Hugh Owings beater bike.

This is an interesting bike by Hugh of Hugh's handbuilt. Xs650 with a 23" front and a gooseneck frame. Hugh says he cracked the stock subframe jumping it off skateboard ramps and had to fab the one you see here. I feel like this is a good example of how a very minimilist approach to a build can produce a very sharp bike.

Some Vincents worth mention

Art

If I could only own 1 motorcycle, it would be a Vincent Black Shadow.

The wings are my arms.

Well it has certainly been a while since my last update, but since I got this spiffy new app on my phone I can start blogging again.



This October the "Wings over Houston" airshow came to town. Held every year at Ellington air force base in Houston Texas, its pretty big doings. Attracting some of the top airshow acts in the industry like the Blue Angels, The Snowbirds, The Thunderbirds, Kirby Chambliss, and this year, finally, Sean D Tucker. For those who havent seen Sean at work, it is truely a sight to behold. His mastery of flight is unsurppassed, and his innovative "power aerobatic" style is thrilling to say the least.

My mission this year was to get a hat signed by Mr Tucker, this would come to be, though not the way I expected it. About an hour before his slot, my wife and I made our way down to the Oracle booth to try to meet Mr Tucker. We were instead, met by a pr woman who told us Mr Tucker was shmoozing clients right now and that we wouldnt be able to see him till after his show, if at all. She also told us that Oracle hats are promotional items given to clients only. So we left.

At this point I gave up, I assumed my hopes were dashed and resigned myself to enjoying the rest of the show with my family. We saw Sean fly and it was everything I had imagined it would be and more. About the time Sean landed after the finale, my wife, daughter, and mother went to go play on some inflatable slides that were setup for children. My father and I stayed in our spot to watch the WWII heritage flight. After about an hour mom, the wife, and daughter returned from play time with one helluva story. My wife had talked mom into headin over to the oracle booth again and when they got there they said they walked right in and right up to the man himself. My wife then described how I was a big fan and she said Before she could finish her sentence Sean said "we got a big fan, lets get a hat for this guy". My wife said he then posed for photos and hugged everyone and was as genuine and nice as they had ever known someone to be. Upon hearig this my father and I b-lined it for the Oracle tent hoping to meet Mr Tucker but we missed him by just a few minutes. However, the lady(a different one) let us pilliage all the promotional swag(which included Oracle lanyards and extremely nice hat pins) and we were allowed full access to Seans plane.


Needless to say, I love my wife, and it was a helluva day.

Im sorry

Unfortunately I only have my iphone to blog with right now. I actually have a lot of content to drop on here but no way to upload. I am trying my best to get more stuff up, I am sorry for the delay.

I Would Appreciate It

If you fellows and felines who peruse my self indulgent posts and enjoy something I have left here, please, leave a comment. Tell me what you think about what I'm doing and let me know if there was a particular post you liked, or would like to know more about!

Wal Mart Find

You would be surprised what you find in the local wally world parking lot from time to time.

Flyin High Pt. 1

When Mike Arnold designed and built his one off AR-5 the only real goals he had in mind were to build a light, cheap, composite fighter plane that he could use to slice holes in the sky. What he came up with has set 2 records of note The first is in FAI Class C1.A/O for fastest aircraft weighing less than 661 pounds at takeoff at 213.18 mph.The second is the fact that the aircraft breaks an aerodynamic rule that some thought would never be broken, the 1sq ft aerodynamic flat plate rule. If you calculate the drag of the entire whetted area of the aircraft the sum of the drag of the surfaces would be equivalent to pushing one flat plate 1 square foot in area through the air. While this doesn't really sound impressive, when you consider that no aircraft ever constructed before this had achieved the same specs, things start to come into perspective. Throw on top of that the fact that Mike is a self taught amateur aircraft enthusiast and pilot, and not a member of Lockheed's famed "skunkworks", or NASA, and things start to become very interesting indeed. Mike served an apprenticeship building sailplanes with acclaimed designer Fred Jiran where he learned his skills in composite building. He then took those skills and created an aircraft that is in a class of its own in more ways than one. One last thing that will make all of this even more impressive. Mike accomplished all this and a record breaking speed of over 200 mph on a power plant capable of producing an ESTIMATED 65hp MAX. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Mike's Rotax 582 was producing more like 55-60 HP as we all know manufacturers like to fudge production numbers a bit.

Spoiled Brats

www.bratstyle.com


Im pretty sure that is where this all started but I haven't concluded my research on the origins of the style yet. This small shop in Japan has been producing, in my opinion, some seriously innovative bikes. So much so in fact, that it has caught on over here in the states in a big way. Given the recent rend toward chopping 70's era Japanese bikes these days( i.e. xs650) it is definitely good to see guys doing something original as opposed to multitudes of freshly hard tailed bikes you see rolling out of suburban garages every day. The trademarks of the style are basically everything the American chopper is not. A short wheelbase, compact riding position, REAR SUSPENSION(the popularity of the hardtail design confounds me based on anything other than looks), and retention, if not modification, of all or most of the stock parts. The thing I like most about these bikes is they retain every bit of their original function, whilst showcasing the builders ingenuity and creativity. A fine juxtaposition to the stale, and unimaginative state of the american bike scene.

These are just some of the bikes that I feel are superb examples of the style. The high bars and tight seating position, as opposed to the American compunction to put forward controls on everything, is definitely more suited to a more "spirited" ride. In spite of the smaller displacement of these bikes in general, I imagine you would be hard pressed to find a big twin that could keep up with these little guys on a mountain road, or when traffic gets tight.

Flat Blown

I dont think I need to add much commentary to this, except to say that this is a fine, fine vehicle. Seen at a local hot rod show.

1 Human Power

Velocars, not something you hear on a day to day basis. Believe it or not there is a whole movement dedicated to being "car free". Following with my "I really like wood" theme there is a group of people out there who take that movement to another level by making their velocars out of wood. The 2 displayed in this post are the only ones I found that were truly striking examples of some fine craftsmanship. These specific v-cars were built for speed, and boy do they look fast.

What a beauty this little ride is.

I know thats a bicycle, but its all wood and it goes with the theme, beautiful.

GP-5

The GP-5 is an experimental race aircraft designed by renowned designer George Pereira. Known for his popular GP-4 wood and fiberglass composite home built aircraft, George turned his sights towards Reno's unlimited class in the early 90's. Following the design of the GP-4, George built the GP-5 by designing a wooden fuselage and then gluing and sanding foam to the desired sexy sleek shape. Powered my a NASCAR style v8, the GP-5 possesses over 500 horsepower. The GP-5 made its debut at the 2010 Reno air race but suffered a failure of its belly mounted cooling intake that forced them to bow out. I look forward to seeing the GP-5 on the flight line at future air races.

My goodness she is a fine creature.