THE NIGHT RIDER

THE NIGHT RIDER from Joris B. on Vimeo.

A FLY FISHING JOURNEY IN THE BOLIVIAN AMAZON VIEWFINDER: WHAT KIND OF MEAT?

By CHRIS WRIGHT

Watch a few trout bum videos in a row and you’ll get the gist: the fishermen (always well bearded) nail the stunning location and hippie vibes. There are nice soliloquies about the power of nature voiced over slow-mo shots of flowing water and unfurling casts. They’ll make you want to fish even if you can’t tell a caddis from a cadillac, and they’re entertaining.

But throw in some monkey meat and you’ve changed the paradigm. During an exploratory fly fishing trip in the Bolivian Amazon last year, the Provo Bros introduced a new sort of fishing adventure. One with dance club techno bumping from a portable speaker in a jungle camp; joyous waterside play-by-plays (“that thing hit that thing like a freight train!” and “Dude, he fucking hiiiit that thing!”); a payoff of an irate roadside bystander (did they drive on his land? Fuck his daughter?); a random trip to the source of the Amazon, that is, snowmelt from the Andes, for a skiing and snowboarding aside. And yes, one that involves two dead monkeys being grilled and eaten, which is gnarly.

As for the fishing, the prehistoric-looking monsters that the fishermen haul from the river (while screeching like banshees) are legendary for their aggressive eating habits and for their moxie during a fight; among cultish fishermen, they’re known as a destination-worthy fish. But while the fishing is entertaining, it’s the unpredictable ways in which the adventurers uncover Bolivia’s fantastical beauty that make the video worthwhile for a broad audience. “All we wanted to do was catch a big Golden Dorado on the fly in a jungle choked, Amazonian headwater stream, but the trip evolved into something much greater”, Neil Provo explained on his blog. “Our fly-fishing trip became more of a lesson in the immense diversity of Bolivia’s landscapes and people.” He fails to mention the diversity of their food.

Márquez s'assure la pole pour le Grand Prix Tissot d'Australie

Marc Márquez retrouvera Cal Crutchlow et Jorge Lorenzo en première ligne demain à Phillip Island pour le départ de la seizième manche de la saison 2014.

Tout juste six jours après avoir décroché son second titre de Champion du Monde MotoGP™, Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) s’est offert sa douzième pole position de la saison en battant assez nettement ses concurrents sur la piste de Phillip Island, avec un chrono d’1’28.408. L'Espagnol ajoutait ainsi un nouveau record à son incroyable palmarès en égalant Casey Stoner (2011) et Mick Doohan (1997 - 500cc) pour le plus grand nombre de pole positions remportées en une saison dans la catégorie reine.

Disqualifié en Australie l’an dernier pour ne pas avoir respecté le timing de l’arrêt au stand exceptionnellement imposé par la Direction de Course, Márquez sera donc dans une position idéale pour viser la victoire, sur l’un des cinq circuits du calendrier où il ne se soit pas encore imposé en MotoGP™.

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati) sera quant à lui en première ligne pour la première fois de l’année après avoir très brièvement occupé la première position et avoir fini à 0.234s de Márquez, avec tout juste huit millièmes de seconde d’avance sur Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP). 

Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) et Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), qui avait dû passer par la Q1, ont pris les quatrième et cinquième positions, à un rien de Lorenzo, sur une deuxième ligne que complètera Aleix Espargaró (NGM Forward Racing).

A près d’une demi-seconde de la pole, Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) et Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), qui se prépare pour sa 250e course en catégorie reine, seront en troisième ligne en compagnie de Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3).

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), qui était en pole au Japon, partira de son côté de la dixième position, devant Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) et Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar), auteur du deuxième temps derrière Pedrosa dans une séance Q1 écourtée par quelques gouttes de pluie.  

Mike di Meglio (Avintia Blusens) a obtenu la vingtième position, sa deuxième meilleure qualification cette année.

NICK’S DUCATI CLUB RACER – DETROIT

This absolutely lovely Ducati 900ss has been built by Nick; originally from Detroit but now residing in Cologne. Being from Detroit, Nick felt the need to get customising, but first needed a man-space. Once a garage was sorted the desire to cut, weld, grind and generally make a noise needed to be fulfilled; but unlike his mother land, certain areas in Cologne don’t care for man-noise. Residents like to listen to the subdued sound of the breeze and birds gently singing which meant that there was actually a restriction to when you can make the required noise that customising bikes generates, it turns out that Saturday afternoons, Sundays and after 8pm throughout the week you can’t break the sound barrier or even come close. So Nick needed to find somewhere limitless for his needs and you don’t rock up at JvB Moto with a Ducati project and get met with any limits!

Turns out when Nick got in touch with Jvb Moto to see if they might have a little corner he could rent from them, they had more in common than custom Ducati’s, in fact Nick used to work with some of Jens old college chums, so a few months on and Nick managed to move into JvB’s workshop. Nick assures us that he already had an idea and parts for the build; his main inspiration being the Hotrod scene from Detroit, but looking at what he’s achieved, it definitely looks like JvB had a little influence in places, here in the Shed we absolutely love JvB’s builds, so much so that Dutch and I chatted about their 750ss for weeks and Dutch even spoke to Jens to see if it was for sale, to see what we mean check out their 750ss here.

The main focus on this build was one of usability, something that could do everything that Nick wants from a bike; it needed to be a capable street bike able to carry a pillion during the week and have the talent to do a trackday at the weekend. The bike was stripped to its bare minimum, essentials stay, everything else to the parts bin! The result is a bike that is light at just 152kg dry and skinny for greater lean angle. A low seat height makes for a more pleasurable pillion ride and reduces any aggressive feel that the ultra-low clip-ons may otherwise offer. Nick calls her ‘Detroit’ as he feels she sums up the raw and no-nonsense approach of his home town.

Now this build wasn’t achieved by just stripping bits off, pretty much everything has been reworked, a 916 front end speeds up steering also assisted with PVM forged alloys, the Ohlins forks have been de-anodised and given a full 999 brake set up. The tank is an ETI Carbon/Kevlar unit, it’s the Sprinter version and has a similar silhouette to the standard tank but without the daft rubber ball saver and the top sits flusher, but most importantly, it’s much lighter and still holds about 19 litres of fuel. Monster rearsets were modified with rigid pegs, a BMW oil cooler is tucked up front directly behind the forks, DucShop CNC velocity stacks (for the 1100) with K&N Filters and equal length headers were fabricated to the underslung and heavily narrowed Quat D silencer. Out front she has a completely reworked Monster headlight, but now using only a single bulb; yet holding the electronic connectors behind the top cover and a KTM enduro speedo.

She’s a true European melting pot with all these different Ducati parts and a bit of BMW and KTM mixed in; but moulded by an American, both in form and function, the colour scheme is subtle yet bold; powder coated off white frame and matching stripes compliment the matt black and bare alloy finish, and the yellow coated spring doesn’t look out of place when the number boards replace the pillion pegs. 900 clearly lets everyone know that this isn’t the baby of the crop but the punchiest of the brood.

All of the aluminium parts were formed by hand along with the carbon number plates, and headlight upper. The rear frame was cut down and then reformed to get the proper lines at the rear and as mentioned, the pillion pegs are removable, but the number boards aren’t there to hide nasty fixings left behind, as the rear hangers are mounted to the inside of the frame, keeping the flow all the way to the tail, the choice of black hangers allows them to go pretty much unnoticed when attached.

I could ramble on about details on this build and the little things I spot within the pictures, but it doesn’t need it, I recommend you don’t just skim over the images, but enlarge them and absorb what actually stands before you, this is what most bikers need from their machines; plenty of poke for the most of us, race handling and light weight, yet still useable everyday; it’s even got a proper front fender, so readers; my recommendation to you is to return to this feature, take a bit in each time and let it settle; and then maybe, just maybe… more of us can get it this right!

I applaud you Nick, you’ve done a great a job, I have a 900ss custom myself and it’s far from multi purpose, it’s barely single purpose with it’s lack of comfort. A job well done… and I understand this is your 3rd build; I’m sure I speak for many when I say we thoroughly look forward to seeing the 4th, although with so many boxes ticked with this build I’m not sure you need to make a 4th… maybe you need to do a dirt bike; not a scrambler though; JvB already did a better job than Ducati at that!

via The Bike Shed