Joe's Garage

 

I spent a little time in my buddy Joe's garage with him a while back. He was doing a little work on an old Yamaha while we chatted and I took pictures. More pictures and the rest of the story after the jump...

New Sensations

Funk notwithstanding, I've been thinking about what this year will bring. Also, what I will be bringing to this year. Yeah, New Year's resolutions. Am I a month late? I'm probably 15 years late on some of this stuff so I'm not going to get too worried about 30 days, give or take. Last year I wanted to make some cool stuff and I didn't  pull that off so that goes on this years list. There's some stuff that needs to be done to my house. I'll get that done too, or the house might fall off it's foundation. No pressure there. Aside from all the daily stuff of life, I'm pretty much thinking about photography or motorcycles all the time. It occurred to me that I could take pictures of motorcycles. What a concept eh? Expect to see some more bikes here this year. While we are on that topic, I'm going to work on getting the 400 running. I need to get the paperwork sorted but it shouldn't take too much to get her ride-able. I'm thinking Thanksgiving is a reasonable goal. We'll see how that pans out but I'd really like to ride that thing.
Seriously though, I'm working on focusing my photographic endeavors a bit. No pun intended. I'm taking steps to improve my photography in all it's aspects. I'm going to do some types of stuff a bit less and really try to do some others much more. I've never had a portfolio as such. That's the big one for me this year. I'm going to put together a solid portfolio. Even if I don't do anything with it. I've made a few tweaks to my website already and I'd like that to reflect what I do and want to do better. I had started the picture of the week a while back and I wasn't happy with the quality of the images. What's the point of tossing up a crappy pic every week? Posting for the sake of posting is pointless, or as everyone else calls it, Facebook. I have started a new project that is really more what I was looking for anyway. I wanted more of a challenging assignment type project. I happened upon just that and I love it. I think it is going to be very hard but should teach me many of the things I am looking to learn. There are many folks working on the same thing so there is a bit of friendly competition and encouragement. Good things are going to come from that project, more later.
I need a bit of follow through as well. I shot some images of Jimmy Holmes and I only posted two of the series. Seriously not fair to have someone take time out of their schedule for a photo shoot and not give them any images.
The big one here is working on getting out of my comfort zone to do the things I've wanted to for years but have been afraid to. There's lot's of hard work ahead and I'm excited about that. Stay tuned. Rock on.

Rode the bike to work today

Another awesome day to be on a bike. That's all for now. Here's a teaser pic I took at the MotoGP.
The place was lousy with Ducati's.

Italian porn

Bike porn that is. Man, is this a pretty motorcycle. Ducati Elite. A friend of mine asked me come by and snap a few pics for him. He will be participating in the U. S. Motogiro in a few weeks. I knew he had this bike but for years it's been a crate of parts. Needles to say I was blown away. Ducatisti purists will do doubt note the non-original parts but this bike was made to be ridden and be reliable. Many of the parts for these are very hard to come by, especially here in the states. This example has a 250cc motor, the original Elites were 200cc bikes.
Look at that tank. These are known as "jelly mould" tanks. The styling is not for everyone but in my opinion the Ducati jelly mould and the Aermacchi race tanks just scream Italian motorcycle. 1098's and Brutale's are all well and good but this is a timeless classic.
I made those motor-mounts. Not as pretty as some I have made but you cant go wrong with engine-turning.

All photos by the author

The "gear gazer" allows you to see the bevel gears that drive the overhead cam while they are spinning. And more importantly, allow you to see the oil splashing. My buddy Bill made this one. The clutch has been upgraded to work a bit smoother and have less pull. That cable mount was added to facilitate this. Either my Dad made that or our friend Nick did, I can't remember. SS carb with velocity stack, no idle circuit.