ACE CAFE RADIO

    samedi 26 septembre 2015

    KITCHEN MOTO CUSTOM NOX DOMINAE


    Kitchen Moto Honda 1 THUMBThe huge volume of social media and web content available to us at all hours of the day means that the decision as to whether a bike is liked, loved or loathed can be knee-jerk and totally image based. OK, so a lot of this content is our fault but one thing we try to uncover is the newcomer. Whether young or old, seasoned rider or newbie straight from the test centre, what makes our day is to hear a story of someone overcoming some form of adversity in the mission to incorporate creativity into their motorcycling life.
    Kitchen Moto Honda 2Justin Tuskey is a 26 year old chef, originally form upstate New York and now tantilising palettes in Savannah, Georgia. His dad is an ex-professional motocross racer so Justin caught the bug early but it’s taken until the last few of years for him to fully embrace two wheels.
    Rewind two years and buddy Brandon had bought a basket case of a CB360 and started the laborious resurrection, Justin didn’t even own a spanner at the time let alone a tool box, yet became totally transfixed by the process. He immediately went out and bought some basic tools, a load of degreaser and a non-running 1971 CB750. What he couldn’t find on the shelf was the 5 gallon drum of experience and knowledge required to get the bike going, so utilised his practicality with the assistance of online forums. 8 months later and the CB was running sweet and Justin had begun to scratch the custom itch.
    Kitchen Moto Honda 3Fast forward in time and Justin’s tinkering looked to be in jeopardy as he moved to a house that didn’t have a garage, a persistent problem for many of us. And this is what distinguishes Justin from the many, he used the house as a garage. The kitchen, dining room and living room became the workshop, now full of work tables, vices, a polishing station, electrical work bench, drill press, tool boxes, spare parts, shelves and new parts. There are 5 bikes out back, under the roof overhang and another 5 in the spare bedroom (some jerk in the past had converted a perfectly good garage into a bedroom, what’s with people!)
    Justin sounds like our sort of guy “Work with what you have inside your means. Don’t make excuses, make bikes instead.”
    Kitchen Moto Honda 4This bike,  Nox Dominae is Justin’s first café/restomod, the name loosely translates from Latin to “lady of the night” which turned out to be quite apt, “I spent many hours burning the midnight oil in preparations for this mistress to see the road. I picked up the bike from a buddy in North Carolina for a really good price, running  and with a title. It looked decrepit. Someone before my buddy tried to make a café racer out of it but failed pretty miserably and then left it outside for a few years. It ran really well though surprisingly.”
    Justin’s buddy Omar Portigliatti, and Italian jeweller, proved pivotal in with this build and together they went from contemplating a quick paint, service and sell-on to the more in depth project seen here. The low mileage motor was good and tight  so a soda blasting and re-paint saw it ready to go again, with the addition of a trick, transparent points cover. Whilst dealing the mechanicals all bearings, seals and perishable parts were replaced.
    Kitchen Moto Honda 5Owners of CB750s will be fully versed in the trials and tribulations of tuning these engines to run properly with pod filters, they work better with the original airbox, period. Justin left this in place and utilised the side panels to shroud a custom battery box and tool roll holder. Practicality and custom bikes, surely not. The cleaned carbs provide the perfect mixture to the engine, jetted correctly for the Cycle-X 4-2-1 race exhaust, which according to the guys sounds fantastic.
    Kitchen Moto Honda 6
    The engine might have been in fine fettle but wiring in the 1970s wasn’t renowned for being particularly resilient to the elements, nor slimline. Justin started from scratch and made a completely new loom, hiding the guts of it in the tail hump, including an air horn to alert idiot road users, should the race exhaust’s decibels not be enough. A modern bucket houses the Truck-lite LED headlamp and the cockpit has been relieved of the clunky ignition. A dedicated ignition circuit utilises an LED idiot light in the headlamp bucket and starter button recessed into the headstock nut, for a completely keyless set up. It took Justin a while to figure out how best to incorporate this without blowing fuses, but it’s turned out to be one of the most rewarding parts of the build.
    Kitchensplit2
    Car nuts among you might have recognised the paint colour, yup, that famous Shelby GT500 ‘Eleanor’ or Pepper Grey Metallic as it’s called on the can. The spray booth was of course one of the corners of Justin’s house and from here the finish looks pretty good. To give the more mundane components an individual touch Omar spent hours engraving intricate patterns into usually overlooked parts.
    Kitchen Moto Honda 7There’s a stack more other work carried out but in this case the grit and determination of the builder is what we wanted to shine through. Justin says “I am pleased with the end result. The bike is an absolute monster. The clubmans sit low, and as you ride you can really feel the road as it zooms by. The sound is incredible with the 4-2-1 exhaust, and it inspires near redline shifting. It gets plenty of looks everywhere it goes, and someone asked me what model Honda it was because they didn’t see it at the dealership. I told them it was from 1978 and their jaw just about dropped. Sorry pal, can’t buy it. Gotta build one.
    Justin has not only proved that you don’t need a mega-workshop in order to build a stunning bike, but also given us an idea for a t-shirt design. “Don’t make excuses, make bikes instead”.
    via The Bike Shed

    Snapshot, 1953: The mad scientist of Goodwood


    We’re wondering what magic potion this chap is cooking up, beside the track at Goodwood in 1953…
    The potion will give racing drivers a super-power of sorts; in the test tube is high-octane petrol, the hot topic of the Picture Post reporter’s research into new fuels. Following scientific breakthroughs in the 1930s and 1940s, higher octane fuels were introduced to raise the compression rates of aircraft engines, thus improving their performance. Following World War II, such research went into improving the performance of racing cars, instead – today, even super-unleaded fuel for road cars is typically 95 or 98 RON. 
    Photo: Ronald Startup/Picture Post/Getty Images
    Classic Driver’s extensive coverage of the Goodwood Revival 2015 is kindly supported by our friends at Credit Suisse. You can find an overview of all Revival 2015 articles here.  

    diner...


    vendredi 25 septembre 2015

    Kajto signe la pole pour les qualifications du Rallye de Chypre / Kajto grabs pole in ERC Cyprus Rally qualifying


    Kajetan Kajetanowicz a signé le meilleur temps de la spéciale qualificative du Rallye de Chypre CNP ASFALISTIKI et aura donc l’honneur de choisir en premier, sa position de départ pour la première journée de compéition de demain.
    Copiloté par Jarek Baran, le pilote de la Ford Fiesta R5 LOTOS Rally Team a signé un chrono de 2’42’’236 sur cette portion de 4,39 km, située entre les villages de Vavla et Kalavasos, qui était composée à 35% de gravier et 65% d’asphalte.
    Alexey Lukyanuk se classe 2e sur sa Fiesta R5 du Russian Performance Motorsport, à tout juste 0’’069 !
    Il y a ensuite un écart de 5,5 secondes avec le 3e, Robert Consani, qui fait équipe avec une nouvelle copilote Lara Vanneste sur sa Citroën DS3 R5.
    Bruno Magalhaes termine 4e sur sa Peugeot 208 T16 tandis que David Botka complète le top 5 sur sa Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. Il est d’ailleurs le meilleur pilote ERC2, long devant le leader de la catégorie Vojtech Stajf (Subaru) seulemenr 12e.
    Les 15 premiers pilotes pourront choisir leur ordre de départ pour la première étape de demain, honneur à Kajto. Stavros Antoniou, auteur du 15e chrono, prendra la place qu’il restera.
    Tous les équipages de l’ERC ont rallié l’arrivée de la spéciale sans difficulté malgré les hautes températures. Les voitures de devant  ayant de meilleures conditions de route.
    Ordre de départ: Lukyanuk pense avoir fait le mauvais choix
    Alexey Lukyanuk pense avoir fait une erreur en choisissant de partir 15e sur la route pour la première journée du Rallye de Chypre CNP ASFALISTIKI.
    Le Russe, avait signé le 2e chrono de la spéciale qualificative sur sa Ford Fiesta R5 du Russian Performance Motorsport, ce qui faisant de lui le 2e pilote à décider de sa position. Alors que le poleman Kajetan Kajetanowicz a choisi de s’élancer 5e, Lukyanuk a quant à lui opter pour la 15e place. Mais tous les autres ‘top’ pilotes ont en fait emboité le pas de Kajetanowicz. Robert Consani a choisi la 6eposition, Bruno Magalhaes la 7e, David Botka la 8e, Dominykas Butvilas la 9e, Raul Jeets la 10e, Jaromir Tarabus la 11e, Antonin Tlust’ak la 12e. Stavros Antoniou, auteur du 15e chrono en qualifications hérite finalement de la 14e place ?
    Ce choix aurait pu être un coup de génie mais ayant la plus lente voiture du top 15 devant lui, il a plus de risque d’être confronté à la poussière, aux pierres et autres débris sur la route, Lukyanuk allait bientôt regretter sa décision.
    « C’est une erreur de ma part je pense, admet Lukyanuk. Généralement, plus vous partez loin sur les rallyes de gravier, plus vous avez une route propre mais la voiture qui s’élancera juste devant nous, était 25 secondes plus lente sur les 4,39 km de la spéciale qualificative. Je pense que pour des raisons de sécurité je demanderai à ce qu’il y ait un écart plus important pour être sur de ne pas le rattraper. Ca serait trop dangereux de tenter un dépassement dans ces montagnes. Nous verrons. J’espère que ça ne nous ralentira pas trop. »
    A confident and happy Kajetan ‘Kajto’ Kajetanowicz set the fastest time on the Qualifying Stage of the CNP ASFALISTIKI Cyprus Rally 2015, and in doing so will be the first to select his starting position for tomorrow’s first day of competition.
    Kajto grabs pole in ERC Cyprus Rally qualifying
    Co-driven by Jarek Baran, the LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5 driver set a time of 2m42.236s over the 4.39 kilometre test, which was 35% gravel and 65% asphalt, and situated between the villages of Vavla and Kalavasos.
    Alexey Lukyanuk was second fastest in his Russian Performance Motorsport Fiesta R5, a mere +0.069s slower!
    There was a five and a half second gap to third, with Robert Consani successfully completing his first ever timed stage with new co-driver Lara Vanneste in their Citroën DS3 R5.
    Bruno Magalhães was fourth quickest in his Peugeot 208 T16, while Dávid Botka was the top ERC2 driver with an outstanding fifth best time in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. ERC2 leader Vojtěch Štajf (Subaru) was 12th fastest.
    The top 15 drivers will select their starting positions for tomorrow’s opening leg this afternoon, with Kajto getting the first choice and 15th fastest Stavros Antoniou (Mitsubishi) having to take whatever’s left.
    All the ERC crews got through the hot and dusty Qualifying Stage without drama, with road conditions better for the cars running at the front of the field.
    Alexey Lukyanuk believes me may have made a mistake choosing to run 15th on the road, when the opening leg of the CNP ASFALISTIKI Cyprus Rally 2015 gets underway tomorrow.
    The Russian driver had been second fastest over the Qualifying Stage in his Russian Performance Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5 and was second (out of 15) to select his starting position. Whilst rival and ‘pole sitter’ Kajetan Kajetanowicz picked fifth on the road, the Russian driver picked 15. But then all the other top ERC drivers followed Kajetanowicz – Robert Consani picking sixth on the road, Bruno Magalhães seventh, Dávid Botka eighth, Dominykas Butvilas ninth, Raul Jeets 10th, Jaromír Tarabus 11th, and Antonín Tlusťák 12th. Indeed, the only position left for Stavros Antoniou, who had been 15th fastest in Qualifying and therefore the last to select, was 14th on the road.
    It might turn out to be a stroke of genius, but with the slowest of the top 15 cars running ahead of him, plus the potential for dust and the possibility of rocks and other debris on the road, Lukyanuk was soon regretting his decision.
    “It’s a mistake from me I think,” admitted Lukyanuk. “Traditionally on gravel rallies, you have cleaner roads further back, but now the car that is starting immediately ahead of us was 25 seconds slower over the 4.39 kilometre Qualifying Stage. I think for safety reasons we will ask for a bigger gap, because for sure we will catch him and then it is dangerous to try and overtake someone on gravel in the mountains. We will see. I hope it won’t slow us down.”