Rockerman #34

via OleHarland

Inspiration Point: Speedster

UPDATE: Jay has put the Speedster up for sale on eBay at a very reasonable price!


Jason Lajkov, designer, builder and proprietor at Vintage Customs is quite a prolific builder. Most of his bikes are vintage Yahama 650s and Honda CB's (sorry no British iron) but I find his work extremely inspiring. His ideas can easily be applied to Triumphs, BSAs, Nortons and Royal Enfields as well. Thanks, Jay!

Bull City Rumble 2011 Photos

This year was huge. From the numbers I've heard, on Friday night 60-100 of us rolled up to a tavern, then headed to a local cafe (a place that was predetermined and arranged with the owner. The cafe owner then got upset when so many bikers showed up and said that we were "chasing" away his customers! So the large majority of us tore off to the Fullsteam Brewery in what became a very dramatic show of volume, exhaust fumes and tail lights. It was like a scene out of some 1950s movie. Lots more photos on Flickr.


On Saturday, my sweet girls and I set up the Thunderdome and got to hang out with the nicest people you'd ever meet. So many bikes this year!

Durham, NC closed down the whole street. 

Sparkling Norton

Ice cream girls

Mod whitewall

Cafe racers

HMT Transport

Well dressed HMT fans

My angel helpers

Honda

Mods

Matchless

Yours truly

2011 Season of Cafe Racer TV Begins Aug 3

Now with 60 second trailer!

http://youtu.be/z5un_IGAlHE

http://www.caferacertv.com/airtimes-show-information/

Season 2 Schedule

Episode 01  -  08/03/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 02  -  08/03/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 03  -  08/10/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 04  -  08/17/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 05  -  08/24/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 06  -  08/31/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 07  -  09/07/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 08  -  09/14/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 09  -  09/21/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 10  -  09/28/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 11  -  10/05/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 12  -  10/12/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 13  -  10/19/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 14  -  10/26/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 15  -  11/02/11  – 9-10PM EST
Episode 16  -  11/09/11  – 9-10PM EST

SoCal British Bike Show

Glenn Morgan's photos from the SoCal British Bike Show from last month, November 2010. Below are some favorites. Lots more at the link.

Fake Norton Doing The Ton

Footage of a nice cafe racer Norton (fake) doing the ton (100mph).

Cafe Racer TV on Discovery HD Theater Oct 13th at 9PM EST

Can't wait for the Cafe Racer series. The pilot was cool, the magazine is relevant to many that feel like there is nothing like this available, and now it's on HD television. Great shots too. You'll find yourself hitting pause throughout the promo just to see all the cool bikes, riders, and girls. Glad to see this coming!
Airing on Discovery HD Theater October 13th @ 9PM EST
Via Return Of The Cafe Racers

Rockers Reunion Bike Show

Joe posted some great photos from the 2010 Rockers Reunion in Indy. Thanks Joe!

Kinokuniya Bookstore

I figured since I'm in Los Angeles for a while I might as well give a report from the road. In addition to going to my usual haunts when I'm in town (In-N-Out, Tommy's, etc.) I always try to hit Kinokuniya Bookstore in Little Tokyo.

They have an amazing selection of magazines from Japan covering every subject manner including some amazing motorcycle ones. In addition there's a lot of hard to find art and design books as well. Although I'm not, if you're into anime this is the place.

New shipments come in on every Tuesday, the same day the magazines are released in Japan. They also carry back issues which is very cool. This brings me to the only drawback. As so often the case cool comes with a price. Most of the magazines range from $12 to $20 each. If you can escape under $50 then you're doing pretty good.

My technique for shopping there goes something like this. I'll go in an just start flipping through and grabbing. Then after the high from being there wears off I start the editing process. Chances are half the stuff I grabbed has similar or duplicate content. Then reason kicks in and more editing. Do I really need a $15 magazine about wallets and skull rings? No.

Here's the score from the latest visit.

The Busy Bee Cafe

Cafe racers all know about The Ace Cafe, but an equally popular 1950s hangout was just down the road at the Watford Bypass called The Busy Bee Cafe. And unrelated to anyone but Her Majesty's Thunder, it's about 3 miles from Elstree Studios, where the original Star Wars movies were filmed.

On the website you can read neat first-hand accounts by biker patrons of The Busy Bee as well as a thorough history of the place as told by Peter Mayne, who was employed at the cafe for 32 years. Here's a snippet:

"The order of the day was meet at the Bee, coffee, and when there was enough of you, a quick blast down to the Ace, more coffee, and back to the Bee, game over! Week ends and Bank holidays, meet at the Bee, wait until there was about 50 bikes then down to Southend in one big crowd. Or of course, it could be Margate or even Brighton or anywhere those pesky little Mods and their scooters could be 'mashed'."

Lots of great historical photos on the site as well. There's even a Busy Bee Motorcycle Club.




You can see the illuminated Bee in the background of these photos.