Burt's Bikes...

Finally finished the two reports I'd contracted for one of the "alphabet agencies" (Odd Jobs 6/14/18), so am back to wasting time on the internet. One article I ran across is about Burt Munro. For those who don't know, he was a New Zealand motorcycle builder and racer who set land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats when he was close to 70, using a much modified 1920 Indian Sport Scout.

 Burt Munro at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.

There was a movie made of his life, "The World's Fastest Indian". While the bike scenes were great, the rest of the movie was well, not so much. One interesting thing, for me at least, was that they made two replicas of his streamliner for the movie. One, for close ups of the bike,  had a replica of the 1920 Indian motor in it; the other, for the speed runs at the salt flats, used a modified Ducati motor.

One of the replica streamliners used for the movie "The World's Fastest Indian."

But the most interesting part of the article is that Polaris Industries, who builds the latest version of the Indian motorcycle, are now sponsoring a Bonneville speed record bike using their current engine. Read about here: http://www.thedrive.com/motorcycles/22592/lee-munro-will-attempt-200-mph-on-the-spirit-of-munro-indian-scout-at-bonneville-speed-week

The bike that is being run for the Speed Week trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats .

Back together...

No, not like some long lost friends, but the '72 Triumph (Heads Ups 5/24/18). While it took three months, there were lots of spells where it sat untouched, so maybe spent 80 hours on it. The funniest part was the missing push rod tube, which I had to order on eBay, was sitting in the battery box. It wasn't until after I'd installed the head and lifted the seat to look at the wiring that I found it. So now I've got an extra set, since I found a used pair that were cheaper to buy than one new one.

This is the bike on the left in the fourth photo of the previous post. Not sure what's next, probably put an ad on Craigslist and see if anybody wants it. Be nice to have a little more room in the garage, maybe be able to work on the pickup inside someday!

Back In the Day...

Got some photos from my friend Phil from "back in the day". He moved outside Alaska a while back and it looks like he's been busy, digitizing some old prints.
In the late 70's, there was a group that hung around one of the local bike shops. While it sold mostly euro brands, their speciality was British bikes. Over time, the shop closed down, but the group still kept in touch. Sometime in the mid 80's, can't remember when, we got to talking about having a Brit bike ride, cause by then, almost nobody was riding their older bikes. So surprisingly, since talk often goes nowhere, it happened.

That first year there were only about ten Brit bikes with maybe 13 total. There was only one rule, while everyone was welcome, the Jap bikes had to ride in the back. Of course no one ever enforced it.

In the following years, there were a lot more bikes, the peak year had maybe 25, mostly Triumphs, but a good mix of others. The ride continued for almost ten years, but then ended as people moved away or just lost interest.

Norton Commandos were always a fine looking bike and a real popular ride back then. It's too bad that Manganese Bronze, the holding company that bought Norton, ran it into the ground.

That long haired guy on the left is finally restoring the gray/blue Triumph, (Heads Up 5/24/18), it's about time!

One year a group of Brit cars showed up. One of the Jags had a V-12, an awesome looking motor. The car guys were generally an older, clean-cut, more sedate group than the biker types. They didn't return.

On the way back to town, some of the guys would stage a "coasting race", shutting off their engines and coast down from the top of Cleary Summit, through the switch backs, and down to the bottom at Pedro Creek. Mike would have won on style points alone!

July weather summary...

So here's the NWS summary for July...

The average temperature was 63.9, which was 1.4 degrees above normal. The highest temperature was 88 on the 22nd, the lowest was 41 on the 18th.  Total precipitation was 1.01", which was  1.15 " below normal.

July started off decent, then cooled off to the lowest temps so far this summer, then had the warmest spell in quite a few years. Go figure. So here's some pics of the dogs.

Hangin' out in the shade, they're all good dogs when they think they're gettin' a biscuit.

After they get a treat, they'll settle down for a bit.