ko ko blue

har       mon      ica

always happy when zz top is loud in the shed

wl controls.....

about ten years ago i bought my norton commando and on it were these home made pegs and controls......they were really well made but aesthetically ruined the look of the bike.

i replaced them with factory units and put these in a box....the other day i found them, while looking for a different set, and now im modifying them to suit the wl .... the gear changer was totally broken so here it is to the top of the photo with a new centre section in place.

shovel time.

roger came down and spent the night with us last night....some wine, some atlantic salmon, and lots of great conversation about bikes and the lives we choose to lead...its relaxing, and refreshing, when you can be yourself and talk about the things you love without having to hold back words.

Roger in 1971. i was 1 year old....check out roger's site... here... full of photos of bikes .... and other beautiful things....

My shot above....Rogers shovel in the foreground ran like a top, except a mirror nut falling off.....my 74 shovel in the background on its first long run in my hands.....ran like sweet big twin...80 cubes and 6 speeds = very good.....but my arms, and my groin and legs from those bars and pedals = tired son of a bitch.

Rogers shots above, can you tell who is the photographer?!?!.......

i lost kickstand spring, and seat bolt...but gained speedo for half hour.

(rode home with two rossis, one sok, and a snodgrass)....my life is good.

mann in 1963?... part 2....a response....

Here is a response to my earlier post about when the david mann painting "hollywood Run" was painted, sent to me by Robert Shuman...this is cool...have a read...

robert mentions that i thought i saw a shovelhead in it but i meant that i had been "thinking" about shovelheads cause i was just about to get one...anyways this is a great read.

Hey,

Sifting through dormant brain cells haphazardly floating around in my head I believe that the Dave Mann Hollywood painting is from 1966.  Here’s the reasoning.  I believe that it was one of the first two images available from Mann.  I was at a Rod and Custom car and motorcycle show at McCormick Place in Chicago Illinois in January of 1966 and bought two copies each of both Hollywood Run and Tecote Run.  Myself and two friends had ditched school and rode the train to Chicago (pre drivers licenses)to go to the first day of the show.  We were there early and were the first three guys to buy the posters (paintings) from Big Daddy Ed Roth who had a small booth at the show selling his t-shirts and posters.  He had the Mann paintings as well.  I can only assume that Roth and Mann knew each other and Roth was helping Mann get some exposure.  At the time Roth had started to shift from the custom car arena to the chopper scene.  We had never seen Mann’s work before so as fifteen year olds who although were at the time living near Chicago, were insane about all things Chopper from California, so we were besides ourselves to have this gold from the promised land.  We too spent hours staring at them back then.  Brought a grin to see it again on your site….it’s been a few years…damn!    Your comment was that you felt the image was Shovelhead related.  I can’t pull that specific information up out of the tombs here but if you’re seeing “shovel” in it then ’66 would make sense as I believe that was the first year of the shovelhead….but you sure didn’t see many shovel engines on choppers right away.   I mentioned Tecote.  It’s a town just across the California border to Mexico near Arizona.   Before my time with bikes, late 50s and early 60’s,  a lot of weekend runs were made there to party hardy without getting hassled…beer, women, beer, women, repeat.  Quiet small town Mexico just too happy to have the gringo’s money.  If you haven’t seen the image, I just grabbed this one from the Dave Mann web site. 

That’s the best I can offer to your question.  Kind of cool to be one of the “someone’s who knows”.  A couple of old friends and I always laugh when we hear the term “old school”.

To us it was just High School.    Them’s were the days…… I thought they’d never end.

All the best,       Robert

      

i look at shots like these....

and dream of what it would have been like to be riding in the 20's and 30's...if i think about how motorcycles just take over my life, like when i'm not doing something with motorcycles i'm feel like im just wasting time, i just wonder,.....man, am i seriously fucked up....maybe i'm just in a melancholy mood, but my lord i love motorcycles.

shovel time

new two up bike for the girl and me...

of course i am going to do some things to it soon enough...

new bars, front end and a bunch of stuff......

check this out.

Queensland motorcycle police held the Guinness Book of Records world record for the number of riders on a motorcycle when 35 officers balanced on a motorbike at Surfers Paradise Raceway on June 22, 1984. This world record was held by the Queensland Police from 1984 until 1988.

The ride was reported in the July 1984 edition of the Vedette: Journal of the Queensland Police Department:

Queensland motorcycle police once again hold the world record for the number of riders on a motorcycle. The new record of 35 (33 men and 2 women) was set at the Surfers Paradise Raceway on June 22. The motorcycle was ridden 506 metres, and the officers were preparing to try again with more riders when an oil seal failed. The record making effort was organised by Sergeant 2/c Col Chick of the Brisbane Traffic Branch.

“We set a record of 30 riders in October last year, but in December, French Police beat this by one,” Sergeant 2/c Col Chick told Vedette. “We decided we would try to set an unbeatable record this time, and we put a lot of preparation into it. “Two previous attempts in the same week were made on Airport Drive at Eagle Farm, but because of the height and weight of the riders, the slight camber of the surface kept pulling the bike over. We had three independent witnesses at the successful attempt, and they have provided statutory declarations for us to send to the Guinness Book of Records. ”

Both photographs in the Museum collection were donated by Lyle Crompton who drove the motorcycle while the others rode along (and balanced successfully).

now check this...

bye bye my lovely.

.....packaged up the guzzi today for the trip up to sydney tomorrow to meet the transport dudes...
its a sad day but one good thing is the bike is staying on aussie roads (almost didn't)....

hope you love it as much as i do paul.....

thanks to all my friends who booked and blogged and blabbed about its sale....its going to fund two projects next up.......ducati and a shoptruck shovelhead so me and the wife can cruise the highway...

1963?

cant stop looking at the Manns painting lately.....its shovelhead related for sure.....was this painting from 63?.....im sure someone knows.

ive heard some stories from my mate bob here about kansas goings on and how david was an architectural illustrator prior to 63 or so......just look at the building in the background...does anyone know where this shot was taken?

just warming up for august 24th....

cant help but listen to this one too....

cant get enough of this bike....

...by the mann

wl paintwork...

finished up the colour on mikes wl tins today....i think they came out pretty well...

its pretty subtle but i did the external pinstripe with a touch of gold different to the inside silver one.

ive done the first coats of clear so ill leave them for a few days, block them back and hit them with the final coats...

aussie mates....

here's a shot of one of my oldest best aussie mates......hes still in my phone as michael ss and he aint had one for must be close to 15 years. this was the bike that i bought from him after falling in love with it....i had a 81 mhr at the time....fuck that bike was fast...anyway, when i bought it everybody kept asking how come mick let me borrow his bike...and wheres mick i saw his bike out front....so it came apart and it was reborn as the bike below......

 no one ever asked me again.

by that time mick had a mk3 le mans.....so thats the two of us riding up near wollombi pub like 12 or so years ago for a streetbike photoshoot....good times mick.

over me.

bought the soundtrack to vanishing point and got it in the mail today.....when i hear this song i just go into a daze......i love that end sequence....1 free motherfucker.

the joys of living on a farm....

say hello to my little friend.

we didnt expect this little one.....the result of our neighbours bull being put in the wrong paddock when he got out last year.....

wl paint

this is what im thinking for paint....i painted the tins in silver / gold...the outside of the patches and stripe through the centre will be in metallic black to pick up on the exposed top frame rail and the patches will be in dark metallic brown with some funky stuff blended.

anyway...gotta wait now for more tape to arrive this afternoon.

Mark 1 Le Mans for sale on EBAY

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271031021321#ht_1081wt_1398

i know i know....

you have seen it all before but im putting the guzz on ebay tonight and im linking up the large format photos

im a happy looking fuck aint i!....