Happy New Year From The Motopsyco

Posted on by Motopsycho

<motopsyco.com>

2014 was a terrific year with over 43,000 page views in the last 12 months. A big thank you to all of my readers! If you have an appropriate product to advertise or if you sell a motorcycle or motorcycle related product that you wish me to review, send a message using the contact form on my about page. Should you be in the mood to purchase some motorcycle parts or related gear be sure to check out Motopsyco’s Parts & Supplies.

In the meantime I resolve to keep on keeping on!
Peace Y’all

For More About This Blog’s Stats Please Click Here

Happy New Year From The Motopsyco

A Quick look at Harley’s Street 750

Posted on by Motopsycho

<HD Street 750>

I took a quick trip to Charleston S.C. this past weekend, mainly so could spend the gift certificate from Low Country Harley Davidson that I won at the Rockabillaque bike show, and so the Mrs. & I could have a nice romantic lunch at Gilligan’s restaurant in Monck’s Corner on the way. Low Country is a very well set up dealership with a large bike showroom that actually takes precedence over the boutique gift & t-shirt portion of the store. Yes the other merchandise is housed in an impressively sized store with a very upscale appearance, but it is clear that the bikes come first when you walk in.

There was one bike in particular that I wanted to check out, Harley’s Street 750 & 500 models. They had one of each with the 500 sitting at the front of the showroom and the 750 off to one side on display in front of a Christmas tree, at the entrance of the boutique.

<750cc of liquid cooled power>

Unfortunately, it was pretty well being ignored as most customers seemed to head straight to the baggers. Yet even with the improvements that created the liquid cooled “Rushmore” line of motorcycles the fact remains that this is the most advanced engine that HD has released since the V-Rod or the short lived Buell 1125. With liquid cooling and overhead cams it steps firmly into the modern age of motorcycling. I do realize that all of my fellow Japanese iron riders will yawn with boredom at the thought of a mere 57 rear wheel hp (as measured by Cycle World here), but when compared to other mid size machines with a similar design focus, based on unique or classic styling, beginner friendliness, and character it compares very well. Bikes such as the Triumph Bonneville, Moto Guzzi V7, and Honda’s new series of 700cc machines such as the NC700 have similarly modest horsepower. The folks that buy these machines are not after barn burning power, but unique styling combined with ease of use is the name of the game.

If these bikes were available through the rental program, I would rent one and try it out, perhaps I can snag a demo ride on one somewhere. After throwing a leg across it and sitting on it I really liked my first impression. Even though it seems small compared to all of the big bikes in the showroom, for a genuine vintage rider like me it seems perfect.

<the Motopsyco on Harley's Street 750>

the Motopsyco on Harley’s Street 750

Let me be totally 100% honest with you, I really do not like to ride cruiser or touring style motorcycles. Chrome don’t thrill me & I thoroughly despise floorboards, forward controls, and infotainment systems on motorcycles, after all when I ride a motorcycle I expect it to entertain me without any outside help. The street 750 &500 models will probably be available in other colors soon enough but the murdered out appearance of the current model really turns me on, as do the mid controls and the bikini fairing reminiscent of the 77 XLCR.

<Harley's Street 750>

Harley’s Street 750

I have the feeling that I could live with one of these in bone stock form at least through the first summer. But as soon as the wrenching season hit it would wind up with my laptop plugged into the first aftermarket injection controller I could find. Then I would have to dig up a wrecked CBR/GSXR something or another and con one of my machinist friends into helping me swap the forks & wheels onto it, along with some taller shocks & lower handlebars.

Yes I know the target market is beginners who are planning to move up to a big twin from Milwaukee, not nutcase rat/brat/cafe racer fanatics like me. This little twin is really cool, and I think it’d be fun to cut it up and make it into something KUSTOM! The only thing I wouldn’t change is the color scheme.
Peace Y’all

 

 

 

 

 

StoriesofBike Website of The Month December 2014

Posted on by Motopsycho

<Stories_Of_Bike_Brat_Honda>

 

I have a confession to make. I love to watch hipster motorcycle videos. In fact they have to be downright stupid for me not to like them. Hell I’m even thinking about making one of my own, after all even though I am old as dirt I’m still so hip I have trouble seeing over my pelvis.

The website that will be brought to your attention today goes quite a bit beyond the typical bike videos normally produced by guys in small shops with custom wares to hawk or questionable skills to show off, and gets deeper into the personalities of the people who ride and love these motorcycles.

<Stories_of_Bike_Cafe_Suzuki_Tu250>

We all dream of riding

Based in Australia, Cam Elkins is the creator of Stories of Bike, with the aid of his brother Jack who creates the music that accompanies the videos. Yes there is a video or two involving your typical tattooed 20 somethings with piercings, flannel shirts, and fuzzy beards working on some variation of custom bikes. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and if that were all there is to it, watching these clips would still be a great way to waste a few minutes of your time on a fairly regular basis because of the strong production values the StoriesofBike.com team bring to the table .

<StoriesOfBike_Forge>

But these videos blow right past that, talking to the riders and builders in depth about motorcycles, life, love and how they came to be the people they are today. Yes there is fine machinery in these videos, but there are also fine people in these videos too, from different places & backgrounds but all connected by a common love of riding motorcycles. When you watch one of these clips you end up feeling like you know the person or persons being filmed & interviewed, a very difficult feat to pull off in the short film format.

The video embedded below especially touched my heart, there is nothing better than love that lasts all the way to the end. This is my favorite video at StoriesofBike.com watch it all the to the end.

 

 

Love baby, it’s what makes life worth living, especially when you have motorcycles to go with it.

So is StoriesofBike Website of the Month material? I absolutely think so, let me know if you like it as much as I did

<Stories_of_Bike_Poster>

Peace Y’all,

Psyco

Start of the Winter Season

Posted on by Motopsycho

It seems as though the start of the winter season here in S.C. has been pretty decent so far. There have been a few chilly days and a fair amount of rain but most of the time it’s been really nice just a little nippy in the morning on most of my riding days but I haven’t had to break out the snowmobile gloves yet. Next week I think I’ll install the winter liner in my riding suit and try to locate those winter gloves just in case it turns really cold and stays dry.

<motopsyco's Joe Rocket jacket>

It’s Dec. 5th and I may have to put the insulated liner in sometime soon.

Yes all of your supposedly sane friends look at you like some kind of idiot or freak when they see you riding around on a motorcycle in the winter time, even here in the deep south. There are occasional times when I wonder about myself for doing it, but it’s just so much fun to ride a motorcycle! Not to mention the maintenance headaches I save from not winterizing or having to do start up service in the spring. If by some chance I were to move to a location where the snow and ice would make it dangerous to ride the bikes would go into storage for the winter but here in SC we have way too many 60 degree days for me to do that.

Life has been going really well around the farm lately, and I picked up a new shop truck to replace my semi-trusty old van. Just plain white regular cab Toyota work truck. Of course since I live by the motto, “stock sucks” the modifications have already begun starting with a tonneau cover and some cargo control updates.

<white Toyota Tacoma Regular cab>

I couldn’t forget the blogs web address!

<skull & crossed wrenches motopsyco>

Deer Hunting season went really well this year & we’re stocked up on meat for the year, so now it’s time to do a bit of cool weather trail riding. The last 2 stroke dirtbike I had was a Kawasaki KD100 that I got when I was 12 or so. Since then it has been all big 4 strokes until this year when I picked up this little blue Suzuki. This was supposed to be a restoration project but it has turned out to be such a hoot to ride just like it is, that I’m reluctant to get started on it. All of these years I was never a fan of so called “ratbikes” but now I am forced to admit there is something very liberating about riding a motorcycle on which the cosmetics just don’t mater! Tree limbs, briars, mud, dirt, dust, or dropped objects in the shop as long as it fires up with the next kick or push of the button who cares. I still love, admire and plan one day to own more beautiful bikes, but everyone should try living with at least one rat for a while.

<motopsyco suzuki ts185>

in the woods Dec. 5th 2014 8:30 a.m.

I have developed the tendency to blast around my neighborhood without any gear, kind of a throwback to the time when I wouldn’t have been caught dead on a motorcycle wearing a helmet. Yes I still get fully geared up for serious riding but I still understand why some people wont. To each his own, live & let live or die, c’est la vie, etc.

Well that’s the start of the winter season for me, it’s just like summer but with colder shorter days and fewer ravenous biting insects. What is it like for you? Do you ride your motorcycle or do you put it away & wait for brighter days?

Small Business Cyber Monday !

Posted on by Motopsycho

Small Business Cyber Monday you say, what the devil is this? Isn’t Cyber Monday about those giant evil internet companies out to make a quick buck and put all of the little guys out of business?

At least that’s what the whole “shop local” crowd try to tell you anyway, in my honest opinion the ones who most often spew this particular bullshit are the ones who, have poor customer service, product selection, and often pricing. The local merchants who are doing it right have nothing to fear. Let me give you an interesting example that happened to me recently. I visited a local agricultural supply store to pick up a 3 point hitch drawbar  for my tractor like the one shown here.

So checked out their website and sure enough they had one listed just like this for the exact some price as that “giant evil corporation” that supports this blog and a large number of other bloggers like me. Plus it was on my way home from work so why not stop in. They did not have the one that was advertised for 89 bucks, they were out of stock, and the clerk said they had no idea when they would get any more but they had in the stock an identical product by a different company for $129. Seriously, What the fuck are they thinking? Nobody in their right mind is going to pay $40 more for a virtually identical product of the same quality. So I asked if I could special order it, because even after this I was willing to spend my time & fuel to make a second trip to the store, you know to support the local guy, and was told that it could be special ordered for home delivery and that I would have to pay the shipping. Needless to say Amazon.com got my business on that day. If your customer is willing to take more time (time is more valuable than money to me) and spend more money and you still can’t supply him or her with the products you advertise then you really don’t deserve to be in business.

The other thing to consider is most bloggers really are small businesses, some are serious pro bloggers who write for a living and don’t do anything else, while others are part timing it on the weekends, and the wee hours of the night trying to make a go of it, and some are really serious hobbyist’s trying to recoup some expenses. Yes I know what you are thinking, domain names are cheap and so is hosting, but quality content is often very expensive to obtain, and as I said earlier time is valuable.

So by all means I hope you have been supporting your good local merchants and continue to do so throughout this holiday season but I know that you will sooner or later turn to the internet to find that otherwise unobtainable gift for that special someone, and when you do please think of that other small business person, your favorite blogger(s). Instead of going directly to that merchants website, stop off at an independent blog, and click on an ad or two, check out their webstores, and shop through them to make your purchases. That way you can continue to support those fantastic large companies that can bring you the best of all that the world has to offer at the best possible prices, & often with fast free delivery, while you still help out the little person toiling away alone in the dark to try to bring a little bit of information, happiness, or perhaps even both into your life. Then it really can be small business cyber Monday!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

‘Psyco

67 Honda CL77 Scrambler

Posted on by Motopsycho

A few weeks ago I attended a small but but high quality motorcycle show hosted by the VJMC (Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club) of which I am a member. It was nice to see the other folks in the club at this meet which was held in conjunction with the Squealing on the Square barbeque festival in Laurens S.C.

<1967 Honda CL77 Scrambler Right>

Fantastic 1967 Honda CL77 Scrambler

One of our state field reps and one finest gentlemen you could ever hope to meet brought a portion of his collection. One of the bike he brought was this most excellent 67 Honda CL77 Scrambler. Since I have a soft spot in my heart (or is that in my head?) for this style of motorcycle no matter what it’s country of origin, year of manufacture, or even it’s condition I decided to take a few extra shots of this one and do a bike feature on it.

<all the gauges you really need>

all the gauges you really need

Need some parts for your Scrambler? Click here!
Even though they are all commonly called 305s today you can see that the original tank badges on this one call it out as a 300 cc. This badge is completely authentic but it is exactly the same engine.

<CL77 300 tank badge>

<Honda 305 Scrambler Engine>

Note the steering damper in the above photo. To me the early Honda twins like this are some of the finest looking engines ever built. The fact that nearly every surface on the cylinder and the head, except for the points cover are covered in cooling fins really sets it off from later machines.

<Honda Type 1 points cover>

Of course we can’t forget one of the coolest looking features of these old scramblers, the high pipes.

<Honda Scrambler High Pipes>

High Pipes Baby!

An interesting feature of these early scramblers is that the mufflers are not an integrated part of the exhaust system but were actually an add on that the owner could choose to install and remove at will depending upon where they were riding.

<more cl77 high pipes>

So when you see one out in the wild and it looks like this remember the muffler isn’t missing, it was optional.

Twin leading shoe drum brakes brakes on both ends were state of the art back in the 1960s, and are still reasonably safe & effective on lightweight machines like this for today’s traffic when set up properly.

<vintage honda twin leading shoe brakes>

Truly a handsome old bike from all angles so I am going to close out this post with a head on shot that I really liked.

<The 1967 Honda CL77>

The 67 Honda CL77

Peace Y’all

P.S. I am going to be accepting submissions and suggestions from other motorcyclists for this feature, please click here to reach the contact form on my about page, and let me know what you have, and if I think it is cool and/or oddball enough to suit my tastes it will be featured here..

Cool Bikes, Wicked Cars, Cool Dudes, & Hot Ladies – Rockabillaque

Posted on by Motopsycho

Considering this was the 2nd annual Rockabillaque event, color me very impressed.

<a wicked 55 chevy>

Nothing else like a black 55 Chevy, especially with this under the hood.

<injected 55 chevy>

Walking from our parking space to the event area, I just couldn’t resist snapping a picture of the artwork on this building.

<art building1 north charleston>

<art building2 north charleston sc>

 

<art building 3 park circle>

The bike show portion was kind of small but there was really some quality iron on display. Since they had a rat class I decided to take the Assault Scrambler and even managed to talk this very lovely & gracious young lady into letting me take her picture next to it.

 

<woman with cb650>

Good old fashioned Ironhead chopper.

<classic ironhead chopper>

some rats lined up

<rats at rockabillaque>

A lot of fine detail on this rigid Evo.

<fantastic rigid sporty>

I love the placement of his lithium battery, the fender struts and of course the red wheels with wide whitewalls. Classy!

A shout out to Low Country Harley for sponsoring the show and thanks for the gift certificate I won.

<elvis lives>

No respectable motorcycle show would be complete without at least one Triumph.

<1970 Triumph Bonneville>

some pretty shiny motorcycles lined up

<rockabillaque bike show line up>

This Bratstyle KZ440 actually won the rat class. Cool little bike.

<kawasaki kz440 brat>

Great music was available from different bands on different stages throughout the day.

<hillbilly music>

<rockabilly music>

…..

Had lunch at the Barbeque Joint, one of the events sponsors, great food.

<the barbecue joint north charleston sc>

The Mrs. & I took nearly a hundred pictures around the event and in this next section let’s look at some highlights from the car show.

Let’s start with a pair of evil looking Volkswagens!

<badass v8 rat volkswagen>

 

<a broadsword for a shifter>

Things were always cool, and this one looks like it’s literally been driven to hell and back, making it that much cooler!

<rat survivor thing>

Rat Hole Garage brought a cool old truck,

<rat hole garage truck>

and even cooler a matching bicycle!

<rat hole garage bicycle>

Ford Falcons were always a favorite of mine, ( I’ve owned a couple)  and this sharp convertible is da bomb.

<ford falcon convertible>

Details, details, details…

<three dueces>

 

<saw blade sun shade>

In addition to the usual assortment of fine hot rods,  muscle cars, and rats there were also a couple of sweet British sports cars one being this nice white Jaguar,

<vintage Jaguar>

and the other was this very sharp looking Lotus 7 replica.

<Lotus Seven replica>

As much as I love the whole “ratrod” scene it was great to see a traditional, painted with flames, polished & shiny hot rod like this ’32 Tudor.

<Trad Hot Rod>

How about a full on Pro Modified race car? Better still it’s a Henry J, with a blower and “Hillborn style” fuel injection.

<pro mod Henry J racer>

The outside of this particular Dodge van was nothing special but when you swung open the side doors the interior was pure disco era rolling sin bin.

<tiki man van 70s sin bin>

 

And last but definitely not least the world infamous Trash Nova shown here cruising the not so mean streets of North Charleston. Hey it was given the peoples choice trophy for best of show!

<The Trash Nova>

The show had several great sponsors, here I am posing with the display for Guilty Pleasures. Hey you gotta love their business motto!

<guilty pleasures>

Some how the gentlemen at the Holy City Beard & Mustache Society talked me into entering the partial beard division of the beard & ‘stache event. It was great fun and after a bit of hairy competition I shaved out a 4th place finished and the fellows with the really gnarly beards took the top 3.

<partial beard contest winners>

There were all kinds of things going on including, a puppet show, 50’s era fashion show, & a tattoo contest. Some of these were happening simultaneously so I was unable to get pictures from everything, but trust me this weekend if liked great music, wild tattoos,cool bikes, wicked cars, cool dudes, & hot ladies, Park Circle in North Charleston, South Carolina was the place to be.

<models from the rockabillaque fashion show>

Some of the beautiful models from the fashion show.

Now I have saved the best part for last despite only taking my pocket camera and standing at the back of the crowd I was able to get at least one decent picture each of the Miss Rockabiilaque Pinup contestants. I was a bad reporter and I didn’t get their names or anything, I forgot to take a notebook and the crowd was fairly noisy cheering them on so I didn’t hear all the names anyway. For a larger view click on the pictures below.

My advice to you is to look for this event next year and try to attend, we had a great time & I am sure you will too!

Peace Y’all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mini-Rat Update

Posted on by Motopsycho

Just thought I’d share a quick mini-rat update with you. Some of you may remember the GTC torque convertor review form a few weeks ago as well as this pictorial of the completed machine. Since I was not working Friday, I decided to have some fun with stencils, paint, sponges and my airbrush, in preparation for the Rockabillaque show in North Charleston, S.C. on Saturday and this was the result.

First using a home made stencil & a natural sponge I threw a couple of Punisher skulls down on the fenders.

<Minibike with Punisher skully>

<punisher skull & pile>

Then I sponged some of the white onto the top of the headlight and broke out one of my good Airsick stencils and put a skull pile on it.

<airsick skull pile on minibike light>

It really go a lot of attention and wound up being sold within 10 minutes of the show starting! Now it’s time for the next rolling art project.

Peace Y’all

 

 

 

 

Rockabillaque

Posted on by Motopsycho

Here’s a cool event to check out this coming Saturday November 15th 2014! Rockabillaque in North Charleston, S.C.

So if you enjoy vintage custom cars, old motorcycles, rockabilly music, pinup girls, & Kustom Kulture in general you really don’t want to miss this show!

In addition to the main website you can check out their Facebook Page too!

AmyTracker The November 2014 Website of the Month

Posted on by Motopsycho

One of the great things about the internet is the huge variety of interesting people you run across in the various motorcycling forums and in the blogging community. Amy & Kevin are two such people. I’ve never met them, but have thoroughly enjoyed reading about their adventures online. Take a look at the map below, this is the route the two of them rode on their latest motorcycling adventure tour.

<2014-NC to Alaska-route>
I first learned of Amy’s blog while reading her ongoing ride report for this 2014 trip to Alaska over at the advrider forum. So I started following her blog and reading the posts as they came up on WordPress reader. She has a great style of writing & the photos taken by her and Kevin are terrific especially if like me, you really love the natural beauty of the great outdoors.

<Ducati Multistrada>

on the Denali Highway

So if you really like great pictures and interesting adventures go check out amytracker.wordpress.com
Like so many bloggers she started this blog as an online personal journal, but it has grown into a great source of entertainment & information for those of us who find ourselves chained down to a desk full time & are too timid to break free & go ride!

<at the arctic circle on motorcycles>
So go check out Amytracker & if you like it let her know.
Peace Y’all
‘Psyco