Motorcycle Junkie:

Monday, January 10, 2011

2011 North American International Motorcycle SUPERSHOW

Took the train to Toronto for the weekend to attend the big winter motorcycle show with Sean. The train was a nice, refreshing way to travel: didn't have to worry about traffic, bad weather, or parking. And with gas costing $1.15 a Litre, a round-trip train ticket wasn't much more than I'd have spent on gas for the minivan.

Had a great time hanging out with Sean, and we spent pretty much the entire day at the show on Saturday. Overall, the show was as I expected, that is to say that it wasn't particularly awesome, not particularly horrible. The scale of the show made up for its short-comings: this is the biggest show around these parts so at least there was lots to see. The two things that disappointed me most:

1) the new Triumph Tiger XC 800 was nowhere to be found (although I hear it was present at the manufacturers' trade show that was held there a 6 weeks ago);

2) despite having seached every square inch of every hall, I was not able to find Paddy Tyson -- an Irish guy who wanders the globe on two wheels. I wanted to buy a copy of his book and spend a few minutes chatting with him. Oh well, I guess I'll buy the book online. http://paddytyson.com/

The photos:

Electric trials bike

These guys had a good display, nice selection of stuff.

1937 Rudge Sports Special

Father and daughter team travelled across Canada on these old-school Honda Cubs

I've seen this bike before, and it's still a beauty.

1982 Honda GB500 Tourist Trophy

1982 Yamaha RD350LC

1986 Bimota DB1 (750cc Ducati engine).

I can't believe it's been 25 years since I first saw

these things on the covers of motorcycle magazines

Italian beauty: Guzzi V7 Café

Guzzi Griso

MV Augusta F4

Sean trying out a used FJR

Speed Triple

Boss Hoss with a 376 cubic inch Corvette engine ... redonkulous !

Outlandish, over-exaggerated, and just plain stupid.

Indian Chief Dark Horse.

$28,000

Confderate P120 Fighter Combat

Confederate P120 Black Flag

Confederate Hellcat

Confderate P120 Fighter Combat

Harley Davidson with hearse side-car

1989 Honda RC30/VFR750R (V4)

1967 Triumph 650 Hardtail

I just barfed in my mouth

Interesting

iPod / iPhone dock

Wups.

Who dropped that?

Better yet: who's gonna pick it up?

Victory Vision lying on its side like a beached whale

Saturday, January 1, 2011

RMZ front end swap

Happy New Year !

Back home after a few days visiting family & friends in Toronto. Before leaving, I parked the bike in the expensive storage unit I rented. On this unseasonably mild and rainy New Year's Day, I figured it might be a good time to get started on the fork swap.

The plan is to swap the whole front end including forks, triple clamps, and the entire front wheel assembly. Today, my only goal was the get the old front end off.

the storage unit is 10' x 13', I'm using 1/2 of it for storage, and the other 1/2 for working on the DR. This makes the work area about 5' x 13' which is plenty of space to get the job done.