Remember, this blog is now Shed Built Bikes!

Don't forget, this blog has been moved to Shed Built Bikes

Time to say goodbye to blogger: New website!!

As promised: a new website.

The name BMW Cafe Blog doesn't cover the content of my blog anymore, as far as I'm concerned. Furthermore I feel the blogspot-templates don't offer what I want. So it was time to take the plunge and start my own website under a new name.

Shit Built Bikes was already taken by Harley Davidson, so please welcome:

Shedbuiltbikes.com

From now on I will post my blog updates there. You will also be able to easily access the photo's from previous shoots and event photo's. It will also be easier to contact me and manage the pages.

It's not completely finished yet, so some minor changes will take place over the next few weeks, but it's there. Have a look ad tell me what you think.

As a motivator to keep checking in: I have some SPECTACULAR shoots in my agenda, featuring classic Kawa's, classic Ducati's, classic Harley,s beautiful women and much more!

The king isn't dead, but there's a new king :)

For the last three or four years I have been using a second hand Canon EOS400D DSLR for my photography. It's an excellent camera and I enjoyed using it hugely. I know it is nearing the end of it's life. Canon designed it for something like 40.000 photo's and it is way past that point, but still going strong!

Last Friday, if they don't find a way to screw me again, I finally got the very last grade for my MSc study at the department of Physical Geography at Utrecht University.  My parents decided, totally unexpected, to buy me a small gift (thats how they called it over the phone).

The 'old' EOS400D

A Canon EOS 60D! It is a fantastic camera with a lot more possibilities. I am very, very excited about it.

The New EOS60D with my old analogue Carl Zeiss Sonnar

On a less cheerful note. I have to say something about my MSc Physical Geography at Utrecht University. It has been THE most insulting experience in my life. I'll keep it very short: People who have been following tis site a bit longer will know how I detest people who put their name on photo's I took.

A PhD student at my faculty took my MSc research (took me 5 months), put HIS name on it, submitted it and it will be published in a scientific journal in the very near future.

Of course there is a lot more to this story than this, but the details only make it more despicable. Not only that, there is a lot fundamentally wrong with the attitude of the faculty, this is just one example that illustrates how rotten it is. Again, my MSc has been by far the most insulting experience of my life. I would highly recommend people NOT to follow this study at Utrecht University, but instead opt for the same study the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.


I will take all steps I deem necessary against the PhD student and the faculty. 

Scram Afrika with Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles

Karles from Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles send a clip around of their planned Scram Africa trip. They did a check of the route and made video clip:

Untitled from Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles on Vimeo.

It's a trip through Marocco on clasic bikes. Adventure + classic bikes, what more can you want? I sure as hell wish I could join them, but I really can't.

If you have a scrambler and the means, there is just no way you can miss this!!!

Mark Meisner's CB

Check this beauty out!!

It's not completely finished yet, you can follow the progress on Mark's blog.

Rusty gold swapmeet: 6 Mei, Cruise inn, Amsterdam. Don't miss it!!

de eerste Rusty Gold Swapmeet (ruilbeurs/rommelmarkt)
Locatie is de cruise inn Amsterdam.
Gratis entree en gratis staanplaatsen, maar geen professionele handelaren en geen nieuw spul.
Staanplaats betekent in dit geval een kleedje of wat je ook meeneemt om je waar te tonen.
Voor meer info zie de flyer of mail naar rustygoldswapmeet@gmail.com

For the non- Dutch speakers: A GREAT initiative by, amongst others, Bubblevisor. A free swapmeet, just make sure the parts you bring are old and worthy. Believe me, you don't want to miss this!

Update

Sorry for the last two posts. I need the reserve some space for non-bike related (my study) stuff. It will be useful in the future. 

I am working very, very hard on a brand new website, until it's up and running, this blog will see fewer updates. More on this soon!

Experiences with Physical Geography at Utrecht University

This page is reserved for future use.

Studiekeuze: ervaringen fysische geografie universiteit utrecht

Voor de mensen die bezig zijn met hun studiekeuze zou ik graag mijn ervaringen met de studie fysische geografie aan de universiteit in Utrecht toelichten. Ik heb bij de faculteit geowetenschappen, departement fysische geografie  de bachelor Fysische Geografie en de master Physical Geography gevolgd.

De bachelor heeft te leiden onder de bijzonder slechte adminstratie en de totale desinteresse van het administratief personeel.

Simpel voorbeeld: de universiteit maakt en fout met de inschrijving, let op: de universiteit, niet de student. Ik ben MAANDEN bezig geweest met van het kastje naar de muur gestuurd te worden. Mailjes die ik daarbij ontvangen heb van de adminstratie begonnen niet met hallo/beste/groet, nee, die begonnen letterlijk met "Ik wordt hier zo moe van"

Heel tekenend voor de houding van de administratie. Helaas wordt het tijdens de Master erger.

De master-track Quaternary Geology and Climate Change is een aanfluiting. Er zit welgeteld ÉÉN vak in dat daadwerkelijk een vak is dat de lading van de track dekt. Helaas wordt het vak gegeven door een weinig gemotiveerde docent en is het voor 95% gewoon herhaling van vakken uit de bachelor.

Van mijn masteronderzoek heeft de faculteit één grote teringbende (excuses voor het woord) gemaakt. Het verhaal is te lang om hier helemaal neer te zetten, maar de zak-maar-in-de-stront houding van de universiteit was ongelovelijk onbeschoft.

Ik ben nog nooit eerder in mijn leven zo beledigd.

Na 7 maanden bezig te zijn geweest met mijn onderzoek zijn daar een paar namen op gezet, van de helft heb ik het gezicht nooit gezien, en is het onder de de naam van een PHD (aio) opgestuurd voor publicatie. Ter verduidelijking: Hij heeft alleen mijn onderzoek samengevat en ik heb hem gedurende mijn onderzoek een alleen paar keer laten weten hoe ver ik was.

Mijn Masteronderzoek zou begeleid worden door hem (wat niet mag volgens de regels van de universiteit zelf omdat het hier een aio betreft en geen docent) en door een docent.

Die laatste heeft tijdens mijn onderzoek niet alleen totale desinteresse uitegdrukt voor mijn onderzoek, maar zich zelfs uiterst onbeschoft gedragen richting mij en een enkele medestudent. Een studente waar hij wat meer 'feeling' mee had is wel uiterst uitgebreid begeleid.

Opmerkingen, verzoeken en emails werden totaal genegeerd. Op een uiteindelijke klacht na afronding van mijn master werd woedend gereageerd.

Het verhaal is natuurlijk veel uitgebreider, maar de deatils maken het alleen maar stuitender.

Ik kan iedereen die op zoek is naar een studie daarom van harte de studie Fysische Geografie aan de Universiteit Utrecht afraden.


Ik had nooit verwacht dat academici en administratief personeel bij een universiteit zulk ongelovelijk kinderachtig en beledigend gedrag zou kunnen vertonen.


Tot slot moet ik vermelden dat het onmogelijk gemaakt wordt om op tijd af te studeren. De extra kosten die daardoor gemaakt worden zijn voor de student. Ik ben helaas niet de enige met al deze ervaringen, hoewel de kusten & rivieren track en de hydrology track minder te leiden hebben onder rotte appels onder de aio's/docenten. Helaas hebben die wel te maken met dezelfde dramatische informatievoorziening en de onbeschoftheid van het administratief personeel.

Bij interesse in deze studierichting kan ik van harte aanbevelen naar de  Universiteit Van Amsterdam te kijken, ook de Universiteit Twente en Wageningen bieden studies aan in dit werkgebied.


Voor google een paar extra zoekwoorden:

Studie keuze, studie keuzes, studiewijzer, studie wijzer, plagiaat, bachelorkeuze, bachelor keuze, masterkeuze, master keuze,

http://www.shedbuiltbikes.com/fysische-geografie-utrecht/

Very cool W650 custom

I've posted a link to Lars' blog, Brauchi's bikes, a while ago, but his W650 is now as good as finished. A great bike combined with some photography talent results in this:

Great work Lars!

Check out more of this bike and some great photography on his blog.

Cool Volvo at the beach

I did ride the bikes this week, but nothing special. Went to the beach last friday (with the car) and saw this cool Volvo in the parking lot:

Bit more classy than 'my' '98 Mitsubishi Colt ;)

Venus and Jupiter are just visible on the photo. Nice night for a walk on the beach.

Picking up Horse photography again too, there's some money in that business....

In other news: I am working hard on a brand new website. The blogspot themes are just a bit too limited for what I want. More on that later....

Welcome to the first day of the rest of my life :)

t

So.... That is my car and it's me driving it. Well, technically, it's still my brother's car, but that's just a matter of some paper work.

Where I'm driving? On the way to my new job, just north of Amsterdam. I finished my study and found a really nice job in a really short time. But don't worry, nothing will change about my motorcycle-life :)


In other good news: This photo I made of myself on the CB:

Will be published in the largest Dutch photography magazine next months!

The Virago in motion

Video didn't work out completely as planned, so we will have to do it again.

Vincent's Ducati

A while back Vincent, the guy I built the Virago and the CX500 chopper with, bought a Ducati Cagiva Pantah 650. He sold his Yamaha R1 for it and that was a wise decission. The Ducatis isn't even finished yet, but I'm pretty sure he's already done more miles on it, than on the R1 in 3 seasons....

Although the bike is not finished yet, it is taking shape nicely. At this moment it has custom made exhaust pipes with modified mufflers, Emco air filters, air-supension at the back, a CX500 C gas tank, a seat made of a CX500 C gas tank, Tomasselli clipons, home made headlight and license plate brackets, after market headlight, Honda speedo and a seat made by the same guy (Raymond) that did the seat on my CB750.

Vincent took the Ducati for a test ride yesterday, while I tried to fine tune the Virago

As I said, it's work in progress. Heat shields on the exhausts are on his to-do list (though it's not a big problem)

And the engine needs some tuning (it's running a bit lean). 

All in all the bike is great fun and is nearly ready for the summer season.

We also did a short video, time was running out a bit and I filmed it from the Virago which was a surprisingly hard platform for filming (it's way easier on my BMW or the CB). The engine noise you hear is 100% the noise produced by the Virago, shame, cause the Duc sounds great too!

Virago update

It's been a while. Vincent managed to make something that's even louder than the Virago: A child. Cool kid though, Max.

Anyway: That was the reason for not working on the Virago and the SR500 for such a long time. I found a manual for our carb online, so I really wanted to give the Virago a tune up, while Vincent had some work to do on his Ducati.

I took the CB to get there, so we had quite a nice collection of bikes sitting in the sunlight.

Time to take the bikes for a test ride and of course: The Virago broke down (it only ran on 1 cylinder). As usual: it had nothing at all to do with anything else but bad luck: The rear spark plug didn't spark anymore. Every time the Virago has a problem we immediately start suspecting our home made inlet manifold and the carb and everytime it is something else.... (air hose, fuel problem, rubber inlet etc...) 

Anyway: the Virago ran very well and the Duc still has some work left on it.

BMW scrambler part II