XV920 Virago

XV920 Virago

FB-stuff timing cover for the CB 750 caferacer

The weather this morning was so much better than the forecast said (and it will get pretty bad the coming days) that I just had to take the CB out for a ride, despite a light fever. If you look at the photo's you can see a trend: I  am starting to get the hang of unpaved roads. There's a few around here that are legal to ride and they're always nice and quiet.

Two things changed on the CB. One is the exhaust. I welded an end cap on it and the bike sounds so much better now. It sounded great before, but very loud, now it's a nice, muted but warm, sound. The other is the timing cover. FB-stuff send me a clear timing cover to try on the CB. The quality of the cover is excellent, it comes with a really nice gasket and some really nice bolts. It's really cool to see the points at work. Nice. I'll post some more photos of it soon.

It's really cool to see the points at work. But now I will have to replace the dodgy screws and bolts ;)

I met up with my girlfriend in the woods. 

Cafe racer DVD

I caught a fever 2 days ago. Very rare for me, I think the last time was after surgery 10 years ago that I really had a fever. It gave me some time though to finally watch the caferacer TV season 1 DVD the guys at Dime City Cycles kindly send me.

I'll start with the bad stuff. For us Europeans Americans can be a bit 'USA-oriented', people who feel that way will not like comments during the show like 'America is now the hub of the cafe racer scene'. Especially to some English, that might sting a bit and I don't think it's true. It's a world wide thing. There are some pretty wild cafe's coming from not only Europe, the US and Australia, but also Asia. Furthermore it's a show that covers a lot per episode: A few builds, some history and some events. Guaranteed you wont like some of those items (I did not really fancy the electric cafe racer, but it's a DVD, fast forwarding has never been easier). The many items also means that there is not much time per item. There are definitely some build/history/meeting items I would have liked to see more off.

So, that was the bad part, but luckily, there are plenty of good things to say about the show. First of all: It features some really, really great builds and some really cool shots of those builds. The cafe racer scene is very much a back-yard happening, so it is very rare to see images and footage that has been taken by professionals. That you will enjoy. I also liked their history bits with the old footage and old newspaper a lot. And even though I accused them a few lines ago from being a bit USA-oriented, they did take the effort to go to the UK and shoot some really nice items there.

Conclusion:  I would definitely recommend you to order the DVD  it. It's not that expensive and with the whole winter ahead of us, it will be money well spend.

Sweet little Honda

Via Do The Ton

Foggy night

I helped a friend with his Yamaha XJ550 today. He just bought it and the engine sometimes wouldn't start or it just stalled at random moments. We managed to find the problem: The kill switch. (I just realized this sounds dumber than it was: it was an issue with an electrical connection of the kill switch)

I was On the CB and had brought all my camera gear because I wanted to try some things out in the open field. The sunset and the low fog made it look like a fairytale landscape on the way to the photo location, I was just a few minutes late to catch the right light though.

The way back was pretty scary, the fog was pretty thick. But I made it home safely.

The little light on the top left is the polar star. Unfortunately there is too much light pollution in this crowded little country to have the other stars bright enough to get them on the photo.

The last photos of last weeks shoot

Because pretty much any old machine is cool

A WW2 Il-2 Ground attack aircraft that was pulled from a swamp was restored to flying condition in Russia. Just love old machines like this and it's a good to see pieces of history like this working again, even if the purpose of the machine is inhuman. Maybe even more so in that case, because people shouldn't forget the horror of war.

More photo's hereVia airliners.net.

A very nice CB

Via the SOHC forum.

Blogroll

I have a list of links to other blogs at the bottom of this site. Most of them don't need an introduction. You will probably all know Bubblevisor, LeContainer, BikeExif, MotArt and Ottonero.(and most other links the list).

Some of the lesser known ones are really worthwhile too though. MotoMucci had his CX feautered on BikeExif only recently. Clearly a talented builder and all posts are of high quality.

Motopreserve is a blog by a guy from New York. What I really like about his blog is that he doesn't pick photo's form the net to repost them, instead he creates new content by writing some really interesting pieces.

GragageProjectMotorcycles is an Australian based blog. Again, only quality stuff gets posted here, including their own very cool builds.

And the most recent addition to the list: CaferacerBerlin. A German blog and another (you see the pattern?) blog that creates his own content by shooting photo's of bikes and objects in the streets of his home town Berlin. A refreshing new blog.

There's a few more blogs in the list that I am not doing justice by not mentioning them (anythingbutstockbeamers, Motorcycle74 for instance), check them out at the bottom of this site.

Evening ride on the CB750 cafe racer

Tonight was a cold (but pleasant), cloudless and quiet night. Exactly what I needed to blow of some steam on the CB.

Yes please!

If only I had the money...

Non bike related: A bit of history

This is a small, non bike related, sidestep from what this blog usually is about. Thought you might find it interesting. If history is not your thing, just skip this post ;)


Went to the Grebbeberg today. The Grebbeberg is a hill on the banks of the River Rhine in the center of the Netherlands that was formed in the second to last ice age. The ice pushed earth ahead of itself while expanding to the south and forming a line of hills of which the Grebbeberg is one.

Areal picture with the Grebbeberg on the right

So what makes it special? It's a place oozing with history. From the top of te Grebbeberg you can see the famous church tower of the nearby ancient city of Rhenen (we couldn't today, too foggy). The church is late medieval, but the history of the place goes back much further than that. It is hard to see on the photo, the scale of the thing is MASSIVE and impossible to catch in one photo because of the trees, but you can see an earth wall if you look carefully:

Barely visible in the background: The earth wall that is part of an ancient fortress 

That wall is part of a fortress that is estimated to be from 700 - 800 A.D.. But the place goes even further back in time.... Inside the hill flint fragments have been found that once were Neanderthal tools. 

In more recent time this hill saw some military action too. At the start of world war two this hill was the most important part of the main defense line: the Hollandse Waterlinie. The hill saw a lot of action, pretty much every tree older than 70 years can testify to that.

Every tree on the mountain that is older than 70 years bears a huge number of battle scars caused by bullets and shell fragments.

But that's all the long gone past. Today the whole area is a great place to be with a magnificent forest

And some great views on the river on which I spend the last year doing research: the River Rhine (it's flooding history to be precise). I will finish the report on these researches this week (one of them has already been submitted for publishing. Just not with my name on it, while it is 100% my research. No further comments needed.). As soon as it's corrected, I will be done with the study. Finished.

And then all of the sudden...

... It is finished. We finished the Virago last night. All the painted parts are back on the bike, all the electrics are hooked up again and we ran the bike for a few minutes. Feels a bit weird now it's finished, but we're looking forward to riding it. And looking forward to starting on the SR500 that is already waiting for us.

The beam of the headlight penetrating the smoke and kicked up dust after the engine start

The beam of the headlight penetrating the smoke and kicked up dust after the engine start

No shots of the completed bike since it was already late and very dark.

trying out some new techniques

Just took the CB out for a spin. I recently had the carbs ultrasonically cleaned, so it had been sitting for a while. Apart from that the carbs could use a little bit of synching now, she ran great. Man, I love riding that bike...


Tried some new photo techniques. I only had very limited time so I did not really get what I wanted, but it looks like it's worth trying again as far as I'm concerned.

That's how it is supposed to be

I emailed the website that posted my photos with their logos on it (2 out of 4 posted photos had their logo on it). I almost instantly received an email with sincere apologies. It was an error by their editor (sounds believable since not all photos had the logo on them).

Apologies accepted of course.

I would like to thank them for their very quick response. Check out their site (although you might have to use google translate, at least I had to). It has some pretty cool articles.

motorkari

No words needed

Via ADVrider

Not cool

Do I even have to explain what is not cool about this?


Well, at least the did post a link to this blog..... But: This is one of the photo's I made for BikeExif, I did no even post them on this site. I rode about 40 miles for this photo shoot. The photo shoot itself took me about 2 hours or so and back home a few more hours processing the photos.


It took someone 5 seconds to put his/her own logos on these photos.