Michiel's bikes

Acewell 4453

2012-02-17T05:20:00.001-08:00

I was planning to do a photo how-to on installing the Acewell, but it's so simple that photo's would make it look way more complicated than it is. The Acewell comes with a wiring diagram, every wire has a color and a function. For instance: The wire that goes to the Oil LED is light gray. If you look at the wire diagram of a CB750 K2, you will see that on a K2, the color of that wire is red-blue. Just connect those two. Do that for all the wires of the Acewell and that's it. You don't even need to be technically inclined to be able to do this.

Note the exhaust end cap. I realized I've not yet posted photo's that show it properly, so here it is. I welded it on to make the exhaust sound a bit more civilized. I made it out of an ashtray and it works perfectly.

The unit is slightly larger than the mechanical tacho that used to be on the CB. I decided to move it to the middle, where I think it looks best.

One of the functions is the volt meter, here showing 12v at approximately 1100 rpm.

The RPM needle gives the 4453 a bit more of a classic look than the 2853. A big plus in my book.

The weather is terrible and the bike is really dirty. I'll make some better photo's as soon as teh weather clears up a bit.

The mailman brought me a present

2012-02-13T04:29:00.001-08:00

So.... What is it?

It's my brand new Acewell ACE-4453-AB!!!

I've had the Acewell 2853 on my BMW and I LOVE that unit, it is fantastic. It is all you need in one, small housing. It has a tacho, a speedo, all the idiot lights and cool functions as maximum speed, maximum RPM, 2 trip distances, gear shift warning etc... etc....

The Acewell 2853 on my BMW

So I really, really wanted one for the CB that so far has only been sporting a simple speedometer. When Acewell brought out the even classier looking 44XX series, I definitely wanted one. It is not for sale in the Netherlands (yet?), so I got it straight of Acewell. I later found out you can also order it at Dime City.

I left the plastic on the screen for protection, that is what makes the screen look a bit pale, but it isn't. It looks fantastic, very well put together.

I just assumed it would be similar to the 2853, except form the cool rev counter part. I was wrong. I just finished reading the manual. It's AMAZING! Here we go:

It has:

- All the cool gadgets the 2853 has (rev counter (digital), speedo, maximum speed, ODO meter, 2 trip meters, average speed, riding time, total riding time, RPM warning indicator (shift light), clock, fuel meter and all the idiot lights.

- Rev counter (with a needle)

- Oil temperature meter

- Air temperature meter

- 50 laptimers

- Laptimer remote (for on the handlebars)

- "fuel gauge off mode" (I missed that a little bit on the 2853, since none of my bikes have a fuel sensor)

- adjustable background lighting color

- a way more elaborate display that allows for much more information at once than the 2853 display

- a voltage meter (I am very, very happy with that. Anyone with a Honda will be ;))

In short: I am going to love this thing even more than the 2853! Can't wait to install it on the CB. I hope the weather will clear the asalt of the roads soon, so I can test it.

Bill Costello's BMW

2012-02-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

Just over a year ago I posted a fantastic video on a bike restoration, made by New Yorker Bill Costello. Bill contacted me last week via this blog an was so kind to send me some more photo's and info on the bike.

The bike is a 1958 R50, 500cc and 26 HP. Bill's farther bought the bike when it was only 2 years old. Bill's father was involved in a pretty bad accident in 1969 and was never allowed to ride the bike again, so it just sat in the garage. When Bill's farther passed away, Bill decided to completely restore the bike. These words don't do the restoration justice, again, just watch the video.

I hope Bill can pass this bike on to his children and they to their children. This bike is worth way more than just money. I'll stop writing about it, just enjoy these photo's:

And the helmet his wife gave him for Christmas:

You can contact Bill via his Youtube channel.

Winter in Holland

2012-02-06T23:37:00.000-08:00

Winter has hit us unexpectedly, but hard. Last Friday we had the lowest temperatures measured in 27 years. For people that are not familiar with the Netherlands: This country is very flat and has a lot of water. So freezing temperatures means: A lot of ice. Every time this happens a kind of ice-skate-fever breaks out in the Netherlands. So the bikes will remain in the shed and I'll be on the ice the next week or so.

Hanging out

2012-02-03T05:10:00.000-08:00

Excellent video on exhausts and carb tuning

2012-01-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

Found on Do The Ton

Lowside syndicate magazine

2012-01-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

I just received word that there's some space reserved for my BMW in Lowside Syndicate Magazine's latest issue: Issue 7!

They had asked me for photo's a few months back, so I had a good look around on their website and really liked what a saw. They seem to want to distinguish them selfs from other magazines by the use of very classy, high quality material. So it's a great, great honor for me.

My copy is on the way, be sure to get your copy at the Lowside Syndicate website, or get it from the guys at Dime City Cycles!

Motor-magazine best readers photo of 2011

2012-01-27T03:10:00.000-08:00

I submitted this photo for the motor-magazine best reader's photo 2011 contest:

Guess what?

That was a pleasant surprise for me, first prize! I'll get to go along with their professional photographer for a day, I'm petty excited about that since I'm always eager to learn!

90% chance of rain

2012-01-25T12:22:00.000-08:00

That's what the forecast said. Didn't see a single drip. It was INCREDIBLY cold though. But I had a great time riding the CB :)

Found some unpaved roads again

Did a photo shoot with Vera (in this photo) and Simone. I'm used to shooting machines, animals and objects, it was a pretty new experience to work with people. It's not as easy as some people make it look. Learned a lot and we had a lot of fun.

BMW walkaround

2012-01-22T23:55:00.000-08:00

I was going through my videos and I realized I've never posted this one..... Hope the weather will be like that again soon!!

The last one of last week's shoot.

2012-01-22T03:10:00.001-08:00

BMW cafe racer

2012-01-19T23:41:00.000-08:00

BMW/CB 750 caferacer: video

2012-01-18T00:20:00.000-08:00

I am gathering old (and newer) video footage of my bikes to make a short video. Biggest problem for me while making video's: Chosing appropriate background music. Suggestions are welcome :)

Spotted: BMW cafe racer

2012-01-17T01:10:00.000-08:00

I saw this bike on a local ride. Didn't have a pen and paper with me, so I'll go back someday to stick a note on it asking if I can take better photo's some time.

I really like them 'I'm being used' patina of the bike.

Cold nights

2012-01-15T03:57:00.000-08:00

My BMW Cafe racer

2012-01-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

I took the opportunity (dry roads) to try and see what remote flashing a black bike in the dark would look like. Well, it looks like this:

Great 70's motorcycle safety video

2012-01-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

Via motor-forum

Parts for the SR

2012-01-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I posted a report of the Vehikel swap meet. This is what we found for the SR:

Not too sure this tank will fit over the wide backbone, but we'll find a way

Tail light.

It has a nice 60's-70's look

Search light from a Willy's JEEP. At least, that's what the seller told us, but it will make a fine headlight.

A selection of handlebars so we can see what fits best. All these parts were dirt cheap, so we can easily sell what we're not using without losing money

I'm now also officially for hire as a horse photographer, I was getting so many requests it was the only logical thing to do. The CB is doing a great job getting me to where I need to be with all the camera gear.

Finally: We started on the SR500

2012-01-06T03:11:00.000-08:00

We found some time to start on the SR500, finally. When we bought it, the guy told us that the woner before him had reconditioned the engine, but it was laying smoke screens that would make the US army jealous, so we knew it either wasn't reconditioned, or we should not be happy that it was....

So the first priority: Get the engine out and find out what's wrong. Here we go!

It's all in pretty bad shape, but hey, we payed for a bike in bad shape.

It's been collecting more than just dust...

Finally, the engine is out, now let's see what the insides look like

They don't look good. The inlet part of the camshaft is 'square', we need to replace the shaft.

It looks like something has gone through the engine. Maybe one of the valves broke? They look new and it might be the reason why the engine was reconditioned.

The exhaust bolt thread isn't looking pretty either

What to say about this? There seem to be honing traces in the cylinder, but they are only visible on the photo, I did not see them in real life... The cylinder looks far more scratched then it is, but I'm pretty sure this is the reason for the extreme oil consumption.

As you can see: It's not in a great shape. We don't mind about the rolling part, anything that's not good on it was planned to be thrown away anyway, we do mind about the engine. I think the oil burning is caused by honing/drilling out the cylinder without replacing the piston. We'll have to measure it and see. The very least we're looking at is honing the cylinder again and finding a new piston and camshaft.

First ride of the year

2012-01-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

It's a tradition: On January 1st I go for a ride. No matter what the weather forecast says. I got wet this year :)

Oh, and Happy new year to you all!

My bike year in photo's (and a few words)

2011-12-27T04:21:00.000-08:00

Januari:

The year starts really nice with the CB being featured on the largest custom motorcycle blog in the world: BikeExif.

I am working on a Kawasaki KZ for Zoran:

Februari:

We are getting to the final stages of building the Virago. It's 10% of the work, but takes 90% of the time.

We find an abandoned airfield. The BMW is still sporting the fiberglass tank.

And the CX500 sees some daylight again. The CX will spend most of this year in the shed unfortunately. Mostly because of lack of time (study).

March:

Real test riding with the Virago starts

And the fiberglass tank on the BMW fails. The BMW will spend months in the shed, waiting for a solution.

Luckily the CB is turning out to be a great bike. I have been using the CB A LOT this year. It was fantastic to always have a bike that I could use under any circumstances (even snow 2 weeks ago). It was great to be able to go where public transport can't take you and to be able to take a passenger there too.

I finished Zoran's bike as far as I was going to work on it, the rest was up to Zoran!

April:

I get remote flashes for my photo camera. They will have a big impact on my photography this year. But it's a steep learning curve

It was a very busy moth for me, the study demanded a lot of time. Trips like this one were scarce:

May:

Very busy month too. The CB is mainly use for transportation and a little bit of relaxation

June:

Greta weather. The CB sees a lot of the country and now pretty much completely replaces public transport.

I buy a new welder. Great decision, I don't regret it for a second.

I finally find a new tank for the BMW. Great, two working bikes (and the CX for the girlfriend) in the shed. Feels very luxurious.

Juli:

The cafe racer meeting in Achterveld is always an event to look out for. This year was probably the best so far. Hundreds of bikes, great weather and happy people.

The Virago has been plagued by a lot of very small problems, but is now finally running as it should. Time to strip it down for painting.

August:

We bought a Yamaha SR500! Now the Virago is nearly done, it is time for the next project and this bike was a steal.

Not much to say about August. Not a lot happened in the field of bike building.

September:

The BMW gets featured on BikeExif. Wow. Two bikes in one year. just wow. The great weather makes for great riding and the BMW and CB are now both used for many (nightly) trips around the country.

This month is also the Chopperstyle Low Budget Bike Building Meeting.

October:

Another photo trip to Amsterdam. Sadly the last time we could use the NDSM ship wharf as a photo location, it is not allowed anymore.

The Virago is getting it's final color scheme.

November

I am now really getting the hang for using the remote flashes. This is one of my favorite photo's of this year:

The Virago is now finally well and truly finished. Ready to start on the SR500!

December:

The weather is dark and wet. The BMW is locked away in the shed, waiting for better weather, but the CB is still being used, for instances to get to the horses where I take this photo:

It's the only none-bike photo in this post, but I have to mention it because it caused such a stir for me that it did change a lot. I am now getting (paid!) photo assignments.

December is also the last time the Vehikel Oldtimer Swap meet is being held in the Veemarkhallen, very close to my home. We find some great stuff for the SR500, can't wait to start on it!

So, that's it for this year. I would like to thank you all, my readers, for showing interest and support. For putting up with my endless stream of photo's, for sending me emails with questions and emails with photo's.

Bedankt!! (thanks in Dutch)

See you next year!

Vehikel 011 part 2

2011-12-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

Plenty of pre-war bikes for sale.

Another Ariel Scrambler

The fuel tank of the moped in the previous post.

Old bikes just look better....

Very nice details on this one

Probably better than when it was new.

The now very popular BMW R90.

This racing bike drew such a big crowd that it was nearly impossible to get a photo.

This mess of different parts (and missing parts) would only part hands for 3000 euro's....

A bike built in Belgium.

The St Christopher seal on the fender of the Adler push bike (see previous post).

Swapmeet: Vehikel 2011

2011-12-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

I went to a swap meet with Vincent yesterday. Expectations weren't too high, since the last edition was a bit of a disappointment (high entree fee, not many sellers and very high prices), but this edition was great.

This would be a great headlight for a steam punk bike....

Lots of junk, but very interesting junk none the less.

Push bike with a shaft drive. Sweet!

Lots of tanks to chose from

A Heinkel motor scooter

Ariel scrambler.... I want one!

This kind of quality just can't be found anymore on anything that leaves a factory these days.

Lots of handlebars, very cheap. So we bought a few to see what looks best on the SR500

Old school instrument for checking batteries.

Boxes and boxes full of tacho's.....

Very cool fuel consumption meter. I guess it was vacuum driven?

1937 Adler push bike with 3 gears. It had wooden fenders with a small logo of St Christopher on them (the saint that protects travelers).

In the end we came home with a new brake switch for my CB, air filters for Vincent's Ducati and a lot of stuff for our next project, the SR500: 2 Sets of handlebars, a fuel tank, decompression lever, tail light and 2 headlights. All for very low prices. Nice.

The first one: Our Honda CX500 chopper project

2011-12-14T02:25:00.000-08:00

I don't remember which one of use started all this, but years and years ago a friend of mine and me decided we wanted to have a go at customizing our own bike. Neither of us had any experience on pretty much anything related to working on bikes, thought Vincent had done some work on a few mopeds.

We wanted to build a chopper, because that looked like the most fun thing to build. Since it was going to be a chopper, we wanted a twin. The problem is: the risk of failure was certainly there, so it had to be really, really, really cheap. We found this Honda CX500:

No need to wonder why it was so cheap.....

Engine, wheels and frame were the only usable parts. Good, they were the only parts we needed.

My first bike is in the background. A Yamaha YZF750 R

This photo proves it: There are bikes out there that are ever uglier than the Virago we used for our second build.

Now we had a bike, we needed the basic tools no bike builder can do without: An Angle grinder and a welder.

Vincent doing some welding

Me doing some grinding

We started off with stripping it:

A naked CX. You can see why the frame feels like rubber when you ride a CX.

All metal work was new to use, so making a suitable battery box took quite an effort:

Trying to look angry for that 'real bikers look'. Having a great time though. The welder in the left of the photo is probably the most crappy welder ever.

Crappy welder + no skills = A lot of finishing to do. We just started welding with the welder and invented how it works as we went along

The box has a pretty tight fit. The indentation leave just enough space for the air filters. I am proud of how it turned out.

I think we redid the forward controls about 3 times before we were happy with them:

Gear lever: start

Gear lever: Almost finished

The crude set up of the forward controls

I received a lot of questions about the rear fender. It is not a stock fender. I think it originally is a Harley fender, but we changed it quite a bit:

The fender was in a pretty bad shape, but we got it for free.

After a while, things started to take shape:

Cool moments while bike building: Trying out new parts (the tank in this case) and instantly realizing it looks exactly how you wanted it to look on the bike.

But new rear springs and a Kawasaki handle bar changed the look to the final look:

I et a lot of quisteions about the mufflers. I dont know where they are from, I just know they are made for a Harley. They work fine on the Honda too.

You can see the airfilters sticking out sideways here. we had to scratch that idea, it disrupted the airflow too much. We later also changed the tail light. We learned by trial and error and had a great time doing so.

The first test rides. Memorable moments in any bike build.

Usually I am way too big for bikes. On this one it doesn't look too bad.

Time for paint:

Painting is by far the most dreaded part of a bike build for me.

And the final result:

As a first build, I think we were very successful in creating what we wanted: A styklish bike without going over the top. It got us both hooked on building bikes.

A list with most of the changes (I will have forgotten a few):

- Mustang tank (modified)

- Kawasaki handlebars

- Exhaust with H-box (home made)

- Harley Mufflers

- Ural seat

- Harley fenders (modified)

- Suzuki Savage rear suspention

- Heinkel (?) Headlight (modified)
- Headlight brackets (modified)

- Aftermarket tail light

- After market brake pump

- Emco air filters

- Old warm water bottle for cooling fluid

- Home made forward controls and linkage system

- Home made battery and electrics box

- electrics (modified)

- Handlebar mirror (home made)

- Frame (modified)

- Oil breather system (modified)

- Tank brackets (home made)

- Triple trees

- Risers

- Cockpit (home made)

- Tank and electrics box emblems (home made)

- And quite a few more mods, not all are visible.

Went to the horses again on the CB

2011-12-11T01:06:00.000-08:00

The horse photo's I posted last week caused a bit of a stir, within hours I had a stack of requests for similar photos, so I went back to take some more last night.

On the way back I passed a big parking lot with a nice, big puddle of water. I thought it would make for some interesting photos.

This one is a bit out of focus, but I didn't get the time to take another one. I use very old lenses so I have to focus manually. Nearly impossible in the dark through the moderate quality viewfinder of my camera. The screen resolution of the camera is also low, causing some unpleasent surprises like this photo back home. But I really shouldn't complain.

Virago

2011-12-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

A bit weird but cool

2011-12-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

I don't like reblogging, but I have to make an exception for this.

Found it on Endless Wrench and it's just too cool not to share. The text says:

Lot´s of pics but I couldn´t decide which pic was best or worst...
XT 500 frame and engine. XS 650 swing arm. Modified Hercules Tank and 18" rims.
New rear frame and much other selfmade goodies!!!

1BHP

2011-12-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

Took the CB to the horses again to try the remote flashing technique on my mother in law's horse. I am very happy with the result :)

High on the wish list

2011-12-03T02:27:00.000-08:00

Nope, not going to sell the BMW and not going to sell the CB, so this will remain day dreaming: Photo's like this one really make me want to build a scrambler.

via motor-forum

That's it.

2011-12-01T00:46:00.000-08:00

That's it. That's it for the photo's I made of the Virago last Tuesday, but that's also it for the Virago build. It's finished. We had to look it up, but we bought the Virago at the end of 2008 and now it's finished. It was the second build Vincent and I did together and we're both very happy with the result.

When we set out, we wanted a more radical bike that had a better finish than our first bike and would be more thought out. (For instance: To remove the saddle of the cx500 chopper, our first build, you had to disassemble about half the bike). The photo's won't show you that it is better thought out, but believe me, it is. I'm pretty sure the photo's do show that the bike is more radical. We were never sure the carb would work, but it does. So do the exhausts. Raking it did not make the handling dangerous and hardtailing it did not make it uncomfortable. It amazes me every time we start it. Now on to the next build!!

The bike as we bought it. Bikes don't get much uglier than that!

2 minutes after we started on it :)

Starting on the inlet manifold

We made the inlet manifold out of old car exhausts that we got for free out of the waste bin of the local Kwik Fit store

We used the carburetor of a classic car (Opel Kadet B)

Construction of the side fairing. We used material we got at the local old iron dump. The problem with that is that it's not always the most suitable. The metal plate we used here is about 3mm thick and MAN was it hard to get it into the right shape. The spring under the seat also came from the same place. We later replaced it with the leave springs of an MG-B classic car that we got for free too.

Making the exhausts was on of the most fun things we did on this build

With the Virago being a Virago, the starter gave us quite a bit of trouble.

We made the rear light entirely ourself. We shaped the alu on the lathe and soldered every LED. The latter was a bit of a pita and we had to do it again because someone (not me ;p) blew them up at the first try.

We really like the result!!

The electrics were a mess, so we did it all over again, from scratch.

The very first test ride. It actually all works!

Welding......

Tinkering

More welding.... (glad we replaced that welder half way through the build, it was pretty crappy)

The forward controls are home made too.

One of the first test rides. Always exciting!

The end result exceeds what we thought we could ever do

2011-11-30T12:19:00.001-08:00

XV920 Virago

2011-11-30T01:07:00.001-08:00

XV920 Virago

2011-11-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

FB-stuff timing cover for the CB 750 caferacer

2011-11-26T06:19:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-25T02:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

Via Do The Ton

Foggy night

2011-11-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

Because pretty much any old machine is cool

2011-11-14T02:10:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-11-13T01:34:00.000-08:00

A very nice CB

2011-11-12T01:10:00.000-08:00

Via the SOHC forum.

Evening ride on the CB750 cafe racer

2011-11-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

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

Yes please!

2011-11-09T04:36:00.000-08:00

If only I had the money...

Non bike related: A bit of history

2011-11-07T00:44:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-11-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

... 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

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

trying out some new techniques

2011-11-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-02T03:18:00.000-07:00

Via ADVrider

Not cool

2011-11-02T02:05:00.001-07:00

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.

The master at work

2011-10-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

I still have problems with the text editing. Don't know a solution yet, so I have to deal with it until I do.

I have been extremely busy. Had to do an oral presentation on an international congress (went very well by the way) of my intern research last week and I am now finishing the report, writing another one an reviewing one. Too many letters, not enough bikes.

Some 'older' (few weeks) photo's Desmomeister took. Take note of all the safety measures I take so my ears and eyes are protected when I grind parts of my upper leg ;)

Blogspot help?

2011-10-24T01:32:00.000-07:00

Maybe someone here can tell me.

I am an avid user of the Opera web browser, so I use that to make new blog posts. However, lately a lot of edit functions disappeared. I can't change the color of my text, can't center the text, can't make it bold, can't change the font, etc... etc..., basically the only thing I can do is add photos.

When I try the same thing in Internet explorer I can change the font, I can change the color, but I still can't make a hyperlink or center the text.

When I use a laptop with the Opera browser, I can do all that. I deleted all the coockies and stuff, but nothing changes.

Anyone know how to solve this?

Evening ride

2011-10-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

Virago chopper update

2011-10-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit late, these photo's are from last week.... We are already much further along now. For instance: we painted the yellow brake caliper black, we fixed the exhausts in the right place, painted some more (but what u see here is the final (roughly) paint scheme) and did quite a few other jobs that in the end make a big difference, so keep in mind that it looks a bit more sloppy on these photos than it does in reality.

Poland

2011-10-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

I've been away or a few days to a wedding in Poland. I have to admit that I did not have a very positive image of Poland before I went, but that was all ignorance. I'll keep it short: Beautiful country, wonderful people, hospitality must have been invented by the Polish, traffic is way better then I expected and I will NEVER EVER get in a car again that is being driven by my mother in law. NEVER.

But Poland is now somewhere near the top of the list of countries I want to go on vacation to.

2011-10-13T03:25:00.000-07:00

Find Me from Doug Jackson on Vimeo.

Beemer cafe (a very nice one)

2011-10-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Via Do The Ton

Shitty weather.....

2011-10-12T00:57:00.000-07:00

..... means time to do some (less necessary) stuff on the bikes. A friend of mine is getting the carburators of his classic Alfa Romeo ultrasonically cleaned, a nice opportunity for me to get the carbs of the CB cleaned. So under the watchful eye of my cat I took them off, disassembled them and I just gave them to Max who is going to clean them. Hopefully the weather will improve a bit soon, because I got a photo request for the BMW, more on that later.

Wow! Cb750/CR750 classic racer

2011-10-10T03:43:00.000-07:00

Spotted in the fore sale section of motor-forum.nl

The season is pretty much over

2011-10-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Autumn has begun. That means that the BMW probably won't see daylight until spring (unless we get a couple of days with dry roads. The BMW needs dry roads with the velocity stacks) and the CB will only be used when necessary. Weather-wise it wasn't the best season ever, but bike-wise it was. I was very happy to have both the BMW and the CB at my disposal. Nice.

Adventure riding in the past

2011-10-08T01:40:00.001-07:00

Check out this very cool story. Via PSB.

Moto Mucci's CX500

2011-10-06T01:44:00.000-07:00

The CX 500 is by many regarded as one of the ugliest bikes ever build and I can't completely disagree. So turning that bike into something nice is quite an achievement. Moto mucci turned one into more than something nice, he turned it into something stunning. Just judge for yourself:

CB cafe

2011-10-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Build by Motor-forum.nl member Gustlock

Impressive. Both bike and photography!

2011-10-05T11:54:00.001-07:00

again via ADV-rider

Ouch!!!!

2011-10-05T04:42:00.000-07:00

Via ADVrider.com

More photo's from the Amsterdam trip

2011-10-02T22:46:00.001-07:00

Ton's Kawa/Amsterdam trip: KZ 750 street tracker

2011-10-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

Last night I took the BMW to go to Amsterdam for some photo's. In Amsterdam I met up with Michal (fotoduda), a friend of his (he promised she would have long legs and believe me, they were long!) and Ton. Ton has build a very, very nice Kawa you might have seen on this site before. He'll readily admit that it is a bit of a Wrenchmonkeys copy, but that doesn't make the bike any less beautiful. Even though we got kicked out of the building we were taking the photo's in after 20 minutes already, we still had a great time. Hopefully we'll do this again soon with more bikes!

Chopperstyle bike show: Roel Scheffers' GS

2011-09-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

One bike in the bike show did get my vote, but did not win: Roel Scheffers' Suzuki GS. Why it got my vote? I think it's brilliant. It not only looks fantastic, it's another one of those designs that make you wonder what the builder has been smoking. Who in the world would think of putting KTM fairings on an old GS?!? And the home build fuel tank containing the battery..... Sweet!

The master himself:

And the bike:

He did pretty much everything himself (except for the pin striping). I borrowed some photo's for this post from fotoduda. He makes great photo's, check it out.

And I did a previous post on a bike by Roel, a Z500, you can find it here.

And finally the link to Roel's website.

BikeExif

2011-09-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

The BMW made it to BikeExif and I feel very honored. A short introduction for all the visitors coming here via BikeExifs. These are the other builds on this site:

CX500 chopper. Build together with the guy from DesmoMeister:

CX500 I build for my Girlfriend:

Suzuki SP370 which I sold a while ago (good thing I did, it was not the right bike for me):

My Honda CB750, also featured on BikeExif:

and the current builds:

A Yamaha XV920 Virago chopper, almost done. Build together with Vincent (DesmoMeister):

And the next project: A Yamaha SR500 that I will build together with Vincent:

Chopperstyle low budget bike show numbers 3 and 4:

2011-09-29T01:46:00.000-07:00

Still have some photo's of the Chopperstyle bike show. These two bikes were placed 3rd (xs650) and 4th (CB750 SOHC). The XS is not really my taste, but it is very well build by Jacco from Short Cut Choppers

They are having an opening party of their brand new shop in Ede (the Netherlands) this Saturday.

The CB 750 SOHC is build by Gozewien. Apart form the paint, he did everything himself. It's great to see a bike that is so different from the usual CB mods (including my CB). Some great details on that bike! (Check out that exhaust!)

Working on the Virago

2011-09-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

It's something we do jut about weekly, mostly in the evening. It's in the final stages of the build now. We are tidying things up and doing the paint. Last night was no different. I chose to take the BMW, the train is expensive, unreliable and annoying. Besides that, the weather was great and I had a request for more photo's of the BMW. I found a pretty cool photo location in an old, abandoned stone factory. Sneak preview:

The other photo's will show up later ;)

We've been working on the Virago for about 3 years now.... Sounds long and it is long. That's mostly due to how we work: We're there to have fun. Joking around, trying out stuff on the bike that we already know (but not for sure) that it won't work. And we work on other bikes as well. This is Vincent spray painting a part for his Duc Caferacer:

But if we want to finish it, which we really want by now, we do have to work on the Virago. This is me, working on one of the side fairings:

We managed to do a mock up of the bike with most painted parts, including the tank (it's finished) and the engine. I am not going to show you photo's, they don't do the bike any justice yet. But we think it looks great, and that's what matters.

reminder of what it looked like before paint:

And the way back on the BMW. Like I said: Magical.

Sunny with a chance of fog

2011-09-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

That's what the weather forecast said: A sunny day with a chance of fog in the evening. I took the Beemer again to go to Vincent to work on the Virago. I stopped on the way there to shoot a couple of photo's near an old stone factory. You'll be seeing those later. The way back was magical again. Just me, the BMW and the narrow, dark, sometimes foggy, dyke roads.

I could soooooo much get used to this :)

2011-09-26T04:58:00.000-07:00

Bike build vid

2011-09-23T04:10:00.000-07:00

This is how it's done....

Nice! Again: sooo much to learn :)

Some great pics and editting by Brauchi

2011-09-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

Really like the photo's and editting. Great blog too: brauchi's bikes.

I have sooo much to learn....

My BMW Cafer racer

2011-09-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

My BMW caferacer

2011-09-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Midnight train

2011-09-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

Just got home form a mid-night ride on the Beemer cafe racer(after swapping the throttle cables this morning). The trip back from where we work on the Virago should only take 40 minutes. It took me about one hour more than that. Just didn't want to stop riding.

Prosper's beamer cafe

2011-09-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

Prosper is the guy behind anything but stock beemers. He contacted me a while ago after I posted on this blog that I was looking for bikes to photograph. The horrible 'summer' we've been having here made that impossible for a while and even today the weather could have been better (some sunlight would have been nice.....), but I think the photo's look pretty good. For a large part because the bike looks very good :)

Thanks Prosper!!

Made up our minds

2011-09-18T10:21:00.001-07:00

We finally decided what color scheme we are going for with the Virago. The tank is already prepped for paint and I took one of the side covers home with me to prep it here. Made it ages ago with a very crappy arc welder, so it needed some work. I know a bucket load of bondo would also have fixed it, but that's not what we want.

Can't wait to see what the Virago will look like....

Choppersyle bike show's runner up

2011-09-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

This little 2 stroke got the second place. This one of those bikes that photo's just don't doa ny justice, you just have to see it for real. You'll wonder what we all wondered: What the h*ll has the builder been smoking?

Fantastic little bike!

Email fom Italy: CB750 tracker

2011-09-17T01:06:00.000-07:00

Francesco of Franzgarage send me another email, this time with some more photo's of his cb750 tracker. If I like it..... Hell yes!!! Great job again, very nice photos Francesco, grazie!

Choppersyle low budget bike show winner: cj360 brattstyle

2011-09-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

We did some voting and despite the democratic process, the guy from Belgium won ;). He had my vote too. Great little bike, very well proportioned, very well build. It does not happen very often that I see a bike that I wouldn't want to change anything about. Usually there's always something (rear light, mirror, seat, whatever) that I would have done differently. Not on this bike. Brilliant build.

And a action shot of yours truly made by Fotoduda:

More (VERY nice) photo's of this meeting on his site. Click here.

Amsterdam (not bike related)

2011-09-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

My cousin has a boat that will seat about 20 people, so every year the whole family takes a trip on the canals of Amsterdam. Thought I'd share a few of the photo's. I love to visit Amsterdam (would never want to live there though) and I can highly recommend going there for a weekend or so.

First internatianal chopperstyle bling bling (but not so much....) bike show

2011-09-11T01:43:00.000-07:00

It was a HUGHE success in my eyes. Chopperstyle is a closed Dutch low budget bike builders forum and we had a forum meeting yesterday. Most people I had already seen a few times before, but it was great too see some more faces behind the nicknames. And it was even better to see their creations in real live. Some creations made you wonder if the Dutch weed smoking laws might be a bit too soft ;). In short: People were great, bikes were great. Stayed a hell of a lot longer than I had planned to.

Anyway, here are some photo's. I will post some more in the coming days, but I'll have to spread it out over the comming days/weeks a bit or my photobucket account will max out again way before the end of the month.

The day ended with a spectacular thunderstorm:

More later.

Don't miss this!!

2011-09-07T08:06:00.001-07:00

It will be epic.

One from the archives

2011-09-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

Don't think I've shown this one before, like it though:

In a week and a half we'll hope to mostly finish the Virago so we can start on the SR500. I also hope to attend a custom bike meeting saturday, looking forward to make some 'fresh' photo's!

Back from France

2011-09-04T01:32:00.000-07:00

We went to France for about a week and a half for a short holiday. I really needed one.... The weather was great and scenery was great. Contrary to popular believe the French people are really friendly and helpfull, so all in all, we had a great time.

Click the image for full size.

Now it's back to work for me. On Monday I have a really important presentation and in the next few weeks I will finish my study, meaning I will have to find a job. All in all I won't be having much time for the bikes the next 2 months or so, unfortunately.

Finally, some sunlight.....

2011-08-15T13:08:00.001-07:00

Getting there

2011-08-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

We worked on the Virago again last night. I took it for a small test ride first (sorry for the crappy cellphone video).

In one word: Brilliant.

It really was Brilliant. It rode very, very well. So when I came back, we started stripping it for paint. Not our favorite job...

Was going through old photo's

2011-08-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

And really liked this one. Thought I'd share it.

New shop opening

2011-08-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

No, I have not gone commercial and I am not getting money for this. I am, however, very excited with the new shop opening in Ede, the Netherlands. We don't really have shops like this one here yet and I am anxious to check out what that have. One think I know for sure: It'll be really cool stuff.

O god, what have we done?!?!?

2011-08-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

Well, the title sums it up nicely again :)

Just couldn't leave this 1978 SR500 for that kind of money, so we bought it. We promised ourself not to start on it before we finish the Virago though!

Riding into the sunset

2011-08-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

These are busy times for me, but don't feel sorry, I am enjoying myself hugely. Done some riding past weekend and even needed the CB today because I had an appointment where I couldn't (reasanobly) go with public transport. So I just had to take the CB, tough luck, I know.... ;)

The Cb has not been running 100% lately though, it's been running rough at higher speeds. I found the problem tonight: The brand new condensers are not working as intended, so I replaced them with old ones I had lying around:

And then it was time to take it for a joyride. The plan was just a short ride to test if everything works, but as usual: I've been riding all night, till the sun went down. Love it.

Took some photo's again too (and a short video, but I'll edit that one later).

Vincent's Duc(k): Ducati Cagiva cafe racer

2011-07-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

Last night we didn't just ride the Virago, we took Vincent's Ducati for a ride to. It's coming along nicely!!

Sweet!

2011-07-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

We've been having ENDLESS problems with the Virago the last few months. Starter issues (of course), leaky inlet rubber, leaking hoses, leaking gas lines, malfunctioning sparkplugs, etc.. etc...

The last weeks/months we have been looking for a new inletrubber. One of the original ones, which we use on our home made inlet manifold, had torn. A new one was ridiculously expensive, used ones too. We just refuse to pay that kind of money for 20 year old rubbers. No way.

So last weak we decided to make it ourself. That worked. Sorted out the fuel lines last night in a somewhat more professional way (we had been improvising, but that was getting annoying) and fired it up.

We took it for a long ride. The first completely trouble free ride. It ran and handled great! The steering is really nice, it is way more comfortable than it looks and the engine ran great. Nice!

Photo's

2011-07-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

As you might notice: The photo's in my last posts aren't working. This is because I exceeded the traffic data limit of my photobucket account for this month. They'll be back up next month, so I'm not going to do anything about it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

At this moment I am a bit too busy with my internship, presentations and I also started looking for a job. That means I've had, and will have, little time to do anything on the blog. Hopefully things will quiet down in a few weeks.

Last pictures of the caferacerday in Achterveld.

2011-07-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

This is it. For the full album: click here.

Foto's caferacerdag Achterveld part 3

2011-07-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

Full album: click here.

Michiel's bikes

Acewell 4453

The mailman brought me a present

Bill Costello's BMW

Winter in Holland

Hanging out

Excellent video on exhausts and carb tuning

Lowside syndicate magazine

Motor-magazine best readers photo of 2011

90% chance of rain

BMW walkaround

The last one of last week's shoot.

BMW cafe racer

BMW/CB 750 caferacer: video

Spotted: BMW cafe racer

Cold nights

My BMW Cafe racer

Great 70's motorcycle safety video

Parts for the SR

Finally: We started on the SR500

First ride of the year

My bike year in photo's (and a few words)

Vehikel 011 part 2

Swapmeet: Vehikel 2011

The first one: Our Honda CX500 chopper project

Went to the horses again on the CB

Virago

A bit weird but cool

1BHP

High on the wish list

That's it.

XV920 Virago

XV920 Virago

FB-stuff timing cover for the CB 750 caferacer

Cafe racer DVD

Sweet little Honda

Foggy night

The last photos of last weeks shoot

Because pretty much any old machine is cool

A very nice CB

Blogroll

Evening ride on the CB750 cafe racer

Yes please!

Non bike related: A bit of history

And then all of the sudden...

trying out some new techniques

That's how it is supposed to be

No words needed

Not cool

The master at work

Blogspot help?

Evening ride

Virago chopper update

Poland

Beemer cafe (a very nice one)

Shitty weather.....

Wow! Cb750/CR750 classic racer

The season is pretty much over

Adventure riding in the past

Moto Mucci's CX500

CB cafe

Ouch!!!!

More photo's from the Amsterdam trip

Ton's Kawa/Amsterdam trip: KZ 750 street tracker

Chopperstyle bike show: Roel Scheffers' GS

BikeExif

Chopperstyle low budget bike show numbers 3 and 4:

Working on the Virago

Sunny with a chance of fog

Bike build vid

Some great pics and editting by Brauchi

My BMW Cafer racer

My BMW caferacer

Midnight train

Prosper's beamer cafe

Made up our minds

Choppersyle bike show's runner up

Email fom Italy: CB750 tracker

Choppersyle low budget bike show winner: cj360 brattstyle

Amsterdam (not bike related)