Major Motorcycle Rallies for 2009

In the off season, many riders like to plan rides to various motorcycle rallies. I have just updated my motorcycle rally article and schedule for 2009 to assist you.

Motorcycle rallies (biker rallies) are simply gatherings of riders and motorcycles at specified times and places usually with attendant vendors, food, games, and other activities.

Motorcycle rallies or biker rallies may last from a day to more than a week. Some major motorcycle or biker rallies are built around organized professional motorcycle races.

Motorcycle rally attendance varied widely from a low of a couple of dozen riders or less to huge organized rallies with hundreds of thousands of riders.

My updated article, Motorcycle Rallies (Biker Rallies) - Major Rallies for Motorcycles, gives basic information about motorcycle rallies. The second page of this article contains my list of the top motorcycle rallies.

The picture shows me raising my arm after I parked my bike on Main Street at the 1993 Sturgis Rally. That was the year of the great Midwest floods.

Piaggio Recalls Aprilia Scarabeo 200 for Carburetor Problem

Piaggio has issued a recall of certain 2008-2009 Aprilia Scarabeo 200 motorcycles.

The float level in the float bowl of the carburetor was not set correctly in production, dirt and the varnish residue of dried gasoline not allowing the float needle to seat correctly, and a blockage of the evaporative emission hoses that did not allow the float bowl to vent correctly. The carburetor was not able to maintain correct or constant pressure in the float bowl. Inconsistent pressure in the float bowl would either push too much or not enough fuel to and through the jets for any one throttle position which does not allow the carburetor to correctly meter fuel to the engine.

1260 units are affected.

Check out my Motorcycle Recalls feature for more details.

Piaggio Recalls Aprilia Scarabeo 100 for Emission and Fuel Problems

Piaggio has issued a recall of certain 2008-2009 Aprilia Scarabeo 100 motorcycles.

In the evaporative emission system there are hoses connecting the fuel tank to the charcoal canister through which the evaporative emission passes. It has shown that the emission hoses to the canister were pinched and/or crimped. In other cases the hoses in and out of the charcoal canister were installed backwards, the roll over valve for the fuel tank was installed incorrectly, and in other cases there was dirt in the carburetor and still others had faulty float valves in the carburetor.

740 units are affected.

Check out my Motorcycle Recalls feature for more details.

The Art of Vintage Patina

The Art of Vintage Patina

I love vintage motorcycles. I saw this article over at BikerNet.com and thought I would bring it back over here for all to read.

It's a fine article, I hope y'all enjoy it.

Save the dogs

I was over at Life At Perewitz's blog, and read about this.
No use rewriting what was already there. For the most part I just copied an pasted.
Please help spread the word, and do your part.


Change (in the life of animals) we can all participate in.
Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!
The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals.
It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box "Click here to give" for free. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned or neglected animals in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS !!!

Put what ever it is you may be drinking down before reading this.

This is the funniest thing I've read in a long while. I've never had a colonoscopy, but I knw my time will come.

This is from newshound Dave Barry's colonoscopy journal:

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis . Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies.

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off

your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep , at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this is, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be the least appropriate.

'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me. 'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.

I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that It was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

ABOUT THE WRITER
Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald.

On the subject of Colonoscopies...

Colonoscopies are no joke, but these comments during the exam were quite humorous.... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:



1. 'Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!



2. 'Find Amelia Earhart yet?'



3. 'Can you hear me NOW?'



4. 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'



5. 'You know, in Arkansas , we're now legally married.'



6. 'Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?'



7. 'You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out...'



8. 'Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!'



9. 'If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!



10. 'Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.'



11. 'You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?'



12. 'God, now I know why I am not gay.'



And the best one of all.



13. 'Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up there?'

The MSF Basic Rider Course Part 1

I had gathered up the absolute minimum riding equipment needed to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundations Basic Rider Course. I had bought some riding boots and mesh backed riding gloves. I already owned a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt. I planned on wearing a long sleeve t-shirt; after all I live in Texas. Another critical piece of riding equipment is a helmet. I did not want to purchase a helmet yet for several reasons. I wanted to wait until after I bought a motorcycle because I might want it to match the bike. I needed some time to save up the funds. I also was unsure which type of helmet I was going to get. So, I planned on using one of the MSF course loaner helmets.

Now it was time to pick a weekend to take the class. A co-worker was also interested in taking the course in order to get his license so we picked an agreeable weekend and booked it. The class was about three hours Friday evening, eight hours Saturday and a little over half a day on Sunday. The website stated they hold the class rain or shine and to have proper attire for the weather conditions. The weather forecast for the chosen weekend was good, but this is Texas. The only good weather report here is by looking out the window and that is only good for about 30 minutes max.

As fate would have it, the closer we got to the weekend of the class, the worse the weather became. My co-worker backed out due to the inclement weather, among other things. Inclement, as in rain was forecasted all weekend. My thought was that motorcycling is like dancing with the elements and if I was going to ride I had better get used to it now. I did not plan on being a fair-weather rider. I wanted to ride every day that I could.

When Friday rolled around I had my gear packed in my car and was ready to go. I snuck out a little early from work to get to the first class on time. I ended up being the first to arrive at the small office complex where the class training was to be held. The riding part of the class would be held a couple blocks away at one of the local school stadium parking lots….

Ride on,
Torch

'BEADED EDGE' TIRES AND SAFETY

The word 'tire', or 'tyre' to the English-speakers, originated with the steel bands holding wooden wagon wheels together, which were forged by wheelwrights. These bands not only made for a hard-wearing surface for the wheel perimeter, but served to 'tie' the wheel and spokes together - they were literally the 'tie-r' of the wheel. The English like to think they spell things correctly but in fact the spelling 'tire' is older than 'tyre', which appeared in the 15th century. Subsequently, the word 'tire' became generic for any wearing surface on a wheel, whether a cart, bicycle, car, or a steam train, and whether the material was steel, rubber, or wooden balls bound by wire (a few of the more desperate examples can be seen in the photo below, from Munich's Technische Museum).

I'll skip ahead a few centuries to the birth of our subject, the Pneumatic tire, which supplanted the solid rubber item popular on early bicycles, cars, and motorcycles. The 'aha' moment came for John Boyd Dunlop (below) in 1887, while watching his son bump uncomfortably along a cobbled street on his tricycle.

Dunlop laid thin sheets of rubber, glued together, over the solid tires on the trike, adding an inflator valve from a football, and voila, the pneumatic tire was born. He patented the idea in 1888, and by 1889 had opened tire manufacturing plants in Dublin and Birmingham - clearly not a man to dawdle over a good idea! Another type of pneumatic tire was invented in 1845 by Robert William Thompson, but his system was too expensive for commercial production, and Dunlop gets the credit for the first practical pneumatic tire, and the first to be commercially produced. Mind you, his patent was for bicycle tires, which of course dovetails very nicely into our subject; motorcycle history (see the wonderful photo of J.B.D. enjoying the fruits of his labor, below).

Motorcycle tires of the Dunlop pattern used a very simple system to ensure positive location on the steel wheel rims of the day. High air pressure, at 40-60lbs/square inch, kept the rubber sidewalls firm against the wheel flange, which was a curved lip 0f folded steel, mated to a corresponding rubber 'bead' cast into the tire base itself (see illustration).

This method of attachment works quite well to keep the the wheel stable, at the expense of a rock-hard ride from the highly inflated tire. It has always been, since the earliest days of tire on rim, a temptation to lower the pressure within such tires, to increase the 'give' of the rubber and provide some form of cushioning against road shocks. This is fully understandable given the terrible road surfaces of the day - packed dirt or gravel were about the best one could hope for in the years 1890-1928, as the Macadam system of asphaltum-glued gravel laid in smooth beds and compressed flat were quite rare except in urban areas, which had the tax base capable of the high expenditure necessary for such infrastructure investment.

The terrific downside of under-inflation with these 'clincher' or 'beaded-edge' type tires is the possibility of rapid deflation as a consequence of a sharp blow. Of course, a 'blowout' or quick loss of air from a puncture or tear is a possibility on any inflated tire, but this early method of fastening tire to rim has the distinct charm of immediately tearing the tire from the rim if pressure is lost, as only air pressure holds the two firmly together. The consequence, Every Single Time, is a spill, as the tire magically transforms into a rubber snake hell-bent on tying itself in knots between the wheel proper and any frame or fork tubes nearby, thus locking up the wheel, which has already become an ultra-low-friction steel ski on the road surface.

Tire manufacturers developed a new type of wheel rim/tire combination around 1924 which became the standard for all automobile and motorcycle tires from then until the present day. The new system, called 'well-rim' or 'wired-edge' wheels, uses a much stiffer tire which, although far more difficult to install, does not rely on air pressure to maintain its place on the wheel rim. Thus, if deflation occurs, the tire simply goes 'flat', but stays on the rim, and the wheels continue to rotate on rubber, albeit in a wobbly/frightening manner. Still, this was a tremendous improvement in safety, and the number of crashes from deflation plummeted. Tires were made gradually thicker, heavier, and more substantial over the ensuing decades, and additions of nylon, then steel cording under the tread, and ultimately fully 'radial' tires (invented in 1946, by Michelin) for cars and, later, motorcycles were developed. New motorcycle tires are 'tubeless', yet rely on those basic principles developed in the 1920's to stay on the rim.

Falling off a motorcycle at speed really hurts, at best. I've been thrown from my motorcycle at 50 mph from a mechanical front wheel lockup, and suffered the effects for quite a while from the resultant 'high-side'; it was motorcycle jiu-jitsu, and I lost. I bring all this up after my friend James experienced a blow-out on his '24 Sunbeam, which used 'clinchers', as does my '25 Sunbeam. As fans of 'period correctness', we were quite happy that our machines retained their original equipment, and had no intention of changing over to more 'modern' well-type rims and tires, as the vast majority of 1920's machines have done. We had recently discussed proper inflation with our 'clinchers', and James stated that he was using 25lbs/sq" pressure front and rear on his Sunbeam, as the ride was almost unbearable at the 40lbs recommended pressure for the Dunlop 'Cord' tires he had installed, at great expense (they cost ~$300 each).
After James' fatal accident, a query from a distant acquantance led to a bit of mutual research into 'clincher' tire safety.

The result of this research was very sobering, and I'm posting it here in the fervent hope of obviating any additional risk when using these 80-years-obsolete tires. Using them at all is a risk per se, with their known defect of sudden detachment from the rim after deflation. But, with proper care, a greater measure of safety is possible.

According to Radco's book 'The Vintage Motorcyclists' Workshop' (Haynes, 1986), a 2.5" wide clincher tire of 24" diameter (the size of my and James' Sunbeam) at 24lbs inflation, has a load capacity per tire of 150lbs. Assuming a 250lb motorcycle, plus 175lb rider, give or take, that's 425lbs, or 212.5lbs load per tire. Thus, at 24lbs/sq" pressure, the tires are 62.5lbs OVERLOADED, just standing still.

Radco further states (see chart, above) that inflation of 36lbs equals a 320lb permissible load per tire, which gives over 100lbs of 'leeway' on the tire loading; ie, less likelihood that the tire will blow out under rapid compression, as from a large rock or sharp crease in the road. A little further investigation; in 'Dyke's Automobile and Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia' of 1927, a 'high pressure pneumatic tire' (ie clincher) should be inflated to 45lbs or more. Further still; a Society of Automotive Engineers (S.A.E.) chart of the same era lists 3" Cord-type tires (exactly the size and type of my Sunbeam) as requiring a minimum of 40lbs pressure. Vintage Tyre Supply is a primary source of the Dunlop Cord clinchers available today, as used on my Sunbeam (and James' too), but they don't list any tire pressure recommdations for these tires on their website, only for their automotive and 'well-rim' motorcycle tires. Another source of modern 'clinchers', Universal Tyre Co. lists pressures for all their tires on their website, and they recommend 60-65lbs pressure for such motorcycle tires. Longstone Classic Tires recommends a minimum of 60lbs pressure for their tires as well. This should be food for thought for anyone riding on clinchers, as I do. It is imperative that they are properly inflated, to at least 35-40lbs/sq". Under-inflation is dangerous, and could prove fatal; as risk-takers, we owe it to ourselves to be safe when it's within our power.

If you have a perverse interest in tire history, you can download a copy of the B.F Goodrich book from 1918, 'Best in the Long Run', which was used to train their sales representatives. It give a comprehensive history of tires from the earliest days through 1918. Googlebooks has made it possible to read/download the book, for free, here.

WIN A TP ENGINEERING ENGINE

WIN A TP ENGINEERING ENGINE--Win a $7,500 value TP Engineering 121ci engine just by attending the V-Twin Expo EASYRIDERS Events and TP Engineering have come together to offer one lucky dealer the opportunity to walk away from the show with one of TP Engineering's award-winning 121ci v-twin engines.

Worth some $7,500, the engine will be awarded to one lucky attending dealer at the event's Saturday evening industry reception (February 7th).

"Simply by registering and attending the Expo, this engine could be yours", Show Manager Jim Betlach told AMD Magazine. "The engine will be on display at the show and dealers will automatically be entered into the draw when they pick up their badge holder at one of the Expo hotels or at the Convention Center", Betlach explained.

"We are also again running our FREE lodging draw whereby some lucky dealers will have their hotel room 'comped'. If a dealer registers in advance, then he or she could be the lucky one selected."

The 9th annual V-Twin Expo will be the premier industry event this year for the custom v-twin and Harley-Davidson parts and accessory aftermarket. It will see dealers, custom v-twin builders and parts and accessory vendors from all around the world gather to see the year's new products, take advantage of show special offers from exhibitors, and attend highly relevant and perfectly timed seminars featuring a selection of industry experts.

The event opens at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday February 7th and runs through 1:00 p.m. on Monday February 9th at the Duke Energy Center in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

To register in advance for the event visit: www.vtwin-expo.com
Tel: 952 443 4168
Fax: 952 443 3678
E-mail: vtwin-expo@reactionmanagement.com

(From the pages of Bikernet)

I'll tell you honestly, what I think of the New 883.

Well, my weekend is over. Yes, I call Wednesday and Thursday MY weekend! Those are the days Jeff is home from work. They are his refresher days…and I am his refresher, as he is mine. So, it’s Friday, and my weekend is over.


I’ve gathered a few items from around the internet and news sites to chat about today. So grab yourself a cuppa tea, coffee, or what blows you boat across the pond…and let’s see what you all have to think and say about what I want to discuss today!
I want to start with what everyone seems to be discussing at this point, and perhaps the discussion is old now. It’s been a couple of days now since HD put out the news regarding the “New Blacked out Sportster.” That’s OK…what I have to say, I’ve said on other blogs and forums, so perhaps you guys have all seen it…perhaps not.



1. Nothing new about a blacked out Sportster. IE the Café Racer of 1978 and 1979. A handsome bike, although we couldn’t sell it to save our lives back in 1978 & ’79, when I worked at the dealership. It was finally given to me to ride as a demo bike…me and the owner shared the bike. He really liked it, except the complained that it “clunked” hard into gear…duh…that’s what Sportsters did back then…this bike was a really fast bike, and I enjoyed it for what it was at the time.



2.I like the big 3.3 gallon tank. Although, I really feel as if that’s overkill for this small bike. I’m old fashioned I guess. I like the peanut tanks, I like the tanks that hold 2.3 gallons, it’s a Sportster. Although, it does make riding with the big boys…you know, the ones with big twins… one hell of a lot easier. For some reason, the big twins become annoyed at having to stop every 80 miles or so for gas. Funny thing, they don’t seem to mind to stop that often for smoke breaks, ass breaks, or piss breaks, but tell em ya need gas for your Sportster, you will sometimes get that feeling they are internally rolling their eyes at you. Well I don’t care. I like keeping to tradition as much as I can. It just seems right to me…so I honor the Sportster by keeping her the way she has been for many, many decades before the big boys came to town!



3.What is it with these license tag holders? Why do the designers have to put them on the side of the bike? It looks like a clothes line to me. A place to hang my wet clothing to dry for the day…night…. It’s annoying to me to have that thing hanging off the side of the bike like that. I just feel as if the designer who puts it there just don’t have any real imagination when it comes to placing that piece of governmental required piece of shit…somewhere on the damn bike… I just feel that it don’t belong hanging off the side. I know many of you disagree…but it really does appear to me like an unfinished and hastily attached piece of crap. They have done things such as add bullet type turn signals on this bike…so why do they detract from the streamline by hanging this shit off the side of the bike?



4.I do like the bullet type turn signals on this bike. I love anything that streamlines this bike. Quite nice ain’t it? I haven’t seen what they have done for the front of the bike in this regard, so I suppose I am going to have to make a trip down to the HD shop and see for myself what’s been done there on this bike.



5.I am not a big fan of solid spoke wheels. They have such a dated look to them. Not to mention, you lose the stream line look there. I get such a contradiction of first impressions when I see this bike. On one hand, they seem to want it to remind us of the old time 900cc flat trackers. At the same time though they put on these strange clunky wheels….I mean, yeah on the back…I don’t have a problem with adding some weight there…but it just looks way out of place on the front of a Sportster! Sportsters are supposed to have a lean hungry look to them…which is another reason I don’t like the big 3 gallon tank I suppose.



6. The stock seat looks like it’s hard, slick and impossible to keep your ass planted firmly in it. Don’t you agree? I just get that slip slidey feeling just looking at it. I guess I will have to go sit on this bike…just to see if it performs the way it looks.


7.I hate the exhaust on this bike. It just doesn’t have the Sporty look. You know what I mean? It looks so freakin tame! It really takes away the feeling of adventure, of speed, of danger. It reminds me of bagger pipes. Another contradiction to the looks of this bike.



8.The lower legs of this bike…will the black out stay put there? Or…if you live near the beach, or the desert…is that stuff gonna be sand blasted off? I dunno…but I would like to have an answer to that one.



So tell me, do you think I’m nuts? Do you not see what is wrong with this bike? Sportsters should be bikes designed to appear lean and mean. They should not have any clunkiness in their design aspect. They should be streamlined, clean, without shit hanging off the side of them. I just feel as if the designers of this 883 didn’t have a clear image of what they wanted to design. They couldn’t decide if they wanted to make this bike fast and mean, or if they wanted it to have some of the appearances of a larger V-Twin. I hate that. It’s an 883. It has no business trying to be anything other than a Sportster.

Gearing Up For The MSF Basic Rider Course

On my quest to get a motorcycle I had done a lot of research on-line and off-line. There is a deluge of information available out there. I read books, magazines, forums, blogs and websites. I also talked to a lot of other riders. As with anything, don’t take everything you hear or read as absolute fact. There is a lot of misinformation out there to.

One of the first things I needed to do if I was going to get into motorcycling was get my license. I already had my spouses’ approval, now I needed the states. I also found out some riders don’t have a motorcycle license but continue to ride anyway. I wonder if they have insurance? For the most part I have always been a law-abiding citizen. No need to change that now.

Everybody’s consensus was the easiest way to get the license was first to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation safety course. That way I would not have to take the riding test at the Department of Public Safety office. I would be able to just go in and take the written test to get my license. Either way, the MSF course was already on my things to do list before getting a bike.

I went back to the MSF website and found a local class held close to me in my city. There website has a wealth of information and I recommend it to any rider, old or new. The website listed several requirements including some riding gear, boots or shoes that covered your ankles, gloves and at least a long sleeved shirt. If you did not have a helmet they would provide one for you. So now I needed to start collecting some riding gear.

I picked up a pair of Motoboss Airflow Gloves, (mesh backed motorcycle gloves, this is Texas), from the local Cycle Gear store one day at lunch. A couple weeks later I had enough saved up for some riding boots. I was looking for a black biker boot that looked more like a cowboy boot than the regular engineer boot. One day at lunch I was browsing a local bike shop in Grapevine Texas called Biker Alley, which has since closed, and found what I was looking for. They were Harley Davidson brand and were a cross between an engineer boot and a cowboy boot. The price was reasonable; I had been looking for a while. I even had the funds to purchase them, so I did.

Now that I had the minimum amount of gear I needed it was time to plan and set a date to take the MSF course….
　
Ride on,
Torch

From my H-D calendar...Here's one I've never heard before.

Introductions and Purpose

Let me introduce myself. I am Torch. I ride a motorcycle named Mistress. I am a very inexperienced rider and have only been riding her now for about a year. I live in the D/FW, (Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas) Metroplex and commute a short distance to work almost daily on her. As of yet, (Jan. 29, 2009) ,I have not been on any long trips on her, but I plan to in the future.

The musings on this blog are for several reasons:

One is to document my experiences of picking up motorcycling in my middle years.

Two, is for shear entertainment. Humorous things happen down the road of life. Sometimes they are not very funny at the time and can even be downright frustrating. However, looking back in retrospect they can be hilarious. After all, if you cannot laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

Three, is that others may benefit from my experiences and learn from my mistakes, failures, and successes.

Lastly, it let’s me hone up on my writing skills and someday, maybe, I could put them into a book one day.

Ride on,
Torch

RIKARD'S FIRST LOVE; 1931 NORTON

By John de Kruif

James Lansdowne Norton designed the company’s first experimental overhead camshaft (OHC) engines in the mid-1920s. After his death, Walter Moore took over development of this engine, resulting in the birth of the CS1 (‘CamShaft 1’) in 1926, an engine best known for the ‘cricket bat’ timing case. Moore also designed a new cradle frame which was shorter and stronger than the previous flat-tank design; the new combination did very well, until Moore redesigned the cylinder heads in 1928. According to Stanley Woods in a 1990 interview, Moore ‘made a complete mess out of it’; the redesigned engines were troubled by overheating due to a poor design of the combustion chamber. The TT races for that year ended with very few Norton victories. The heated discussions which inevitably followed resulted in Moore quitting his job [and moving to NSU – there is speculation that Moore intentionally hexed his engine, after being denied a seat on Norton’s Board of Directors - pd'o], saddling Norton with an OHC engine with a lot of room for improvement. A new OHC engine was designed by Arthur Carroll and Joe Craig, leading to the launch in 1930 of one of the most successful and good-looking engines ever. In 1931, Edgar Franks updated the Norton range, and in 1932 the famous International Models 30/40 were introduced. These were the road-going replicas of Norton’s OHC racing machines which had won many races. The CS1 name continued, although now reserved for the touring version of the OHC models; prior to 1932, the CS1 was the sportiest Norton available from the catalogue.

I bought CS1 Norton a year ago, in a condition described by previous owner Paul d’Orleans [gulp] as ‘The King of Bitza’s'. This description is an overstatement as the numbers have been checked with the Norton factory records and the frame turns out to be a genuine CS1 item, shipped to Germany on 30th of May 1931. The engine was replaced at some point, but is the correct early type, once fitted to a 1932 International M30 model - the basis for a very decent restoration, but most other bits are a blend of replica parts, newer Norton parts, and even a rear wheel from an Indian! I started assembling whatever would fit to ‘look right’, without worries about originality for now. A problem with these early 1930’s Nortons is a lack of reliable literature and pictures, so determining what the CS1 looked like when new is difficult.

Into our story comes Sven Jerksjö from Sweden, and the CS1 his father Rikard Jerksjö bought new and is still in his son’s possession. Luckily, Rikard had a decent camera and made quite a few pictures of the bike when new. “My father’s CS1 was dispatched to Arthur Nyström, the Norton agent of Trollhättan, Sweden on the 29th of June 1931.” Extra fittings and modifications made at the factory included a Magdyno, conversion to foot change, a speedometer reading in kilometers and a headlamp with chrome rim. The original owner planned to race it in local competitions and to that purpose it was stripped by the Swedish agent of the lights and the silencer. The cylinder head internals were polished, a Lucas magneto and a straight-thru exhaust pipe were fitted. Once the work was finished however, the customer who had ordered the Norton found himself in financial difficulties, and not being able to pay for this expensive bike the order was cancelled. Then Rikard walked into the showroom and at the age of twenty bought the CS1 that would serve him for the rest of his life. Rikard did not bother to refit the electrics and kept the Norton in racing trim. For the next nine years he used the CS1 for daily transport, enjoying this fast machine on trips to work and for fun in the weekends. Then World War II started and being very fond of his Norton he stored it for the duration of the war.


After the war, Rikard continued to enjoy his Norton. Small modifications were made, like a tiny bicycle dynamo fitted to the rear wheel, powering the taillight. In 1953, a Norton four-speed gearbox replaced the original three-speed Sturmey-Archer 'box.

Somewhere in the mid 1950’s, Swedish law required that all vehicles should be fitted with proper lights and the Lucas magneto was replaced by a combined Bosch magneto/dynamo unit to power ignition and a Miller headlamp. In 1951, Sven was born and the earliest childhood memory he has of motorcycles is of his father’s CS1.

In the early sixties, disaster happened when Rikard lent the CS1 to a friend who was so overcome with the speed of the Norton that he crashed it into a stone wall. He flew over the handlebars and luckily also over the wall and walked away without serious injuries; the CS1 however suffered badly in the accident. Frame, forks and the front rim were bent and the tanks, both mudguards and other fittings were mangled. Not wishing to part with his beloved CS1, Rikard repaired the motorcycle, but many parts such as the front mudguard and the handlebars with fittings were replaced in the process.


The Norton was the primary family transport until Sven’s father bought his first car 1967. The pictures show him in 1969, still the proud owner of his first love. In that year, Sven got his driving license and he used the CS1 for two seasons before upgrading to a more modern Velocette. The CS1 continued to be used by Sven and his father though it was joined by a 1959 Norton Model 99 Dominator that Rikard, getting older, found easier to start and handle. He used his Dominator every summer until he passed away at the age of 69 in 1980.

The CS1 at that time was due for some major maintenance and for lack of time it was left in the basement of Sven’s mother until 1992, when Sven started to rebuild it to its former glory. As he intends to rebuild it to the exact condition in which his father bought it, progress is slow. The frame and front forks needed additional straightening after the unfortunate event in the early sixties. The rear mudguard was salvaged after the spill but a new replica had to be made to replace the front guard. Many nuts, bolts and other fasteners were refabricated to original specification. The engine has been rebuilt by now but the correct three speed Sturmey Archer gearbox that was recently sourced awaits his attention. Sven is still looking for parts that were lost over the years and he has yet to find a suitable original primary chain case and the handlebar fittings.


The story and the pictures provide us with a valuable insight into what the first Carroll-Craig Nortons looked like when new. And we may draw the conclusion that a motorcycle bought new at the age of 20, rebuilt after a complete write-off in the early sixties (when no one cared about bikes), and kept in the family ever since, must be very good!

WOODEN 125cc VESPA

Arborists, lovers of wood, craftspeople, and aesthetes have always hankered for more Wood in their vehicles - witness the number of cars and motorcycles which have incorporated a bit of cellulose fiber into the structure or body of their products.
Morgan cars come to mind immediately, as they are yet producing hand-made voiturettes with oak chassis beams to this day, following a very long tradition within the company.In the 1920's it was not uncommon to incorporate a bit of hardwood into motorcycle frame spars, not for any conceivable necessity, as it would be hard to justify filling a highly-stressed application with a material prone to cracking, rot, attack by critters, mildew, and of course, catching fire, a not uncommon occurence with open carburettor bellmouths, tickled floats, and ignition kickback! The reasoning, well, more likely the passion for using wood thus sprang from a deep love for the look and feel of an aged beam, rubbed and polished to bring out the figuration and luster.

It's a passion I share, being a sometime restorer of wooden panelling and bannisters, and I frankly go weak in the knees when I see a tasteful bit of mahogany planking on the deck of a 'Launch' sidecar from the 1930's.



The builder of this wooden Vespa, Carlos Alberto of Portugal, obviously has an abiding love of and skill with the material as well - a few spots of home-layered ply are incorporated for strength, but much of the body is solid boarding, steamed, shaped, carved, sanded, and finessed into shape. Alberto purchased a rotted ca. 1948-53 125cc model, which used a headlamp mounted on the front mudguard, and set about remaking the machine in the materials of his trade.



'Color' has been added by the use of different woods; I would speculate mahogany, oak, and ash as primary ingredients; the effect is very Mod, reminiscent of Paul Smith's signature pinstripes. It's a master -work, and it runs - remarkable..