East Buttcrack, Minnesota, “Hey Eunice, It’s getting pretty damn cold around here, maybe it’s time we went and visited your sister and that dolt of a husband of hers down in Florida” “Floyd, you don’t like my sister and her husband isn’t a dolt, he’s just a bit different?” “and besides that the Winnebago hasn’t…
A couple of decades ago a good friend of mine bought a 1937 Indian Chief, ten milk crates of parts and a frame. Ten years later he rode that ‘basket case’ Indian up to the front door of my surf shop with the biggest shit eating grin I think I have ever seen on anybody’s…
Those of us into ‘vintage’ motorcycles recognize the German brand NSU, but how much do we know about NSU? WOW…what a history! Here’s the ‘Readers Digest’ version. NSU was a little company making sewing machines in the late 1800’s, they moved on to bicycles and then in 1901 built a motorcycle powered by a Swiss…
Starting a racing career in the California deserts in the 1960’s was great! These were the days that on the starting line were legendary names…Bultaco, CZ, Maico, Husqvarna, Ossa, Penton, Sachs, DKW, Zundapp and probably a half dozen others that I can’t remember right now. But, also were the heavy weights…Triumph, BSA, Norton, even Harley…
Recently my friend, racing and traveling partner Erik bought his wife a little 50cc Yamaha to ride around town and develop her riding skills. Well, as it turns out he is spending more time on that little Yamaha than she is. Why? because it’s so damn much fun!! He put a tank bag on it…
I have a serious soft spot in my heart for Bultaco motorcycles, which also means I have a serious soft spot in my brain. I started my desert racing career on a Bultaco and ended it on a Bultaco. Bultaco’s were notoriously unreliable (bad electronics,crappy steel for the frames, etc, etc), but at the same…
My good friend Tad of Purgatory Pizza in Los Angeles is a big fan of the Honda CB500/550 Fours, so am I. I have told the story before of the ‘one-upmanship’ game my friend Eddie and I played for years with motorcycles. I was riding a BSA 650, Eddie was still on his ‘little’ Yamaha…
Every now and then you simply need a vehicle that will get you to and from the grocery store, the local nursery, or just to cruise around the town and have people looking at you like you’re some sort of crazy eccentric. Or, maybe you are a retired mailman and remember driving one of these…
Stop me if you have heard this one…I love Honda 350’s… I have four of them. A 1971 CL350,a 1970 CB350 (the one I bought for my dad to get him back into motorcycle riding after about 30 years), and two 1971 SL350’s (one of which is in the process of becoming a cafe racer…
Over the more than 100 years Harley Davidson has been building motorcycles they have dipped their toes into the waters of bikes other than big twins a few times. Their short lived love affair with Aermacchi, the horizontal singles and small two strokes came from Italy, and more recently a partnership with sportbike builder Erik…
