50 seconds of The Kestrel bliss

This came in my mail from my subscription to Falcon Motorcycles.

We went to the desert with our friend Matt Taylor and shot this video.
Music: Black Math Horseman
Director of Photography: Matt Taylor
Footage: Matt & Amaryllis
Editor: Matt

More addictive Falcon Motorcycles videos from their You Tube account.
From the website of Falcon motorcycles-

The Kestrel: (sold) - started as the unit engine of a 1970 Triumph Bonneville, which Falcon cut in half & re-engineered. With the exception of a few critical pieces everything – including the frame, front forks, gas & oil tanks, exhausts, handlebars, levers, even the cylinders – was fabricated in-house.

Visit the Kestrel gallery at the Falcon Motorcycles website. Yes, I know, I need to do a feature on the amazing work done by Ian and Amaryllis. I am long overdue here, nonetheless you can check the previous posts on Falcon motorcycles under the blog.

In The News - Broad Track Racer ENFIELD 500 EFI

Bollywood actor, John Abraham, also famous for his passion for SBKs has increased his brood by adding a new entry which is albeit different to the taste he is known for. Although John's passion (at least as projected by the media) is more towards SBKs (he owns a Busa and a R1), this time he got himself a early 1900 broad track racer, or at least something close. The bike you see here is actually a customized Royal Enfield 5oo EFI, designed by a relatively new custom firm from Jaipur, Rajasthan, known as Rajputana Customs. The bike had the work fabrication of Mr. Vijay Singh

Mr Vijay mentions that the chassis, gas tank, rims and brakes had been hand-made. I beleive he meant part of the chassis since the front retains the doyble barrel frame but although the front forks are completely hand made in retro fashion. Looking at the finer details, you notice Vijay has also removed the standard disc brakes to give the bike a more authentic feel. He himself states that he wanted to keep it subtle, simple and yet make it stand out. And stand out it does as the bike has already make headlines in many newspapers. The total cost of the bike is somewhere between Rs 3-4 lakh ($6500 - $8500 USD) including the bike's cost which actually in India is quite cheap ($3100) compared to the overseas market. So the modifications which look very simple would cost more and that is because to make the bike look that good and simple and still keep it standing out, well... that is a lot of talent. The whole bike took 50 days to make and finish. By profession, Vijay Singh is a 24-year-old communication graduate from Canada. Relatively new to custom designing world, he already has been requested with several orders. Inside the garage, he is just helped by Abdul Rehman. The website, Rajputana Customs is coming soon.

Photo credits Hindustan Times and Mid day.

No CSI here, just better visuals

If you are one of those fans who watch CSI Miami or watched CSI Miami just for a certain hot chick, Ms. Wendy Simms, I am sure you are very disappointed that she is no longer in Season 11. For those out of focus, Wendy Simms, a DNA Technicaian, is a character played by the beautiful Liz Vassey in the teleserial CSI Miami. She was in the serial for season 6 to 10. She was ranked 74 in Stuff magazine's 2002 "102 Sexiest Women In The World". For fans of Ms. Vassey, enjoy the pictorials and for fans of motorcycles, well, just enjoy the pictorials!

Original Source: MAXIM. Photos sourced from Moto Caradisiac.

Time Out - Kids these days... I tell you!

Fastest Man on Earth with the Curtiss V8

The name ‘Curtiss’ somewhat vaguely interprets in my mind as something to do with aeroplanes and something of having a tussle or an association with the Wright Brothers for some issues I can’t recall what I might have read years ago. Well, hence forth from now on, at certain age of my life, even if I forget the name of the Wright brothers, I will not forget the name of ‘Curtiss’. Of course I never knew that he was also given the name of “The Fastest Man on Earth”.
So, Glenn Hammond Curtiss was a pioneer in aeronautics and we will get to a brief history about that, but before venturing into aeronautics, Glenn H. Curtiss began his career by working with motorcycles. In fact, it was due to his innovative ways in creating motorcycles, light and powerful due to which his expertise was sought in the field of aeronautics. But the reason this man is featured here is because in the field of aeronautics, he had built a light and powerful V8 engine and later he converted the engine to a motorcycle engine. And we know which age we are talking about if we are taking about the Wright Brothers, right!. Yes, that was the 1900s. Think about it, a V8 in early 19th century. Exactly, Mr. Glenn H. Curtiss built a Boss Hoss in 1906.
The engine was there, so basically Curtiss and his team needed a chassis to holster the massive powerplant. They ultimately built a product that weighed 275 pounds and, was almost 8 feet long. Curtiss took the motorcycle to the Florida Speed Carnival in 1907 and recorded a speed of 136.3 mph (218 kmph, yes, in 1907) which gave him the title of ‘The Fastest Man on Earth’. And mark this, the record stood for any, repeat any land speed record and not just for 2 wheelers. The black and white pictures with the man are from that speed run and that was also the man’s attire. A gentleman wearing a leather cap and a trimmed moustache could do that, well I could have never imagined or believed had I not read about that. It was January 24, 1907 to be precise at the Ormond Beach (now called Daytona Beach) in Florida when the record was set and it was after 11 years another land speed vehicle broke the record and 23 years till another 2 wheeler broke the record.

Before getting on the bike, a little history to know the man. Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, New York in 1878 and even in his teens he was quite the boy with his restless spirit and his ability to work with any mechanical item. His genetics for speed was evident from the fact that he was a champion bicycle racer. By the time he was 24, he already had his own motorcycle company by the name of ‘Hercules’. There was a gentleman by the name of Thomas Scott Baldwin who was a famed balloonist and he asked young Curtiss to make a V-Twin engine to fly a very light plane. The engine was ofcourse a success and shortly in 1904, using the same engine, California Arrow became the first successful American dirigible. And thus, Curtiss came into the field of aeronautics and was introduced to a club by the name of Aerial Experiment Association, a club whose another member goes by the name of Alexander Graham Bell.
As I started reading Curtiss biography, I was curious to know why the name of the Wright brothers crossed my mind whenever the name Curtiss went through my mind. And so it was, there was a link. The Wright Brothers had by the time already had a successful stint in ‘controlled’ flight, but was done in secrecy and although people were assuming, there was no media coverage. They wanted to refine the vehicle as far as possible. The Aerial Experiment Association (A.E.A) had their first public stint of flying before the Wright Brothers. On March 12, 1908, Casey Baldwin of A.E.A flew for 20 seconds covering a distance of 318 feet before it crashed a wing and later in May, Curtiss covered or rather flew a distance of 1017 feet in ‘controlled’ flight. What the A.E.A did to the plane that Casey Baldwin flew was add horizontal rudders to the wingtips Later Curtiss made several ‘first’ records including flying a world distance record of 24.7 miles. In fact he was the first man to fly the first officially-recognized, pre-announced and publicly-observed flight in America and also earn the unofficial title of America's foremost aviation pioneer. In 1910, Curtiss flew from Albany to New York that gave him world wide recognization and was also the first to make use of the aeroplane as more than a luxury time pass activity when he introduced it as a possible war machine and a practical passenger carrier. But planes and motorcycles were ot his only passion, in fact as mentioned, anything mechanical and with speed inspired him and he pioneered in the design of seaplanes and flying boats too. Later in his life, he became a land developer and developed Miami so much that he was awarded a honorary doctoral degree for his contributions to the development of the Miami area. He died at the young age of 52 due to complications resulting from an appendix surgery. It would take an entire post just to cover the list of accolades he gathered during his life. Please check the links below to know about the great man’s varied inventions and contributions.

Source of 2nd photo - National Air and Space Musuem

Yes, Curtiss became famous for his contribution to aeronautics, but it was motorcycles that bought him into the spotlight. In 1901, he began motorizing bicycles with his own single cylinder internal combustion engines. In 1903 he became the first official American motorcycle champion. By 1905, he set the world speed records for one, two and three mile events. That handlebar twist grip we call it as throttle and which we really really like to twist and God knows what a certain Rossi would have done without it, well, we need to give credit to young Mr. Curtiss for advancements like this. Curtiss also developed a triple cylinder engine designated the W-3 which was basically a V-twin but with a third cylinder which Curtiss designed again to proclaim himself as the producer of the fastest production motorcycle in the world. Before he made his mark on the fateful day in 1907, young Curtiss have been designing single, V-Twins and in-line fours. For the monstrous V8, the configuration was made at 3.25 x 3.25 inch bore x stroke that displaced 269 cubic inches equivalent to 4000cc. His earlier V-twins had 50 degree angkes but as you can see the V8 has a 90 degree design utilizing cast iron F-type heads. The engine was supposed to have power output figures of 36 – 40 hp @ 1800 rpm (Imagine the torque figures!). Inside the monster, doing duty was a solid billet steel crank and a dry sump handled the internal lubrication. The inlet valves were activated by atmospheric pressure while pushrods actuated the exhaust valves. The engine was fed by twin carbs which were designed by Curtiss himself. Look at the handlebars and you will notice that the throttle cables were hidden inside the handlebars. Custom designing started by Curtiss then, eh? Very interestingly, the electrical system was energized by dry cell batteries. Considering the size of the engine, it was superb engineering to finish the bike within the 275 pounds mark. The bike with that massive engine settled for a 64-inch wheelbase. The bike was shaft driven as a conventional chain-and-belt transmission would not have been able to handle the power of the Curtiss V8, there was no clutch and so just one tall gear. So you just keep twisting the throttle! At the beach, the four mile course was broken into 3 parts, the first 2 miles were building up the speed, the next mile was recording the timings and the last mile for slowing down. Of course, what did you expect, there were no brakes, so one mile just to slow down and stop.

I wonder what it sounded like! And yes, it took two well built guys with Curtiss sitting on the bike to start off the machine. The seat was mounted behind the engine so as not to burn the rider and so extra long handlebars were used so the while steering, the hands wouldn’t be near the hot engine. Thinking about the stance with these dimensions, you can vouch that it must have been an arduous task riding the monster. And think about what the body went through since in the name of suspension, all it had were springs located beneath the seat just like a regular bicycle. Anyway, during the run, he also established a record of covering 1 mile in 26 2/5 seconds. Actually it was recorded by several persons on the beach that the bike covered the marked mile within that specified time and it was calculated that to cover that distance at the said time, the bike must have run at a speed of 136.3 mph. And after all this, the record was considered ‘unofficial’. Yes! It still is an unofficial record. Why? Actually, the bike cracked the timings as mentioned and it was recorded but ‘officials’ didn’t record it. It was a test run recorded by many non-officials. So there was no doubts that the bike had actually clocked 136.3 mph but as I said, ‘officials’ didn’t record it. So why didn’t Curtiss drive it for the second time? Well, he couldn’t, the bike started falling apart as it was slowing down to 90 mph. And he was not the man who would again build the same thing. That was not just exciting enough. But the following month in February, a journal by the name of Scientific American did mention the whole incident and also mentioned why the record was considered ‘unofficial’.
And so where is the original real deal, the big poppa? Well, as it is, with lots of parts missing, it is the main attraction at the Smithsonian Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center located adjacent to the Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, VA. A replica of the original ‘bolt for bolt’ was built by Mercury Aircraft Company and is on display at the Curtiss Museum. The Curtiss Museum is located at Hammondsport, New York and incidentally, the H in Mr. G. H. Curtiss standing for Hammond is a short form of Hammondsport. The museum features all the contributions that Mr. Glenn Hammond Curtiss made to our wonderful world, from bicycles to motorcycles to aircrafts and all. For a boy raised in near poverty and after having lost his parents at a young age and also dropping out of school at 8th standard to getting a doctoral degree and a museum created to honour the name, this is surely a Hollywood blockbuster movie storyline.
Source of info and photos Glenn Curtiss Museum, Wikipedia, Motorcycle dot com, Smithsonian Center.

Time Out - Interesting Ebay listings

The Ebay is a good 'time-pass' website, just having a look at the motorcycles, some bizarre, a lot of oohs and aahs, some real stunners and many 'Wow!' and still there will be the occasional 'What!'. The US and UK sites usually have the motorcycles with a hefty price tag. There are some other interesting places like Germany and Japan, but usually these two US (and Canada has the same listing) and UK has a lot to offer. Most of the high priced bikes are custom ones, you know the typical customs, long tank, single sided swingarm, elongated handlebars which after some time, all the models look just the same. I have featured here some original bikes and also custom bikes but custom as in the sense of real custom, not those hand painted choppers. Well, happy bidding in case if you are bidding for any of the bikes.

Well, well, well, we all have seen it and been in awe of it. Yes, this is the same Ferrari motorcycle, the one and only, which we probably all would like to own it even if it means killing someone! Since for us normal human beings, it is beyond our reach. Listed at the UK ebay site, there is no bidding period, so you do have the time to still rob some banks and accumulate the asking and final price of £249,991, that is $368,630.
MV Agusta honcho David Kay requested Enjo Ferrari's son, Piero to build a one-off motorcycle under the Ferrari badge. The bike will be built by David Kay in honour of the senior Ferrari and he wanted permission to use the Ferrari badge. Of course he was granted. this was in 1990. The bike was built finaly in 1995. It has a 900cc transverse, double overhead camshaft, four cylinder, eight valve unit with magnesium and alloy casings, driven through a five speed gearbox to a top speed of 265 kmph. I am sure that you have seen it a hundred times but if you still want more information, just google it, willya? Here is the ebay link

Yes, this is 'that' Norton that you have seen on the net quite often, the 850 MK3 Custom, the Norton Ala'Verda. This was built by Frenchman Daniel Delfour. And as the present custodian puts it and he is right 'This is the most photographed & publicized norton ever!'. I myself remember this bike feautured in many motorcycle magazine covers. This beautiful Norton made quite an impression at the 2008 Concours d" Elegance in Half Moon Bay, California. I guess this beauty will make an impression everywhere.
Located at Las Vegas with 100 miles on the run, the bike is for $75,000 "Buy it Now' price. Bidding ends on Jun 19. Here is the link.

A 2010 supercharged ROEHR 1250 for less than 40K USD seems quite reasonable. Of course this is a brand new bike and contrary to belief, that is the actual price of a Roehr. Why I posted it here is because this is a new bike and as such is available for $39,995 USD at the dealers and also at ebay. But this is listed as an introductory price. So...

You can of course check the bike in the original website Roehr Motorcycles. The company is located at Illinois and bidding ends June 22. Here is the link.

Now here is a 1934 BSA JM24 Goldstar. Why my eyes caught it? Because of the astronomical price quoted. This 1934 bike is priced at $290,000 as a 'But it Now' price. The reason behind the steep price as given by the owner is that "It is the first Gold Star engine ever produced in 1938. The bike has never been restored and the engine is still full of Castrol R racing oil from 1956."

Bidding is still June 20 and here is the link. I am of course not even a novice in the feild of auctions, but I think being a BSA Goldstar J series, the price seems steep, will be good to keep the item on watch.

Above is a 1933 Indian Four. Located at Netherlands, the item is eligible for world wide bidders. The 1933 bike has been restored by Ken Young. Actually the bike belongs to MB Motors, a firm in Netherlands which deals in antique Indian bikes especially and new ones too You can check the bike at their website too. Listed at € 42.500 at their website which is equivalent to US $51,391, the 'Buy it Now' price at ebay is $56,000. You can hear it in the You Tube video.
Bidding is up to July 2nd. Here is the link.

This is a 1914 Harley-Davidson 10E V-Twin listed on the US site.This bike is located at New Hampshire and is indeed a rare item. Driven from 1914 to 1922, the owner has posted images of the original owner from 1914. The current owner has the bike since 1996 and the related history is given at the link. This item is for world wide bidders.
Priced at $75,000, bidding ends on June 18. Click on this link.

WDW 2010 - A lot happening on the Red Planet

Source - World Ducati Week, Motoblog

The Red Planet comes alive every year for 4 days. And this time, it is now! 10-13 June at the Misano World Circuit. You cannot miss it, just see what is happening over there! Check for more videos at WDW You Tube

Legends: HONDA RC30 - The Making

There are legends and then there are legends. Some become legends and some are born legends. Born legend? Yes, born legend. The moment they arrived, they became the pedestal. Kawasaki Z1… Yamaha RD350… and then there is the Honda VFR750 a.k.a the hallowed RC30. These are bikes where even the tag of legend doesn’t seem to do justice because they were more than that, they defined technology, they defined a revolution, they defined a generation, they became instant classics. And the Honda RC30… well it seems it is just a step ahead of all these.
Before we start off, just for the record, the RC30 was the first race-replica that was also a real racer for the World Superbike series.
Looking at the bike, you realize that a race bike just can’t be more minimal than this, the bike is well… just a race bike, there are no aahs and oohs, but yet you cannot keep your eyes off because you know somehow that once this thing starts there is a whole new world out there. There is this uncompromising look that is telling you ‘Try me… I dare you’ and you know this bike is not going to be easy to master. And the bike is just that. Too refined, too much power and too much talent to be tamed. Again just for the record, it won the World Superbike championship in its first two years and the SBK series was not the only ground for this raw talent, it was a master in endurance and TT racers as well. Yes endurance too.

Because the bike was based on Honda's successful RVF superbike and endurance racer. The engine earned accolades for Honda when Fred Merkel won two WSB titles in 1988 and 1989 and Carl Fogarty won the F1 Championship. In 1988 Steve Hislop riding the RVF on the Isle of Mann TT broke the Production class record by 15 seconds and then again a year later Hislop set the first sub-20 minute, 120mph plus lap. And at the same TT, same week, Brian Morrison and Carl Fogarty also rode the RC30 at 120mph-plus laps. The same year, fifteen of the twenty five finishers in the F1 class were RC30s. In 1990, Hilsop bettered the lap record to 122.63mph and again to 124.4mph in 1991 and that record stood till 1999 when Jim Moodie broke it on a (guess what, what else! but a) RC45In 1987, only 1000 were released into the Japanese market. Then in 1990 about 300 RC30s were assembled for the U.S. market fitted with air pollution controls and the RC30 designation on the tail. And the last one hundred RC30 machines were made for England also in 1990. In between there were also some models made for Australia. Well, looks apart, it doesn’t take an Einstein to realize that the bike is all about the engine. Those who has ridden and tested it says that it can absolutely pull off just from anywhere. The revmeter is just a farce, actually no, once it hits 7000, it is like Clark Kent has just taken off his shirt and the next thing you see is Superman. It will pull you like that is the only thing it knows until you hit 11000. And then it is just bliss. Bliss is not always what you may like because at that rpm you are scared at what the bike is doing and the excitement inside that tells you there is more to come.

The original engine was liquid cooled, a Honda 90° V4, displacing 748cc through its 16-valve double overhead camshaft producing 86 bhp with later versions in US and UK making upto 112 bhp. The original racers were with 90 bhp, but the street bikes were limited were restricted to 77bhp @ 95000 rpm. But then you know, with a little play, modify the exhaust and airbox, re-jet the carbs (Oh! the beauty of having carbs in place of today’s new age FIs), you can get your secret demons out. If you think that was not enough power for a racing bike, you might be right but then there were quite a few additions. These included titanium connecting rods and gear driven camshafts which act as an addictive to the overall performance. The street version, Honda VFR750R was homologated into RC30 for the World Superbike championship by Honda Racing Corporation (HRC). For those uninformed, for any bike to participate in SBK series, it has to be a production bike with atleast 300 bikes produced which could be bought over the counter, not like the Moto GP bikes where it is ‘the’ bike. The RC30 engine firing configuration was very different from the VFR750F although it was derived from it. It had a 360 'big bang' degree crank arrangement instead of the smoother 180 degree doing duty on the VFR. This particular configuration produced a very broad spread of power and the RC30 also had a very close ratio gearbox with an unbelievable high first gear ratio (0 - 82mph). Actually it was always about the RC30’s engine. The titanium connecting rods besides reducing weight also reduced reciprocating weight and therefore vibration and as such the RC30 is one of the smoothest V4s. The four carburetors are high-flowing using constant velocity huge 38mm Keihins CVs. Take a look at the video and hear the sound of the V4. It is unlike anything you have heard and that is due to the 360 degree crank. It is said, if you just start the bike, keep it idle for a few seconds and run it through the gears, you get a full symphony. There simply is no other bike that can imitate the RC30's combination of four into two into one exhaust system paired with a 360 degree crankshaft.

The bike weighed 192 kgs. The engine was basically based on the VFR750F (RC24) and also almost looked similar outside barring the side covers. Inside, it was totally different, the clutch, gearbox, crankshaft, oil pump, connecting rods, water pump, pistons, starter clutch, the valvetrain and cylinder heads were new. All these also increased the redline to 12500 rpm from the VFR750F’s 11000 rpm. The bike had a top speed of 240 kmph.The light brakes of the RC30 are often talked about. The wheel and brake pads had quick-release mountings and the bike was supported by fully adjustable Showa suspensions which gave the bike superior ride and handling characteristics. The rear wheel had a brake disc on the inside and a chain sprocket on the outside of the single-sided swingarm. The bike had a low centre of gravity which aided its handling. To further improve handling, the bike had its rear caliper linked to the frame via a ‘rose-jointed linkage’ through the swingarm which was done to reduce the rear wheel from hopping under braking. This was the ‘anti-squat’ rear brake linkage. The exhaust was a full stainless steel 4-2-1 exhaust system and an alloy tank. Oh yes, the RC30 were hand built by the HRC team. It will seduce you with its smooth yet raw power and absolute delight handling. Its power delivery is so Honda, linear and so precise that the rider feels like it is linked to his/ her brain.

So how did the RC30 came into being? Well, according to rumours, tired of hearing that Honda makes people’s bike but utilarian bikes compared to what Yamaha and Kawasaki was making, Sochiro Honda wanted to show the world what his factory was capable of. He wanted to show that even if it comes to any arena, Honda can make the best knights. But then rumour also has it that Sochiro knew that the SBK was the next thing for marketing and the RC30 was the right tool. Whatever it was, the world had never seen anything like it. Hondas were of course making some V4s before the RC30, but with this they got the ingredients right. The single sided swinging arm and the rear wheel came from the RVF750 endurance. But there were a lot of things the RC30 carried from its racing heritage which were not exactly street friendly. Pistons and valves were tight so seizures were common. The brakes were extremely light for a street machine. But basically it was meant for racing. The compact head design allowed for straighter, better-flowing ports. Lots of the features of the RC30 are more akin to a MotoGP bike like the short wheelbase of 55.5 inches. The foot pegs are high up and back. The handlebars are genuine low clip-ons. The rider sits at the front due to the short gas tank. The seat looks thin but supposed to be rather comfortable for a racing bike and the overall riding posture is also supposed to be ‘roomy’, you know free elbow movements and all which means besides being a race bike, the bike is also capable of providing a decent city ride and some amount of highway ride although the two big radiators with the heat emitting from it will ensure that you don’t get too comfortable on it. After all, the bike is meant for race tracks.

Actually it has always been like this. While the RD350 scares you like a maniac and the Z1 gives you goose bumps with its raw power, the VFR750 will excite you, intimidate you and fascinate you by the sweet mill. Of course while the Z1 and RD350 are street bikes with racing stripes, the RC30 is a race bike derived from a steer bike and as such it doesn’t try to hide that fact. Which means while the RD350 and Z1 will prepare a racer from you, you have to be a racer to master the RC30 to enjoy the bike at its fullest.
The RC30 was described at the best motorcycle ever coming out of the fab Japanese four dungeons. Of course, the RC30 was never easy to own. Imagine a Japanese 750cc bike costing above $10,000 two decades ago, but you know what went inside it, titanium connecting rods, hand built and all, so it was worth it. It is not just exclusive, the Honda RC30 is more than a classic, it is a true legend in every way, a dream bike and although it is very very difficult to get, those who have it know that they are in the A-List. If it is not as prominent as the RD350 or Z1, say it didn’t make the cult status that the Yamaha and Kawasaki enjoys, it is again because it is a Honda. People never realized that Honda can make something so capable and the fault for that image probably also goes to Honda, so by the time it started creating records and wins and by the time people got to know the RC30, it had already left the building! The word legend is very frequently used now a days to describe classic bikes, so if the RC30 needs to be given an appropriate adjective, it has to be legend among legends. Recently, there was a RC30 on sale on ebay, an exotic looking one (aren’t they all?) which has clocked around 15000 miles. The auction is over but I think it is still with the seller. He is asking $25000 for it, quite a deal. Check it out, it might be still there.