May 30, 2011

Out in the middle of nowhere and empty.

History Lesson


Photographed in 1979 this Ducati was bought in a Ringwood car yard for 1800 bucks in 1978 and restored at the time by Mark Leveret.

History
This is the Ducati built in 1975 by Eddy Lopez and Ron Angel at Rons shop in Bridge Road, Richmond. The first of the round case 860's it was worked up to 900 and campaigned by Ken Blake in that year.

To quote Ron Angel... 'I entered him at Bathurst on a Ducati 860 in the Open Production race at Bathurst Easter 1975. But on the Friday he crashed at the end of Conrod Straight. Hit a little patch of gravel or something and trashed the bike and himself. He was really badly injured but he started the race anyway. Being a kick start it was always going to be hard, but Ken had hurt himself down his right side so he had to kick start the bike with his left foot instead. As a result he was absolutely last away. But he ended up winning the race by more than half a lap, seriously injured though he was! At the end of the race we had been told that the first 3 placegetters would be scrutineered so, on the slow-down lap they motioned Ken into the back gate of the pits and one of the officials came up and said, ‘That bike is illegal, you can’t beat a field of 1000cc bikes with that.’ So we went to scrutineering and, of course, the bike was completely legal. There were lots of red faces that day.”

What happened to the bike?
After these photos were taken the bike was given to Mark's brother, he rode it for a few years then parked it in a chicken shed where it has stayed for a looooong time. The bike was recently pulled out of the same shed in a very sad state and Mark is getting stuck into it for a second time. (Note: I'll post some photos of this sometime)

As for Ken Blake - he left Australia in the late 70's to race in Europe and sadly lost his life in the TT at the Isle of Man in 1981.

Mother Fucking Victoria


Last year in all our collective wisdom - Victoria voted in Ted Baillieu's conservative government on a law and order ticket. So the fun has started... He has told the police to go hard on the 'bad' bikers. Two stories - 1. On Easter Friday a couple of million bucks of public money was spent busting up the Black Uhlans Poker run (which was raising money for the Children's Hospital). Over 400 riders and bikes where photographed, breath tested and road checked. - (with six tickets issued - fiscal policy at its best). 2. The Commonwealth Bank has shut down all bank accounts and bank loans that are club or club member related. The other big banks are following suit. And... in other news to hand - Ted wants to outlaw 'mother fucking' swearing in public and lock 16 year olds up for a minimum of two years if they get in the sort of fights where peoples noses get broken.

Emerica


Light to Light





Bar to Bar



May 28, 2011

SANTA FE - TODAY!

MAY 28th!

NOON SHARP



1401 Santa Fe Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90813-1290
(562) 435-5629

May 27, 2011

Finally printed the last 100 of the untitled contributor books. Photos by holly anderson, scott bourne, bill burke(legend), antonio cellini, chopperdave, cicero, deguzman jr, christer ehrling, sven 'el cheapo, juan and jesus espinoza y que, mark velour, gary griffin, dustin hiniker, nelson kanno, jason jessee, maki kurata, mark kawakami, josh kurpius, gary miller, mochi, motoyan, tim okeefe, grant peterson, scott pommier, trevelen rabanal, dina ropele, nicke svensson, ed templeton, billy voerman, jeff wright. The original Independent photo magazines documenting the personal sides, and personal spaces of some custom motorcycle builders. Im happy that people with more means are continuing the tradition. Thats what it was always about. Making mags that didnt have to be what the publishing houses wanted. DIY