Grease Monkeys

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Being Slack

Seems to be a common thing with me lately being slack arsed and not finding any good pics to post on here. Were just about getting into winter here in Auckland so its started to rain and get cold. Normally I'd be locked away in the shed with a pile of parts but we start looking for a new house this weekend and there doesn't seem much point in tearing any of the bikes apart before we move. Still looking for a big shed with a house attached, preferably out in the country with some space around it. I did manage to get out to the steel shop this morning and pick up a load of flat bar for making brackets. Sara is buying me a new TIG welder for my birthday so at least I have something to work with.
Doug at York Street Mechanics is launching his three new Casanova bikes in the next few weeks. Just saw a big teaser billboard he has put up in town. I've followed the build all the way through but Doug wants to manage all the media images so I can't show any pics but they are looking great. I'll post some links to Doug's new site when its up and running.
I've been desperately searching the net to find some inspiration for my Triumph Scrambler project. Everything I've seen so far is too tall or too short and pretty ugly. I want something that looks like a real old scrambler from the mid 60's. It shouldn't be so hard. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. Meanwhile, its back to the keyboard. The searching continues............

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Mooneyes 2012

Been meaning to go for the last 4 years but Sara and I booked our flights to Tokyo last night. Can't wait to get there. Even dug out the phrase book so I don't get too lost trying to get to Yokahama. Planning on visiting as many of the chopper shops as possible and hopefully meeting up with a few of the people I've been following on the web for the last few years. Kin wrapped...........

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Boats and Bikes - iPhone pics

Watched them get ready for the power boat racing down in the harbour on Saturday morning and played around a bit with the Shovel on Sunday. Spent a couple of hours looking through old Dice and Greasy Kulture mags looking for inspiration. Still looking....

Floating shed workshop. Ho cool is that?

Started the day looking like this

And ended up like this

Looking better already

Sunday, April 22, 2012

People need to buy bikes

Still trying to scrape the money together for the Vlad to Paris trip. After nearly 4 months my Thruxton headed off for a new home today. At least its going to get used and I get some space in the shed so I can bring my Harleys home from York Street. Unfortunately the guys who came to pick it up backed the trailer into next door's fence and did a bit of damage. They gave my neighbour plenty of money to cover it but she's definitely not pleased with me.

The Thruxton was never going to get me enough cash for the trip so my Softail, which I've owned since new for the last 11 years, has to go. Its been on the local TradeMe site for a month or two with no bites, even after I took off the cool panhead seats and bags and dropped the price by 4.5 grand. I guess nobody has any money and its getting close to winter down here. The Thrux did help to clear my credit card and I ordered a 48 replica frame for my Panhead so its all good.

Meanwhile I'm getting itchy to start something new. We're moving in a couple of months so I get a bigger workshop so I'm starting to look around for inspiration and making plans. Booking my flights next week for Yokahama in December. I've been trying to get to the Moon Eyes show for years and this year we're definitely going. Hope to meet up with some builders while I'm there and share a few beers. Can't wait.

Jérôme is one of the good people from France who keep in contact with us here in NZ. It was great to see Jérôme's W650 up and running on Bike Exif last week. Check it out here.

Monday, April 2, 2012

More from the Blow Out

This is West Auckland, not So Cal.........

Scroungers - Hot Rod Blowout 2012

Grease Monkey Forum

Mission

Here at Grease Monkeys we remember when motorcycles were dirty and noisy and dangerous and COOL ………..

Nowadays it’s too easy to walk into a shop, hand over a huge pile of money and ride off into the sunset on the latest shiny toy. You feel great till you park it outside the local Starbucks and then, 10 minutes later you come out to find that there’s three, exactly the same as yours parked outside.

So back you go to the dealer (funny how they’re called dealers, not pushers) and pick some overpriced part from the fat catalogue and nail it onto the bike. For a short while you feel good. Now you have a custom bike like nobody else. But it soon wears off. You need another fix and then another but you know its not getting any better. Its still not yours and its still too much like all the others.

Let’s face it, it will never be your creation until you tear it to bits and start again. It needs to have soul. That’s not something you buy. It’s something that is earned, through hard miles, sweat and skinned knuckles.

New is bad, old is better………… Repeat it after me.

We’re all about stuff you put together yourself. Making changes and putting things together in combinations that no-one else will copy. Making something that you see the beauty in…never mind what others think.

Maybe I don’t like your motorcycle either!!!

I made this. It may not be brilliant. It may not be beautiful. It may not be fast but its mine, it has soul.

Anti-Biker – Time for a new look.

Be honest. We all wanted to be bad ass bikers. We got the beards and the cut-offs and the leathers and the shades and we looked hard. Jail is such a waste of time and hard ass drug dealers usually don’t have time to build their own bikes. When they do get time to ride its more than likely on some totally stock ride that spends most of its time locked away. No. We aren’t that hard. We just love motorcycles; taking them apart, putting them together, riding, talking about them, and hanging round with people who do the same.

Black t-shirts – We don’t need no steenking black t-shirts.

Wear whatever the hell you want. Preferably something that doesn’t show up the oil stains too bad.

Grease Monkeys

We’re all about the bikes…period. On this site we have pictures of some of our bikes as they are being completed. For us, Old School Rules. This isn’t some sterile factory turning out cookie cutter customs. Here, every bike is different and every one has a story. Grease Monkeys` is a community of Cycle Freaks. We are here to help each other out; provide advice…good and bad; share ideas, thoughts and stories. We want you to be part of this.

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

We need this thing to grow. We need you. If you have something dark and rusty coming to life in your shed or on your kitchen table we need to hear about it. We need pictures. We need to hear the creature’s life story. We need to get these creations out on the road and let the people know we are taking over. We are re-claiming our right to enjoy biking again. Take a look and tell us what you think. Most of all…pick up that spanner and hacksaw and get out into that shed and start building.

Irishjon