The Art of the Engine #3 & 4, Grime Time

It's been a long time since I last did an Art of the Engine post, so here's two old crusty nuggets.



A recent non running barn find. 1948 UL in a '51 frame.





A 1938 Knucklehead Bob Job at Born-Free 3. It features many chromed parts including the forks, which leads one to think it was a real pretty bike back when it was first bobbed.... It's still a beauty in my book.



I actually prefer old bikes with their "earned patina" over ones that have been freshly restored. At most gatherings, bikes like these usually get more onlookers than clean fresh bikes, but many still don't get it and hastily erase all the signs of time and originality. The guys that get my goat, are the ones that take real nice original bikes, and repaint and re-plate them just because they ain't perfect. Keep in mind, any old pile can be re-plated or painted but an old motorcycle or part is only original once!

"Coupes Moto Légende" 2010

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Text and Photos by Dimitri Coste

I've been waiting this one for 2 years. I saddly missed the 2009 edition cuz I was workin, and there was no way I could miss the 2010 one.
Most of the boys from the Big Daddy MC made it to Dijon-Prenois on friday. we hooked up with my man Frank Chatokhine and his buddies in the woods to set up a Gypsies basecamp. loads of amazing motorcycles everywhere in the pits, the woods and of course on the track. Man u could walk all day long in the pits to get your eyes broken by so many gorgeous ladies on wheels. the swapmeet wasn't that satisfying but I wasn't lookin to buy anything, I came to ride as gnarly as I could and to enjoy some chill time, BBQ's, boozes with my friends. that's actually what we did until the rain joined the party saturday night. we kept going and slept under the rain.

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to race on sunday because my TR6C doesn't have front mudgard. maybe better this way as I was rockin some Croker tires, not very grippy for the track and definitly wrong for the rain ah ah!.

As usual my favorite serie was the D : race & tourism motorcycles over 250cc 1931-1945. and that's the only motos i shot so far.
My Rad Dad on his 1935 Norton 500 Inter, my brotha Jerome on the infamous Norton 500 ES2 and the fastest guy on the track Frank Chatokhine & his jawbreaking Triumph Speedtwin 1938. Not even funny for him I think, his bike's so fast (200 km/h) that he's lapping everybody.




I was also impressed by 2 riders on 30's HD WL, they had cool riding gears, fluid riding style and were seriously fast. I think they belong to The Team Frankenstein Racing.


I was racing the F serie : race & tourism over 350cc 1956-1968 with a shitload of Manx, Vincent...during the warm-up lap, a guy crashed pretty badly, so we hadda wait like 20mn
on the track (engines runnin), and you could imagine how motivated the 100 racers were when they finally let us open the throttle. 2 guys took the lead in front of me, and I never saw em again, but I ain't got passed by any other competitors, I think most of the guys in this kinda event are too scared to ruin their expensive jewels to be really riding fast. well I don't give a fuck, of course I'd rather not crash, but, I'm not on a racing track for cruisin my bombshell. So I did my best and I had a blast. the TR6C ran perfectly. the only sketchy detail was that I broke my seat support on the 2nd lap, and lost all bolts n screws.
the whole seat was moving. nothing dramatic. after a dozen laps, i was stoked n felt so happy, even if I was not very clean on all the turns. In my serie were also riding Famous Marco Raymondin. this event was a practice for his 1955 T110 alcohol powered he's gonna bring to Bonneville mid august. you couldn't miss Pierre (Rockers SpeedShop Paris) on His Velocette Venom Clubman streamliner, vintage 500TX with a blue bubblevisor. This man knows style matters.

Le crew from left to right : Dimitri, Le Admiral, Alex Devos, Cobra,
Stephane Lascols, Vincent Vernet, Maitre Kriger-Metzger,
Joss, Jerome Coste, Reaction Man, DD

We took off around noon on sunday because of the rain, but reached Paris only in the evening. my old thrashed trailer died on the freeway. We had to unload bikes and abandon the trailer. once we reached a gas station after a mile reverse on the safety lane, we waited few hours and got rescued by the rest of the crew with decent trailers. Man I wish we had someone filming the TR6C with number plates going reverse on the freeway...

Have a look also on Dimitri's blog

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Two lifes for one bike

Nico is a pragmatic guy, why have two bikes when can do anything with one?.

His passion: The WL 45Harley Davidson, is used for the track as much as for the road. For this, he asked Alain Servie Flatheads specialist to prepare a reliable engine based on the WR specifications. The engine takes 6,000 rpm and more, the internal lubrication has been improved. The electronic ignition take place in the original ignition bell, the old dual Venturi Linkert carburetor has been replaced by a much more efficient modern Dell'Orto which allows especially in the sequences of fast corners quickly gain a few miles per hour.
These few changes do not radically change the nature of the machine, but make it easier to use.

The Street Bobber version

The original chassis which can be transformed into Racer or street Bobber within hours, with lights, fenders, speedometer, saddle and especially the wheels with 18 " alloy rims, dual cams front brake (500SR) and soft tires for the track
or originals 16" wheels with Steel hubs and rims and 500X16 Avon mk2 type tires for the street bobber version.

Nico is a perfectionist in his preparation and work constantly on optimizing the gas flow and particularly with the Supertrapp exhaust also final gear ratios which are adapted according to the layout of the circuit.
Over the years, the small group of fanatics has grown, they are today about twenty in France to run on this type of motorcycles rather rare here because we have been deprived of U.S. military bases after war.

The Racer version

Nico takes care of his group trying to participate in a maximum of events ranging from
of old machines meetings , or U.S. customs show and straight runs.

southsiders babe June 2009

Nick Clements  just sent us at the right time our "Babe" of the Month. Daniela The Farmer girl !
The shoot was done near Ramona Ca. for Intersection Magazine


The bike is a famous old skool chopper called Crazy Horse built for the TV show: Biker Build-Off and is now owned by Kiwi Motorcycles who are the ultimate Indian builders in California.

Flatheads never die !

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Back from "the coupes Moto Légendes" Nicolas Lépine sent me the three following pictures. Today this event is a big success for the spectators but less for pilots... Only 3 sessions of 9 rounds,during the whole Week-end, it's definitively not enough for the participants, for sure today a simple "profit show" Amen.

Watch out for the next events !!!

the real fanatics will go now on other smaller but funnier events like "Fanakick" (half June), "Le Luc" or "Coyote Days" (August)

Rubbers are made for burning, not for tanning in the sun !

What a beautiful and rare Lineup, Hey Guys promise me to come next year for the "Coyote Days" ,You'll apreciate Armagnac and a real track!



Nicolas between two German friends Thomas and Stefan: two Dangerous Boardtracker racers...

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Dual Mano Team

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Aldo Detadeo and his 1943 racerized WLA ... is a hard to follow guy. 
His bike is tuned as a Wr conversion by Manu from the Dual Mano Garage, 

Manu is a HD specialist, but not only, look at this pretty Trumpet restoration.

This is now a 50 Cubic inches, but with the three speed gearbox and a foot clutch. You'll see the team at Lurcy -Levis  (July 11/12) , Le Luc en Provence (August 12)

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