Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Major Motorcycle Rallies for 2012

In the off season, many riders like to plan rides to various motorcycle rallies. I have just updated my motorcycle rally article and schedule for 2012 to assist you.

Motorcycle rallies (biker rallies) are simply gatherings of riders and motorcycles at specified times and places usually with attendant vendors, food, games, and other activities.

Motorcycle rallies or biker rallies may last from a day to more than a week. Some major motorcycle or biker rallies are built around organized professional motorcycle races.

Motorcycle rally attendance varied widely from a low of a couple of dozen riders or less to huge organized rallies with hundreds of thousands of riders.

My updated article, Motorcycle Rallies (Biker Rallies) - Major Rallies for Motorcycles, gives basic information about motorcycle rallies. The second page of this article contains my list of the top motorcycle rallies.

The picture shows me raising my arm after I parked my bike on Main Street at the 1993 Sturgis Rally. That was the year of the great Midwest floods.

Monday, January 30, 2012

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

...or, A Boring Post.

I hate to admit it... yesterday was our first ride of the year. Lately things have conspired to keep it from happening but, knowing it was probably going to be a nice day, I just had to get the bikes out.

Now, there's a Big Dirty Secret here in SoCal. Whenever it's warm, the local news will ultimately say, "it was a beautiful day out today!". What they don't mention is, that when it's warm, it's usually very dirty, as in smoggy and I personally don't see the beauty in that.

Yesterday, was one of the rare warm but, cleaner days we get. Like the day after it rains.

To the west you could see the rarely visible San Nicholas Island and Catalina was so clear it looked like it was only 10 miles away.

My big mistake was that I didn't take a camera along so, I took a few photos upon our return to personally log and remember the day.

Off road Hydra.

Polar Bear Grand Tour to The Exchange in Rockaway, NJ

Check out pictures and videos of the 12th motorcycle run of the 2011-2012 Polar Bear Grand Tour season to The Exchange in Rockaway, NJ on January 29, 2012. A week before the Super Bowl and no snow in New Jersey.

Tindersticks - Marbles - 1993

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Triumphant ballerina





































Photo: Gene Schiavone

Via: themotorsurfer.com

Phil Blackford president of the Pirate Motorcycle Club 1948 to 1956





































Via: rr250roadracer - flickr.com

Riding skills





































Via: novocainelipstick.tumblr.com

Zest Fest 2012


Zest Fest 2012

If you like spicy / hot food you have to attend a Zest Fest. Just got back from Zest Fest 2012. Believe me when I tell you there was more than enough hot things to sample. Here are some photos:


There is Joshua, my youngest, on the left in the red sweat jacket. His head is turned, no doubt, so you cannot see him snickering after coning me into sampling something excruciatingly hot.






Dreadlocks & painted faces at the Zach's Zombie Sauce table.


They had a stage for musicians and for cooking demos.



This was on a tank top.


They had just about everything you could think of with hotness added, from margarita mix to chocolate. I sweated and even cried it was so good. Half of the fun was just seeing what they named some of the products. I left with a full belly from sampling and a mouth that was on fire. They had milk stations set up but wanted $2.00 for a small school kids sized carton. If you are in the D/FW area I hope I'll see you next year.

Ride on,
Torch

Color pic!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Big Boss Ring

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Hand made by us, one piece after the other, with lost wax casting technic, "The Big Boss Ring" is the first from a serie of rings being created. This silver ring is a limited numbered serie of 100 items. Three sizes are availables to be precised at your order. Expect three weeks delay for the making.

Available on the STORE













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Three Drifters on Canyon Roads

Here's a fun video featuring two professional motorcycle riders and a cop chasing them in a souped up Mustang. Check out the article by Adam Yamada-Hanff in torquenews.com and then sit back and enjoy three high-performance vehicles piloted by experts. By the way, don't try this at home. Read more and watch the video.

Steady. Steady.

Motorcycle Pictures of the Week - Pete

Here are my Pictures of the Week as displayed on the Motorcycle Views Website. These pictures are taken from the Moto Pic Gallery. See a 1947 Indian Chief Custom owned by Pete's grandfather under Men on Motorcycles. There are no Bikes Only, Trikes Only, or Women on Motorcycles this week. We need more pictures of men and women with their motorcycles. Get your picture in. For details, see Motorcycle Pictures of the Week.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rat Fink - Ed Roth





































Via: novocainelipstick.tumblr.com

Wheels Keep on Turning / The Dance of the Spokes

Back around 1979 in an Illustration class in Art School , we were given an assignment after being exposed to the art of Marcel Duchamp. I don't remember the perimeters of the assignment other than this being one of the things I came up with.


My generation grew up building models. Marcel poked fun at the art world. This was my way at poking fun at him,"conceptual art", and the model kits of the sixties.

Marcel Duchamp is considered by some as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Before you laugh, you have to consider that he was poking fun at the art establishment but, also the first (for better or worst), to experiment with "conceptual art", decades before the term was ever coined.

Marcel's words from a website I found: "In 1913 I had the happy idea to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool and watch it turn."


The two sides of the box I made. Having fun with how those old AMT and Revell model kits were sold as Three in One.

He continues, "The Bicycle Wheel is my first Readymade, so much so that at first it wasn't even called a Readymade. It still had little to do with the idea of the Readymade. Rather it had more to do with the idea of chance. In a way, it was simply letting things go by themselves and having a sort of created atmosphere in a studio, an apartment where you live. Probably, to help your ideas come out of your head. To set the wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of avenues on other things than material life of every day. I liked the idea of having a bicycle wheel in my studio. I enjoyed looking at it, just as I enjoyed looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace. It was like having a fireplace in my studio, the movement of the wheel reminded me of the movement of flames".


My miniature was based on the one above he made in 1951 for MOMA New York. In many ways it's the the most significant one, since it was the first to be exhibited to the art world. I'm guessing it was the one I saw in my class and art history book.

Duchamp said that the Bicycle Wheel was a "personal experiment", which was never intended to be shown to the public and wasn't formally shown in a gallery space until 1951.


The original Bicycle Wheel (l1913 France), was lost. The one to the left (also lost), was the first recreation made after Duchamp came to the USA in 1916. Many mistakingly refer to the 1916 version as the original since it's the first photographed. No, that's not me (on the right), in my studio. It's Marcel wearing a lampshade with a later recreation of the 1916 version in the sixties.

Since 1951 a few more Bicycle Wheel replicas were made. In Milan 1964, 8 were made based on the 1916 version under Duchamp's supervision and were signed. I came across one that was auctioned off for $1.7 million!


For my wheel, I used the front wheel off a Revell Chopped Hog Harley model. The fork is a cut down top fork tree from the Highway Patrol Harley model with model trees bent as legs. The stool was scratch built from balsa wood, wood dowels, and toothpicks.

Too me, there is something about the juxtaposition of the two objects. I also wonder if I'm the only one that can appreciate this strange combination of models from the sixties and art.

Now, before you shrug his concept off as stupid, think about it. 1. It wasn't Duchamp, rather the art community that made big deal of his Readymades. 2. It was a thinking machine for him to get ideas turning in his head. 3. Who can resist touching and turning a wheel? Who hasn't played with spinning a wheel, or been mesmerized by the criss cross visual flicker of the dance of the spokes?

Chris Mcneil - Twisted Throttle - BMW F800GS

Husqvarna concept Baja - 70's retro style












The Concept Baja is powered by a 650cc single-cylinder, liquid-cooled, four-stroke engine with very un-70's electronic fuel injection and a five-speed wide-ratio transmission.

More pics and info via: gizmag.com

Merry motorcycle go round and round and round

Vespa rentals on the beach - Florida - 1964





































Via: novocainelipstick.tumblr.com

Watch This Guy Riding On Top of a Mountain



This is pretty nuts.  Watching it doesn't make me half as nervous, though, as watching this video about climbing an antenna tower...

Monday, January 23, 2012

Random Shots

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Today a few random shots from last summer by our crew mate Benoit.












































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