Month: March 2012

Barton 750! The Silver Dream Racer!


Chris Alty sent in these pics of a bike and brand that I’m a little ashamed to say I know very little about. Especially considering my love of two strokes and old movies. He’s also getting a restoration business off the ground and included some nice links to more information. Check it out.

Hi
I have just had a look at you site and thought i would send you some pics of my Barton 750 projects, i hope to have one out in August and my site is www.bartonphoenix.moonfruit.com
Regards Chris Alty

(and in a later e-mail)
Eric Buell bought the rights etc when Barton closed its doors, check out the film Silver Dream Racer as Barton Made the bike in the film, i hope to have one of mine on the track later this year.
Regards Chris

Here’s a nice clip from Silver Dream Racer to see the bike in action. Nice stuff actually. Especially for the times!

March is a crazy month for me… Please bear with me.


Between the glorious weather, all the bike related activities, family outings etc (not to mention my birthday this week) I may be a little hit and miss on the posts this month. Please bear with me as there’s a lot of good material waiting in the wings.

A great video cataloging the building of an awesome XS650 street tracker.


From Andreas Mikkelsen! This is no run of the mill build. The work that goes into this bike is amazing. The headlight is a work of art all by itself. And click through to check out the rest of the videos on Vimeo. Great stuff.

Hi mcpotd
A little surprised to see myself on your site 🙂 , thought I’d let you know that I also built the streetbike you can see in one of the other
videos made by Supermotard DK, this spring I want to have made some pro photos of the bike, ill
send them to you.

Keep up the good work on your cool site.

Bedst regards from daily reader, Andreas Mikkelsen

Flat Track Bike Build from Supermotard Denmark on Vimeo.

I know I don’t post a lot of custom Harleys….


It’s still not really my “thing” but I do appreciate the craftsmanship.

There’s already a whole universe of blogs that cover modded Harleys so I generally don’t get in to them too often. But I’m making an exception in this case. This bike at a glance looks like a typically breathed on softtail but taking a closer look you can see that a lot of very high quality one-off custom work went into it. You start to notice that there really isn’t much that’s original on the bike.
Ted Brecheisen writes in with the details:

I’m presenting a couple of pics of bike that a friend of mine built. He had just backed it out of the shop to give it a ride to the Super Bowl party in downtown Indy.

This is a hand-made world class custom by award winning Jim Guy (J.B. Custom Parts) Indianapolis, IN. The frame was made by him. The tank, fenders and oil tank were hammered and rolled out from sheet stock by Jim. This thing looks like it is a slightly modified stocker…not. Here are a few of the unique features:

– 21″ x 3.25 wheels on both ends. This in it’s self is a tough thing to do on a full fender soft tail.
– 124 cu. in. S&S puts out some big h.p. Has Twin Tech electronic fuel injection.
– S&S 6-speed.
– custom made headers and exhaust.
– Performance Machine floating front disc brake.
– Danny Gray custom made seat.

This bike is brimming with custom details that are hard to notice, even from a trained judges eye.

Thanks for your site!!

A nice (but wounded) Yamaha RD400.


I’m a sucker for a nice 2-stroke.

Tony McGuire writes in:

Heres a pic i took yesterday of my gleaming Yamaha RD400 overlooking the Bridlington Bay in the UK (my home town)
the 2nd pic is of today when a 20 year old girl decided to reverse without using her mirrors 😦

Ouch.. Glad it wasn’t worse..

A Yamaha R15. An interesting modern small displacement sportbike from India.


I never heard of this bike until Kotty sent this to me. What an excellent small displacement ride. At first glance, I honestly almost skipped over it thinking it was just a stock R6. But the photography caught my eye and then I realized it was no 600. It’s a shame that we don’t appreciate these bikes here in the US. I know, big distances and all that but it’d be a heck of a city bike and if we had sensible restricted displacement licensing laws every kid in town would be on one. and it certainly would compete with the expensive all electric bikes that are going to be shoved down our throats in the near future. Bike specs and such can be found HERE

Hi ,
Iam from Chennai , INDIA
I have been following this site for the past two years right from its old site to now it’s all new one
I have great curiosity and interest towards bikes and biking.
Please find the attached pics of my all new YAMAHA R15 – VERSION 2.0 – ( I call her “ 46’S RED RACHEL )
Thanks
Kotty

At the Triumph Cafe.


Thanks to Tim Floyd who had no concrete info on the bike.

A nice video report from India on the new Royal Enfield Cafe Racer.


A huge thank you to Jonathan Garrish for the “field reporting” on this really nice ride. To be release in India for 2013. I’d be hugely surprised if it gets released with this level of components but it’s a hell of a pre-production / concept. No word if it will be coming to the us. Here’s a link to a decent report from January on Motorcycle USA

Hi,
I thought you might like this vid of a beautiful new Enfield cafe racer. I don’t know anything about the bike, except that in’s not a concept, but is some kind of pre-production prototype that *may* turn into reality in 2013. Woot!

A really nice TU250 from NY NY.


Thanks to Anthony Jaswinski for the cool scoot. If they build one of these as a 650 I’d be all over it.

A beautiful pre production1948 500t (trials) Norton from an upcoming “Harry Lindsay Collection” auction. Courtesy of Bonhams.


Gorgeous. Click through for a nice high resolution image. They do get quite the bikes.

BONHAMS TO SELL HARRY LINDSAY MOTORCYCLE COLLECTION AT THE 32nd INTERNATIONAL CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE SHOW IN STAFFORD
Over 30 motorcycles from the collection of the Irish motorcycle legend, Harry Lindsay, are to feature in Bonhams next auction at the Classic Motorcycle Show in Stafford, on 29th April 2012. The collection is expected to fetch over £200,000 in total.  Highlights include an ‘as new’ McIntosh Norton 500cc Manx (£25,000-30,000) together with a matching McIntosh Norton 350cc Manx (£22,000-27,000).
Bonhams is delighted to announce the consignment of the Harry Lindsay Motorcycle Collection. Harry’s family has long been synonymous with motorcycle production, racing and sales, his grandfather responsible for the creation of one of Ireland’s earliest motorcycles: the ‘Celtic’.
In 1926 Harry’s grandfather and father set up premises in 26 Great Ship Street, Dublin, the same premises from which Harry acted as Irelands major importer of Bultaco motorcycles and Honda spares, forging a lasting relationship with Snr Bulto, and entered Bultacos in the 1967 Production 250cc TT, riders Bill Smith and Tommy Rob placing 1st and 2nd, together with the Australian Kevin Cass placing 6th after engine trouble.
Harry was the Republic of Ireland’s Vincent agent and a good friend of Philip Vincent, and can lay claim to being one of only a handful of riders fortunate enough to ride Reg Dearden’s supercharged Vincent Black Lightning. Cousin of Reg Armstrong (Senior TT winner in 1952), Harry taught Reg to ride during ‘The Emergency’.  One of Harry’s closest friendships was with Stanley Woods, Harry and Stanley taking turns to visit one another at weekends.  Harry would insist on there being a subject to discuss during their visits, many of which are detailed in his book.
Harry comments on the sale, “So now after all my enjoyments, disappointments, interests and satisfactions the time arrived to make a decision. I did make that decision and that was to let the bikes go to be enjoyed by others of equal interest and lesser years.  I am now in my eighty sixth year and I would love to know what happens to them (motorcycles).”
The collection of over 30 motorcycles includes an ex-Stanley Woods/Bert Perrigo 1939 BSA 350cc B25 Competition Motorcycle  (£8,000-12,000); an ‘as new’ McIntosh Norton 500cc Model 30 Manx (£25,000-30,000) together with matching McIntosh Norton 350cc Model 40 Manx (£22,000-27,000); 1912 Rudge Whitworth 499cc (£8,000-12,000); a brace of Norton 500Ts including the 1948 Rex McCandless-designed pre-production model supplied by Norton to Chick Gibson (£7,000-10,000) and a circa 1928 Dunelt 499cc (£6,000-8,000) to list but a few.
Further early consignments to the sale include a c.1900 Singer Gents Motor Bicycle (£19,500-23,000); Sammy Miller restored 1904 Humber 2¾hp (£17,000-20,000); 1912 Matchless 8hp Model 7B (£14,000-18,000); One of four constructed, c.1958 Benelli 248cc Grand Prix racing motorcycle (£70,000-100,000); a particularly rare 1961 Fruin 200cc four-cylinder racing motorcycle (£8,000-10,000); 1992 Titchmarsh Seeley-Matchless 496c G50 Racing Motorcycle (£6,000-8,000); Matching numbers, 1937 Brough Superior 980cc SS80 (£30,000-35,000); Fully restored 1955 Vincent 998cc Series D Black Shadow (£60,000-70,000); 1936 Vincent-HRD 499cc Series A TT Replica (£30,000-36,000); 1928 Grindlay-Peerless 346cc (£5,000-6,000) and the Ex-Gerald Selby 1937 Rudge 499cc Ulster TT Replica (£4,500-5,500);
One of our premier motorcycle sales, the Stafford Spring Sale is the event at which to buy and sell pioneer, vintage and collectors’ motorcycles. To consign a machine to the sale or to discuss in confidence any aspect of buying or selling collectors’ motorcycles at Bonhams please contact our London office or visit our website for details of your nearest representative:
Image caption: Pre-production, 1948 Norton 500T Trials (£7,000-10,000)
For further press information and images please contact Katherine Boyle on 0207 468 8363 or Katherine.boyle@bonhams.com / press@bonhams.com
Notes for Editors
Bonhams
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world’s largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street and Knightsbridge; and a further three in the UK regions and Scotland. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Connecticut in the USA; and Germany, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Australia. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments go to www.bonhams.com