Month: September 2012

A Repsol Goldwing and other strange creations from the Seattle, Backfire Moto motorcycle rally.

Sometimes I’m jealous of people who live in places that have seasons. Don’t get me wrong, living in Florida has perks not the least of which is year round (mostly anyway) riding weather. But sometimes I get jealous of those folks who live in places with big climate changes. It allows them a few months to simply concentrate on their latest project without the nagging guilt that they could actually be out riding instead of wrenching. It’s that thought that struck me when I was notified by Google that Steve Ginn had updated his latest online albums with some shots of the Seattle, September 19 Backfire Moto motorcycle rally. He’s also got other some fantastic albums.  Anyway, it occurred to me that any spontaneous gathering of such eclectic brands here in North Florida would be quite difficult to organize because A) we’re sorta segregated here when it comes to brands and styles and B) our projects are never “finished” because we’re usually out riding instead of wrenching.

Anyway here’s just a taste of some of the bikes in his album. Hit the link above to go see the whole thing.

 

The worlds smoothest Repsol!  I can’t even imagine the technical hurdles that went into this!

 

 

 

 

Seattle seems to have a great motorcycle Scene.  Here’s A few more choice bikes from his album.  Go check it out.  LOTS more there.

 

 

Interesting one of a kind Rotax powered, street legal, street/flat tracker, “Lineaweaver Special” from E-bay.

A cool tribute build called the “Lineaweaver Special” Lot’s more info on the E-Bay AD. NO!I am NOT affiliated with the sale! Sop please do NOT contact me about it. (It tends to happen when folks get lazy about reading the copy).

Excerpt:

“Offered for sale is a one of a kind Lineaweaver Racing assembled Rotax powered flat-tracker. This bike was custom built as a tribute to Ricky Graham. Ricky was AMA Grand National Champion three times: in 1982, 1984 and 1993 earning him AMA Athlete of the year in 1993. The bike was assembled during the 1991-92 calendar year. Andy Mill, the world-renowned World Cup downhill skier and, commissioned the assembly of the bike and was the first owner. Andy put nearly all of the bike’s current miles on it, totaling less than an estimated 20 hours. Being a race-modeled bike, no odometer exists.

Mechanically the bike is in excellent shape. The 600cc Super Single Rotax engine is Wood prepped, possessing special pistons and cams for higher flow and more power. The dyno sheet included with the bike shows 80whp at just over 4000 revs. The engine sits on a custom Wood designed frame weighing no more than 15lbs with a wheelbase of 54.5 inches. The bike itself weighs in at 251 lbs wet. The carburetor is a 41mm flat side Keihin. The bike does not possess an electric start, as it was intended to be pushed by a race team, kick started in second. That said, an electric starter could be easily added in the future for those interested.”

Some more cool old school..

Kurt adds to the collection!

Steve, your site is one of the great things about having a computer. As per your request, here’s a couple pics. The first is my dad in about 1940 on a ‘34 Harley VL and the second is me in 1979 on a ‘78 Yamaha XS1100. I hope you enjoy them even if you don’t use them. Thanks, Kurt

Wow! Your old man had it going on! And wheeling an XS1100 is no small feat!

A Bonanza Hodaka 100 “back in the day”!

Excellent! Keep em coming folks. I promise I’ll kep it mixed up too.

Mark Madison sends in this cool old shot. I guess I’ll have to go digging through my moms old photo albums for some DT100 and Z50 shots of mine. I knew of a few of these Hodakas when I was a kid and yes they were fast as heck. May have been my first inkling about the performance of 2 strikes vs four strokes. Then I got the DT100 and that was it for me. Especially compared to all the similarly sized Hondas at the time.!

Me and my Bonanza Hodaka 100
Here’s a pic of my Bonanza around 1972. This was a pretty scary fast bike compared to my previous bike, a 1971 Honda CT70 3-speed. By the way, I sent the pictures of my Hodaka Super Rat you posted not long ago, you’ll be able to tell by the house.

Sweet Montesa 250VR! A “back in the day” historic photo! How about some more!

I’d love to start a “back in the day” category of readers and their rides from when they were young. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular. The six year old on the Z50 monkey bike would be just fine. How about it folks?

Anyway, David Ingels sends in this great shot of his Montesa 250VR from “back in the day”

Hi,
Nice site! I’ve been looking for a Montesa 250VR to restore and while searching around the internet I stumbled on your site.
I saw where you are always looking for photos so I’ve attached a 1974 photo of myself posing with with my VR and you’re
more than welcome to use the photo on your site if you’d like. Between breaking a few bones and discovering girls I stopped
racing so after sitting in the garage not being ridden for a few years I unloaded her to some farmer that my dad knew in Pennsylvania
for $200 bucks to putt around the farm. I heard through my dad that he got it home and the first time he tried to ride it in the
driveway he hit the throttle and flipped her right over so his wife made him get rid of it immediately before he killed himself. If
only I could go back in time she’d be out in my garage waiting for me to get home tonight!

Sincerely,
Dave Ingels