Motorcycle Media Musings

If you're in the mood for a motorbike adventure to the top of the world, give yourself fifty minutes and give this a watch...  

Evidently the company that runs this trip is no longer doing business, but here's hoping they are able to get it going again, what a journey.

This is a compilation of amazing video.  Other than the first track I generally enjoyed the musical accompaniment too.

What surprised me was the level of acrobatic control that is possible on a bike, and the drifting is astonishing.  Between the stunt bike riding and the race footage, it makes me wonder how someone learns this degree of control.  A bike with no plastic fairings that got dropped a lot must be somewhere in their past.  I've often thought that an old dirt bike that I could drop without worrying about it would help me get a feel for the limits on a bike, even at low speeds.

On a now-for-something-completely-different in terms of motorbike media, I'm finishing up the bike hole.  For decoration I wanted something bikey.  My wife got me some fantastic hand drawn prints while we were in England this summer, so they were destined for the finished garage.  

I also wanted some clean pictures of modern bikes that I like.  We just set up a photo printing station at work, so I found some clean, high-def side views of bikes on white backgrounds that made for some nice 4x6s.

The end result is a nicely bike themed bike hole.  It's not quite finished yet, but it's looking good.

Bike Hole

No room for a car, but a bike...

A long Canadian winter approaches.  Rather than look longingly out into an unusable, uninsulated garage full of junk I'm getting my home reno on and finishing it.

It's supposed to be a single car garage, but with the vent system intrusions and everything else in there I couldn't even fit a Mazda2 into it.  It's turned into more of a shed than a garage.

Since getting the Ninja I've been working on it in the garage.  It was fine over the summer, but with frost on the ground the floor is nasty cold and the wind seems to push the cold through the unfinished walls.

Unfinished, cold and messy...

Step one was to figure out how to finish it.  Rather than dry walling it like the house side of it is, I'm going with wood panels so I can mount shelves where I want them rather than only where studs are available.

It cost under $300 for the paneling, insulation, paint and hardware to do it, not bad for what will be a warm garage at the end.  I'm also going to look at some rubber garage flooring for parts of it, so that will push it over $300, but still a bargain considering I'll get a huge work space out of it.

Saturday afternoon, halfway there...

This past weekend with lows in the -4c at night, I started on it, stripping the shelving off the walls and removing the home made bench at the back.  With all of the stuff under a tarp on the driveway (in the rain), I insulated and hung the board.  

By the end of Sunday I had the three unfinished walls insulated and the board up.  The only slow down was not looking up as I moved down the wall putting up the board.  As I went up the ladder I drilled my head into the garage door hardware hanging from the ceilling.  Head wounds bleed a lot, especially when you get a jagged cut from a rough metal hanger.

I took Monday off (head hurting), and went back at it again Tuesday after work, putting on an unfinished can of primer.  I'll finish the priming this week and paint it next weekend.  Last night when I was doing the priming a single, small space heater made it comfortable in there, it was below zero outside.

The end result will be warm and finished with better lighting and twice the workbench area, more shelving and better organization, so the gardening equipment doesn't take over again.  I'm still thinking about what to put on the walls...

Café racer

I've been getting a handle on café racer culture recently.  A good place to start is the documentary below available on youtube:

A motorcycle phenomenon that combines DIY backyard mechanics, customization, restoration, links to British post war culture and a focus on pure two wheeling?  I'm in!  When you also factor in the old RAF inspired bike gear café racing only gets better.


What first got me thinking about it was It's Better In The Wind, a beautifully shot and music themed short art piece about friends on their classic café racers.  As a mood piece it captured a lot of the gritty romanticism in motorcycling.



Last summer I was reading Shopclass As Soulcraft, and in it Matt Crawford described motorcycling as 'a beautiful war', which captured the risk and reward beautifully.  That book is mind expanding stuff written by a guy who walked away from academia and the magical thinking of the thought economy to open his own independent bike repair shop.  It's a must read, change your life kind of book that will make you want to get your hands busy again; just the sort of thing that racer building encourages.

I've tried my hand at restoring old cars or just keeping them on the road, but that tended to be a make it work to get to work kind of situation, lots of stress in that.  This is a hands on project that may very well lapse into a piece of rolling sculpture.  Mechanics, electronics and sculpture? I'm in love with the idea!

So, I'm on the lookout for an old bike that needs to come in out of the cold for the winter, one that's looking for a new lease on life.  It can be rusty and rough, the more it needs changing the more I'll want to change.  The end result will only enhance the feeling of oneness I've already felt with the Ninja.

There are many café racer links that will catch you up online:
http://rustyknuckles.blogspot.ca/2010/03/cafe-racer-magazine.html
http://www.caferacermag.com/
http://www.caferacertv.com/
http://silodrome.com/triumph-cafe-racers/

1964: The 'leather boys' later generation rockers on modded cafe racers

Rocker style, 1950s England

One of the genesis locations for Cafe Racing culture ACE CAFE

The leather jackets, boots and gloves, the helmets and googles, RAF uniforms
were an obvious inspiration for the cafe racer look

Winter Is Coming

My first season in the saddle is rapidly coming to an end.  I'm sad.  I've been OD'ing on magazines and media in the past couple of weeks but I'm also doing more concrete things to keep the dream alive over a cold, dark Canadian winter.

This weekend I'm finishing the garage (insulation & ply-board) which should make it more inhabitable for stage 2 of Tim's cunning winter motorbike plans.

With the garage organized (a tire rack for the car's off season tires, new workbench, shelving, etc), there should be a lot more room!  The Ninja will find a nice corner to spend the winter (while I strip the fairings off and refinish the frame).  In all that empty space I feel a strong urge to project bike!

One of my earliest motorbike urges was driving by an old Honda on the side of the road over and over again.  That bike was selling for $450.  If I can find an old bike that needs some TLC I'm going to get it home and give it a place in the garage.  I'll spend the winter stripping carbs and breaking it down to nuts and bolts.  The best way to understand is to lay hands on.  Having a rebuild project would be the perfect way to keep myself immersed in two wheel thinking.

Come spring I might be kick starting an old beasty that hasn't rolled on roads in years.  My recent infatuation with Cafe Racer culture might inform this process a bit.

Refining Motorbike Fashion

Getting the Ninja had me going all in on the sport bike look.  The full helmet and ballistic nylon riding gear makes me look like I came out of the future.  When I'm all out on the Ninja it suits.  But a sport bike was never the goal.  I like the vintage look and as the bike evolves so will the gear.





I've watched It's Better in the Wind a couple of times now and dig the vibe.  Cafe racers, old Triumphs, all customized.

A couple of other things are making me rethink the gear.  At the training course they talked about how the helmet doesn't seriously mitigate the chance of injury.  If you think that a helmet will make riding safe you're not understanding the physics.  Helmets help to minimize one kind of injury.  If you can't handle this truth then you shouldn't be riding, helmets don't make riding safe.

The fighter style open face helmet
is a modern take on the old open
faced helmet

They also said, during the same training session, that you should wear a full face helmet and full armored everything all the time.  I get being as safe as you can be, but if the safety equipment gets in the way of the experience, or worse, makes you uncomfortable, it prevents you from doing the deed in the first place.

The Bell is a classic, though it made
me head look HUGE!  It'd be nice
to get my Mondo Enduro on though

In Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Persig says he doesn't like to wear a full face helmet because he finds it claustrophobic.  If the point of riding is to experience that expansive sense of speed and openness then I think I want to try out an open faced helmet.  This isn't an expensive proposition, though the helmet might lead to a classic bike, which might be.

A variation on the classic by Bell,
the Pit Boss is a bit less
bulbous

Open faced helmets are popular and tend to focus on a specific style.  The fighter jet style half helmet is a modern take on the classic open faced helmet, but you can still get vintage styled helmets.  I'm partial to the Bell classic but it did make my head look huge.

The Bell pitboss had a nice look to it, but they didn't have one in my size to try on, though I think I'd go with the over the ears cover for protection and wind reduction.

I'm helmet inspired by a couple of things.  The family history sure plays a part in it, but so do movies.  Picking up something that I can plaster a rebel alliance sticker on would be cool.

Here are a couple of other eye catching open face helmets I've been thinking about:

Bell Hurricane ~$100

ZR1 Royale Air Ace ~$127

Nolan Outlaw N20 ~$205

Thanks to http://www.canadasmotorcycle.ca and http://www.motorcycle-superstore.ca for letting me window shop.










The other day someone parked their original Thruxton next to the Ninja and I got the itch for that old bike once again.

What a lovely old machine, beautifully cared for...