Old Bastards !

Gregg and I took a ride to Delta to check out the Old Bastards Vintage Motorcycle Club's 2009 Rally. Beautiful weather, and a bunch of beautiful bikes. An hour-and-a-half's ride away. Is there any better way to spend a Saturday?

As we were arriving, just a few hundred yards from the campground where the event was taking place, Gregg spotted someone he knew whose bike had broken down. The guy was riding a beautifully and meticulously restored 1952? Vincent Comet. After shutting off the engine for a moment at the local general store, it refused to start again. We, stopped to help and looked on as the owner fiddled with it for 2 hours. It would run, but it wouldn't do anything more than idle roughly. In the parking lot the carb was taken apart and nothing obvious was found. Finally, he walked back to the campground to get his van and trailer to pick it up. It may possibly have been just a tank of bad gas (he had topped up the tank minutes before).

We then went over to the main event for a look. Here is a sampling of what we saw:

Russian bike with side-car (Ural, I think)

Beautiful Matchless. Looked like it just rolled out of the factory.

A real work of art: Indian Roadliner. ... the real deal.

Ariel Fourster / Square Four (4 cylinders, 2x2) incredible museum quality condition.

the Ariel, again

50's Triumph

BSA with Jawa side car

BMW with side car

Honda CB750Four 'K' series
OK, maybe not 'vintage' but it was in great condition.

1930's Royal Enfield 225 c.c. two-stroke

Royal Enfield running

Royal Enfield

Velocette

Norton 850 Commando

BMW

BMW

BMW

Red Panther (late 1930's, model 20, I think)

The broken down Vincent Comet. Stunning, and valued at more than a wheelbarrow full of gold.

Vincent

Identical to the 1981 Yamaha RD350 I rode for a decade. This one was in terrific shape.

In search of the ultimate auxilliary lighting solution...

So it's no suprise that the factory DR650 headlight sucks ass. It throws about as much light as a keychain flashlight. In search of improved lighting I replaced the standard halogen bulb with PIAA Exteme White Plus 4,000K H4 bulb. This helped somewhat, but the result is nonetheless the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig: the problem is with the headlight itself -- the reflector & lens are poorly designed. I considered a pair of PIAA compact driving lights (I had a terrific set of PIAA 004XTs on my VW Golf) but since the DR doesn't have a very stout stator, I didn't want to risk overloading the bike's electrical system -- especially since I plan to add heated grips. Running an additional pair of 55 watt lights might strain the weak charging system. So I found a low wattage alternative that, suprisingly, provides more light than halogen driving lights: Solstice Solo S4100 10-watt LED auxilary lights, made by VisionX. They come in 3 beam patterns: flood (wide angle), Euro (medium), spot (narrow). The flood beams don't shoot nearly as far as the spot lights, but they would be far more practical for the purpose I had in mind. I want to leave them on all the time -- partly so that oncoming traffic will see me. But also, since most of my night riding is within the city, I want something that will light the road directly in front of me, not 300 yards ahead. I want to be able to use them in combination with the low beam headlight. But they sure aren't cheap. I found them on Amazon for $120 USD each, plus a few dollars for shipping. Ouch. Totalled up to nearly $300 CDN by the time I had them delivered. But after having a good look at the build quality, and after seeing the light output, I can say that they are worth every penny. And the fact that they only consume 20 watts for the pair is truly a bonus. Believe me, they are bright as hell.