Toy Run '08

On the weekend I went along to the MRA Toy Run to Hahndorf, I've no idea about official numbers but it seems like a pretty decent turn out. I only tagged onto the pack after the start and had a quick wander around at the end, but here are some shots I took:



I passed this on the road and was on a mission to find it in the crew of bikes, I'm not too sure what it is other than an air cooled Kwak. Any ideas?



This stretched, raked, and dropped CT110 'postie' was travelling with the Kwak above. Very cool first bike!



Nothing too special here, other than the full slicks on a day with intermittent rain.

Different and Electric

If you're going to go to the trouble of building an electric bike you may aswell make it like nothing else on the road, and throw in some car derived air suspension while you're at it!



It's just so ludicrous, I love it!

Fatlace X Jarod

Random Image #12: The Yellow Car

A Test of Will

Tough Wine

"This wine will body-slam your tongue."

Luchador via The Dieline

Radical

Stunning scoot, looks pure old school until you notice the piggy-back shocks and flat-slides.

via Ze Last Chance Garage

Random Image #11 High Speed Photography

via Funtasticus (I am loath to credit this site as they never do, but we each have our ethics)

Thinder Flite

Generally I'm not too fond of bubble tops but this one works well, the roof at least; I'm not sold on the front guards.



More images at Cardomain

Coal

Coal Headwear

Sideburn booty

Christmas came early this year!

I received this bundle of goodness a few days ago; I've already read the issues from cover to cover, and in that savouring stage, examining every last detail of the images.

I'm overly protective of stickers but a few have already been allotted, one on the Dart that I just got back on the road, and the other on Lenny's Roller Derby lid, both good causes!

Great stuff, thanks GI & BP, already looking forward to the next instalment.

Wrench Monkee CB750

Loving the clip on set up here! Looking forward to seeing more details.

Wrench Monkees

Un-freakin-believable!

Just saw this over on the Noise blog:



It's been years since I was thrashing around on my 20 (still have it though mostly 26" these days) but I tried enough crazy gaps, ledges and manuals, and took the requisite amount of spills to recognise the skills this guys has. TBone summed it up with his title: Mind Blowing

Noisefastloudhard

Life Magazine Photo Archive

As if I don't already have enough with which to fill my precious spare time, Google has digitalised photos from LIFE Magazine into a fully searchable archive.



LIFE photo archive via Telstar Logistics

Kriega in Australia

I was just leafing through a local bike magazine and noticed that there is now an Australian distributor for Kriega. This is great news for anyone out here looking for a motorcycle friendly back pack.



I've had my R35 for about 2 years, and I can't recommend it highly enough, even though it carried a price of around $300. This is lower now due to the local distribution and while I don't expect to ever have to replace it, I look forward to expanding my Kriega arsenal at the more reasonable prices.

Kriega

Random Image #10: Nikki's KZ400

Everything about this image oozes cool; the bike, the boots, the girl, the location, all of it!

Church of Choppers

My Kind Of Insanity: DH Long Boards

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

I love to watch this, but these guys live on a level of insanity well beyond my threshold.

Adam Kimmel Vimeo

LED Watch

This watch by Hiranao Tsuboi fits into the "so brilliantly simple, why didn't I think of that" category. I really hope it makes it to production.

designboom

Pushy Swap Meet

Another event in Sydney I've missed.

via DoubleOhTwo

Ring Tones

A pillar of my moral make up.

xkcd

Random Image #9: Light from above

Panscrapers

My kind of insanity: Challenger widebody

I love reading stories like this: buy a brand new car, drive it home, immediately get busy with the grinder and welder! It the sort of thing that the custom pioneers like Watson, the Barris' and Starbird would do back in the day, and it's great to see the practice being kept alive.

via Bad Cop Donuts

Random image #8

Fear Is The New Beauty via The Custom Sickles Diaries

Speedfest

Just a car guy had put up some great photos from Speedfest '08, San Diego:












If there were any doubt about the inspiration for Speed Racer:

Helvetica Monopoly

Ok, I'll admit it: I too am a Helvetica junky.

Florent Guerlain via Kottke

Impressive

I've done some aluminium welding in my time, and as such the skills of whoever did this are deeply impressive. Brings back fond memories of the PBR too.

via Racerton

Fuck Myspace

New favourite Chop blog: Fuck Myspace







Great bikes and photography with some variety too

My kind of insanity: car transport

Look closely, that's a Honda N360 in the back of the van.

Speed Hunters

My kind of insanity: twin engine Lupo

VR6 engines no less!

via CarDomain

The 80's revival continues

Latest from Fox:



I wouldn't wear it, but I kinda like it in some slightly perverted way.

via Hell For Leather

Unkown unknowns

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."
-Donald Rumsfeld

This classic example of linguistic dexterity seems to be very appropriate to some work I'm doing at the moment.

Sideburn #2

Really looking forward to reading this (but still waiting for it to go on sale)

Sideburn via Church of Choppers

Velocità exhibition

There's a thread at the Jalopy Journal featuring the Velocità exhibition in Turin, Italy. The exhibition focuses on early, mainly European race and record cars, there are some real surprises included:

Itala 11: Front wheel drive, four wheel independent suspension, super charged V-12, in 1924!



Very early unibody chassis:



Tarf-Gilera-500cc- 1954: early pod racer?



Lancia Stratos Zero Bertone:



Fiat Mefistofele: 260hp in 1923! Though admittedly it was powered by a 21.706L airship engine!

Deus Swap Meet

Really disappointed I can't be in Sydney this weekend!

North Korean Propaganda Posters

“Wicked Man.”

I really like the graphic style of these North Korean posters, they cover some interesting topics too.


“Let’s extensively raise goats in all families!”


“When we say we will, we will. We do not talk idly!”

More at California Literary Review (don't recall how I found these)