From the monthly archives:

February 2005

Build or Bust

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 2/28/2005

in Down Time, General

Isn’t it about time to call an end to the reality shows? I stumbled onto this show, “Build or Bust,” the other night and decided to watch a bit since there’s been a lot of hype for it. Once again my question is, who watches this stuff? A bunch of staged action that’s supposed to [...]

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Mert Lawwill builds a flat tracker

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 2/27/2005

in Motorcycle Builders

Mentioned back here that a group was in the process of building a Triumph flat tracker for competition. Now Mert Lawwill, former Grand National champion, is building one, too, but this one is for the street and it’s based on a Harley Davidson. It’s featured in the April issue of Cycle World and it looks [...]

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150mpg motorcycle?

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 2/26/2005

in Diesel Engines, Diesel Motorcycle

Just following up on yesterday’s post about the Thunder Star because I was rereading that article in Sport Rider. They toss in one statistic that I find pretty amazing, almost to the point of unbelievable. The Thunder Star gets 150mpg! It’s in the article and on the cover so it isn’t a typo, of course [...]

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Stop the presses! er… stop the keyboards, I love this! Star Twin, a company over in Holland, has designed and built the Thunder Star 1200 TDI Sportbike. This is a 1200cc, three cylinder turbocharged direct injection diesel. They started with a 3 cylinder diesel engine from the VW Lupo, redesigned numerous parts using SolidWorks 3D [...]

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Hybrid motorcycles

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 2/25/2005

in Alternative thinking, Science frontiers

Would you enjoy riding a hybrid motorcycle? News stories about hybrid cars and hydrogen cars and alternate fuels are coming out daily. It’s only a matter of time before these same technologies become available for motorcycles although, in some sense, things are beginning to change already with more development of diesel motorcycles that could run [...]

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Acme Rocket Bike

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 2/24/2005

in Motorcycle Builders

Another U.S. builder of cafe racers is Acme Rocket Bike. I first saw one of their bikes on the Ace Cafe website. (Every time I check out the Ace Cafe I go nuts over some of the bikes.) Looked really nice so I checked out their site and made a mental note to go back [...]

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Jesse James on Sixty Minutes

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 2/24/2005

in Down Time, General

There was a segment on Sixty Minutes last night about Jesse James. I don’t know if there is anything anyone needs to know about him that has not been covered elsewhere but if there was, no one would gain additional insight from last night’s spot. CBS assigned a totally clueless reporter to ask such questions [...]

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American Cafe Racers

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 2/23/2005

in Motorcycle Builders, Motorcycle Design

I’ve made lots of comments about U.S. builders stuck in the chopper world, so I thought it might be a good idea to check up on some links recommended by a couple of readers. (Thanks Doug and Jesse) I’m glad I did.
American Cafe Racers is the creation of Mike Cook, who has a wide [...]

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