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.
Bikers gone commando
True story: Back during the days of the war in Vietnam, Hells Angels head honcho Sonny Barger offered his club’s services as a group of Commie killers in southeast Asia. The president refused, but the offer did inspire a Roger Corman cult classic film; you can see the trailer below.
Barger’s offer seems to have inspired more than a B-movie, though; the Daily Mail is reporting members of the Dutch bike gang “No Surrender” are now battling ISIS in Syria. Apparently, their government is OK with this; as long as they aren’t helping out terrorists, they’re good to go. So that leaves us wondering: How long until Sons of Anarchy writer Kurt Sutter sends his squad of psychotic TV baddies to the Middle East for a few episodes? Stranger things have happened.
Might as well jump
Think the modern generation is dangerously glued to their cell phones? For more evidence, see this clip. Ain’t nothing gonna cramp this yakker’s style.
Vintage aerodynamics
When you talk about modern sportbike styling, you hear a lot of complaining from the older generation. Everything is too angular, they say. Who wants a motorcycle that looks like a Transformer, or an escapee from an anime series? Not your average boomer, which sort of explains why cruisers still sell so well, especially in areas with greying populations. Take a ride through the Maritimes, and you’ll see what I mean – old guys on old-fashioned bikes dominate the roads, saving lives with their straight pipes as they cruise mean-facedly to the donut store.
But what if you want a sportbike? No worries – Frenchman Nicolas Petit has just the thing for you. He’s done up a bunch of sketches of modern sportbikes with vintage-styled dustbin fairings. They might not look exactly like Mike Hailwood’s bikes, but they’re an interesting exercise in imagination. We can’t see anything like this ever making it to the streets as a factory machine, especially as they don’t actually stream air as well as a modern design, but maybe we’ll see some imaginative custom builder implement one of these designs someday.
Source: Asphalt & Rubber
Justice is served
Seems there’s bikers like this everywhere: Some people just wanna get on two wheels and stick it to the rest of society, no matter where you are in the world, regardless how many people they’ve got on their bike.
These riders really got it wrong though. First, if you want to be free and stick it to The Man, you’re best off riding alone. Isn’t that the whole point of riding a motorcycle? Nobody looks cool when they’re piled on a motorcycle like clowns at the circus.
Second – if you’re gonna flip off someone, crashing immediately after isn’t a great follow-up.
Mad dogs and Englishmen
There’s no doubt that the folks of Merry Olde England love their motorcycles. Hey, that’s where our beloved Editor ‘Arris is from, right?
The folks at Easyart.com have unearthed a trove of whacky shots that prove just how far the Brits will take their love of bikes. Below, you can see a few snaps of madcap inventions from history, designed to take their moto-crush just a bit too far.
“Take a ride through the Maritimes, and you’ll see what I mean – old guys on old-fashioned bikes dominate the roads, saving lives with their straight pipes as they cruise mean-facedly to the donut store.”
Sigh…. I’d take exception to that, but it’s the truth.