Grease Monkeys: Go Fast....

Monday, May 30, 2011

Go Fast....

So I finally got sick of falling over things in my garage. I was working on my Grinderfest bike yesterday, stripping it back down to the frame so I can tidy up the brackets and get the frame powder coated. I had pulled off one one the tanks and was starting to pick my way past all the tools lying on the floor and between the parked bikes when I caught my foot on the springer and started to fall. Couldn't find anywhere safe to put my feet and did a very good impression of a hippo on Strictly Ballrrom spinning round avoiding all the protruding handlebars and exhausts and ened up lying across Sara's trail bike, still holding onto the tank. I saw a drunk girl do that in Ireland once. We were in Portrush for the North West 200 road races and as usual, everyone who stayed for the weekend was camping and partying on the beach. This girl was holding a full pint of beer when she fell at the top of a sand dune. She had been drinking all day and was absolutely trashed but she managed to flip and roll her way to the bottom of the hill (about 30 feet) without spilling a drop. Classic.
Anyway, back to the garage. Decided that I had too many bikes and I just can't afford to keep them all on the road with the ridiculous taxes here in NZ so some of them will either get sold or come off the road permenantly. First to bite the dust is my Hinkley Thruxton. I'm not going to get rid of it because I love that bike but it's going to become a race only bike. Not sure what sort of racing but I'm going to concentrate on making it fast and light. When I bought it the plan was to keep it for 5 years and then build a Bonneville Salt Racer. That's where I'd like it to end up but it may take some time (like all my projects). I'll start tearing it down next week to take off all the road bits to see how much weight I can lose. It will probably get a Twister frame from Shed 5 at some point to take off more weigh and make it a bit more rigid. I have aslo started to look at what can be done to the engine to get as much power out of it as possible. If anyone has got any good tuning tips for these Triumphs it would be very much appreciated.
I'll post pics and progress when I get into it. Nothing like another project eh?.....

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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

Grease Monkeys

Monday, May 30, 2011

Go Fast....

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