was a brand-new off-the-floor Lloyds bank-loaned '99 yam XT600E. Man, that thing was B-O-R-I-N-G. I was under the impression I really was gonna ride across the Sahara, go to India overland on it, furthest I ever made was Cornwall for the Eclipse (not a bad run as it goes, but that's another story).

Enough of my rambling- this XT looks like a whole lot more fun than my one with its 28 bhp. Not the best cafe racer in the world, still cool. Get outta that truck!

Radio rental

Totally loopy BSA(A10???) version of Two Bad. I can only imagine it's some kind of ageing sprinter/drag bike, I seem to remember twin-engined dragbikes were still racing in the early-mid 1980s, otherwise maybe it's just for show. Looks too dirty for that. Whatever, ain't it cool?

walkin' the walk..

Yes, I do talk a lot- so here's a couple of shots to show you lot I have actually owned, built and run an old bike. My 750/4 honda SOHC, roughly 1975 model, the middle pink one is how I got it, the other 2 shots are after it received a lot of $$$ and TLC. I got it in '96, and rebuilt it a couple of times over the next 10 years, got rid of it xmas 2005.

If you've seen it already, apologies, I just thought I'd post something of mine that's not stolen off the net.

Pork chop!

Pork chops- sideburns? Geddit? Tenuous link at best. Nuff said.

Everyone knows in blogworld we all love old triumphs, Indians, pans, shovels etc etc...but I really like modern practical bikes with character too. And Hinckley bonnies are a decent example of what I'm on about. Given the flat track treatment they look especially nice- check this one, I believe it may have been a Sideburn mag project, or maybe just a bike they dig.

Another fine XL

Every time I see a bike like this I wanna tear mine apart...I can't get over how this style looks just SO right from every angle. Skinny tank, window bars, repop firestones, tokyo flipped rear 'guard, one-off zorst...gimme gimme gimme.

something about #2

As you can tell, among the scores of bike marques I have a 'thing' for, guzzis are right up there. You may have seen I posted a couple of crackers the other day- here's another, which the builder's got absolutely bang-on.

He's nailled the mix of retro and modern which is never easy, and the bike maintains a whole load of cafe class. Take a moment to check the lines of the bodywork- how the manx-style fairing blends with the lower aspect of the tank, finished off with a mini 'hump' seat that keeps everything in proportion. I'm no expert on Guzzis (or anything really), but those wheels have a real 80s look to me; the lump, however, looks bang up to date, the squarer covers give it away. Black and gold is a classic for this ride, just like a 10-pack of John Player Special.

YOSHI

Stumbled across this while looking for some streetfighter type stuff- yoshi'd up GSXR.


I've been looking through some old bike mags from the early 1990s, reminiscing a little I guess, and it struck me that things were a whole lot less fragmented back then. I mean, nothing changes, and rallies/drag racing/bike shows are much as they were then. But open a mag now, and chances are the range of material is gonna be pretty narrow in terms of subject matter. Back then, BSH/AwoL and Custom Bike all had a real variety of bikes- you'd see a beezer cafe next to a vmax next to a car trike; all of which sounds somewhat lurid, but you get my drift. What I'm trying to get across is that I really like that kind of variety, and it's part of my mission with the blog. Not to recreate the bike press from 20 years ago, but bring you a range of diverse machines without straying too far from the remit.

Feedback and suggestions always welcome.

something about...

guzzis...quintessential Italian cafe material.

remember the nightrider

when you look at the night sky



mad max on a dodgy vhs? daft american voiceover(why?) watched daily at an impressionable age? guilty m'lud. I know all the quotes. And kundalini wants his arm back.

come on you irons

What's even nicer than a crazyorange evo sporty bobber-style stock framed custom (talk about pigeon-holing!)? Give up? I'll tell ya- an ironhead one. Yes it looks a bit 'wrong' but that's kinda the appeal. That retro pearl-red flameout finishes it off really nice, as do all the usual details. Lovin' that banana seat too. Never did the poor man's shovel look so fine, well maybe it did, but this is pretty fine too.

Orient excess

I'd like to see this mag- tho' my Japanese ain't all that ( I can click 'follow this site' on blogger, does that count?)

Stolen from crazyorange.com. Get on over there and waste sum time in a most enjoyable way.

with evo spo

see his blog. see his bike. i bleedin' love all things japanese. the style, the culture, the way they can make a stock sportster kooler than the hypothermia ward in a eskimo hospital.

Love muscle

muscles CARS, potty mouth! Yeh I do, love muscle cars that is, every other blog on the planet has rusted-out joke rods, so I figured I'd do an occasional series of Detroit's finest amongst all the bikes, just for a change. I like em all, but '67-69 Camaros get the nod every time, even better with a 6-71 Weiand pokin' out the hood- and if you're wondering about my choice of word, there is absolutely no way a car like this EVER has a 'bonnet'!


Well, snow's gone for a day or two...I was at work yesterday and did a wicked 180 spin on a icy backroad, well it was 90 one way, then 90 the other, can laugh now, but would have been well embarassing had anything been parked in the vicinity. Phew!

2-4-trawler

How's this for shovel love, people? 4-speed frames could almost be 'the new hardtail', huh? There's definitely something about this style of HD tho'. The lines of that stock shovel chassis are just badass, and look even better given the skinny seat-n-coker treatment.

Damn, and I thought I was going to try and get away from the bobber craze- stick with the programme, man, remember the steps...

More jap chops, caffs and maybe even some quarter-scorching dragbikes comin' soon.

B4 DicE and GK...

was BSH and AwoL, Street Chopper across the pond and god only knows what else... and can't forget Iron Horse...but this was surely one of the 1st. Ed Roth's work, pls correct me if I'm wrong.

proper iron

proper iron- or even ravin' iron for you cockneys (or mockneys)...whatever minger, cos this is a neat-o iron cafe, seat unit is well cool, as are obligatory clip-ons and (?plastic?) caff tank, plus a good old ironhead sporty motor nestled between those skinny factory framerails.

For a minute there, I thought this dude had finished off this sublime ride with a set of heat-wrapped cheapo chopper drag pipes, then I saw he really had- surely he's havin' a giraffe? WTF, cheap SOBs like me should learn to be less picky, it's a killer bike and I love it.

BEASTLY!

Proper beastly, powered by a ridiculous 2-litre evo-style lump, is 'el bruto', one of choppershack's recent WCC-influenced choppaz. I bet this one goes a bit.

DUCATISTI

from caferacer.com. Bellissimo!

excess 650 all areas #2

Here ya go-bobber style 650 chop, fantastic look without breaking da bank. Lovin' the green and the grey colour combo, and some neat touches on the engineering front make this a winner all the way.

38 special

Bonus pic today.

Swede-style

SOOOO nice trump cafe. cleaner than a cat's bum. Note use of metzelers- and why not, it's meant to go round corners fast, innit?

Look again...

If ya saw this blastin' past, you could almost be forgiven for thinking it really was that most mythical of sportster-relatives, the XLCR1000- sadly it's pretty much just a lookalike, albeit a very nicely-executed one. This kit was made by classy French outfit Mecatwin until recently, it looks like they concentrate mostly on new Triumphs now. If you like this look and are on a budget, have a google of 'airtech fibreglass', you may well be pleasantly surprised.

WTF is a WORMBURNER???

Indeed you might ask- in this case, it's the slightly dodgy name a new frame builder ['Hard Up Choppers'] have come up with for their generic bandit/GSXR frame kit. £495 all in, sounds like an absolute steal to me, and by the looks of things, it's a quality piece of kit too. I was hoping to do a chop next year, but full-time college (ie low bread) and a dead car may well put paid to that bright idea. So normal service is resumed- dreamin' on', daydreamer.

What would I do? Score a cheapo bandit 1200, sling it together. Add Hinckley triumph spoked rims at a later date, maybe something a little taller than 17'' on the front. Stainless 4-1 when bread allows. Milled Slabs, solo seat on pushbike shox, mid-controls, pod filters, rattle can til I can spend more on paint. I'm doing it again...is there Daydreamers Anonymous?

ENUFF ALREADY/any followers please note

Enough choppershack/Phil Piper chops that is; but as a swansong, here's a coupla fine shovels,both of which were absolutely state of the art when they were put together round the early 90s.

Vida MOTO will be a little quiet for the next few days as I'm back on nights, but I'll try and put up some candy. In the meantime, keep da shineysideup!

And a further note- on my 1st post for this blog, I said this was gonna be 'all about bikes', with no other nonsense. Which is all well and good...except I've noticed the content has been a little 'dry' (that means kinda dull), so I guess I'll try and include some different stuff. [I've just saved a week's worth of posts which are ALL bike pix, so don't hold yer breath!]

edit- for anyone who's taken the time to click the 'follow' button- thanks for your support, as a measure of my appreciation I've amended my follow list to include all of your blogs. I do try and read any updates you do- of course we can't all keep up with everything, but I figure we all have to try and support one another as best we can. Keep up the good work- if it weren't for this stuff, I might have to actually buy a bike mag!