Just a quick post with pictures from this years 2010 OVM vintage motorcycle show. Scott, Paul, Alex and I all came out to see our favorite local show of the year and the crazy weather we've been having didn't disappoint. Feels more like March as Brad mentioned with all the cold rain and hail we've had this week!
Here's a glimpse of all the enthusiasts that came out despite the wet conditions (click for full size pano):
And the complete and rather thin gallery (can't shoot in pouring rain):
Always a great show and a nice chance to catch up with like minded friends in the area. See you all next year!
dc
By the way -- what do you guys think of the new look of the website? I plan to rotate out the backgrounds with new pictures periodically.
Posted by Dan | Posted in Motorcycles | Posted on 01-12-2009
As stated in the previous post, I'm totally jealous of the recent acquisition Alex made with his Honda RS125 track bike. Here's an excellent illustration of why the lightweight 2 stroke can make bikes with 3-4x the displacement look like amateur hour:
The super fast change in direction and razor sharp lines in this video make me an absolute believer in the bike Alex got, even if it's not quite the same model. But I'm eager to learn more about these and will report back when I know more.
My buddy Alex who is a contributing author on Rare Sport Bikes For Sale is about to pick a Honda RS125 for track days. What a great early Christmas present to yourself! He sent over this picture of the bike to show off his latest acquisition. I started staring at in Photoshop and ended up with these two versions of the image. The first one is more photo-realistic and the other has a filter applied for a more stylized look. I'm leaning towards the latter. Probably end up wallpapering one of my garage walls with a huge print out.
Congrats on the new bike Alex! Can't wait to see it in action!
I know my personal blog has really been neglected this summer, but I've been very busy consulting. And when I'm not helping out moto-clients with web services consulting, I'm working with a great team to really dial up the Rare Sportbikes For Sale site. Check out some of the sweet rides this week alone: MC28 NSR250 SE, CBR250R Hurricane, Huge Teaser for some OW01's, VF1000R, Bimota YB9, and well you get the idea.
If you're in a shopping mood, I'd subscribe as the best deals are always had in the fall and early winter.
Check out this fantastic lap ridden and narrated by Steve Hislop aboard an RC45 in 1994:
I love how he talks about that first section and how he normally hits 170mph through there on a flying lap! This is such a strong reminder that I need to visit this event in person sometime soon... I mean how much longer can such a bad ass and dangerous event continue to run like this?!
By the way, have you been by Rare SportBikes For Sale recently? It's been great having a co-author and we've found some beauts this summer. Stop by and say hi!
I've been meaning to attend the DesmoNorthwest BBQ for at least two years in a row and this year I had no excuse not to. Naturally I hit my buddy Paul up to join me; he can't say no to rides over 100 miles, let alone nearly 650 miles. In two days total! Yep, we decided to ride up and back on Saturday and Sunday.
But the leg up on Saturday was the real meat of the trip. We rode back roads from Corvallis to Edgefield in Troutdale for a late breakfast. We both had the bacon scramble with fresh baby red tomatoes and smothered in freshly grated Parmesan. Delicious!
From there we hit I-84 for a quick blast to Hood River, where we took the bridge across the Columbia to Washington, and headed North for Mt. St. Helens. Turns out this area is a meca for sportbike riders as we must have seen nearly 100 riders in this area. Most of the roads are fantastic and the vistas are even more amazing.
We continued on past Randle through the Mt. Rainier area, past Mt. Adams, through Enumclaw, and then on to Issaquah. All in all, I think we were on the freeway less than an hour and half all day. Here is our route:
Unfortunately when you're behind on your day long back roads trip, you don't stop for pictures. But luckily lots of other Flickr users have. Here is what you can expect from the area:
After riding some of the best, and some of the worst, that SW Washington had to offer, we were beat. Ten and a half hours later, we were hurting to say the least! Paul being the saint he is, and having water-tight hard bags on the VFR, went and got us some refreshments to unwind with after our journey:
The next day we cleaned up the bikes and headed for the BBQ. After supporting the Ducati website for nearly 2 years, I was able to connect names and faces. I already knew the club was full of great people and it was a really nice gathering of like minded enthusiasts. Here are some pics of the rides that showed up:
The worst part of the trip was definitely the last leg, from Issaquah to home via I-5. A record heat wave started that afternoon and we rode home in some seriously hot air on the blacktop for over 5 hours. It was like being blasted from all angles with heat guns no matter how fast or slow we managed. So we ended up stopping about every hour to rehydrate and recharge. Not much choice as we both had to be at work on time the next day.
All that said, I'm really glad we did this trip. Not only did I finally get to meet some great Ducatisti, I proved to myself I'm still capable of a big trip. I can't wait to go again!
The VFR750 and 750SS attack the Willamette Valley again, but this time the VFR is being piloted by Blake in a very generous loaner agreement with Paul. What can I say, the man is the shit for extending such an offer!
We took the back roads on Thursday for a killer ride up to Portland to visit with our SEO and PPC Vendor, Anvil Media Inc., on official OSU business. The weather on the way up was spectacular and we were treated to the best the valley has to offer while passing up all the various crops Oregon is known for: grass seed, wheat, filberts, strawberries, hops, grapes, green beans, corn, and many other types of organic produce. A ride like this reminds me why we live where we do!
Here are a couple pics from the Wheatland Ferry where we crossed the Willamette, and the current Anvil Media headquarters:
Here is the Google Map of our route up and pictures from the trip:
To follow up our trip, we assaulted Mary's Peak on Saturday morning via back roads again of course! Highway 20 leading to the peak has recently been repaved at the base of the mountain and the road to the summit is still one of the best hillclimbs out there in terms of corners per mile and scenic views. Here are the pics from the Peak:
Many thanks to Paul for loaning out the bike to Blake, the best in SEO and Social Media for hosting us: Anvil Media, and rural Oregon for best and most scenic roads anywhere!
I recently got the opportunity to catch up with an old friend from my childhood, Christian Hansen, who now happens to being making performance parts for Ducati motorcycles -- right up the road in Portland! SpeedyMoto manufactures custom triple clamps, clips-on's, rear sets, and many other billet aluminum pieces. Christian explained that what started as a business making custom clutch covers five years ago has grown every year and expanded to provide numerous parts for the discerning Ducati enthusiast tuner.
Here are some pictures from my SpeedyMoto tour:
Christian kicking back at the SpeedyMoto office. That's their Ducati Monster development bike in the background and to the left is a custom 250 MotoGP frame on the conference table.
Here is a SpeedyMoto triple clamp development piece that they were working on the day of my visit.
Christian showing me the rapid prototyping machine that spits out an ABS plastic prototype piece after clicking print from the workstation. He said this piece took about 8 hours to build.
As we started to walk through the production area we stopped to check out a lot of recently produced bar risers for Ducati SuperSports.
At the far end of the shopping, Christian pointed out the raw aluminum stock as delivered, which will eventually become clutch covers.
And here are the clutch covers in mid-production form. The aluminum stock is first cut into 3-4 inch discs, and the shapped on each side as seen here.
On our way out of the production area, Christian pointed out this vintage P&H welder. It was originally used in Portland to build Indy Car race car frames and has always resided in a race facility in the Portland area. He tells me they're like vintage guitar amps.
Here are the SpeedyMoto showroom bikes. These bikes feature lots of custom SpeedyMoto parts and are not show queens but hardcore development machines.
A SpeedyMoto Pressure Plate on the custom Sport Classic on display.
As we wrapped up the tour, Christian had two pieces of exclusive news for dancrouchblog.com readers. First that there will be a special edition 848 model coming from Ducati later this year and it will feature a few pieces made by SpeedyMoto! And in other news, the SpeedyMoto crew is excited to see their first product on the big screen in the new Transformers Movie: Revenge of the Fallen. Check out the triple clamp on the Ducati in the movie!
It was great catching up with Christian and something tells me this won't be the last time he's mentioned on this blog as we're planning to meet up again soon.
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