Some of my readers will remember I was lucky enough to be able to go see Jay Leno's private car and bike collection when I was in Los Angeles. This was possible because I happened to meet a TV producer months before in Milwaukee, called Jim Cutting.
It was Jim who very kindly contacted Jay and asked him if I could go see his collection so I owe Jim a big thank you for getting my visit sorted. I know that Jim is making a documentary about a Norton dual-engine drag bike called Hogslayer. Set for completion this year, the production team is looking for any existing material such as film, photographs, publications and video of the dragster and race team for inclusion in the documentary. They also have some sponsorship deals available.
This is the trailer for the documentary....
Here is the full recent press release distributed by the production company....
Hogslayer Documentary in the Final Stretch
“Hogslayer: The Unapproachable Legend” Set for Release in 2011
SLINGER, WIS. (January 31, 2011) – Excitement is building among racing enthusiasts for a new independent documentary about the multi-world champion motorcycle drag racing legend – the Hogslayer. Slated for a 2011 release date, the production company, The Edge Ltd., is accepting additional documentary materials and offering sponsorships on this exciting project.
Hogslayer: The Unapproachable Legend is the true-life story of the dual-engine Norton dragster designed, built and raced by John Gregory and TC Christenson of Sunset Motors in Kenosha, Wis. The documentary chronicles the Sunset Motors Racing Team’s unrivaled innovation and unbridled courage as they faced unyielding challengers throughout the United States and Europe in the 1970’s. The Hogslayer dragster is presently on exhibit at the National Motorcycle Museum in the United Kingdom.
The project is currently being financed and produced independently by The Edge Ltd., however the production company is offering sponsorships to assist with the remaining funding and to share in the premieres and distribution promotion of the documentary. The Edge Ltd. is also offering an open invitation for anyone familiar with the Hogslayer story to submit film, photographs, publications and video of the dragster and race team for inclusion in the documentary. For additional information or to submit materials, contact James Cutting, independent producer, The Edge Ltd., at 262-224-3777 or edgeltd@charter.net.
For the latest Hogslayer news, become fans of the ‘Hogslayer Documentary’ on Facebook.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Saturday, 22 January 2011
The Bikes I’ve Owned....
I have owned just five bikes which I guess is not that many really. A few people I know have got that many in their garages now!
Here are the bikes I have owned....
First a Honda C90......
I got my first bike, a Honda C90 in red and white, when I was 16 years old. Looking back now, I think it was a good bike to learn to ride a bike on, as with just 3 gears and no clutch, it was very simple to ride. I read the Honda Cub range has been made continuously since 1958 and is the biggest selling bike of all time with over 60 million sold. Wow, to think mine was one of them! When I first got the bike I thought I was pretty cool.... Okay, I was young and impressionable! I enjoyed the bike and did all the maintenance myself, all self-taught. I passed my bike riding test on this bike.
My next bike was a Yamaha YR5 350cc, in orange....
I kept that bike for many years and as my only form of transport, rode it everywhere in all weathers. I crashed it a few times due mainly to the stupidity of the other road users. Okay, it was probably my own stupidity and recklessness....
I then went up-market and bought my third used bike, a magnificent Suzuki GT750, known as “the kettle” because it was water cooled with a radiator....
I think I was probably about 21 at the time I got this bike and I kept this bike until I got married and had kids when a car became much more necessary and the bike had to go. I was living and working in London and even though this was meant to be a long-distance touring bike, most of the journeys I did were short, buzzing around London. It was an unusual bike and now very sought after as a collector’s item. I wish I had kept mine.
It was then many many years before I even rode another bike. I was 49 years old and in London one day I was about 30 minutes early for a meeting. I needed to find something to do while I waited, so I went to look in a Harley dealer I knew existed in west London. I hadn’t gone there with the intention of getting a bike, just to have a look. I liked the big, new shiny bikes and wondered if I could ride one after so many years of not riding. I arranged to rent one for 4 days and a few days later I rode away from the dealers on a Road King. I didn’t need 4 days to make my mind up as within about an hour I decided I wanted one and went back to the dealer and ordered my very own Road King ....
I was a born-again biker! I loved being back riding again and soon went on a few long distance trips across Europe. This Road King was the bike I did my tour of the USA on.
I attended a few Harley-Davidson rallies and had seen many of the one-off custom bikes at many shows and decided I wanted one. I had a good idea what I wanted and designed in my mind a long low bike and I found a H-D dealer in Waterford in Ireland that could build just what I wanted. Thirteen months later I had my own dream bike....
So, I have had just 5 bikes. Not so many really, but I am feeling the urge to get number six.....
Here are the bikes I have owned....
First a Honda C90......
My next bike was a Yamaha YR5 350cc, in orange....
While riding a Honda with no clutch was easy, the first time I tried to ride this “proper bike”, I realised I didn’t know how to use a clutch. I was probably 17 at the time and I had never driven a car either, so how to operate a clutch was a mystery to me. I learned quickly though, on the tiny forecourt of the bike dealers and on the way home. I did ok as I made the journey without incident, but then immediately took the bike out for a ride and ran out of fuel and not realising the bike had a reserve tank (I was more interested in finding out about girls than reserves), pushed the bike to the nearest petrol station.
I kept that bike for many years and as my only form of transport, rode it everywhere in all weathers. I crashed it a few times due mainly to the stupidity of the other road users. Okay, it was probably my own stupidity and recklessness....
I then went up-market and bought my third used bike, a magnificent Suzuki GT750, known as “the kettle” because it was water cooled with a radiator....
I think I was probably about 21 at the time I got this bike and I kept this bike until I got married and had kids when a car became much more necessary and the bike had to go. I was living and working in London and even though this was meant to be a long-distance touring bike, most of the journeys I did were short, buzzing around London. It was an unusual bike and now very sought after as a collector’s item. I wish I had kept mine.
It was then many many years before I even rode another bike. I was 49 years old and in London one day I was about 30 minutes early for a meeting. I needed to find something to do while I waited, so I went to look in a Harley dealer I knew existed in west London. I hadn’t gone there with the intention of getting a bike, just to have a look. I liked the big, new shiny bikes and wondered if I could ride one after so many years of not riding. I arranged to rent one for 4 days and a few days later I rode away from the dealers on a Road King. I didn’t need 4 days to make my mind up as within about an hour I decided I wanted one and went back to the dealer and ordered my very own Road King ....
I was a born-again biker! I loved being back riding again and soon went on a few long distance trips across Europe. This Road King was the bike I did my tour of the USA on.
I attended a few Harley-Davidson rallies and had seen many of the one-off custom bikes at many shows and decided I wanted one. I had a good idea what I wanted and designed in my mind a long low bike and I found a H-D dealer in Waterford in Ireland that could build just what I wanted. Thirteen months later I had my own dream bike....
I called the bike Tradewinds and entered it in a custom bikes show in St Tropez in southern France where it won best in class. It has done very well at custom bike shows since and for a custom bike, it has done many miles as I just love riding it. My Road King is my touring bike and my red custom bike is my show-off bike! Harley-Davidson heard about the bike and very kindly wrote about it in one of the HOG magazines and also put it in one of their e-zines
So, I have had just 5 bikes. Not so many really, but I am feeling the urge to get number six.....
Thursday, 13 January 2011
The Leading Ladies are coming home!
It seems that my black bike, the Leading Ladies, is finally on the way back home.
My regular readers will know that the bike has been held up in US Customs because of a slight problem with the administrative side of how the customs department work. Basically, when the bike was imported in New York, the system US Customs use in NY is electronic and the bike was “released” using their computer system. When it came to exporting the bike from LA, the customs people there said they wanted to see the import paperwork containing the official stamp to demonstrate the bike was imported properly. Well, the customs people in NY said they cannot provide that piece of paper because they deal with everything electronically. It seemed the bike would sit there until this was resolved.
The result was that the bike had to be re-imported (on paper) so that somebody could then produce a piece of paper with the stamp on it. This has now been done and I was sent a copy of the paperwork and the long awaited stamp.
The great news is the bike was then quickly cleared for export by customs. I have heard that the Leading Ladies will be leaving Los Angeles on a ship today and will arrive in about 4 -6 weeks time. Yeah!!!
Monday, 10 January 2011
I Have a Bike Again!
There is still no news about how the paperwork is going to repatriate the Leading Ladies back to the UK. I will follow this up with the shippers today to find out what the current status is.
I did however get my red custom bike back over the weekend. This meant driving a 792 miles round trip in 3 different countries and crossing the Irish Sea on a ferry!
My red bike is now three years old and was in need of a little bit of work, so while I was on my tour of the USA, it went back to Waterford Harley-Davidson in Ireland where is was built. The main thing that needed to be looked at was a starting problem. The bike has a large engine at 1800cc / 110 Cubic inches, and being a v-twin with a lot of compression and a heavy starter motor, the battery was never really big enough to start the bike properly. But, there isn’t room to put a larger battery in the bike, so I have always struggled to start the bike especially when it is really cold.
Waterford H-D therefore took the top of the engine off and installed a decompression system that reduces the compression on the first few turns of the engine thereby needing less power to crank the engine over. It works and the bike is now much easier to start. The twins carbs were tuned and a few paint dings were touched up, along with a few other bits and pieces.
The bike was ready so I drove from home (A on the map below) to Waterford which means heading west across a good deal of southern England, over the Severn Bridge (B), right across Wales where I got a ferry to Ireland and on to Waterford (C)....
I did think about riding the bike back, but only for about 3 nano-seconds as the weather forecast was dreadful with rain and snow forecast. I therefore jumped in my car and took the trailer. This was crossing the Seven Bridge....
Driving onto the ferry....
The ferry was pretty big, so I went outside on the sun-deck (they have got to be kidding calling it that!) and took a few pictures....
Famous across the world for its crystal, Waterford is the fifth largest city in Ireland. Sitting on the River Suir, it’s history can be traced back to 914 AD when the city was founded by Vikings....
I stayed in the Tower Hotel, so-called because it sits opposite Reginald’s Tower, said to be the oldest civic building in Ireland....
I walked around the centre of Waterford and noticed a Merry-Go-Round and Christmas tree in the town square, no doubt both fenced off due to imminent removal post Christmas....
I spend most of the day at Waterford H-D chatting with the guys and some of the customers. The ferry back wasn’t until late at night so I had plenty of time. Lenny the Dealer Principle was on good form and we sat and talked about all sorts of issues for a long time. This is their workshop....
The ferry back across the Irish Sea left late in the evening and docked at one o’clock in the morning. I had to wait until every other car had driven off the ferry as my trailer was too tall to exit without lowering the ramp inside the boat so I could leave by the lorry exit....
It was a long drive home through the night and I was tired when I arrived a 7am. I unloaded the bike later after the sun had come up and finally I had a bike in my garage once again....
All I need now is my Road King back!
I did however get my red custom bike back over the weekend. This meant driving a 792 miles round trip in 3 different countries and crossing the Irish Sea on a ferry!
My red bike is now three years old and was in need of a little bit of work, so while I was on my tour of the USA, it went back to Waterford Harley-Davidson in Ireland where is was built. The main thing that needed to be looked at was a starting problem. The bike has a large engine at 1800cc / 110 Cubic inches, and being a v-twin with a lot of compression and a heavy starter motor, the battery was never really big enough to start the bike properly. But, there isn’t room to put a larger battery in the bike, so I have always struggled to start the bike especially when it is really cold.
Waterford H-D therefore took the top of the engine off and installed a decompression system that reduces the compression on the first few turns of the engine thereby needing less power to crank the engine over. It works and the bike is now much easier to start. The twins carbs were tuned and a few paint dings were touched up, along with a few other bits and pieces.
The bike was ready so I drove from home (A on the map below) to Waterford which means heading west across a good deal of southern England, over the Severn Bridge (B), right across Wales where I got a ferry to Ireland and on to Waterford (C)....
I did think about riding the bike back, but only for about 3 nano-seconds as the weather forecast was dreadful with rain and snow forecast. I therefore jumped in my car and took the trailer. This was crossing the Seven Bridge....
Driving onto the ferry....
The ferry was pretty big, so I went outside on the sun-deck (they have got to be kidding calling it that!) and took a few pictures....
Famous across the world for its crystal, Waterford is the fifth largest city in Ireland. Sitting on the River Suir, it’s history can be traced back to 914 AD when the city was founded by Vikings....
I stayed in the Tower Hotel, so-called because it sits opposite Reginald’s Tower, said to be the oldest civic building in Ireland....
I walked around the centre of Waterford and noticed a Merry-Go-Round and Christmas tree in the town square, no doubt both fenced off due to imminent removal post Christmas....
I spend most of the day at Waterford H-D chatting with the guys and some of the customers. The ferry back wasn’t until late at night so I had plenty of time. Lenny the Dealer Principle was on good form and we sat and talked about all sorts of issues for a long time. This is their workshop....
The ferry back across the Irish Sea left late in the evening and docked at one o’clock in the morning. I had to wait until every other car had driven off the ferry as my trailer was too tall to exit without lowering the ramp inside the boat so I could leave by the lorry exit....
It was a long drive home through the night and I was tired when I arrived a 7am. I unloaded the bike later after the sun had come up and finally I had a bike in my garage once again....
All I need now is my Road King back!
Sunday, 2 January 2011
2010 Headers
I was looking at Eve's blog, Sunny Side Up and saw that she had collected together all of the header photos used at the top of her blog during 2010. Realising this was a terrific idea, I did what any self-respecting person would do and, I , err, borrowed it.
So, here are my header pictures from 2010.....
So, here are my header pictures from 2010.....
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