Rockerbox "Made in England"

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When we were last over in England, Mark showed us around his old hunting ground. One of the places we visited was 'Rockerbox' near Farnham in Surrey, a small and discreet bike shop and workshop situated at the roadside, specialising in Triumph's and BSA's for the past forty years. Outside a handful of machines were parked up, and the window display was a hint of what we were about to discover inside..

Standing behind the counter, Darrell the owner explained that all their parts are original manufacturers stock, while in the workshop his mechanic was busy working away on a T110. Old photos and posters on the walls reflect "une belle époque", and when we asked Darrell about a certain part he immediately located it by thumbing through one of his parts manuals, not a computer to be seen! Rockerbox has seemingly resisted the passage of time.. much to our pleasure.

Taking pride of place amongst the bikes for sale, a 1952 TR5 trial..






















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Kawasaki Recalls 2011 VN900D for Tire Problem

Kawasaki is recalling certain model year 2011 VN900D, Vulcan Classic LT, motorcycles.

The tire inner tubes might have been pinched during the mounting of the tires. Damage to the inner tubes could result in loss of air pressure.

The number of units affected is 436.

Check out my Motorcycle Recalls feature for more details.

Fing !

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tracking a new surfing film by jimmy james kinnaird - trailer from James Kinnaird on Vimeo.

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Born-Free-3-2

More from the show. As said before, I didn't have enough time to see all the bikes, take photos, or inspect their details , as I'd liked to.

1947 Knucklehead with lots of nickel plating built by Dave Polgreen was another Builders Invite award winner. Love those wheels. Paint by Harpoon.


Robert Hernandez's long bike. I think it won best in that class. Class was judged by long time long bike expert Sugar Bear.


Levi Louie's Loose Goose. Built it in 69. He's now offering Dick Allen styled forks. This is the bike that was in my first "Ladies Like'm Long" post. Unlike most, he made the back bone one piece from the seat post to the neck.


Mike Davis brought out his own Knuckle Project. Mike has a nack for putting just the right parts together.


A very clean and nicely done Panhead out amongst the sea of bikes. Bobber?... I still say it's an early style chop.


I remember seeing this 70's style Sporty in flat black at the Jan. 2010 Long Beach Swap Meet. Click HERE to see it then. At that time, I had no idea it was a work in progress.

I judged the Bobber class and chose Hogan's '47 Knucklehead as it was obvious that he took great effort to make it authentic. The white and blue pan behind it also belongs to him. His buddy, the notorious Doc. Sprocket rode his Sportster down from Sacramento to Hogan's place in Socal and then accompanied him on the Bob Job to Born-Free. I later found out it won the same class at the David Mann Chopper Fest.


The proud owner, stopped by my booth to say thanks and farewell.

More to come.

Looking At The Bright Side Of A Suddenly Dead Battery On A Hot Summer Day In The Desert

I had been worried about not having anything to post today, but my ever-faithful Triumph, as always, provided.

The heat has arrived in Phoenix. It's the time of year when I can count on sweating more or less from the moment I leave the house until just before it's time for bed. Such is life in the desert. I can deal with it.

Of course, the temperature extremes in the desert are very hard on auto and motorcycle batteries. If your battery lasts more than a year here, it's one quality battery. That's why our car has a Die-Hard in it. I'm sure there's a compelling reason why I haven't put a Die-Hard in the Triumph, but I can't think of what it is. Anyway, I've got some other battery the dealer put in there right now.

And it died again. I just got the new one in March.

I discovered the dead battery thusly: After fifteen miles of desert freeway, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up coffee filters and tortillas (why else?). Every one and their cousin had also stopped at the Quick n' Dirty at the same time. I shouldered my way through the hordes of lifeless heat zombies, got my two items, checked out, and put my gear back on.

When I thumbed the starter, it coughed weakly and asked me not to do that again. Of course, I did try again, much to the starter's irritation.

The only reasonable thing to do was to raise my arms to the sky and yell "Today? Here? Seriously?" The other parking lot denizens took this as an their cue to look elsewhere and move away slowly.

Luckily, I remembered there are two things in my favor in these situations. One, my motorcycle has a clutch. Two, a Lucky in motion has a lot of inertia on his own. Added to a rolling motorcycle, well, don't try and stop me. My only concern about push starting the bike was whether or not the thing would run with a dead battery. Some bikes don't. A modern Vespa, for example.

I got the motorcycle rolling across the parking lot, shifted into first gear, popped the clutch, and rode along home. The instrument cluster was not behaving right, of course. The displays kept going blank on me at low RPMs, but the important thing was that it kept running until I got home.

So now I just have to wait for the bike to cool off enough so I can stand over it long enough to pull the battery. Easy as really, really hot pie.

And here I was worried I wouldn't have anything to write about. See? It's not all bad.

Blitz and the Motorcycles

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It could be that like many of you I was unsettled, even disturbed, upon first discovering Blitz and their creations.

Comments on posts written by Chris Hunter and Pipeburn seem to underline this sentiment, an almost explosive mix of love or hate to an extent that I have never seen before..

The sometimes chauvernist little world doesn't always easily accept new faces, especially when they receive almost immediate recognition for bikes they produce. Whilst not being exceptionel in their own right, they do however have their own particular charm owing to attention given to detail and an unmistakable 'Punk' spirit.

Fred and Hugo ooze attitude, but rather than being driven by trend, this same esthetical importance forms the basis of their bikes.

Fred brings to the duo a 'savoir faire' earnt in a handful of custom workshops in Los Angeles, while Hugo adds a touch of style.

I admit to reacting negatively when I heard that the guys from Blitz would be attending our Southsiders 3rd party...

I admit giving it two days before bothering to take a closer look at their machines..

I admit it took two days before showing any interest in Fred and Hugo, hidden behind their beards..

Mea Culpa !!

As things turned out meeting Fred and Hugo was an eye opener, a lesson in how never to judge people by appearances, and yes we had a great time to the extent that I just had to try their two machines! Riding the SR500 and then the R90S took me back to my twenties in an instant, and I can tell you these are far from being just show bikes...

In a universe where we are stifled by pressure to conform, these guys are a breath of fresh air, and the path they have chosen should be encouraged.

Long live Blitz..

Fred

Hugo

I.D.W.P from Edwin Europe on Vimeo.

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What up Trumpet guy?

Yep......motorcycles

Have You Seen This Crazy Crash?

So, two riders crash (they both hop up right away), their bikes get tangled and start spinning in circles. I'm probably a terrible person for this, but watching the rider in black freaking out and trying to catch his bike makes me laugh uncontrollably. He's just so annoyed.

Born-Free 3 #1

Well it's come and gone, but it definitely did not disappoint.

It might have been too much show for one day... at least for me. I had a booth and also judged the Bobber Class, so it limited my time for photography and viewing . Anyway, here's Round 1 of what I did shoot.

I don't know who thought them up, but the Cali info signs for the invited builders were a nice touch.


There were quite a few high quality Triumphs on hand. This one is by Todd Asin.


This excellent recreation of an early David Mann centerfold on the Love Cycles entry was the coolest tank art I saw. I'm sure it was a real challenge to make that image wrap around the tank.


We are talking Vintage Chopper. John Edwards' jewel of a Panhead won best original. You might make a chopper more wild, exotic, extreme etc., but it's hard to beat the purity of this tried and trued classic... with all original period correct parts to boot. I'd seriously consider it for "best of show."


Max's Pan in a VL won an award and was surely one of the crowd's favorite's.


The Mooneyes crew brought out this old company relic. I admit it, I'm an H-D guy, so I think the rickshaw section would look really cool on a custom Servi-Car.


Part Timer Steve listens as the two Riches discuss being banned from some blogs. It was really good to finally meet Dr. Sprocket!


I believe this skinny Knuck by Jason Weber placed 2nd or 3rd in builder's choice..


A very nice knuckle by Scott Craig. Why does he always paint the front fork legs?

There's likely never been a better state side representation of the vintage style and the words "best show ever" were heard more than once. It seems many of us are tired of the typical Harley show of today.

I think we may be witnessing the beginning of new golden age of vintage style show bikes.

Thanks Mike and Grant.

RevZilla's Gear Givaway

Here is another Gear Giveaway you can enter to win:

AGV AX-8 DS Helmet

They are having this contest for June and for July.

Ride on,

Torch

LIVING LIFE LARGE ON 2 WHEELS IN APPALACHIA

I rode again yesterday. Here's the route:


View Larger Map

Starting out I took the fastest way to get to roads I've never been on before. I don't want to waste time on roads I've seen a lot of. So I blasted my way up I-26 to US-23 and Webber City. I'm riding with the clouds now. Don't ya just marvel at the sight of clouds lisping around a mountain top?

Once at Duffield, I stop for gas at a favorite stop of mine on the corner of US-23 and US-421. Gas up and head across the mountains on US-421. It deviates from the usual route I take up this way. Funny, I never realized US-421 didn't continue in a straight line. It took an hard right and went north. I've got a new road under my belt now folks. Check it out!

The further north I rode, (once in Kentucky) the deeper I got into coal country. It's beautiful here, and I'm so very happy I decided to ride North today. I saw very few motorcycles, cars, trucks or other types of vehicles to ruin this day!

I stopped in the town of Hyden, KY to ask for directions. The guy I asked was looking after his little grand daughter. I stepped across the street to take a photo of the "Main Street" of this little town and caught "grandpa" trying to set the little barefood girl on my very hot Sporty. I'm so very glad she was too scared to let him do it. She would have burned herself on my bike!

Moving on from there using KY-80 to get to Hazard, Kentucky, I found myself on a very nice twisty road cutting east across the southern corner of the state. Lovely road with mobile homes cutting into the sides of mountains and some scary looking folk who live in the rural edges of KY State Road 80.

I did arrive safely to my destination: Hazard, Kentucky. Here is a photo of their modern courthouse, and a slight history lesson about the area.

Next I wanted to visit the Mother Goose House. I went up this road, and down that one. I headed up the mountain side and around the neighborhoods circulating around the town on small one lane neighborhood one way roads. No can find the Mother Goose House. I am hungry. It's after 12 PM. Lunch time and I will ask someone in the restaurant to direct me. I stopped at Long John Silver's for lunch. The folk there were friendly and hospitable. The food was ok...it is after all fast food. I wanted to stop at a diner type of establishment. I found 2 of them in the town. Both closed down and empty. I guess the poor economy don't exclude the folk who work in the mines. I did get the information for the Mother Goose house.

As I'm riding through town, I spy this wall. I enjoy the textures and the colors of this wall. As you might guess, there was another building here torn away and destroyed, leaving the building we see now intact but with the vestiges of the building that stood next door!

I'm gonna stop here and leave the rest of the photos and story for another day this week. But hey...there is one more photo to show ya. I love my Sportster.