Month: February 2011

It’s Not Your Grandpa’s XR500!

Tripped accross Andrews bike over on ADV rider and he was kind enough to hook me up with his build blog. Really really nice stuff. . He’s also the builder of another well documented NX650 Dominator Special!
Be sure to check them both out!

The Before pic!

Reader Submittal. Some Rickmans and a nice replica Harley!

Williw writes in:
Hello again,
I thought I’d send you a couple more pics I took while attending the Vintage Days events at Barber last Fall. This time I’ve attached pics of a pair of beautiful Rickman framed fours. One a 750 Honda the other a Z1 Kawasaki.  The other pic is of a replica of the Sportster Michael Parks “rode” in the 70’s TV series “Then Came Bronson”.  The owner has a website, www.thencamebronson.com,  thats quite a tribute to the show.
Keep up the great work!
Willie in TN

Great Stuff Willie!  Thanks!

Well, I couldn’t resist a little natural curiosity about the show “And Then Came Bronson” and found this intro video on youtube.

“VINNYLONGLEGS” to be auctioned! What an awsome Vincent! 721,703 miles and counting.

A special thank you to Katherine Boyle from Bonhams for this one.

“VINNYLONGLEGS” TO BE AUCTIONED AT BONHAMS
NORTHUMBRIAN ENTHUSIAST TO SELL WHAT IS PROBABLY THE HIGHEST MILEAGE VINCENT MOTORCYCLE IN THE WORLD
Bonhams are to sell a truly unique motorcycle which has spectacularly covered over 1million kilometres at the hands of one careful owner. It will be auctioned at the International Motorcycle Show in Staffordshire on April 24th 2011 and has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £35,000 – £40,000.
Fondly nicknamed Vinnylonglegs, this 1955 Vincent Black Prince is probably one of the most travelled motorcycles in existence, having regularly toured Europe to notch up its staggering 721,703 miles.

Stuart and Vinnylonglegs in 1955 and the pair together in 2010

Northumbrian born Vincent enthusiast Stuart Jenkinson bought his new 998cc Black Prince from St. Andrew’s Motors in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1955. Since then he is the only person who has ever ridden it – with the sole exception, presumably, of the original works tester. Of the three Vincents he has owned it is undoubtedly his favourite.

For 25 years Stuart used Vinnylonglegs for riding to work and long distance touring holidays. In 1980 it became the lead motorcycle in his new business running guided motorcycle tours in Europe. The machine has been rebuilt three times and progressively developed to cope with challenging European tours through countries including Germany, Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, Czechoslovakia, Montenegro, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Hungary and Greece. There have been more than 40 Greece tours of over 3,000 miles each, since 1962. On continental roads the machine has the ability to cruise all day at 100mph with a top speed in excess of 120mph.
Stuart comments, “As any long term owner of a bike or car will understand, selling Vinnylonglegs after 56 years and almost three quarters of a million miles is going to be a serious wrench. I’ll just have to make do now with the memories of all our wonderful trips.”
Modifications have included a re-designed front fairing, incorporating twin headlamps, and replacing the original upper frame with a stiffer box section Series C frame, while a four gallon Series C fuel tank now caters for the longer distance tour. Electrical equipment has been modified to provide greater safety and reliability, while disc brakes and Koni dampers provide both safety and riding comfort. The pannier frames carry two five gallon boxes while the shelf above normally carries a large army kit bag with full camping gear.
Ben Walker, Head of Motorcycles at Bonhams, comments, “Bonhams has a reputation for selling Vincent motorcycles, but this really is a remarkable example. Possibly the most well travelled Vincent ever made, I hope the new owner takes it over the 750,000 mile mark.”

Please help us get legendary dragracer Tony Nicosia into the AMA hall of fame!

Many of you who’ve followed me for the last few years know that my first love is old 2-stroke streetbikes.  In that community we have our own legends and one of those guys is a man name Tony Nocosia.
For those of you who’ve never heard of him, Tony is THE man who put the early Kawasaki Triples on the map with a small truckload of dragracing records.   And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a hell of a nice guy and is still a legend in the Triples and 2 stroke community.  To those of us who follow these sthngs it’s pretty clear that there is a bias against dragracers getting in. I just got off the phone with Tony and he said that he’d love to be the guy that breaks the ice for more of them. And I couldn’t agree more.
Well as it turns out, over on the Kawasaki Triples board John Aylor is spearheading a drive to get Tony Nicosia into the AMA Hall of fame and I want to do everything I can to help out. If you have a minute, we need folks to to send John an E-mail and a quick message that they support his nomination and think he should be entered for a stated reason. PLEASE DO NOT just say “I vote for Tony Nicosia” That won’t be counted. It needs to be in the form of a compliment of some type. Example… (in your own words please. If you just cut and paste this then 50 of the same comments won’t work either):
I think Tony Nicoscia is a credit to the sport of motorcycling and would make a fine Hall of Fame recipient. His accomplishments speak for themselves, his skills as a rider are legendary, and he is always willing to help anyone interested in the sport of motorcycling.I can’t believe he’s not a HOF member already etc etc…

I really appreciate it and I just talked to Tony and I know for a fact that he does too.

John’s  E-mail to me and Contact Info are as follows:
Hey Steve,
great you are helping.
Keep it simple have them write their “tribute” and have them E mail them to me directly.
Just make sure they need to say what tony did for their motorcycling experience, “I vote tony” is not useable.
And their name and city/state.
Thanks John
PS have then put Tony Nicosia in the subject box….
Johnayleng@aol.com.

Here is the man himself  “back in the day” lighting it up!

If you have any questions about this or want to contribute any links etc then I’m happy to help out in any way!

Thanks Everyone!

Here are some comments from John on the Kawi board about Ton’s influence on the motorcycle world:

I personally don’t think the Kawi triple would have been the “game changer” it was without Tony. If it wasn’t for his skills and dedication, there never would have been the adds where the 500 kicked everyone’s butt. Even thought he was an employee of Kawasaki, he worked his butt off traversing the country to show what a triple could do on local tracks. And I don’t think Denco would have been Denco without him and his skills. He even helped in the final design and testing of the first 500’s. Tony put in countless hours of work and years of traveling for not a lot of money. He set countless records that stood for decades, and motivated many to drag race themselves. Which who knows how much fun and accomplishment on the racers part, which made them better mechanics and people. (triple guys are good guys!)

I also think his records did much for Kawasaki’s direction in the performance field and probably led them in the direction of making more performance motorcycles, giving us great Kawasaki’s through the years. And maybe Kawasaki might have gone in a different direction without the support of sales from Tony’s records. And maybe Dave Schultz might not of gone Kawasaki and not pushed the reputation and records lower. Tony has done so much for our triples.

….

I’m just asking for a couple of minutes of your time now, not for myself, but to help not only a friend, but a guy that is truly responsible for the legend of the triple, the one that has guys stop you to talk about your bikes, and makes your triples worth so much.

PLEASE take a few to say a few words in Tony behalf. As I wrote he is the underdog as he doesn’t have the contacts or money to donate to get in the hall of fame. If anyone deserves to be inducted, it is Tony!

And again, we have to sway the actual voters, and a “I vote Tony” doesn’t really cut it. We need comments that will make them take notice to his accomplishments and how he has effected the motorcycling community through the years. And we need a LOT of responses, as they will be printed out and sent in.

I thank the guys that have already posted, and I would like to ask the ones with just a “I vote for” to take another minute of time to edit and say a few words.

I know the adds stuck in my mind all these years, and I still go “oh yeah” in my head when I see them, beating all the other makes! And the big combo test we all refer to where the H2 came out ahead with Tony’s tuning. (even thought they told him to de-tune the H2 so the Z1 would win, he stuck it to them anyway….LOL)

I was into dirt bikes and didn’t really pay attention to the street bikes, but the performance adds sure stuck and was the reason I got into triples in the late 70’s. And I’m sure they did the same for most of you.

So let’s do this for Tony guys, It’s only a few minutes……….