"Achuma"

This bike is so beautiful that I had to repost.  Here are some excerpts from the original article by David Edwards:

“Not even the frame is painted. Rather it’s been plasma-arc sprayed with a thin coat of real bronze, a nice complement to bike’s shinier componentry. ‘There’s just something to bronze,” says Kraus. “When you actually get close up, get your hands on it, touch it and feel the difference between paint and a real-metal finish, that’s what really gets you…when you see the perfect imperfection of it.’”

“To power this machine, Satya went with an S&S Shovelhead 93-inch high-compression motor. At about 90 hp, he feels it provides plenty of power for the weight and also gives a nice look, especially after the three-man crew at Kraus Motor Co. takes it apart, shapes some of the fins, smoothes down casting lines, and polishes the cases and covers.”

To see more photos and read the entire article click here

S&S Shovelhead Motor

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Marlon Brando on his own 1950 T6 Triumph Thunderbird

The Wild One (1953) - The Wild One was based on a short story that appeared in Harpers Bazar in 1951.  It told the supposedly true story of an incident in Hollister, California in 1947 where the little town was invaded by rioting motorcycle gangs.  The magazine article was even accompanied by staged photos.  However the real event bore little resemblance to the article or the film.  Regardless of that detail, this film is the one that started it all, bikers as black leather-wearing marauders that cause riots and destroy sleepy little towns.

Marlon Brando’s gang, the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club rode Triumphs and other British motorcycles while their rivals, the Beetles, rode Harley-Davidsons.  Brando’s character Johnny Strabler, rode a 1950 T6 Triumph Thunderbird (Brando’s own personal bike was used in the production).  It was the first 650 produced by Triumph and set the standard for all British motorcycle manufacturers for bigger, faster and more powerful engines.  The funny thing was, the American equivalents were almost twice the displacement.  But in the Fifties and Sixties a Triumph was the ultimate symbol of cool. Triumph outshone even Harley-Davidson as the postwar epitome of style, freedom and rebellion due in part to The Wild One.

The Wild One was also one of the first films to not obscure the logo of the product.  In this case the brand of motorcycle they were using.  This prompted, Johnson Motors, the American company who imported Triumph motorcycles into the US, to send a letter to the production company objecting to the prominent use of their product.  This product placement, though, worked out well for Johnson Motors in the end.  The Wild One helped to propel American sales of Triumph through the roof.  The Wild One was also a contributing influence of a British subculture called the Rockers or the Ton Up Boys and for this reason was banned in Brittan until 1968.

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Everything Sonic is a video that Dave Grohl did for Harley-Davidson in 2009 about his own Harleys.  I have to admit that I have a bit of a crush on Dave.  It’s not a superfan crush, it’s not weird or anything, I just think he’s a good guy.  He’s talented, he makes great music (that I listen to on my ipod when I’m riding around), he loves his wife (it must be true love, he bought a trike….just kidding Dave) and he loves his motorcycles.  So I hope his wife has decided they are not that bad after all.  So Dave, if by some chance you ever read this, and you are ever out our way with your bike or trike, we know of a few good rides (that won’t incite a near-death experience) I am sure your wife would love.

And by the way, that’s one hell of a garage!

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Lion Dancers

On Sunday we went down to Chinatown for the Lunar New Year Parade.  It was raining, as is pretty typical for Vancouver but there were lots of firecrackers, Lion Dancers (my favorite), Dragons and Chinese gods handing out red envelopes.  The Lunar Festival celebrates the change of season and another cycle in the Chinese calendar year.  Each year is represented by an animal from the Chinese Zodiac.   There are twelve animals in the the Chinese Zodiac and each runs in a twelve year cycle.  They are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. This year is the Year of the Dragon.  If you were born in 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988 or 2000 you are a Dragon.  Kung Hei Fat Choy! (Wishing You Prosperity and Wealth)

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 THE BIRTH OF THE CAFE RACER

Motorcycling in England began as a pastime of the upper class around the turn of the 19th century.  It enjoyed a fair amount of prestige and fame as well as a fairly positive image in British society.  But during the 1950′s and 60′s, when availability of credit brought the more expensive purchases within reach of the working class, motorcycles became available to more than just the rich and famous and that positive image began to slide.  ”Cafe racing” was started, as always it seems, with a group of disenfranchised youth called Rockers or Ton-up Boys, the UK version of Greasers. The Rockers spent their time building and modifying motorcycles, cafe racers, to race between the transport cafes that were often used as starting and/or finishing points.  The story goes like this: The leather clad Rockers would be hanging out at a cafe.  Someone would put a nickel in the jukebox, the needle would drop and the racers would scramble for their machines.  The destination would be a roundabout, a statue, a mile marker and then return before the needle lifted at the end of the song.  Since the average song lasted less than three minutes these races were completed at very high rates of speed.  The goal was to achieve 100 mph the slang for which was “ton”.

The “caffs” were definitely built more for speed than comfort and were often a combination of the best and lightest parts of different British-made motorcycles.  The holy grail, if you will, of cafe racers was the Triton.  The Norton, famed for it’s lightweight, road hugging ridged chassis nicknamed the “Featherbed”, unfortunately possessed a seriously unreliable and under powered motor.  To solve that problem racers removed it and replaced it with the twin-​​cylinder, twin carbur­ettor motor from a Triumph Bonneville.  Thus the Triton was born.  Similar to the American “bobbers” and “choppers” that were evolving at the same time, every unnecessary bit was chopped off to improve handling and performance.  But the similarities ended there.  Where as the American choppers were built for distance and open highways, the caffs were built to handle short, fast trips and the narrow, twisting “A” roads that were the nations main transport network before the modern multilane highways were constructed.  The handlebars were modified to sit forward and low on the the fork tubes or attached to the stock mounting points and allowed the rider to tuck in and reduce wind resistance.  Fuel tanks were elongated and often stripped of their paint, and foot pegs and controls were moved back to accommodate the laid-out position of the rider.

Recently the cafe racer has been making a bit of a comeback.  Of course, caffs have been constructed in workshops all over Europe and North America for years but recently they have been seen in various movies and tv commercials such as the Honda CL350 in the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the Ducati Sport Classic in Tron Legacy and Keira Knightly rides a Ducati 750 Sport in a commercial for Chanel.  Manufactures like Triumph, Norton, Royal Enfield, Ducati and Moto Guzzi are now making production model cafe racers, all reflective of their hand built ancestors.  The resurgence of the vintage motorcycle has created a whole new appreciation for that Rocker style.

(If you’re reading this in email or RSS, click here to watch video.)

Check out this other post on a hand built cafe racer here.

For more on cafe racers and culture check out here and here.

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Image credit

It seems that motorcycles and tattoos go together like, bread and butter.  Don’t they?  Funny though, most of the people I know and met through riding, don’t have tattoos.  Although I do have one friend who is quite beautifully illustrated.  (Interesting, maybe I could get a grant from the government to study this phenomenon?)  But, believe it or not, motorcycles and tattoos are not mutually exclusive.  The tattoo is an artform that predates the motorcycle by, oh say roughly 30,000 years.  (For some motorcycle history see my posts here and here)

Giolo, the “Painted Prince”, 1692 image credit

To most people, historically tattoos appear to be the domain of the warrior.  Tough and fearless he would adorn his body with the marks of courage and honor and to intimidate his opponent.  Tools used for tattooing have been dug up at a few Palaeolithic sites across Europe.  A small figure with several parallel lines across his arm was carbon dated to 32,000 years but it not entirely clear what purpose these tattoos served.  In 1991 a body emerged from a glacier that dated back to the bronze age.  Over 5000 years old, his skin bore the markings of fifty-seven separate tattoos.  Among them, a cross and several different sets of lines, positioned at key places on the body.  Even though this man appeared to be a warrior his humble tattoos were used more to ward off disease than as a display of bravery.

Female tattooing, was common amongst many cultures around the world.  In Africa, 3000 year old Nubian female mummies were found with blue markings that were believed to ward off disease and sickness during pregnancy and child birth.  Interestingly, in Egypt at that time, tattoos were exclusively used by women.  Possibly because tattoos were so closely associated with something so feminine as childbirth.  In other parts of the world though, tattoos were used to identify clans and tribes and as marks of courage, status, honor and respect.  Noble men and women in tribes like the Picts, Celts and Scots were adorned with sacred markings.  Herodotus wrote, in about 450 B.C., that amongst the ancient Greeks “tattoos were a mark of nobility, and not to have them was testimony of low birth.”.  Still in other parts of the world, views were, that only criminals were tattooed.  In China during the 7th century tattoos on criminals was a form of punishment and in 17th century Japan, tattooing was outlawed as it was viewed as “deleterious to public morals”.

Intricate body tattoo patterns of an Ontong Java woman, ca. 1880. Image credit

Skip ahead a couple of hundred years or so and tattooing becomes a tradition in the British Navy after Captain Cook returned from his voyages to Polynesia.  The tattoos of Polynesian warriors and their women were depicted in drawings and etchings (and on the bodies of the sailors) that spread all over Europe.  Over time the lore and artform of the tattoo evolved.  Sailors of all races, confined to ships for long periods of time, etched the stories of travels on their own skin and that of their comrades.  It even became a fad among early 19th century British aristocracy.  In 1862 the Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII, had a Jerusalem Cross tattooed on his arm.  Traditionally the pigments for the Jerusalem cross were mixed with gunpowder, which was thought to have magical qualities of protection.  During the latter 19th and into the 20th century tattoos became a curiosity.  They adorned circus performers but also returned as a badge of rebellion or criminality or both, as prisoners and gangs, motorcycle or otherwise, embraced the artform.   The tattoo began to sneak back into “civilized society” though.  Tattoos to commemorated courage, honor and respect were seen on modern warriors, troops returning home from war.  Now at the dawn of the 21st century the tattoo has come full circle.  The humble tattoo raised from rudimentary marks in the skin to ward off disease has evolved into works created by highly skilled artists and displayed on anyone from modern day warriors to soccer moms.  ”Getting inked” is beginning to be viewed more as an homage to, among other things, our culture and our past than an act of disobedience.  Is it possible that as humans learn more about their collective past, subconsciously, they search for a way to connect back to it?  For any number of reasons, as commemoration, memorium or just for beauty’s sake, the tattoo is an artform 32,000 years in the making.

For more on the history of tattoos try here –> Tattoo history and here –> Tattoos and Archaeology 

Oh and by the way…We’re Baaack!!  Welcome to the new and improved Mostly by Motorcycle website.  I am sure there will be a few more changes along the way.  Let us know what you think.

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I found this video on a fellow bloggers site today.  It is one of the more beautiful shorts I have seen in a while.  I love that there is no music cluttering up the background, the audio is crisp and clear.  I don’t know, there is just something about it I love.  I have seen this man, Shinya, work, (just on tv, not in person unfortunately) and his bikes really are a manifestation of what rattles around inside his head.  He understands the beauty within a moto and why riders are so hopelessly addicted.  As freetireair points out, “This gentleman could not speak more poetically about the experience of riding a motorcycle.”

In 2010, Shinya Kimura and Chabott Engineering (Shinya’s company) were the subject of a documentary short by film maker Henrik Hansen, which was one of five documentaries to be nominated for a 2010 Vimeodocumentary award.

shinya kimura @ chabott engineering from Henrik Hansen on Vimeo.

Thoughts?

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Do you have a cat or other pet that rides with you?

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