ITB

My best friend in the whole damn world!
It's funny how the world works, because we're kind of the exact opposite. For me, it's all about the bike itself and the meticulous restoration, care and maintenance of a motorized piece of history. But for ITB, it's all about the freedom to ride. Don't get me wrong, he likes to wrench, and I like to ride, but the balance is swayed for both of us. I'm often jealous of his take on life and his view of motorcycling, but I'm just happy that I get to know him.

Miss you bud, ride safe...

Chicago - Mods vs. Rockers 2013

Each year I go to this show with much hesitation. The main reason for this is because the premise for the show being Mods vs. Rockers, which in this case is grossly misleading. I realize that the the event is supposed to be done in the "spirit" of the era and is hosted as a way to get motorcycle enthusiasts together to celebrate that long lost era of the 50's and 60's. But since the amount of bikes and scooters that actually represent the era correctly can be counted on 1 hand, it's a real disappointment. In the end, I wish the name of the show would simply be changed. There's certainly nothing wrong with getting people together for a motorcycle event, but in this case, the show has become a mockery of itself. Anyone wishing to know more about the history of the Mods and Rockers, and the bikes and scooters they rode, should do their research. This isn't a history lesson by any means. I just simply don't like the fact that over the last 5 years or so, the concept of such things has gotten misrepresented and watered down to a point of being unrecognizable. So much so, that any new comers finding motorcycles or scooters for the first time, are getting a big dose of all the wrong information.
Chicago doesn't seem to have a very good scene for vintage motorcycles in general. Which is strange considering the size of city, overall population and vast amount of people that are out riding. This particular show seems to be more social experiment than motorcycle show.

This year, I decided to cough up $125 for my half of a booth space. A good friend of mine and I would share a booth with the intent to showcase genuine machines of the era, the chance to sell some nicely restored parts and promote being able to help with the import of special parts and potential restoration services. I was skeptical of participating to be honest, and this was simply based on my experience with the event in years past. But I decided to put my money where my mouth is in order to be part of hopefully accurately showcasing vintage machines. What a noble soul I am (sarcastic of course). The main issue for me was that by setting up a booth, I'd be unable to ride to the show. With 2 trucks worth of bikes, parts, tables and tents, I simply would be working instead of riding in and enjoying the show as a spectator / participant. Oh well, such is life.

The day started out in pouring rain and looked like it would be a complete disaster. All week was forecasted thunder storms and when the morning came, the forecast proved to be correct. We packed up and headed into the city early in order to get a decent booth location. 55 miles later and we're there. Setting up in the rain, trying to stay dry and trying to make our presentation look, well, presentable. Mission accomplished, and after about 2 /12 more hours of rain, the skies cleared up and the ground dried up. This is the point where I really missed the fact that I wasn't able to ride.

In order to not get long winded, I'll summarize; the show is great social gathering and I can respect all the effort that goes into it. But the turn out of bikes and people isn't very impressive. Or at least that's my humble opinion. In the end, I think maybe 5 people gave a shit about what we had to show. Which is about 5 more than I figured would care.

Photos from the show with a few captions for the things that mattered. I'll let you make up your mind about the rest:

A sea of modern Triumph Bonnevilles.

The collection of BMWs are the only ones that seem to have it right. BMW owners are well known for the amount of miles they put on, as well as being pretty obsessed with the details. Hats off to all the nice BMWs that were a highlight of the show. A couple of which had the very rare Haske fuel tanks.

Interesting BSA single. This one is a bitsa based around a 500cc B33 motor, which has been stroked to increase it's capacity. Some nice features including brass bezel speedometer, banjo fitting for the fuel tank vent and vented single leading shoe front drum.

This Triton is owned by Larry Fletcher, and he puts on the Mods vs. Rockers show. Hats off to all the hard work that goes into it. And don't hold it against him for the people that turn out for the show.

This is a very rare, mostly period correct cafe racer. Built by a small North London firm called Marchant and Durward. I'm not a Triton fan by any means, so it pains me a bit to point out how nice of a bike this is. I feel that you're either a Triumph guy or a Norton guy, so the meshing of the two, is sacrilegious in my book. This machine is really interesting in that it consists of an early wideline featherbed Norton frame and pre unit Triumph motor, but was assembled by the firm in 1968. The late 50's and early 60's cafe racers were all home built machines that were stripped down, modified and fitted with discarded race parts whenever possible. But by the mid 1960's, bolt on cafe racer kits started to become available through the likes of John Tickle and Paul Dunstall. So this particular bike is of that era, but much more rare than the Dunstall and Tickle bits. Actually, this is the only one that I've seen in the flesh, and even finding information or photos online is next to impossible.

Clubman bars and white grips seem out of place on such a machine. Velocette steering damper knob is broken and a sign of the age and use of this bike back when it was built.

Another strange feature is the heat wrapped pipes. They just seem out of place on this bike, and certainly wouldn't have been original. Stamped timing cover shows the firm's mark.

Cast aluminum front brake plate twin leading shoe adapted into standard Norton front hub, with scoop, and M / D stamped into the brake arm.

A good example of the sort of confusion you'll see with newly built "custom" bikes. Yamaha motor and frame with a Honda tank..

Original 1970's Triumph dirt tracker. Not my cup of tea, but a genuine bike nonetheless.

A couple of vintage Moto Guzzis. The red one was in the show, and the black one, simply parked on the street.

The Honda 450 Black Bomber is my favorite of all Hondas. A late 60's machine and built before the gaudy style that Honda adopted in the 1970's. It's got a great stance and a solid presence. This one was nicely restored and looked the part.

Very nice pre unit Triumph in classy black and tan paint and period panniers.

I saved the best for last. This beautiful Italian race bike belongs to a good friend of mine and is about as nice as it gets. Very rare 1965 Zanzani Motobi 250cc factory race bike. Saved from the scrap yard and restored over a very long period of time. A true commitment to the passion of owning a vintage machine. I hope to give this bike it's due justice and give it an in depth feature at some point in the future.

You'll probably find a bunch of other features online about the Mods vs. Rockers show, and I feel that the photos tend to make it look better than it really is. Maybe I'm too big a critic. But I attend these events to see great vintage motorcycles and hopefully meet link minded people that love their machines. But in the end, this one tends to be more of a street party than an enthusiasts gathering. But you can make up your own mind.

On The Bench - Norton Brakes & Hubs

Norton Brakes & Hubs

This will be sort of an ongoing chronicle of parts and projects that are literally "on the bench", and getting their turn at repair / rebuilding / restoration.

All of these parts are standard Norton bits and would be found on any Dominator or Atlas from the mid 1950's through the later part of the 1960's. The rear hub was purchased inexpensively at the Road America swap meet, while all other parts were purchased as a lot from a gentleman in Kansas. As is with most of these things, they've just been discarded over the years and have sat dormant, collecting dirt, grease and rust. Until now that is.

These particular pieces don't have any immediate use on my Atlas or Dominator project, so for now they'll be considered spares, or potentially for sale at a later date. I don't sell junk, so when / if any of these parts come up for sale, they'll be completely restored.

First up is a standard Norton single leading shoe brake plate. This was first up to be disassembled and the initial cleaning started. I sort of jumped the gun and had started before shooting these photos, so you'll see that it's already been taken apart, dusted off, and the brake plate got a quick polish on the wheel so that I could see how deep the gouges were in the aluminum.

On to the rear hub and brakes. One is just a brake plate, complete with shoes and brake arm. The other is a complete drum with sprocket, brake plate and shoes. The complete unit looked terrible and took a few minutes to remove it from the drum. Inside was enough rust to warrant this needing some serious attention. These photos were taken after I had already cleaned them with the brass wire brush. As can be seen, they'll need further cleaning.

The brake drum is cast iron, so the rust tends to accumulate and look much worse than it probably is. But it'll need to resurfaced before it sees any use.

All of the cast iron and steel parts will be sand blasted with a soft media that's normally used to blast aluminum.

Anything aluminum will either just be cleaned with solvent and a brass wire brush, or potentially a soda blast. I never media blast cast aluminum as it ruins the original factory finish, and just as a personal preference, I always aim to maintain that finish.

After that, the outer drum surface, rear brake plates and brake arm will be painted back to their original black finish. The front brake plate will be lighted sanded to remove any deep gauges and then polished. It'll likely need a new bushing as well. The shoes will be cleaned, new pads fitted and then turned down to fit the drum. All the hardware will be cleaned and retained unless it's beyond use. Generally speaking, the hardware tends to clean up nicely and can simply be reused. In some cases, they'll need to be sent out with the next batch of fasteners that gets plated.

The front brake lever is chromed steel and badly pitted. Most likely even if it were to be stripped and re-chromed, it wouldn't look very nice. But we'll give it a shot and see. I had plans to fabricate my own aluminum lever with some period speed holes drilled into it. I've also got plans for a period alloy scoop to be added to the front brake plate and some cooling holes drilled into it. But that project goes along with another very special hub that's on its way. More about that later.

Lastly, a standard Norton bolt up rear hub. This one is pretty straight forward and cleaned up nicely just with the brass wire brush. It'll need another round of that, but should clean up nicely. The hub cap cover was in tact as were the original screws. The hub cap has been sanded and one spot polished just for inspection purposes. Obviously the whole unit will be treated to new bearings.

It'll be a while before any of these parts are finished. Since they're simply for spares, I'll work on them as time permits. Anything that's needed for the Dominator project will take priority. But I'll report back as these things get finished up.

I often wonder why these parts were discarded in the first place. They always need a good inspection to see if they were set aside due to damage, and therefore are either unusable or in need of serious repair. I like to think that previous owners removed these from bikes in order to fit more exotic parts, but I doubt that to be the case. Either way, all of these parts look to be in fine shape, so once they're restored, they'll be usable on any of my machines.

In the end, I'll surely have more money and way more time into these parts than they're technically worth. Most people wouldn't care about any of these things, and certainly wouldn't want to buy them for the amount of money that would be into them. But to me, they're worth saving, and should have there day being called back into service.

2013 AHRMA Road America - Vintage Races and Swap Meet

Road America happens to be the site of the very first vintage race that I've ever attended, so I have a bit of a soft spot for the place. Don't get me wrong, I've been riding, rebuilding, restoring and tinkering with vintage motorcycles for quite a while, but never really lived anywhere close enough to conveniently attend the races. I've put on countless miles and spent countless hours and finances on old Norton motorcycles, so getting to see them ridden in anger as they were intended is a sight to behold.

Rewind a few years back and having moved to the Midwest from sunny Southern California, Spring time here has taken on a new meaning in regards to being able to enjoy riding. So the first AHRMA event of the year, that's close enough for me to attend, is something that I look forward to with great anticipation.

Obviously the races are the main attraction, but the swap meet is a big part of it for me. Being in the midst of scouring the globe for the remaining parts I need to finish my Norton Dominator, I welcome every opportunity to scrounge around on tarps full of greasy and discarded parts. I should mention that Road America has miserable swap meet in my opinion. The number of swap meet "booths", generally hovers between 15-30. This year being on the low end, and the quality of parts up for grabs is quite dismal. I will say that I was able to pick up 2 bits that I'll be able to use as spares once they've been cleaned and rebuilt, but that's another story altogether.

The races on the other hand are quite good, and I've seen the attendance in the paddock climb in numbers each year. This is mostly due to the CB160 class and the affordability to build and race such a machine. Most the rest of the field is filled with fairly high dollar original machines, or even higher dollar replica machines. AHRMA rules seem to be a bit lax, and while that tends to spit in the face of preserving the historical experience, I'll admit that it seems to bring out more and more people. So, is this a good thing? I don't know. In my mind, I'd much rather see a smaller field of racers and motorcycles that are original machines rather than replica bikes and modern bikes that are now allowed. I suppose that this is all a matter of opinion. But to me, if it's not original and it's not old, then I have little to no interest.

In order to cut my ranting short, I'll get into the photos from Saturday. I'll preface this by saying that I'm a Norton guy, so most of what I shoot is what's interesting to me. The rest is a smattering of other activities around the paddock...

Manx Norton

The Manx Norton pictured above belongs to Bob McKeever Sr., and his son Bob Jr. And is one of 3 Manx Nortons that they race each season. All of which are ridden by Alex McClean.

Bob Sr. raced an original Gardengate Manx on the beach at Daytona back in the late 1940's, and has been active in racing since. A full write up can be found in Mick Walker's  book "The Manx Norton".

Father and son own and maintain an original Featherbed Manx, a 1962 spec replica Manx and a much older ES2 rigid framed Manx. All campaigned under Bob Sr's original race number - 122.

Each year, their tent is my very first paddock stop, and I'll spend a lot of time milling around and admiring the bikes. When the time is appropriate, and the 3 of them aren't busy tending to the machines, I try and sneak in a hello, or some general conversation. They've always been extremely nice to me and always happy to share information. This year, I made a point to bring my copy of The Manx Norton, and was lucky enough to sit and chat with Bob Sr. for about 10 minutes. He shared some great stories about his racing back then, and we talked about Manx crank cases and Amal floats. Perhaps that would sound boring to some, but it's the kind of thing that I live for. Before I let them get back to it, Bob was happy to sign his page in the book, and finished it with his racing number.

This year, there seemed to be a couple more Aermacchi's in the paddock, and although I don't know much about them, I certainly find them to be very interesting and extremely purposeful looking. 

Lots of American Iron to be found, and although I didn't see any of them on the track, there's at least a few of these old machines that are campaigned on a regular basis. And surely some that are brought out for the rest of us to admire.

Restored single cylinder Moto Guzzi that I see in the paddock each year. This particular machine isn't raced, but gauging from the dirt and oil that can be found on it, it looks to be ridden and enjoyed.

Tim Joyce's Manx Norton. I can't say for sure, because unfortunately, I've never had the chance to speak with him, but I believe this to be a Summerfield Manx. Generally speaking, the bare steel frame with brazed welding is the sign of a replica machine. This one looks to be well set up and thoroughly fettled. I didn't see him have to lay a single spanner on the machine the entire day.

High level exhaust, very expensive magnesium gearbox, 250mm Fontana front hub and neat Magura twin pull brake lever...

Jon Thorndike's Norton Atlas.

Last year, Jon was a newcomer to the paddock and a man after my own heart. I was nicely surprised to see a younger guy racing something besides the CB160 class, or Novice Production Class. Jon chose to jump straight in to the 750 class with his highly modified and well set up Norton Atlas. This machine has some nice features, and it's great to see an original Norton motor in an original Norton frame.

I recall last year asking Jon about the BTH magneto on his Norton. Originally the Atlas would have been fitted with a Lucas K2F unit. He told me that he had tried a Lucas K2FC, but had trouble. So a modern BTH magneto was ordered up, and with it's electronic advance, all issues were cured. 

When I walked up, Jon was hard at work with the timing chest open and ear plugs in. I could tell he was in the thick of it, so I opted just to shoot a couple of photos rather than disturb his progress.

Replica machines...
A point of debate and contention amongst purists and those interested in vintage motorcycling.
First, let me say that I'm not a fan of replica machines in most cases. I think that my only exception to this would be a replica machine that was done as exact as possible to a genuine original. And even in this case, I think that all replica machines should be raced in their own class.

I can tell you that there's no secret here, and owners / riders of these replica machines will openly admit to what they have. "To each it's own" as they say. I'm sure that these machines are amazing to ride, but they just don't always seem to properly represent the era. You'll see a lot of them with configurations that never existed together. Twin disc brakes, electronic ignitions, Japanese Mikuni carburetors etc etc. So the question is; what is the machine replicating? But the rules allow it. I'm not here on some crusade against AHRMA, and I'm sure that the rules are "modernized" in order to bring out racers and keep the attendance growing.

Let's face it, to race an original Manx or Matchless G50 would be quite expensive, and therefore accessible to very few of us. And the act of preserving these original machines makes it so that you certainly don't want to be out there throwing it down the track. Who could afford that?
Knowing all of this, it makes the original machines that much more desirable in my opinion.

One of the newer replica machines you'll see is the Minnovation G50. A high end and very expensive GP class racing machine.

Cool details on a BSA racer. Vented front hub and interesting paint choice. The Smiths tachometer looked very cool in this color:

Interesting BSA Goldstar that was tucked deep into the tent. Unfortunately, this is as close as I could get.

Big D Cycle from Dallas Texas is always present, and they run a well set up pre unit Triumph.

I spent most of my race watching time on the hill that looks down at the "Hurry Downs" section of the track. It's a comfortable place to sit with a nice view of 3 separate corners. You can hear them coming up the hill after turn 5, and then appearing at the left hander in turn 6. It's difficult to get any decent racing photos with the mediocre camera that I have, so this is just a nice shot of the track and Wisconsin's scenic back drop.

Saturday racing is always a bit more mellow than the action you'll see on Sunday. Riders getting in scrub laps, picking lines through the track and working out any mechanical gremlins that might keep them from racing success. The rider on this Triumph had some sort of mechanical failure coming down the hill and was forced to simply pull over, spectate the rest of that race and wait for the crash truck to cart him back to the paddock. Hopefully whatever the issue was, ended up getting sorted so he could be back in the action for Sunday.

Most of the swap meet area looked more like motorcycle debris rather than actual usable parts, so I chose to shoot a few photos of things for sale that were at least together enough to look at.

The last stop of the day was a visit to Dave Roper's tent. Dave is the first American to ever win the Isle of Man TT race, aboard a Matchless G50 back in 1984. He's been actively racing for more years than I know of, and he's a very talented racer that's doing it right in my opinion. He rides and maintains original machines and I've seen him win many races, as well as pass riders on much "faster" machines.

Throughout the day, I walked past his tent several times and could see that he was quite busy tending to the Aermacchi on the stand. I didn't want to interrupt, but I was lucky enough to find an opportune moment late in the day to ask for his autograph. We talked for just a minute and he told me there was a crash early that morning, and he was just about finished repairing the bike. Definitely easier to repair a broken machine than a broken rider, so I was glad to see that he was ok and would soon be back on track.

Dave Roper's Moto Guzzi, the main himself and his signature. Thanks Dave, you made my day...