"One of my favorite things about this vehicle is the total pure utility of it," says Josh Commons, "…the only creature comforts—apart from a heater—is that the seats are padded."
Built to be rugged, long-lasting, dependable, and easy-to-repair, the Toyota FJ40 has earned a reputation for being one of the world's best vehicles for going off-road, anywhere, any time. Family owned since 1992, Commons had it for 10 years before selling it to his sister, who sold it to their parents. After a time, it was passed back to Josh and hasn't left his possession since.
"I've owned it long enough to go full cycle to where the brakes and the wheel cylinders wore out and needed to be rebuilt," Commons says. "You're turning the same screw you turned 20 years ago…it's kind of special."
8,000 feet up, Commons takes us to the beautiful mining ghost town, Boulder City. Not many vehicles—let alone off-roaders—can survive the journey, but the FJ40 almost makes it look like a piece of cake.
"I don't see these as disposable, I see them as infinitely rebuildable," he says. "It's definitely an heirloom now."
Drive Tastefully®
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mardi 6 octobre 2015
The Toyota FJ40 Is a Rugged Companion
polemical perspective ; Distinguished Gentlemen? Maybe. But not discriminating. The motorcycle industry has its head up its ass. Again.
Executive summary: The fact that motorcyclists just spent a precious weekend day raising money for prostate cancer research, instead of spinal cord injury research, is bullshit.
Wasn’t the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride charming, on September 27? Think of all the money they raised for prostate screening. The thing is, the motorcycle industry could’ve just looked for prostate problems instead of funding high-tech screening apparatuses, because the motorcycle industry already has its head up its ass when it comes to choosing which 'charitable' causes it supports.
Wasn’t the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride charming, on September 27? Think of all the money they raised for prostate screening. The thing is, the motorcycle industry could’ve just looked for prostate problems instead of funding high-tech screening apparatuses, because the motorcycle industry already has its head up its ass when it comes to choosing which 'charitable' causes it supports.
Don’t even get me started on the way prostate screening is part of a giant medical fraud, largely promulgated by the insane American for-profit “health care” industry (with assistance from drug companies in some places with otherwise-rational health care delivery systems, like the UK and Australia.)
According to the NIH:
We can find microscopic evidence of prostate cancer in around half of 60-year-old men if we look hard enough. Yet only 3 in 1,000 will die from prostate cancer over the next 10 years. How can this be? Because prostate cancer isn’t just one disease: it’s a spectrum of disorders. Some forms of prostate cancer grow very rapidly and kill the men who have them. Some grow so slowly that, even without treatment, men die of something else before the cancer causes symptoms. And other forms look like cancer under the microscope but never grow at all or may regress spontaneously.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK126168/
According to Dr. Otis Webb Brawley (Chief Medical and Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of the American Cancer Society):
A number of studies in the U.S. and Europe have shown that there is a type of prostate cancer that is localized to the prostate and of good prognosis, meaning it rarely progresses or causes harm if left alone.All of the organizations that set treatment guidelines based on the scientific evidence recommend that men diagnosed with this type of cancer be carefully observed. These cancers can almost always be effectively treated if found to be progressing. With careful observation, the majority of men will never need treatment and can be spared the burdens of unnecessary therapy.These low-risk forms of prostate cancer are commonly diagnosed through screening and commonly overtreated in the U.S. Indeed, the massive problem of overtreatment and the resultant large number of harms to the population is part of the reason that a number of respected organizations such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the American Academy of Family Physicians now recommend against routine prostate cancer screening.
So if you’re one of the dandies who took part in the DGR last month, I hope you love your motorcycle, because to be clear: Encouraging screening in the U.S. equals encouraging unnecessary and overaggressive treatment in literally hundreds of thousands of cases per year. This wastes billions of dollars that would be better spent in other ways, not to mention this: The #1 complication associated with all aggressive prostate cancer treatment is loss of sexual function.
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| It's possible that these 30-something hipsters think, "Oh, by the time you're 50 or 60 you don't want to have any more sex, anyway." But I'm here to tell you that you fucking do. In fact, most 50- and 60-something guys would rather have another decade or three of sex, even if it meant risking the remote chance they'd die from prostate cancer at 70, or 80, or 90... a year or two before they died of something else. |
Thousands and thousands of American men are treated for harmless cancers—and no, ‘harmless cancer’ is not an oxymoron—every year, generating $8,000,000,000 in revenue for hospitals, which is why the for-profit health care industry loves you Distinguished Gentlemen. Of the quarter-million men who’ll be treated for prostate cancer in the U.S. this year, roughly half—whether treated surgically or with hormone therapy—will never have another orgasm. The majority of them would have lived their entire natural lives happily fucking their wive and/or girlfriends (both if they were lucky) or their boyfriends, or at least the occasional hooker. Whatever! Then they'd've died of other causes, while their prostate cancer was asymptomatic.
Like I said, I hope you really love riding your motorcycle, because if the prostate cancer business—and that’s what it is, a business, that you provided a bunch of free advertising for—has its way, your motorcycle is all you're gonna' ride.
The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride 2015 from TinMen on Vimeo.
I love this sexy video, but how ironic is it that all this is in promotion of prostate screening, which is one of the worst things that has ever happened to sex.
To be clear: I don’t really give a fuck whether you believe me, or you think I pulled these figures out of my ass. Because that long preamble was to get to a point that no motorcyclist can seriously argue, and it’s this:
The only medical research the motorcycle industry and motorcycle community should be funding is spinal cord research. But we won’t fund it or talk about it because we’re terrified of admitting that a spinal cord injury can happen to any of us, any time we get on a motorcycle.
Ask Wayne Rainey or Joan Lascorz, or Doug Henry or David Bailey if they worried about prostate cancer when they were racing. No way. But all of them wondered if they’d walk away from their careers when they were over, because every pro rider ponders the risks from time to time.
So should recreational riders; almost 7% of all spinal paralysis is the result of motorcycle crashes. Considering the relatively small number of riders in total, it’s clear that being a motorcyclist dramatically increases your risk of paralysis. And here’s the thing: There’s a ton of promising research on spinal injury treatment; stem cells, electro-stimulation... we may well live to see the day when a spinal lesion doesn’t mean you’ll spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. And the three million bucks raised by you Distinguished Gentlemen could have made a real difference.
I’ve been arguing this for years now, and I’m so fucking tired of it that, at this point, I’ll just refer you to an older post if you want to read more, here.
Triumph got a ton of great PR by leveraging their involvement with the Distinguished Genitalmen’s Ride, and I get it, they’ll never put that effort into spinal cord research because it unsells bikes by reminding us all of the inherent risk and the worst-case-scenario. But I’m going to keep making this case until someone, somewhere, decides they’re going to look out for motorcyclists, instead of profits.
Zarco face à une nouvelle opportunité au Motegi / Zarco ready to take title in Japan
Après un GP d’Aragón en demi-teinte, Johann Zarco aura de nouveau l’opportunité de décrocher le titre Moto2™ ce week-end au Motegi.
Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) aura cette semaine au Grand Prix Motul du Japon sa deuxième balle de match pour le Championnat du Monde Moto2™ 2015, qu’il mène avec 78 points d’avance après avoir fini sixième du GP d’Aragón, qu’avait remporté son principal concurrent, le Champion en titre Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS). Avec une telle avance et seulement trois courses après l’épreuve japonaise, Zarco sera donc automatiquement sacré Champion du Monde au Motegi s’il finit devant Rabat.
Le Français sera en plus de retour sur le circuit où il avait décroché sa toute première victoire en Grand Prix, en 2011, lorsqu’il courait en 125cc, et avait fini quatrième de la course Moto2™ l’an dernier, son meilleur résultat en catégorie intermédiaire sur le tracé japonais.
En pleine forme suite à sa victoire au MotorLand, Rabat sait qu’il aura beaucoup de mal à rattraper son retard sur Zarco mais continuera à viser la victoire à chaque course jusqu’à la fin de la saison pour finir en beauté avant de passer en MotoGP™ avec Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS l’an prochain.
À 100 points de Zarco, Àlex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) ne peut plus espérer rattraper le Français mais pourrait par contre s’emparer du titre de vice-Champion. Le rookie barcelonais n’est en effet qu’à 22 points de Rabat et sera en quête d’un bon résultat au Japon, où il n’est cependant jamais monté sur le podium.
Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) visera lui aussi les avant-postes après s’être offert le premier podium de sa saison 2015 à Misano. Seul Japonais de la grille Moto2™, Nakagami n’a jamais fait mieux que septième au Motegi, en 2012, mais s’était qualifié en sixième position l’an dernier.
Souffrant de plusieurs blessures suite à son accrochage avec Xavier Siméon (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) en Aragón, Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten) a d’ores et déjà dû déclarer forfait pour l’épreuve japonaise, mettant fin à son record du seul pilote à avoir participé à toutes les courses Moto2™ depuis le lancement de la catégorie en 2010. Le Suisse sera remplacé par l’Australien Josh Hook, qui courait au Japon en Superbike cette année.
After a disappointing Aragon GP, Johann Zarco heads to the site of his first ever GP win with eyes fixed on the Moto2™ crown.
For the second time in 2015, Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) is presented with a chance to claim the 2015 Moto2™ World Championship as his own. A disappointing weekend in Aragon saw Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS’ Tito Rabat take a hard fought win and claw back vital championship points. For the Frenchman to claim the title he must leave Motegi with at least a 75-point advantage, the current gap standing at 78-points.
Zarco took his first ever GP win at the Japanese track back in 2011 and since moving up to the Moto2™ class has a best result of fourth, achieved in 2014.
Standing between Zarco and the title is Tito Rabat, riding a wave of confidence after a fantastic home win in Aragon and announcing a move up to the MotoGP™ World Championship in 2016 with the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS squad. Twice the Spanish rider has stood on the Japanese podium, a third in both 2012 and 2014. The gap might be vast, but the fight for the title isn’t over yet and Rabat will continue to push to end his Moto2™ career with the best results possible.
It was not an easy win for Rabat in Aragon, impressive rookie Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) pushing him down to the wire as he recovered from a disastrous San Marino GP. Now 100 points down on Zarco, Rins’ chances of taking the title in his rookie season are gone, but the fight for second with Rabat is still on as just 22 points split the Spanish pair. Rins was one of just a few riders to test a version of the 2016 Kalex in Aragon, the upgrade appearing as a positive step forward.
Takaaki Nakagami is out hunting for his second podium of 2015, having claimed third in Misano. The Idemitsu Honda Team Asia rider has a best finish of seventh at Motegi in 2012 and as the lone Japanese rider in the intermediate class is out for a strong result.
The Moto2™ race in Aragon was red flagged due to a first lap crash involving both Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten) and Xavier Simeon (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2). Simeon was able to remount and join the restarted race, but unfortunately Aegerter was taken to hospital for an extensive list of injures. While none of the Swiss rider’s injuries are serious or life threatening, he will be forced to miss the race in Japan which ends his run as the only rider to compete in every Moto2™ race since the class was introduced in 2010. Aegerter will be replaced by Australian Josh Hook who currently races in the Japanese Superbike series.
THE KREIDSTLER PROJECT: DANNY SCHRAMM’S WILD KREIDLER
In 1970s Europe, every teenager had a favorite set of wheels. In England, it was ‘sixteener specials,’ highly tuned mopeds like the Yamaha FS1-E. In France, Mobylettes were everywhere. And in Germany, three makers dominated: Zündapp, Hercules and Kreidler.
For young Danny Schramm and friends, the weapon of choice was a two-stroke Kreidler Florett. “You wore a denim vest, fitted large mirrors, and reamed out the exhaust,” he recalls. “With some ‘tuning’ you could be faster than the villain from the neighboring village, if he was causing trouble with your Dorfschönheiten [village beauties].”
Those days are long past. Danny is now a highly respected custom builder on the German scene, and has his own company, SchrammWerk GmbH. But at a custom show in Abu Dhabi, chatting to some fellow builders during the after party, he found himself reminiscing about the past. He decided to resurrect his old 50cc freedom machine.
The Kreidstler Project was born. It soon captured the attention of Danny’s friends and German industry heavyweights, who weighed in with advice and parts.
Danny started chopping, and the next three months felt like “Christmas every day” as the parts arrived. Uwe Ehinger sourced a 1932 BSA girder fork, and TTS Motorcycles sent through a set of 23-inch ‘Big Spoke’ rims.
Not surprisingly, these did not fit the forks or swingarm, so the modifications continued.
Danny believes in having the ‘go’ to match the show, so he hooked up with Sven Naber of NHPower for an engine overhaul and a new carburetor. One thing led to another and Naber soon got a request for an uprated clutch to handle the resulting tsunami of torque.
The sinuous exhaust system—with six tiny outlets—was built by Mario at Chopper Kulture, who also supplied a tiny headlight with a beautiful teak wood veneer. The bars and pegs came from a Kuwait specialist, with other parts arriving from equally far-flung shores—including New Zealand.
All that was left was to install a new tank, and tie the electrics together. Ingo Kruse is a legend in Germany for his show bike paintwork, and handled the spraying duties. Then Müller Motorcycle stepped in with a custom ECU to keep the new wiring loom humming.
At the recent Hamburg Harley Days, the Kreidstler scored an incredible coup: it won the ‘Best In Show’ award. Yes, despite being surrounded by big-bore, big budget Milwaukee customs, the little moped stole the day.
Who says Germans don’t have a sense of humor?
SchrammWerk | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Best Bike Shots
Fun CUP ; LA BONNE AFFAIRE ALSACIENNE DE BOLLEN-CAPRASSE-MONDRON
Vainqueur pour 4 secondes seulement au terme des 6 heures de course, le trio composé de Cédric Bollen, Frédéric Caprasse et Guillaume Mondron a placé l’équipe Allure Team 2 en position idéale avant la finale de l’European VW Fun Cup, programmée les 23 et 24 octobre à Mettet. Deuxième, la formation Socardenne (Balthazar-Martin-Nivarlet) conserve aussi une chance de titre. En Biplaces, la victoire de CARPASS LRE by DRT (Coppieters-Lémeret-Reynens), permet aux champions 2014 de se relancer dans la course au titre.
Un soleil radieux a accueilli les trente équipages de l’European VW Fun Cup à l’occasion du Trophée d’Alsace, première visite de la série sur le circuit de l’Anneau du Rhin. Pourtant, c’est sur une piste humide, conséquence des pluies nocturnes, que le départ était donné dimanche matin pour la première partie des 6 heures de course. Avec uniquement les écarts en tours conservés au terme des trois premières heures, l’objectif pour tous les favoris était de rester dans le même tour que le leader.
Mais pendant que la bagarre faisait rage, ils allaient être nombreux à voir leurs espoirs s’évaporer plus vite encore que les plaques d’humidité sur la piste. Alors qu’il pointait dans le top 5, Gérald Delepine s’accrochait avec un concurrent doublé. Roue arrachée, l’ex-champion du monde de Supermoto (associé à David Doutrepont et Fabrice Van Outrive) voyait la voiture #18 plonger dans le classement. Pratiquement au même moment, c’est l’ancien leader Didier Van Dalen qui rentrait au stand avec un radiateur troué. « J’avais des problèmes de freins depuis quelques tours et j’ai bien involontairement percuté la #278 d’Alain Delrez au freinage de la chicane », expliquait l’équipier d’Arnaud Quédé et Stéphane Perrin. Un peu plus tard, c’est la #44 de Jac Motors 1 qui rentrait à son tour, Laurent Jaspers étant victime d’une crevaison. Quant à Gilles Debrus, au volant de la #55 de Poison Ivy – 4 Race, il devait purger une pénalité après un excès de vitesse dans la pitlane.
Au fil des tours et des ravitaillements, la situation se décantait et trois voitures seulement terminaient les trois premières heures de course dans le même tour. Sur la #277 d’Allure Team 2, Guillaume Mondron, Cédric Bollen et Frédéric Caprasse affichaient déjà leurs ambitions. Derrière cette voiture favorite du championnat, on retrouvait la #280 Socardenne de Kevin Balthazar, Renaud Martin et Christophe Nivarlet et la #284 AC Motorsport 2 pilotée par Alix Fraiture et Sébastien Ryhon. Tous les autres, emmenés par Leader Racing Events (Philippe Willems-Marc Van Cutsem-Hakim Ouassini) et Poison Ivy – 4 Race (Gilles et Bruno Debrus), pointaient déjà à plus d’un tour !
Après une interruption de deux heures, les concurrents reprenaient les débats là où ils les avaient laissés pour une fin de course de 180 minutes. Les trois équipes en lutte pour la victoire s’en donnaient à cœur joie. Mais comme lors des deux courses du Trophée des Fagnes et comme lors des deux joutes à Zandvoort, le trio composé de Cédric Bollen, Fred Caprasse et Guillaume Mondron s’imposait, empochant ainsi une cinquième victoire partielle cette année et… le maximum de points au championnat ! Plus que jamais, ce trio est en position idéale dans la course au titre avant la finale des 10 Heures de Mettet, le samedi 24 octobre.
« En fin de course, je devais composer avec une voiture qui sous-virait terriblement », expliquait Fred Caprasse. « Probablement la suite d’une touchette avec la pile de pneus dans la chicane… Toujours est-il que j’ai dû me battre et que ce fut passionnant jusqu’au bout. Mais cette victoire est avant tout celle de toute une équipe et je salue mes équipiers, Guillaume et Cédric, qui ont aussi fait du super boulot ! »
Malgré le sprint final d’un Kevin Balthazar échouant à 4 secondes seulement de Fred Caprasse, la #280 Socardenne qu’il partageait avec Renaud Martin et Christophe Nivarlet (souffrant, ce dernier n’a pas pu disputer la fin de course) devait se contenter de la médaille d’argent. Il n’empêche qu’après son succès de Zolder, l’équipe Socardenne conserve des chances de ceindre la couronne en fin de saison.
La dernière marche du podium revenait à AC Motorsport 2, le duo composé d’Alix Fraiture et Sébastien Ryhon. Constamment aux avant-postes, les deux hommes ne cachaient pas leur émotion de retrouver ainsi le podium après leur victoire – sous la pluie – lors du Trophée de Bourgogne en début de saison.
Après une course régulière, l’équipe Poison Ivy – 4 Race terminait au pied du podium, pour la plus grande joie des Debrus père (Bruno) et fils (Gilles), lesquels signaient là l’une de leurs meilleures prestations en famille. L’équipe AC Motorsport 6 complétait le top 5 après les belles performances signées par Bruno Magal, le « touche-à-tout » Julien Collette et le jeune kartman de 16 ans, Benjamin Lessennes, très convaincant pour la toute première course automobile de sa courte carrière.
Derrière, on retrouvait, dans l’ordre, les équipes Leader Racing Events (Willems-Van Cutsem-Quassini), Jac Motors 1 (Jaspers-de Frahan), DRM Motorsport 1 (Denis-de Braekeleer-Lieutenant), Colson Racing (Crosset-Gressens-Jacquemin) et le DZ Racing (Dorkel-Zeghouani-Vandormael).
CARPASS LRE by DRT se relance dans le championnat Biplaces
En Biplaces, c’est l’équipe CARPASS LRE by DRT qui remportait une bien belle victoire grâce à Philippe Reynens, Miguel Coppieters et Stéphane Lémeret, Alain Vercammen n’ayant pas pris le volant durant la course. Pour les champions en titre, cette victoire tombe à point nommé dans la course au titre, surtout que les leaders du championnat n’ont pas connu la réussite cette fois. Ralentis par des problèmes de boîte de vitesses en fin de parcours, Francis Plunus et Eric Jardon (Trendy Foods) ont dû se contenter de la 4e position, voyant ainsi leur avance réduite avant d’aborder le rendez-vous décisif des 10 Heures de Mettet.
Les soucis techniques de Trendy Foods ont fait les affaires du TML Racing, Baudouin et Florent de Liedekerke prenant une belle deuxième place malgré un drive through en fin de parcours pour non-respect du temps minimum d’arrêt dans la pitlane. Le podium des Biplaces était complété par CBRS / AC Motorsport, l’quipage composé d’Alain Dupont, Michel Koning et Philippe Fisette. Enfin, on notait le top 5 dans cette catégorie du Team ComToYou avec Dominique Bustin, Christophe Hooreman et Stéphane Evrard.
Après ce déplacement très réussi en Alsace, c’est bien en Belgique que se terminera la saison 2015 de l’European VW Fun Cup lors de la deuxième course la plus longue du championnat. C’est en effet sur 10 heures que se jouera cette finale sur le Circuit Jules Tacheny de Mettet. Le rendez-vous est déjà pris le samedi 24 octobre prochain pour une ultime course s’apparentant à une apothéose !
Résultat final:
1.Allure Team 2 (Bollen-Caprasse-Mondron) 198 tours; 2. Socardenne (Nivarlet-Balthazar-Martin) +4’’157; 3. AC Motorsport 2 (Fraiture-Ryhon) +1 tour; 4. Poison Ivy-4 Race (Debrus-Debrus) +3 tours; 5. AC Motorsport 6 (Magal-Lessennes-Collete); 6. Leader Racing Events (Willems-Van Cutsem-Quassini) +4 tours; 7. Jac Motors 1 (Jaspers-de Frahan); 8. DRM Motorsport 1 (Denis-de Braekeleer-Lieutenant) +5 tours; 9. Colson Racing (Crosset-Gressens-Jacquemin); 10. DZ Racing (Dorkel-Zeghouani-Vandormael) + 6 tours; etc.
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