New Musket V twin prototype...

...is in a frame and running.

These are shots from Aniket Vardhan's Face Book page. 

He wanted to have his new version V twin Enfield to have it's own identity, as compared to his first V twin prototype, and made it more 'Speed Twin'- stylistically. I think it turned out pretty nice.

Here is a link to his homepage, which has a link to his Facebook page with 21 pictures of the new prototype.--------------->Musket V Twin

Support Zombies...

and old motorcycles with sidecars.

From the drivers side

From the passengers side

On my way to do laundry today I spotted Dan pulling his rig out of his garage, getting ready to go for a ride. Had enough time for a quick chat and a few quick pics.I believe he said that this one is a 1962 model.  Last time we'd talked it started poring down rain just as he had arrived home. I misunderstood that he had two rigs, his other bike is a solo BMW. I told him about the newer DNEPR rig I'd spotted earlier in the month in the neighborhood, wasn't his. As it turns out he knows Mike, another local who is constructing a sidecar to hook up to a BMW. Mike must regret selling his earlier rig. I'll have to see if I can get some pics of that one. This bike has electric start, which started it up instantly, and he was puttin' down the road.

Was a beautiful day today, was wishing I had one of my rigs operational....another project.

A link here to a Wikipedia article------> DNEPR Motorcycles

More 'Time Travel'

An acquaintance of mine who owns a  fast food restaurant and is also a Real Estate agent, sent me some old pics of the town of Rancho Cordova via e-mail awhile back. Rancho Cordova is the town I attended High School in .'Rancho' sits along Highway 50 about 15 minutes out of Sacramento. In the old days it was a gas stop and motel location for people on their way to Lake Tahoe. When my family arrived in 1964 it still had farms, orchards, and hops fields nearby. All this was beginning to fade away of course. By this time the aerospace industry was going strong and rocket motors for the US space program were being built nearby.The two local Air Force bases were going strong, the Viet Nam war was 10 years from being gone...
Otherwise, life was kinda like 'Mayberry' of the 'The Andy Griffith Show' around here.

I've arranged these roughly in chronological order....(These were obtained from the local Chamber of Commerce...have no idea who took them)

A '49 or '50 Ford convertible....

Local cowboy...

Nice hat's...

Gonna see if I can ID this country road....

The 'Sharp Shop', now gone. Where you could get your lawnmower repaired,chainsaw blade touched-up, or pick up parts for your  mini-bike...

Have to see if I can ID this little spot as well...might still be standing.

Art Linkletter again...

Local shopping center, before several rehabs that have occurred over the years...Bought my first fishing pole in a store here.

Folsom Blvd. or 'Old Highway 50' , before it was widened and straightened, and the nearby Freeway completed.

My Alma Mater, Cordova High School

Folsom Blvd. in the seventies it looks like... 

This is a picture I took in the seventies. That is Grant Smith, an old friend, when he was younger, and getting crazy...I've run this pic before, and will do so again I'm sure. Grant sold me a Norton Commando 850 that I hope to get back on the road soon. He's hanging from the Marquee of the 'Thunderbird Drive-in Theatre', which unfortunately was torn down. 

Added a link to the Rancho Cordova wikipedia page------>Rancho History

Can you spot the 'Time-Traveler'?

A hint, he's the one with the cel-phone and butane lighter.

Actually this is what happens after spending too much time looking at videos in the 'weird' part of Youtube. This is really from the late 50's in Rancho Cordova, California. That's Art Linkletter of TV fame at the opening of a new subdivision. O.K. really, you can quit looking for the time-traveler...

Time traveling....

.....with SL 350's. 'Old Blue' and "Old Orange', a tale of two 'identical' bikes...

 

This is a pic of one of my '71 Honda SL 350's...taken around...1988  perhaps...? At this point I was still using this bike on the street. Shortly after, it was stripped down for dirt only with another '71, a blue one. I have owned many 350 Hondas, and still own several 350 Hondas. My second bike, after the  first bike I owned which was a '69 CL 175 K3, was a used '71 CB 350. Rode it for several years then moved up to a '71 CB 500.  It's interesting how people are acquiring  Honda 350's to restore or turn into 'Cafe Racers' or odd ideas of a 'Flattrack' look. Not putting anyone down for that, just that for me they were affordable and fairly reliable bikes over the years. And too ,people are also turning them into 'Classic' Racers. I tended to lean towards a 'Cafe-Racer' style in those days. Most of the guys I worked with in the 70's had 'Choppers', or 'Customs'.

Speaking of really identical bikes,Norman of 'You can't tour on a Single' and Iain of 'Auld Kawas and Stuff' both recently purchased CL 350's. It was not a model imported to the UK. They are both based in Scotland. Interestingly they have found bikes of the same color and year, I believe. I never owned a CL model, but several friends of mine did. They have a larger front wheel , different exhausts, pegs, tanks and side covers...but are very similar in spec to the CB models. By the looks of them they are in pretty good shape for the year that they were built. You can follow restoration progress on their blogs, which have links here at this blog.

The early SL 350 was based on the CB/CL frame and motor. I owned and restored a 1969 SL 350 in the 70's and sold it.  The '71 SL 350, and later, had a completely different frame, engine castings, no electric start, transmission gearing differences and so on . They were tuned differently with smaller carbs and were more 'user-friendly' on the dirt. I have three of them now. One is in near running condition (the originally orange one), the blue one is in pieces here and there. The 'Blue' one was thrashed so hard by my friends and myself that it has broken motor mounts on the cases and the frame. The 'Orange' one is still trucking along. It was always slower but it got you there. The third one has a running motor, that curiously has a replacement engine case that has the previous owners name stamped where the engine numbers would go. Speaking to the brother of that man, the one who sold me the bike, it goes back to the time when dirt bikes were not required to be registered. He broke the original cases and when he installed the new cases he only had a set of letter stamps, so he stamped his name in the cases. It will be interesting to see what DMV has to say, for these days dirt bikes are required to be registered...

Yeah, it was 1988 when I took these pics. This is a shot of "Old Blue' next to a CB 100 that was turned into an of off road bike. The camo '68 Bug was given to me by a friend who had turned it into a flat bed pickup truck. I ended up trading it for a BSA B-40 motor that will be the basis of a trials bike, some time...

A friend of mine who used to go dirt riding with me named the bikes 'Old Blue' and 'Old Orange'. After the blue one was retired when the motor mounts expired...the orange bike acquired the blue tank, when it's tank became too rusty and full of holes to continue. Jay then started calling this bike 'Blorange'.

'Blorange'

This pic was taken in 2012 . This is the orange bike now sporting the blue tank.It also has a swap meet find recovered seat and some Dunstall 'clip-ons. At this point I was thinking of changing the tank to one off of a CB 500 twin...and going towards a 'Cafe' style. Thats the CB 550 now wearing a swap meet early 350 seat that was bought for 2 bucks.

On closer inspection you can see that 'Old Blorange' has suffered the passage of time, and being stored outdoors under a holey tarp...

Rust never sleeps...

Time for a new air cleaner...

This bike and I survived being run down by a three quarter ton van about 13-14 years ago. Bike had a bent frame which I straightened. My bent frame I wonder about...still have aches and pains from that one. It was hit and run...(yes I still harbor ill thoughts towards the driver of that van...)

The disc brake front end is from a CB 350G model. I added the disc brake when I had a side car attached. The sidecar was attached when I was hit by the van. It probably saved my life, since the rig behaved like a small car and spun before it threw me off. Without the side car I might have been drug under the front of the van with the bike...?

Last year I had the fantasy of getting a bike together for the Moto Melee run. As it turned out my '71 SL 350 was too 'new', and some unexpected dental problems put the kibosh to those plans. This year I might try again with an older Honda 450 I have. It's a 1969 'Black Bomber' that needs some attention, but would qualify as far as  the age requirement. So now I'm wondering if I should complete my "Cafe' plans for 'Blorange'...or return it to dirt service...?

A 'trading' card that came with a stick of chewing gum.

A Honda ad from 1971

The 'Duke', on a '69-70' SL 350 Honda...

To be continued...

This just in, another 'tough' guy on a Honda SL...Chuck Heston in 1971's 'Omega Man' Lot's of guns and zombies in sunglasses...

Sneaking in another pic for 'Mr.Combo'. I believe this is a bike I've been hoping to catch at it's home garage...on the way to my WiFi provider (McD's)...I spot this half a block from my place....