jeudi 25 décembre 2014
Offroadpeople: Mongolia
21 Days
7 People
5000 Km off-road
(Moscow) - Barnaul - Altai - Tuva - Mongolia -Baikal - (Moscow)
Offroadpeople: Mongolia 2013 from grom1300 on Vimeo.
7 People
5000 Km off-road
(Moscow) - Barnaul - Altai - Tuva - Mongolia -Baikal - (Moscow)
Offroadpeople: Mongolia 2013 from grom1300 on Vimeo.
MATTEUCCI GARAGE GUZZI O2
When was the last time you had a proper cappuccino? I’m not talking one of those 3 pint paper cups of luke warm, slightly beige milk with a stupid shaped dusting of brown stuff on top. Or indeed a frothy mess of burnt bitterness tempered by the syrupy sweetness from an entire sugar beat plantation. Diminutive in size, perfect in it’s effect, a proper cappuccino needs to be experienced by all at least once; preferably served by a lifelong purveyor of caffeine in some unpronounceable Italian hilltop village. Whilst listening to the pinking and crackling of your motorcycle as it cools down.
Marco Matteucci is a man that appreciates form and function don’t necessarily require an abundance of cubic capacity or cavalli di potenza to be enjoyable. By day he is a photographer and graphic designer but for the last 16 months has been on a motorcycle building adventure, creating machines that he wants to ride and taking each project as a step into the unknown. O2, as in oxygen not the big tent in London, was the inspiration for this bike. He is an arty type, so bare with me.
This latest masterpiece began life as Tonti framed Moto Guzzi V35 TT from 1985. The traditional V-twin in this case is just 349cc, but with short gear ratios driving the shaft drive transmission this ‘Guzzi packs small punches of aural pleasure, perfect for winding up to that sinewy mountain road. The reduced bulk of course results in nimble behaviour not matched by the more portly members of the family so Marco decided that a degree of off-road capability was called for. We are not talking dune-bashing the Dakar here but anyone who’s been to Italy can attest that the unpaved white roads are to a foreigner, one of the country’s finest assets.
Starting with the frame, Marco removed the entire back portion leaving the rear end looking like a machine from some decades earlier. The shock linkage is handmade and stealthy to match the svelte proportions of the rest of the bike. The wafer-like mudguards are also one-offs with lightweight brackets. The handlebars didn’t escape the bespoke obsession either, they’re hand-bent.
Rather than plonk any old fuel tank on top, this one was fabricated using traditional panel beating methods with a two-tone paint job to accentuate the knee scallops. The sumptuous looking leather saddle gives a period appearance and doubles as an excellent hiding place for the less aesthetically pleasing wiring and battery. And yes, it is of course hand crafted using fine Italian hide. The tail light is incorporated into the seat, form and function married neatly.
One thing about older bikes that is often overlooked is the brakes. How is that men have walked on the moon, we have used the internet for decades but yet it is only recently that brakes have been joined the 21st century. The 320mm disc and 4-pot caliper fitted here is nothing ground breaking (not intended) but certainly makes the decent back into town a less hair-raising experience. And, installed here looks as if it should have been a factory fit. Black powdered wheels and elegantly sized knobblies add a whiff of mean to the baby blue colour scheme.
The engine has been stripped, cleaned and lovingly detailed; the usual cone filters proved a little too mass market so Marco machined his own aluminium trumpets with mesh ends. The exhaust is short and sweet in both looks and sound, letting the little pistons make the most of their endeavours.
It would seem a shame to get this gorgeous bike dirty but if I was living in Italy again I would certainly head to my favourite hilltop, to sip a proper cappuccino and share the visual and audio enjoyment with the other bikers who have never heard of Starbucks.
To keep an eye on Marco’s next project head over to his website or for detailed pictures of the build try Facebook.
via The Bike Shed
Moto Trail Tour de Provence
Seasons Greetings from the World of Outlaws and DIRTcar Racing!
Driven: Land Rover Defender Big Foot Pére Noël !
Anyone who has ever taken a four-wheel-drive vehicle off-road in an even moderately serious way will probably be all too familiar with how suddenly a machine that will apparently 'go anywhere' can become one that's going nowhere, writes Simon de Burton.
I was reminded of this a few days ago when a simple trip into the woods on a log retrieval mission turned to disaster: my faithful Land Rover Series IIA was defeated by nothing more dramatic than a wet, grassy slope. Then the Jeep Cherokee with which I tried to tow it out got stuck, as did the Defender pick-up with chunky mud tyres that was sent in after that... all rather embarrassing.
How different it would have been had we had a Big Foot to hand. Not just some backyard lash-up with a two-inch lift kit and oversized wheels, but one of the two Big Foot Defenders that were built a few years ago by Land Rover Special Vehicles to support press launches of 'standard' Land Rover products in places such as Iceland and Morocco and to provide a certain 'wow' factor at public events.
Few people outside Land Rover's 'Experience' team have been allowed behind the wheel of a Big Foot, so it was quite a privilege to be given the chance to drive each of them at an event in the wilds of Finland where the blanket of deep powder snow presented a good test of the abilities of these rather exotic monster trucks.
We were assured that they were not actually unstoppable – they don't like sheet ice, for example – but it's difficult not to feel invincible when you're sitting several feet above the ground on a set of 38-inch wheel rims clad in 395/70 Mickey Thompson tyres which look capable of floating across just about anything.
The engines in both vehicles are standard Land Rover diesel units, but the gearbox is modified with the addition of an Ashcroft 'underdrive'. This makes for a four-range transmission case that gives a set of ultra-low ratios for rock and glacier crawling; combine that with a set of ARB compressed air differential lockers and an 'anti stall' feature and the result is a vehicle that will claw its way up or over the sort of surfaces that would halt a conventional four-wheel-drive vehicle in its tracks.
The team at Land Rover Special Vehicles modified the chassis quite extensively to accommodate the wheels and diff lock compressors, although the turning circle remains significantly greater than standard. Other extras include long-travel dampers, anti-roll bars, a detachable chassis cross member, snorkel, Warn winch, interior roll cage, auxiliary cabin heater, GPS and satellite telephone.
Factoring in the time required to carry out the upgrade, it is estimated that the Big Foot conversion added around £50,000 to the price of each standard Defender 110 – but Classic Driver was assured that the upgrade has not been made available to the general public and that no more will be built by LR Special Vehicles.
Which makes these two entirely worthy of the term 'rare beasts'.
Photos: Land Rover
Other Land Rover Defenders for sale can be found in the Classic Driver Market.
Snapshot, 1970s: A trip to Lapland with Porsche rein-sport
Occasionally, traditional methods of transportation fare best in extreme conditions. It appears Porsche’s late-70s engineers learnt this lesson the hard way, calling on the assistance of a family passing on their reindeer-drawn sleigh…
We don’t know exactly when this image was taken, but during cold-weather testing of the new Porsche 928 in the late 1970s seems most likely. Ultimately, the front-engined GT was never able to usurp the stubborn rear-drive 911; and we feel sure the engineers pictured here were wishing for a bit more weight over their driven wheels.
Photo: Porsche Classic Archive
You can find numerous Porsche 928s for sale in the Classic Driver Market.
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