onsdag 26. februar 2014

Front bumper for Bessie

Last trip offshore I spent a while in the lathe to turn some stainless fasteners with some old Buco jewels added to them. Those fasteners were made to fit a not yet made front bumper for Bessie, a bumper that at this time still only was to be found in my imagination. The picture in my imagination was initiated  by all them great pictures in the Japanese book "The Originals" that I got a while ago from Taxi.

OK, time to start bending some tubing, whow was this a pain in the ass, all them bends and both sides had to be equal too, not to forget pipe centers had to have a fixed distance to match Bessies front mudguard, arghhh!

I didnt get this one done in my first try, neither second, nor third but I finally did.




tirsdag 25. februar 2014

Pics from yesterdaze


Fridtjof Dieseth and Bjarne Fosskaug were close friends even if they were competitors in motorcycle racing from the late twenties and well into the thirties.
Not only did they ride with great success in Norwegian motorcycle racing, they had motorcycles as their favored leisure activity in general, and spent a lot of time touring Norway.
When competing in races they both rode Harley`s with sidecars, well it is not fully the truth, Dieseth raced Ariels too.
Dieseth competed in car rallies too, in 1934 he competed in rally Monte Carlo.

When touring they both enjoyed their sidecar outfits, Dieseth an Ariel outfit whilst Fosskaug stood true to the Milwaukee marvel.
Here is one pic taken when they pack their camp to ride on, Dieseth`s Ariel is closest to the camera, Fosskaug`s Harley in the background.


søndag 23. februar 2014

Reading Standards & Excelsiors, lots off!


This RS, C1637 have been on this blog before, a couple of times I seem to remember.


A pretty loaded Excelsior hack.


Another Packard Blue Excelsior.


An earlier green one, from Scwinns Chicago plant.


A RS once ridden in my neighborhoods. I like them RS bikes, they look so clean. Wish I had one!

fredag 21. februar 2014

Pics from Yesterdaze!


Those two lovely girls are the sisters Oddny & Sigrid. They worked as milk maids during summer, a job that once occupied many girls who lived in the Norwegian countryside.
In this great picture they pose on a Harley visiting the mountain farm Myklebyseter, no doubt they enjoy to pose on the bike. Maybe the rider was handsome too?

Harald who sent me this picture is Oddny`s grandson, he think the picture date from 1925.
I am quite sure the Harley is a 1917 as the handlebars are nickle plated.

Check out Haralds blog here; http://harald750.blogspot.no/

onsdag 12. februar 2014

Road-book!

I am not a GPS kind of guy (my chose of daily rides should make this obvious?).
I have managed to get to the goal by map and my own notes in preparation to a travel, always, even once to down town Chicago.

Trondhjemsridtet`s route is presented to the riders in form of a road-book, which is new to me.

OK, I could have found the route on maps according to the road-book and made my own notes of where to go right and left etc., but no.
Checked various types of road-books on the www, it appeared there where loads of forums for motorcycle riders discussing the matter.
Road-books where shown in all forms from the home made to the high end electrically driven Touratech models made for Paris-Dakar.

I ended up with a cheap Biltema version, that I find will suit the purpose well after my modifications.
Had to make an aluminum bracket to fasten the Biltema road-book on the old Henderson, turned out OK.





Preparations for Trondhjemsridtet

As a great part of the Trondhjemsridtet will take place on gravel roads I found I rather get a decent air filter on the Zenith Tx4. Found one choke part for the Tx4 in my parts stash. From my knowledge, this specific part is used only on Henderson carburetors. I got this part cheap on e-bay, no wonder it was totally out of shape, needed all small parts to be redone and a home made pipe for the filter to be added.
Will now be mounted upside down, and the KN filter will point outwards.



tirsdag 4. februar 2014

Pics from Yesterdaze!

Wherethehellismurph.com is one great blog that I occasionally visit. He have been spending some time now in Finland and presented the photos below during his stay there. I have left Murphs watermarks on the pics, this as my sole intention is to share those great VL winter rides with as many as possible. I really enjoyed those photos when I first saw them presented in a 2008 issue of the Finnish magazine Mobilisti, a great magazine for vintage bikes, cars and more.
They had a story written by Timo Happonen who is the lucky owner of one of those Taxi bikes that trafficked Finnish Lappland. Unfortunately in the magazine they where so small, hence my excitement when I re-discovered the pics at Murphs blog.
You might ask how and why I read a Finnish magazine? Years ago I met Sampo at A-bombers in Sweden who sent me the magazine and even translated the text. Sampo is one hell of a photograph, he do a lot of great photos from the hotrod scene too.
Thanks Sampo!















Another new kid in town!

My friend Rune needed a periodic correct cicle for his participation in the Trondhjemsridtet, and his prayers were heard, this little gem from 27 surfaced on Finn.no recently. It was for sale in the eastern part of Norway, seller was Morten whom I have ran into occasionally at swap meets for hmm, 25 years at least.
Long story short, the J changed hands and is now parked in the neighborhood.

Enjoy!




søndag 2. februar 2014

Luggage rack for Mr. Henderson

Trondhjemsridtet rally is getting closer. Getting closer?, its hard to believe when looking out of the window, where snow is all what is in sight.
Still, I found it was due time to fabricate a luggage rack for Mr. Henderson, this to be able to carry spare fuel, oil, some spare parts, my tools and heaven forbid the rain suit.

Had an original late De-luxe rack in a rather sorry state. I dont know if old Schwinn made the luggage racks in house in Chicago, I doubt so as he got many parts from sub suppliers.
The original rack is made from very thin walled 1/2" tubing and its weight is very low.
Its parts are mostly riveted together, a few details being brazed.

To make it more solid I chose to tig weld some of the parts rather than soldered. I did also tig weld some of the riveted parts where not visible to add to the overall strength.

My mate Ståle luckily trough some source tracked down aviation 1/2" hydraulic tubing. He also pre fabricated the small sheet metal fasteners acting as joints for the rivets, thanks a lot Ståle, you did a great job.

Another job on my list is done, whats up next?
For sure, there are more on that list.