ashes to ashes

Gary Nixon

R.I.P.

I was very lucky to have met Gary Nixon,

and to have fielded racers competing with him.

God speed. 

Will he ever leave?!

Brando has shown his bike a bit of neglect the last couple of years.

So, before our ride to the Dime City Bike Show (read the earlier post), he

decided to come by Mean Machines to spend the day tightening things up.

Smart move Mr. Mitchell!

The ride over to St. Petes went well. Only one small glitch on the trip,

Brando had a burble as we were crossing  Alligator alley. I had an idea, but since

it didn't reoccur, we wrote it off as overheating from traffic, and carried on. 

The rest of the ride was great, show was great, but alas,

we had to go home.

It was a beautiful day. But that smile of  Brando's didn't last.

 This is where it all ended.

His Triumph just quit!

Nothing, nada, no more.

His ignition gave up. Thank God for cell phones!

And Henry.

So, to the shop we went.

And thats where Brando stayed for the night.

And the next night.

And almost a third night!

But he sorted out the problems, and finally went home.

And all was well, or so he thought!

So back to the shop. We had suspected a loose top end for a while,

so we decided to look into it.

(Brando was a little upset when I told him to step out of the picture.)

You see, back on Alligator Alley, I suspected that the Triumph

had suffered from a semi seizure. That is when the piston welds itself to the cylinder wall,

but immediatly breaks free, allowing the engine to recover. Some what.

And I was right!

A little piston repair, some new rings, and back together it goes.

(I thought he was supposed to be working on his own bike...)

I also had to fix his exhaust. Ugly, but it'll hold!

Brando must really like the hammock I got in the shop,

cause he stayed another night!

I started worrying about the guy.

Besides the piston damage I repaired, the top end was in very good shape.

 Lucky Brando.

But this was not yet the end!

(He at least waited a couple of weeks.)

Here we have a temporary repair of his stripped-out exhaust spigot.

(And his improvised inspection plug)

Yep, back apart!

Rich over at Desmopro (who happens to be around the corner) got

lured into welding a replacement spigot into the cylinder head.

Nice work.

 This is much better than the stock manifold, no threads to strip.

(Rich had nothing to do with the cork still in use. Neither did I.)

Brando does have a great bike. It's seen better days, but that's alright, it has been

at his service for the last 30 years! It even brought his ass down from Canada.

But Brando, please give your poor bike a little TLC!

Let's Go Racing!

CCS Vintage Roadracing

Homestead/Miami Speedway

June 25-26

There they are, ready to go!

Florida's CCS has made a great effort to include a Vintage class at select events during the year.

Last year I attended a couple of the races with Ask Henry Racing, but we've decided to lay low

this year. (we're cookin' something up for October)

I was fortunate enough to get a gig covering the GMD Computrack trailer while Eric 

was down in Brazil. (He claims he's working with a race team down there, hmm...)

So in between tweaking sportbike suspension, I was able to do a bit of schmoozing with

the vintage crew.

And they're off!

Brian Tenn got the holeshot on his GS1000, pulling a wheelie almost the whole way to turn 1.

But he couldn't make it stick, and ended up further back in the pack at the exit.

Chuck Easterling and Mark Tenn charged to the front, and the two immediatly pulled away

from the rest of the field. It was a classic battle between two and four stroke power.

Chuck on his RD400, and Mark on one of the FZR400s he and his brothers have.

The RD got the early lead, but Mark kept at him, hounding him

as best he could. Chuck was able to hold off the newer Yamaha for the first

half of the race, but Mark was able to finally pass for the lead. 

But the battle was still on. The FZR worked hard to keep the lead,

but eventually started to pull away, securing the win.

The final results: 

#1- Mark Tenn, Yamaha FZR400             

             2- Chuck Easterling, Yamaha RD400                

 3- Paul Tenn, Yamaha FZR400             

4- Brian Tenn, Suzuki GS1000             

                                          DNF- Sakis Vasilopoulos,  Yamaha RD400 (after 5 laps)              

                                     DNF- Michael Perry, Yamaha FZ350G (after 3 laps)                



I would say it was probably the best race of the weekend! Well, I may be slightly biased.

 A good day for Yamaha fans. Unfortunatly, the Bessey's didn't make it with their Triumph.

To the left is Chuck Easterlings very well developed RD400.

And to the right, the GS1000 that Paul Tenn threw together for $500,

this weekend being it's 1st time out.

Sakis Vasilopoulos builds the most beautifull motorcycles,

making all of the body work himself.

He is also fast as hell, and will ride the wheels off any bike that

happens to be under him. He raced back in Greece before coming to America, 

and now has fun racing in any vintage event he can get to. 

But this week his bike just wasn't working right....

See ya

-Josh



Duelling Bloggers

We both needed to get out of town in a big way.

Neither of us had done anything but local riding recently,

so when Jason at Dime City Cycles invited me to their party/bike show over in St. Petersburgh,

it was a perfect excuse.

The plan was to get some of the guys, who already planned to go, to ride with us,

but cars and trailers won out!

Wimps.  

So Brando and I hit the road.

We got a late start (3pm), and had to fight our way out of town.

The plan was to blast out to snake road, and then cut north to get off the highway.

Not the smartest move if we had a schedule to follow, but luckily

we left that in the trash. But after dodging alligators, love bugs, and 2 very

ominous storms, we bit the bullet and hit the highway.

We ended up  in a cheap old motel just north of Punta Gorda.

DINNER!

Back on the road (but not too early- see a pattern here?)

It should have been a quick ride up to St. Pete, but our luck ran out.

Big old storm hit us. We stopped under an overpass, while on an overpass, but still

got wet. Brando was prepared. I had a garbage bag...

Finally, we made it! 10 hours to ride what would take a car 3.

But it's about having fun.

The show was great. Turn out was beyond what we expected, due to the rain.

And it rained most of the day.

Lotsa great bikes, cute pin-up girls, and good food and music.

I spent some time with Rich from Lowside magazine out of Baltimore.

They rode down, that's Rich's KZ. Nice bike Rich.

You all should check them out at http://www.lowsidesyn.com/

They have the right attitude.

 My friend Scott Turner builds some beautiful motorcycles. And many of them.

He's also fast as hell on his race bike. You can find him on facebook under Team Scott Racing.

I can't cause I can't even find facebook! (I'd type 'lol', but Brando won't let me).

Every bike show needs a winner, so

Mean Machines Best of Show

Talk about mean! I didn't get too close, cause I swear it growled at me!

(maybe that was the moonshine I had)

Time to go!  Back on the road the next morning for us.

Our route home was to be country rode east to Rt. 27, then south.

A little quicker, but 27 isn't like I-75, or I-95.

 It was a nice day in the country!

And that's where our ride ended!

Luckily we had good company, and of course beer!

(it wasn't me who broke down!)

Thank you Tash, for all the hospitality.

See ya

-Josh

A Day in the Life

Back to work for me!

Back from the Dime City Show last weekend, and plenty of new work pouring in.

Thank god!

We had a great time at the show, and the ride was awesome.

But that's for later , now we gotta catch up on what's been happening at Mean Machines!Now this is a bike! NOTHING beats a dirttrack framed Triumph Special.

This one happens to actually be a race bike with lights thrown on, probably a real deal Grand National ride from the early 1970's. I will soon have all the history.

When I was working up in NYC, this was the ultimate streetbike to build.

And here we have the other side of the cool spectum,
an ORIGINAL condition Triumph TR6R.
This bike has spent all of it's days as a complete motorcycle,
and there are some bolts that have probably never
been touched by a wrench since it left England!
The only thing cooler is if you found one new in a crate!

And here is my new Toy.

Thanks Eddie!

That's all for now, short and sweet. Stay tuned for coverage of our ride to St. Pete's, and the Dime City bike show.

See ya

Even More Cafe Racers

Big Show Coming Up!

The guys over at Dime City Cycles are having a big bash next month.

It's gonna be big.

So big, we've decided to put together a ride over!

Yes, the 1st Mean Machines ride! and we're comin' out swinging!

Everyone is invited, except for you wimps!

Fort Lauderdale to Largo.

Drop me a line if you want to come 954-213-2177

Back to work

I've become a bit multi-cultural at the shop of late.

A bit crowded, but a man's got to do what he's got to do.

I'm also back on my 'Norumphsa' build.

I've gotten a little ambitious with the front forks.

The Roadholders that I'm using have a very early and crude cartridge damping system.

Being that I have a bit of experience in performance racing suspension applications, I've decided to fit modern suspension valving components inside the forks.

The old at top, the new (really not that new- circa 1990's) at bottom. The magic is what is inside the cartridges.

I couldn't help myself. Here's a cool pic I took while building the engine. Now all I gotta do is finish the dang thing!

See ya

They Come, They Go

Goodbye my sweet Daytona!

Well, not quite yet.

But it is time to liquidate.

I, unfortunatly, am not in the position to have and keep all the bikes I want.

I want them all, so every so often I have to make the tough choice to let one go.

It was a very hard decision with Mr. Perfect here. But, my Bonneville is almost done (beleive it or not) and I have a couple other projects behind that one. You see, I walked into my shop the other day and realized if I kept it up, I'd have no room for any jobs!

Truth is, I'll soon have another street bike, and my plans to turn the Daytona into a race bike (which is what they were built for!) were aborted when I picked up this pile.

It's another Daytona!

The frame is actually another '72 built the same month.

Engines a '73 (like me).
I had already picked up extra tanks and fenders, a rear wheel, and some other cool bits, including a real trick aluminum front fender.

Oh yeah, Henry has had this head sitting around. It's off a race bike!
Nice

So here it sits, waiting.

So, if you're looking for a sweet Daytona, give me a call.

I'm ready to wheel and deal!