Working on Mistress, My Yamaha V-Star 1100 Classic

Made some progress today fixing Mistress, my 2003 Yamaha V-Star 1100 Classic. Ordered a new Light bar kit to get the hollow bolt to remount the left side driving lamp.

Remounted the windscreen, tightened the handle bars & reinstalled the clock & temp gauges.

Removed the saddlebags and left rear turn signal & straightened the mounting bar.

Still need to order new clear turn signal lenses & Star eyebrows.

A day at the beach.

More Loco

Dick on a their (the South Bay group's), annual cross country trip. Probably about 1973. These were some of the first photos Joe Hurst sent me, but I never got around to posting them.

Here's a pretty good shot of Dick and his Knucklehead chopper Loco-Motion. For such a well known bike, there aren't many good photos of it.

I believe this one is in Iowa.

Les Triplettes de Bonneville

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The French Touch....

"Les triplettes de Bonneville".... why this name? Seems strange, no? It's simply refering to a French-Belgian-Quebecois cartoon which has had a good success in France: "les triplettes de Belleville" (2003) (Belleville is a popular district of Paris)... Bonneville? No need to explain I guess.




Let's be patriotic, it's not often that France is at the top when it comes to motorcycle.
But more than that, it's the story of those four pals that's amazing and how what you can imagine as a heavy drinking dinner challenge turned into such a big enterprise.

Those four guys decided to go to Bonneville Salt Flats, just for the curiosity and observe how things were going out there, with the idea to compete, but at another time....

That was the beginning, we were in 2007... But, what is after all not surprising when you know those characters, they got more and more involved in the challenge.
So, as it's decided to buy an airline ticket to go to Utah and as they got luggage with them, why not transport a machine, maybe not able to win but not ridiculous on the salt....



So what? A bike? A car? .... great idea but no money. So the machine has to be transported IN the suitcases, obvious. Funny but obvious.



Then the good sized machine, available in France for a cheap price was a Mobylette.... very famous here, not very performant but famous, almost all workers were using that to go to Renault assembly lines in the post war period, millions of them have been sold in France . 49,9cc about 1.5hp max at 4000 rpm, max speed 45 km/h nothing to go to the moon with.... and nothing to beat records at Bonneville with either.



That's where our four musketeers began to take it more seriously "if we build something to go there, let's make it right".... here we go.
None of them was really acquainted with this two stroke engine.... they found Didier even though he was a skilled man, ready to help but too busy on other projects of less than 100cc bikes engines.... who finally completly transformed the performances and even build a second engine even more powerful, the first one being there as a spare then.





They transformed the cycle itself to be as low as possible, made different body works to fight air resistance and here they go. The frame can completly be disassembled to enter the suitcases... let's go to Wendover.



Imagine, four French guys opening their suitcases, there... on the salt, under the eyes of a multitude of wealthy and crafty american speedfans.... Everybody was astounded and they became the mascots of the 2008 speed week.

The machine called "Saline Contender" is a Motobécane Mobylette (pronounced MO-BE-LET) with a 49,9 cc 2-stroke engine. It can be a sidecar OR a solo bike. And it's a vintage one (before 1956).The job was so well done that it passed all the tests of the SCTA controls easily.





It runs on gasoline (120 octane as provided by the organisers) but the team also entered the bike in the 'fuel' class (in which you can use any mixture you want) just to double their chances to bring records back home.

They finally came back with 4 records : one for each team member (or suitcase carrier) ! They won the following Vintage 50cc classes : sidecar gasoline at 54.5 mph, sidecar fuel at 55 mph, solo naked fuel at 55 mph, and solo naked gas at 57 mph, all at about 10,000 rpm despite the heat (37-40∞ C or 90∞ F) and the altitude (1280 m or 4000 ft.)..



Hmmm.......Not bad for a machine initially designed to carry a 45 year-old worker from home to the factory and back,.... including the baguette and the bèret..... at an average speed of 35/40 kmh.

So.... they folded back the machine in their suitcases, the trophies and the bèrets too and flew back to France ready for another story....

Cocoricooo (they are not rookies anymore but proud roosters)!

To be continued

Text by Elmo
thanks to Jean Caillou


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London Calling !

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The new exhibition of Nick Clements is a great opportunity to cross the Channel.
The Royal College of Art is a place where we can meet this Thursday, before we make a detour by the Brooklands circuit.
See you there!






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See anything you want?

LLL 4 LV2

Here's another one from Hurst Airheart featuring Linda Vaughn.

B.P. Chopper Sculpture

After seeing the post on Greg Parigian's chopper sculpture, Bruce Parrish sent me some pics of the one he did for his father. It was based on and done when he finished his first build back in 1971. Bruce says, "It's 9.5" long and about 4" high at the sissy bar tip... and, yes, those are nails as well as washers, nuts and bolts, plus a few welding rods".


Bruce added, "Maybe I should go back to this form of art. Things happen way quicker".

Dick Allen's Blue Print Part 2

These shots of the Blue Print are from an old Street Chopper and were found floating around the blogs awhile back. I Photoshoped the top one, it was taken by camera and had a flash reflection and was distorted. I had this issue (since lost), and am guessing it's from around 1974-75. Anybody know the month and year of the Street Chopper this is from?

Except for the paint and the bars, the bike is pretty much the same as first built. Note the raised transmission. I forgot to mention that feature of the frame in the first post. It looks like this was shot near the Del Amo financial center at Hawthorne and Carson Blvd. in the South Bay.


If you can get past the model, you'll notice some of the goodies of the bike. She helps illustrate just how low this bike sits. Note the seat. Dick liked to keep them real thin.


Sorry about the magazine gutter but it's not my scan.

I wonder what became of the bike or frame?

A Lesson Pilots Can Teach Us About Riding

I've been reading a lot about general aviation lately, and it is striking how many similarities there are between flying and riding. That's probably why there are so many pilots who ride motorcycles, and vice versa.

There is one rule for pilots that I think transfers extremely well to motorcyclists: Fly the Airplane. In other words, as a pilot, your primary focus is always controlling the airplane, no matter what's going on around you. Door blew open? Fly the airplane. Your passenger is extremely sick? Fly the airplane. Airborne Zombies? Fly the airplane. Do not panic, do not get distracted, just fly the airplane until it's back on the ground and stopped.

In our case, the rule would be "Ride the Motorcycle." Ride it until it's stopped.

Without a doubt, you've heard some idiot explain a crash by saying, "I had to lay it down." It's possible at some point in your riding career, you've uttered those words. I have, when I was younger and dumber. Luckily, I'm now older and better trained, if not any smarter.

Here's the thing: There is no situation I can think of where "lay it down" is the right decision. Bailing is the wrong choice, as is freezing up and just passively sitting on the bike as it rolls toward a tree. Ride the motorcycle! You can stop in far less distance by judicious application of the brakes than by sliding across the pavement. You can swerve. You can think ahead and figure out an escape plan, though we all know some things are tough to predict, and some situations you just can't escape.

Apart from those situations, there are plenty of things that happen while riding that can be pretty distracting. Catching a big rock in the shin, for example. Discovering a bee has made it's way into your goggles. A vengeful lunch. An attractive person you'd like to impress. Distraction in any vehicle is a bad thing, but as motorcyclists we just can't afford to be distracted while rolling.

Or you could go into a turn too fast and panic. Do you give up control and go careening across all the lanes, or grit your teeth and ride the motorcycle through the turn? Maybe you lost your grip on the clutch and popped an epic, unintended, wheelie. Do you hope for the best, or control the bike?

So whatever happens on the road, remember, your job is to ride the motorcycle. Ten car pile-up right ahead of you? Ride the motorcycle. Bee sting on the forehead? Ride the motorcycle. Ride it until it's stopped, whether that's upright or on it's side.

Aston Martin DB6

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Sometimes life makes you gifts, you can have the car or the girl, and more rarely both, my buddy "S" is lucky and he used it well ...
Which one will be the hardest to keep at home?










Shot with Hasselblad and Kodak Ektar 100




This DB6 Mk1 automatic is in its original Dubonnet red with black leather trim and black carpets.

This is a 1966 automatic with matching numbers and an odometer reading of 96,000 miles. Annual MoT certificates dating back to 1977 suggest that the mileage is genuine.

It was restored around 10-15 years ago.

History of the DB6
The DB6 was announced and shown to the public for the first time at the London Motor show in October 1965 and shares its general specification with the DB5.
The most obvious difference between the DB6 and DB5 were changes made to the rear body, the rear spoiler or KAMM tail and the lengthened wheel base to realise a 4 seat capability, reduced cost of production and an improvement in performance through reducing drag and lift at speed. Other changes led to modification to the front to reduce lift, improve cooling and this led to the fitting of quarter bumper bars as opposed to the full width ones fitted to the DB5. The use of unequal length trailing arms for the rear axle, required to enable the adoption of an increased wheelbase, also had the benefit of increasing the rear end roll stiffness which further improved the general stability of the new DB6.
Despite all of the modification for the DB6, weight was only marginally increased and the no cost option of a full Vantage specification engine realised a performance for the DB6, which rivalled that achieved by the DB4 GT some years earlier and never achieved with the DB5.
On the road, the DB6 is noticeably more steady and in general use, a more comfortable car with noticeably better internal room for driver and passenger alike. General handling is at least as good as the earlier DB5 and the ride generally is more controlled and comfortable. All in all, the DB6 though planned as an interim model, had indeed achieved a worthwhile gain over its predecessor, all be it at the expense of some of the purity of line exhibited by the DB4 and 5.
While the general specification of the DB6 resembled closely that of the DB5, its achievable maximum speed went up to 148 mph from 141 mph with correspondingly improved acceleration.


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Old Chopper Drawings

When Greg Parigian sent his sculpture photos, I asked if he could send some of my old drawings that I haven't seen for years.

I haven't seen the top one since about 1969. He sent a copy of the bottom one a few years ago and it's been posted before.


The chopper out front is a trike featuring a surrey type top and wooden pickup box in the back. Until now, I completely forgot this drawing. It's funny how the memories come back.


I'm 99% sure this of an actual trike. There's are just too many details that I know I didn't make up. There was a Asian biker who went by the nickname "Chink" that had a trike like this. He and some other bikers lived in an old two story house across from the Jack in Box on the corner of Flower st. and Century Blvd in Inglewood, CA. Greg and I once rode our chopped Sting-Rays over to check out their bikes. The bikers got a real kick out of our bicycles and took turns trying to ride them. If only we took a camera. I Google mapped it, and it appears the house and a remodeled Jack in the Box are still there.

Born Winner

I must be the luckiest man alive! Just look at how many winnings I came into last month, and it wasn't even the whole month.

P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute".

up and down

1964 Duo Glide

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This 1964 Duo Glide was abandoned for years at the bottom of local H.D dealer. When "F" started to work as commercial in the garage, he immediately spotted this machine, as nobody was interested by, he restored it with the help of VTM. Paintjob was done by MBS.
The engine is now tuned and reliable with a double ignition, S&S cylinders and pistons, Jim's strenghtened pushrods and valves springs, Electronic ignition by Mallory, Delkron crankases, Andrews suicidal clutch, and double disk brakes by Performance machine.

L e t's g o f o r a R i d e !