Welcome to Friday Fudge. If it’s weird, funny, or strange motorcycle news, or it just plain won’t fit anywhere else on the site – you’ll find it here.
Rocket man
If you wanted to own the world’s fastest motorcycle, you missed your chance. It was for sale on eBay, but the auction has ended.
This machine isn’t a hot-rodded Kawasaki ZX-14. It’s not even a streamlined turbine-powered Y2K. Nope, this machine is a true crotch rocket. As in, a rocket that’s fuelled by high-test hydrogen peroxide and provides 3500 lbs of thrust.
This machine is such a weapon that sale of the fuel is actually prohibited by the United States’ Department of Homeland Security. The bike is designed to reach 640 kph in a quarter mile. You’d better make sure you’re aimed straight, though – it’s not designed to steer at speed.
The designer says he hopes his creation will be the first bike to break the 300 mph mark on the dragstrip, and the first bike to get into the four-second bracket in the quarter mile. He also wants to top the 311 mph speed record for a “sit-on-top’ bike, set at Loring, Maine a few years ago. With over 7,000 hp on tap, we’re guessing the winner of the eBay auction has a shot … as long as he can find enough room to slow the machine down, once he gets going.
Source: Gizmag
Reptilian ride
Here’s what happens when you take a $60 motorcycle and add $850 of wacky bodywork.
Parisian problem
Remember what your mom used to tell you when you were a whiny kid? “Stop complaining – things could be worse.”
Well, for motorcylists, they could be. The weather in Canada sucks for riding right now, but cheer up – you could live in Paris.
What’s wrong with Paris? The French city has a major hangup for motorcyclists; namely, the mayor. For some reason, he’s got a hate-on against private transportation in general, but particularly motorcycles. He recently closed the city’s busiest expressway to vehicles, turning it into a pedestrian street, he’s lowering speed limits, and now he’s banned motorcycles over 10 years old from entering the city centre. Oh yes, and he’s trying to make motorcycle inspection mandatory again, even though the country’s government has lifted that restriction. Talk about a power trip.
Of course, once he gets rid of all two-wheeled transpo, then he’ll ramp up his attack on four-wheeled vehicles, but since bikes are easier to pick on, that’s where he’s starting. It’s ironic, since motorcycles and scooters are one of the best solutions to municipal traffic woes.
Our suggestion? We think the mayor should be run out of town on a rail, or at least pelted with a barrage of baguettes – proving (as Wayne and Shuster once said) that le pain is mightier than the sword …
Story source: Bikes in the Fast Lane
Bikes are Awesome
You may have seen the People Are Awesome viral videos.
Well, bikers are people too.
Return of the pope
The pope is back!
We’re not talking about Benedict XVI here, we’re talking about a fellow who’s a little less revered in clerical circles. We’re talking about Jesse James, who, according to his website, is the self-proclaimed “pope of welding.”
Of course, we all thought the chopper scene was dead, with the all the news about Orange County Choppers’ financial woes. And maybe it is. Quick, put a stake in the coffin, before it rises again …
But James is a bit different; he’s built plenty of hard-tailed abominations, but he’s also made machines like this VTX-based cafe racer. He’s a bike builder more in the tradition of talented madmen like Von Dutch, whose side projects included a transport truck converted to daily driver, and a steam-powered television. There’s no doubt James is a creative genius and can weld, as long as he stays away from tattooed tarts.
See, that’s his problem. James’s departure from the bike scene and self-imposed exile in his Texas-based hot rod shop came as a result of his highly publicized romantic antics. Has he learned his lesson? Judging from his website, no. There are plenty more pictures of inked-up girls draped over his bikes. Someone needs to tell him to focus on the motorcycles – that way the mindless gossip media won’t care if he changes his ride every six months. Oh yeah, and start trimming down the non-bike merchandise. Any bike builder with a shoe lineup needs to have his product aimed squarely at his own backside,
Source: Cyril Huze
Old time adventure riding
Last week, we showed you modern-day adventure riding, complete with catering. Here’s what it used to be like in the 1930s. “Fine Dining” on this Alaskan trip consisted of caribou and porcupine … no wonder the two riders who made the trip lost 17 and 22 lbs respectively.
These guys made the trip before the Alcan Highway was even in existence – part of the trip’s purpose was to promote such a road. Their trials and tribulations make modern day adventure bike pilots seem like sissies. How many of us would be willing to lash together tree trunks to ferry a big GS over a river?
China riders
The Chinese New Year is an opportunity for the country’s migrant workers to return home for a holiday; many of them make the trip on a motorcycle. Check out the video below, with some scenes from this mass migration. The aftermarket luggage on some of these touring bikes is truly amazing. Apparently, grocery bags can work as well as panniers, in a pinch.
By the way – if anyone knows of an English translation of this video, let us know. It seems like a really interesting look at the trials and tribulations faced on the holiday journey, but alas, CMG staff’s knowledge of Mandarin doesn’t extend far past the menu at a Chinese restaurant.
Re: Von Dutch
Take a few hours and reread ‘The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby’ to help understand the post WW2 art and kulture that flourished in the US at that time – remarkable stuff.