The Norton factory never turned out a Commando 750 that looked like this. Colorado Norton Works restores and rebuilds these classic Nortons and turns them into mechanical jewelry, but you don't wear it, you get to ride it and relive the glory days of British motorcycles except these don't leak and they perform as well as they look. Ride one of these into any bike show, … [Read more...]
Erik Buell Joins the Exodus to Electric Power with FUELL
Erik Buell has had his share of ups and downs in the motorcycle business, but say what will, you can't say he isn't persistent, no matter how often his companies have hit hard times, he keeps coming back, but now he's taking a different road. Instead of designing around a Harley Davidson derivative engine or something built by Rotax, he's going all electric with FUELL. Well, to … [Read more...]
Curtiss Pushes the Electric Motorcycle Design Envelope
While I was away, my inbox never slept and judging by the number of notices coming in for concept, pre-production or in-production electric motorcycles, you would think the end of fossil fuels had already arrived. The discussion of that possibility deserves a post all its own, but I thought I’d highlight a few of the latest rechargeable two wheelers, in no particular order, to … [Read more...]
Rebuilding and Recharging The Kneeslider
It’s been almost a year since I wrote on The Kneeslider and I needed the time off. The many years of sitting at my desk had taken a toll on everything from my physical condition to my mental attitude and I needed a break. Yes, I’ve done some work in my garage and around the house, read a lot of books and in some ways relaxed, but I’ve also regrouped and made a tremendous … [Read more...]
Makerspace Is Just Newspeak for Workshop
The other day I saw this article about building makerspaces in schools and the photo showed what seemed to me to be a nice workshop, similar to what schools had when I grew up. Of course, now these spaces have things like 3D printers, not a tool we had years back, but the saws and drill presses are pretty standard fare. It made me wonder if there was any real purpose for using … [Read more...]