YAMAHA TW200 CUSTOM

This brilliant Yamaha TW200 custom is the work of art director and designer Joao Alves of somosEstudio, though if you want to ride it you’ll have to build it yourself as this is actually a photoshop-custom in the same vein as Joao’s previous work, a Custom Kawasaki Zephyr 750.

Looking for all the world like a perfect breach-racer, Joao fitted the TW200 with a 1974 Yamaha Trial TY250 fuel tank, a set of enduro grade WP front forks, Renthal handlebars with knuckle protection and a machine gun style exhaust.

Sadly I don’t quite have the skills to make this bike a reality, but once it becomes possible to climb into my computer I’ll ride the bejesus out of it.

from Silodrome.com

VINTAGE MENSWEAR | A COLLECTION FROM THE VINTAGE SHOWROOM’S BOOK

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I was pretty stoked when Doug Gunn sent me a copy of — Vintage Menswear — A Collection from the Vintage Showroom – as I’ve long been an admirer. Being in the menswear trade myself, London has always been a favorite stop for inspiration, and there’s no better place to be inspired than The Vintage Showroom. The collection is insane and beautifully presented, covering everything from academia, sporting, hunting, motoring, military wear, workwear, denim– it’s no surprise that they are one of the most complete and prestigious vintage dealers in the world. Of special interest to me are all things related to motoring as you see below including vintage leathers, Barbour, Belstaff, etc., and all the great snippets of the history, construction, and function behind the pieces.

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CHAMPION CAR CLUB JACKET, 1950s– “This is a simple, zip-up cotton jacket with fish-eye buttons at the cuffs and a short collar. What it signifies, however, is so much more. The hand-embroidered, chain-stitched imagery on its back places it squarely in the 1950s, at the height of the hot-rodding craze in the US. Hot-rodding was said to have been driven by young men returning from service abroad after World War II who had technical knowledge, time on their hands, and the habit of spending long days in male, if not macho, company. Rebuilding and boosting cars for feats of both spectacle and speed — often 1930s Ford Model Ts, As and Bs,stripped of extraneous parts, engines tuned or replaced, tires beefed up for better traction, and a show-stopping paint job as the final touch — became an issue of social status among hot-rodding’s participants. This status was expressed through clothing too. There were the ‘hot-rodders’ of the 1930s, when car modification for racing across dry lakes in California was more an innovative sport than a subculture, complete with the Southern California Timing Association of 1937 providing ‘official’ sanction. But by the 1950s, hot-rodding was a style too.  decade later it was, as many niche tastes are, commercialized and mainstream, with car design showing hot-rod traits.”  –Vintage Menswear, Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett& Josh Sims

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BOLENIUM RACING COVERALLS, 1950s– “These cotton coveralls were made in Britain during the 1950s with factory work in mind. Their practicality and, when made in white, dash soon came to be adopted by motor-racing drivers of the period– among them Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, and Juan Manuel Fangio. Each of these helped to make the British racing tracks of the period, the likes of Brooklands and Silverstone, world-famous. The utility and style of coveralls had already been spotted by Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill– his ‘siren suit’ was essentially a zip-front version of the coveralls, donned in a hurry over clothing or nightwear before entering an air-raid shelter. Although Churchill and members of his family had worn such suits since the 1930s (they called them ‘rompers’), the coveralls became a wartime sartorial signature for the PM. The dapper Churchill had several siren suits made in other fabrics, among them red velvet.”  –Vintage Menswear, Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett& Josh Sims

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ALBERT GILL LTD DESPATCH RIDER’S COAT, 1943– “Despatch riders provided an invaluable, if not crucial form of communication during both world wars. With telegraph and radio lines often broken by enemy activity, or the messages relayed on them uncertain of inception, the despatch rider provided an almost assured means of delivery — the likelihood of  a single rider being physically arrested by the enemy was slight. He would be able to use his motorcycle to circumvent blocked roads and bomb damage, to move at speed and to deliver in person. He had to operate at all times and in all weathers– hence the need for considerable protection. This despatch rider’s coat, made by Albert Gill Ltd in 1944 and marked, in quartermaster fashion, (coat, rubber-proofed, motor cyclist’s) is made from bonded, rubberized cotton canvas fabric by Macintosh. Even after softening and with its perspiration eyelets under the armpits, it would have been an uncomfortably hot and heavy garment to wear. But it afforded almost complete water- and wind-proofing. The bottom of the coat even snapped together to cover the tops of the legs of the rider., with the front front rear edgepress-stud-fastened (using brass Newey studs typical of the 1930s and 1940s UK) onto the rear hem, creating a kind of military-grade romper suit. Straps on the interior secured the coat to the rider’s legs, preventing it from flapping about. A double-breasted front provided an additional layer of protection to the chest, with a storm flap designed to keep water away from the body. The most distinctive feature of the coat, however, remains the slanted chest ‘map’ pocket that carried the message– a design detail copied for latter cotton civilian biker jackets.”  –Vintage Menswear, Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett& Josh Sims  

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BARBOUR INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE JACKET, 1950s– “few specialist clothing designs can be said to have been adapted for use by the military and then to have found life with civilians again. Perhaps one of the most successful examples is Barbour’s International trials jacket. The Barbour company was founded by John Barbour in South Shields , north-east England in 1894. He built a drapery business specializing in boiler suits, painetrs’ jackets and oilskins for shipbuilders, sailors and fishermen of the local coastal towns, and later the farming community too. It was a hobby of John Barbour’s son Malcolm that saw the company build a motorcycling range during the 1930s– more or less exclusively kitting out the British International motor-racing team from 1936 onwards. One such design was adapted to make the Ursula suit for submariners during World War II, initially as a private order, and later as an official piece of wartime kit. Adapted slightly further, the jacket part of the suit found a third life with motorcyclists again from 1947. The jacket’s profile rose through the 1950s and 1960s thanks to its use by most of the riders at the UK’s Six Days Trial international motocross competition, as well as by keen cross-country biker and Hollywood actor Steve McQueen. The 1st Pattern civilian jacket, as with this example– still referred to as the ‘Barbour suit’ in its labeling and only later coming to be known as the International– used small-gauge, lightning zip of the Ursula and the moleskin-lined ‘eagle’ collar. Later models replaced the zipper with a larger lightning pull, the collar lining with corduroy, and the plain interior lining with what would become Barbour’s signature tartan.”  –Vintage Menswear, Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett& Josh Sims  

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BELSTAFF TRIALMASTER MOTORCYCLE MOTORCYCLE JACKET, 1960s- “The Barbour International’s arch-rival in motorcycling circles has long been the Belstaff Trialmaster. Today the jacket has four patch pockets, but initially it shared the same ‘drunk’ left breast pocket, and was distinguishable only by being slightly longer in the body and by a few minor details. More distinctive perhaps was Belstaff’s readiness to use color– this jacket, although now broken down with time and use to a shade of maroon-black, was once a bold red. Like Barbour, Belstaff grew out of a business built around the development of early technical fabrics. Established in 1924 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England by Eli Belovitch and his son Harry Grosberg, the company specialized in outdoorsy friction, wind, and  water-proof garments (although its logo, a Phoenix rising, did so from a fire rather than a muddy field). Later such garments resulted from experiments with rubber coatings. This led to Belstaff’s successful Black Prince clothing line, including the company’s first motorcycle jacket, and the waxing of cottons, the use of natural oils giving the fabric greater water-resistance while retaining its breathability. Like Barbour’s International jacket, the Trialmaster too won a stamp of approval from many professional motorcyclists, chiefly of the 1950s and 1960s. The champion trials rider Sammy Miller wore the jacket for many of his record 1,250 victories. adding to its later appeal for some was the fact that the revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara wore this jacket for his legendary motorcycle ride across South America.”  –Vintage Menswear, Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett& Josh Sims

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UNKNOWN BRAND, DOUBLE-BREASTED MOTORCYCLE JACKET, 1920s– “This English, custom-made leather jacket dates from the 1920s when hobby motorcycling was in fancy. It sets a benchmark for subsequent biker jackets, though this one buttons up, lacking the signature asymmetric zip of later models. The hobby of motorcycling soon became a craze and manufacturers rushed to cater for it, vying to create the definitive article and many basing their designs on hunting jackets of the period– a fact seen in the pocket positioning of this example. It stretches the idea to say that these makers liked to romantically compare the motorbike to the trusty steed, but early bikers did tend to wear jodphurs too– if only because they were easy to wear tall boots with. This jacket, with its fleeced cotton lining, flapped pockets, hand-sewn buttonholes and horn buttons may lack any of the double-layered leather or safety features of later jackets, but its cropped style (allowing a crouched riding position), waist belt adjuster and elegant proportions make it much classier.”   –Vintage Menswear, Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett& Josh Sims 

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LEWIS LEATHERS PHANTOM RACING JACKET, 1970s– “The biker jacket had long been a fashion staple by the time this Lewis Leathers Phantom model was created in the 1970s. The famed Perfecto model had been developed by Schott for a Harley-Davidson dealer during the 1930s– it reached iconic status and sealed its rebellious image thanks to Marlon Brando’s misfit wearing one in the 1953 film ‘The Wild One’. Although specialist pieces had been designed for riding before, this would become the benchmark for biker jackets, especially in the US. In the UK, however, Lewis Leathers was devising a more European feel– more fitted, longer and more blouson in style. D. Lewis Ltd. had been in business since 1892 as a pioneering maker of clothing for early motorists and aviators– for this latter market it even introduced its own Aviakit brand. By the 1950s, it had entered the biker clothing market with styles that defined the ‘ton up’ boys of the era– also the British ‘Rockers’ so stylistically and culturally opposed to the scooter-riding parka-wearing Mods. Two decades on, the company was reinventing the biker jacket in the most obvious way– by producing it not in the standard black or brown, but in bold new hues. In 1972, one catalog proclaimed ‘the colorful world of Lewis Leathers’. This heralded a brash new look for motorcyclists, although it proved to be just an interlude in fashion terms before punk rock made black the biker jacket color of choice once more.”  –Vintage Menswear, Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett& Josh Sims       

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The Vintage Showroom blog

from theselvedgeyard

Indy 500 : Jean Alesi ne retentera pas l’expérience

Après un premier essai cette année, l’ancien pilote français de Formule 1 annonce qu’il ne participera pas l’an prochain à la mythique course d’Indianapolis. A 48 ans, l’Avignonnais prend sa retraite sportive.

On ne reprendra plus Jean Alesi à flirter avec les murs d’Indianapolis, à près de 400 km/h. Dans le journal L’Equipe daté du mardi 18 décembre, l’ancien pilote de Formule 1, retiré depuis 2001, annonce qu’il arrête définitivement sa carrière sportive.

« J’arrête. Je ne me sens pas de repartir à la chasse aux sponsors. » L’Avignonnais, qui a fait cette année ses débuts sur le mythique anneau d’Indianapolis, avait été contraint d’abandonner après seulement une dizaine de tours bouclés. La faute à une Lotus trop peu performante. Mais l’homme aux 202 Grand Prix en F1, dont une victoire au Canada en 1995, espérait à l’époque revenir plus fort en 2013. Il a visiblement changé d’avis.

Jérémy Maccaud(AUTOhebdo)

Mikko Hirvonen testing for 2013 Rallye Monte-Carlo

Watch the footage of Mikko Hirvonen 's tests for 2013 Rallye Monte-Carlo with Citröen Racing. !

BCR Ducati 'Monster Tracker'

Cops and donuts. Politicians and corruption. Musicians and drugs. Benjie Flipprboi and café racers. Some things are just synonymous with each other. So when Benjie from Benjie's Café Racers (BCR) sent us his latest project, we presumed it would be another top class cafe racer from his garage in New Jersey. To our surprise, it wasn't a café racer at all, it was this Ducati he has named the 'Monster Tracker'. The bike was used by Benjie as a commuter for about a year until he got bored of its stock looks. "The bike started off as a 07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with a little over 8K miles on it." says Benjie. "First we were going to make it into a café racer, but we wanted to do something different for a change. We decided to take the bike apart, and turn it into a tracker/urban scrambler with a little steam punk flare." 

When Benjie received the bike, the stock plastic tank was swollen and the previous owner adjusted the steering stopper all the way out so the trees wouldn't hit the stock swollen plastic tank when you turn the front wheel. "The turning radius of the monster is small as it is" says Benjie. "The steering stopper pushed all the way out, it was hard to maneuver the bike especially in traffic. When we took the bike apart to see what we have to work with, the bike looks really nice without the huge tank, and the wide seat. So we decided to make the bike as narrow as we could just like the old school trackers."

When they were designing the new gas tank, they were having problems with the narrow tank they originally wanted. The stock air box was huge, and the stock battery location was on top of the motor, middle of the bike. "So if we made a narrow gas tank and have it mounted at the conventional location, the tank will be very small, and could only hold not even 2 gallons of gas" he says. "To get that narrow look that we wanted, we decided to make a gas tank under the seat and made it run all the way to the back of the bike. Kinda like what the what some modern adventure bikes has. With a long narrow tail gas tank, we were able to make a gas tank that holds close to 4 gallons of gas. We made the gas tank out of aluminum and shaped it to follow the tail part of the stock Monster trellis frame. We even widen the back part of the gas tank so we could hold more gas, and to give the tail part of the bike that old school cafe/tracker look. We placed the gas cap at the usual location, in front of the seat, and made a front cover out of aluminum to cover the air box, battery and other electrics of the bike. When we shaped the front cover, we followed the frame rails, and made it to look as if its the gas tank. We even added knee indents to give it that old school look." 

When Benjie decided to relocate the aluminum gas tank under the seat, they wanted to make sure the seat wasn't touching the tank. So when the rider sits on the bike, there wasn't any excessive weight being placed on the gas tank – which would eventually cause the tank to crack and leak. They made a frame for the seat out of 1/4" flat bar, and mounted it on the bike's frame. They made sure there was at least a 1/4" of space between the seat and the gas tank for safety reasons. "Once we had the frame of the seat mounted, we made a shell for the seat pan out of fiberglass" says Benjie. "Then we had it upholstered out of black leather with old style double stitch. And to protect the tail of the gas tank, and to give that rugged off road look, we made a stainless grill that wrapped around the top tail section of the gas tank."

"Since we are going for that tracker style look, we covered the front end of the bike with flat aluminum and shaped it like a MX number plate. We wanted to use this bike in the street so we put in a small headlight, mount it off center, and hand hammered an aluminum headlight ring and surrounded it with stainless bottom head screws."

To get that classic tracker look BCR chose to make a custom 2 into 2 high side exhaust. "We made the back part header run towards the front of the bike, then have it exit on the throttle side of the bike" he says. "The front header was an easy set up. We just had to make sure that front header follows the back header pipe. The whole exhaust is made of stainless with aluminum heat shield. Surprisingly with the proper foot wear, the exhaust doesn't get that hot even in traffic." 

"Fenders are made of fiberglass to save weight, and for faster time construction. We wanted to make the front fender look as light as possible, so we made the fender frame out of stainless rods, and have them mounted at the bottom of the forks. The rear fender, we wanted it to be mounted just like the old school British Scrambler. We added a round off tube at the back of the frame, and have the hand hammered aluminum tail light wrapped around the round off tube,  and then made it to securing the tail part of the rear fender." 

"The stock tapered bars on the monster was nice, but it was low. We wanted it higher, more of a MX look, so we switched to a Pro tapered bars with medium lift. The Pro Tapered bars bolted right on the stock risers. Foot pegs on the bike are made of stainless, and we shaped it MX style, but with less aggressive teeth. We also made the foot controls out of stainless to match the pegs. We also made the heel guards out of stainless rods to match the stainless rack that's on the tail of the tank."

"We didn't do any mods to the engine other than cosmetics. The power of the stock 800cc motor is more than enough for what we had in mind for the bike. Even the wet clutch system is great especially riding the bike in the traffic. The only thing we did to the motor is we just polished the engine side covers, valve covers and cam end covers. Having them polished i think gave the V twin ducati motor some detail, and an old school look. Engine management, we added a power commander to compensate for the modified free flow exhaust and air pod filters." 

"Doing this project we found out that Ducati Monsters are a great platform for any custom bike setup – be it cafe style or tracker/scrambler. Overall we are very happy with how this project, 'Monster Tracker', came out.  The bike is now lighter and narrower, and a lot easier to handle. Plus with all the custom parts that we did, we were able to make the parts mount on to the bike without making any modifications to the frame. In the future we might change the tires to a more rugged enduro tracker type tires."

If this is what Benjie creates when he dabbles in something other than café racers, then lets hope he experiments more often. Don't you agree? 

Photos by Ben Chan of Blacksheep Photography.

from pipeburn.com

Sébastien Loeb testing for 2013 Rallye Monte-Carlo

 Sébastien Loeb's tests for the Rallye Monte-Carlo.

BOTT XR1

From Bottpower: With this kit it will be possible to convert a Buell XB into a BOTT XR1. We will sell the complete kit and also all the parts in a separated way. Shortly we will publish a post talking about this kit and some more options that we are going to sell for this bike. For more info check out www.bottpower.com

The final version of the bike will have also signal lights, rear brake light and license plate holder.

The Ecurie Ecosse Transporter

Forever associated with the famous Flag Blue Metallic Jaguars entered by the Edinburgh–based racing team, the space-age transporter based on a Commer truck is one of motor racing’s most recognisable sights.

The idea for an ‘appropriate’ transporter to carry Scotland’s finest from circuit to circuit was hatched in the late '50s, just after the team’s second victory at Le Mans. Using a Commer truck as a base, and with generous support from the Ecurie Ecosse association and countless trade sponsors, it was designed and built by Walter Alexander and Company of Falkirk, Scotland. 

It made its first appearance at the Scottish circuit, Charterhall, on 29 May 1960. 

Having passed through several owners after the original Ecurie Ecosse was wound down in 1971, the transporter made famous by the 1960s Corgi model was bought by Ecurie Ecosse collector Dick Skipworth and totally restored by Lynx. 

Today, it is a familiar sight at historic motor racing meetings worldwide, including the Goodwood Revival, carrying three of Skipworth’s ex-Ecosse racing cars. 

Related links Many new and classic Jaguars in the Classic Driver marketplace The Ecurie Ecosse website: www.ecurieecosse.com

Text: Steve Wakefield (ClassicDriver.com)
Photos: John Mayston-Taylor

SÉBASTIEN LOEB SE CHARGE DU DÉVERMINAGE DES MCLAREN.

Le Sébastien Loeb Racing prépare sa campagne 2013 avec une première séance d'essais de deux jours est organisée sur le tracé ibérique de Navarra où les deux McLaren MP4-12C Spec-2013. Le nonuple Champion du Monde des Rallyes était présent dans le baquet dès la première journée. Le ou les programmes ne sont pas encore connus même si Sébastien Loeb compte bien en découdre dans le nouveau championnat Sprint Series mis en place par SRO, de même que le Championnat de France GT. « Nous avons été convaincus par la McLaren MP4-12C et ce pour plusieurs raisons» explique Sébastien Loeb, co-fondateur du team avec Dominique Heintz. « Nous avons découvert cette voiture lors de la finale du GT Tour au Castellet et cette prise de contact a été positive. J'ai apprécié le comportement de cette auto moderne, avec un châssis carbone et des qualités techniques indéniables. Elle a par ailleurs été compétitive dans différents championnats. Enfin, McLaren s'est montré motivé lors de chacun de nos échanges. C'est une compagnie dont le sérieux n'est plus à prouver. Le soutien que McLaren apporte à ses teams a également été un facteur important. »

Sébastien Loeb s'est chargé lui-même du shakedown des deux autos ce mardi : « Tout s'est bien passé. Le feeling a été bon, avec un équilibre concluant. Le circuit est sympa, avec quelques virages rapides et des portions plus techniques. Nous préparons 2013 plus en amont que 2012 et, outre le déverminage, ce type de séance nous permet d'explorer plusieurs pistes au niveau des réglages. Nous avons bien avancé sur le set-up. C'était une journée intéressante même si il reste toujours du travail. » D'autres pilotes ont pu tester l'auto en Espagne. Nicolas Marroc, pilote du Sébastien Loeb Racing cette année, en prendra d'ailleurs le volant demain.

by Laurent Mercier(endurance-info.com)