Sweden’s Speed Weekend 2012

by connal on April 11, 2012

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The chance discovery of the event and a couple soon-to-expire United Airline flight credits were all the motivation we needed to fly off to Sweden to catch the tail end of Winter and hang out on a frozen lake watching motorhead Swedes participate in their version of land speed racing.

Much like their (significantly warmer) Salt Flat-racing brethren in Utah, Swedes love to go fast. Lacking any ancient, dry lake beds to race across, they turn to something they do have plenty of: frozen lakes in Winter. And so for the last few years in the small town of Mora, 250 miles north of Stockholm, and a little less than 400 miles south of the Arctic circle, they hold Speed Weekend (their abbreviated version of Bonneville’s Speed Week).

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Brought to you by Hammers

by connal on November 8, 2011

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As part of some fabrication research in vintage issues of Popular Mechanics (thanks Google Books) I came across this great 1950 ad for name-brand hammers.

What brand you ask? Nope, no specific brand, just an ad touting the benefits of name-brand tools.

Click image to go to the original ad, I’ve written out the text below.

“That Hammer? You’re kidding!”

“It’s a fact, Bill. I’ve been using this same hammer for 29 years. It helped to build the house you were born in.”

“Well I don’t know how you do it. I hardly ever use a hammer, and yet I’ve broken two of them in the last year or so.”

“That so? What kind of hammers were they? What brand, I mean.”

“Gosh, I don’t know. Guess they didn’t have any brand names. But they were good bargains.”

“That’s where the trouble is, Bill. Look… see the name on this hammer? Whenever you see that brand name, you know it’s a good hammer. Stick to the well-known, advertised brands when you buy tools, and in the long run you’ll safe a lot of money.”

“That makes sense, Fred. I’ll remember it.”

“And do your buying at the hardware store, where they don’t try to sell you anything but quality tools. That way you’ll always get your money’s worth.”

Also, I’m going to start doing more of my fabrication work with a jaunty pipe.

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 As part of this long-term motorcycle customization project I’m in the middle of (the early middle… in fact, let’s just call it the start) I’ve been doing a lot of fabrication research lately.

I was reading a write-up of a custom Suzuki in an issue of the British motorcycle magazine Back Street Heroes (a good magazine, despite how terrible their website is) and came across this paragraph:

Unsurprisingly, it’s of completely one-off construction, hand-built using the traditional method of sand filling the tubes and capping the ends before bending them into the required shape (I refer you to a fine article called “What You Can Do With Sand” in the December 1934 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine. Honest.)

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The annual Sturgis Rally isn’t super high on our list of motorcycle must-do’s but western South Dakota is stunning and the area in and around the Black Hills National Forest has some fantastic riding.

We passed through the town last year a week before the rally and stopped at Gypsie Vintage Cycle a great little shop space that dates back to 1938 and the start of the Sturgis Rally. They sell some t-shirts and provide some bike services, but mostly it’s worth a visit just to browse the bikes scattered around the shop and the collection of old posters on the wall.

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Seoul Moto District

by connal on November 4, 2011

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On a recent trip to Seoul I took an afternoon to check out wander around the moto district. A lot of monkey bikes and some pretty cool 125cc choppers.

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Inspiration: “PROFESSIONal”

by connal on October 27, 2011

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PROFESSIONal from VITA BREVIS FILMS on Vimeo.

This has been out for a while now, but it’s a beautiful video and inspiring subject matter.

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The Historic Hotel Nevada

by connal on October 19, 2011

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The likelihood of finding yourself in Ely, Nevada and in need of accommodation for the night is low. Ely (pronounced e-lee) is one of 3 towns on the 300 mile stretch of Highway 50 (the Loneliest Road in America) that runs West from the Utah border. The town isn’t really on the way to or from much, and although that stretch of highway is stunning in the late afternoon as the sun goes down, there’s not much going on in Ely itself.

Which is a shame because the Hotel Nevada is a great little roadside find.

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The Man Who Ate His Boots

by connal on August 24, 2011

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It has been much harder to work out a viable dirt-road route to Alaska than we originally hoped. I was discussing the problem with my sister when she said “You should do research on the Northwest Passage. They had the same problem.”

I vaguely remembered the Northwest Passage from my High School days so I did some searching to see if there were any good books on the topic and Anthony Brandt’s The Man Who Ate His Boots seemed to be at the top of the list.

In the early 1800s the Northwest Passage was a much-sought-after sea route which would allow mariners to sail from Europe to Asia by going up and over North America, rather than down and around Southern America.

In theory the route would shave thousands of miles and months of travel time off the journey. In practice… well, theres a reason that Brandt’s book is subtitled “The tragic history of the search for the Northwest Passage.”

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Alaska Scout Trip Recap

by connal on August 2, 2011

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We just got back from a very successful scouting run for our Alaska Trip. 12 days of riding, 3300 miles and 7 nights of camping. We’re thrilled to say that though there’s still a lot of planning to be  done, we’ve returned from the trip re-inspired and re-invigorated. [read the full story…]

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On our way home from a recent moto trip to Canada, we pressed our luck one evening trying to squeeze in a few more miles before we lost the light, and ended up in the little town of Tulelake, CA.

Light had started fading well before we pulled off the highway looking for the road which would lead us to the campsite marked on our map, 10 or 15 miles west of town. So after a few u-turns we pulled over to ask a local resident who was out mowing her lawn.

“That park’s out a ways, but there’s camping out behind the fairgrounds.” she said.
“And where are those?” we asked.
“Right there” she said, pointing across the street

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