White Whale

Orson Welles and Moby Dick inspire an Arctic voyage

The Arctic tern or Sterna paradisaea is a seabird that migrates the length of the world from its breeding grounds in the Arctic Circle to winter in the Antarctic. In 2014, Barcelona-born skipper Albert Bargués decided to emulate the birds’ annual journey and spend a year captaining his aptly named boat The Sterna, with the (ultimately unrealized) goal to spend 365 days in total daylight. The indefatigable travel filmmaker Guille Cascante accompanied his close friend Bargués on the unique voyage, with a second trip planned for Antarctic in 2017 to complete the migratory cycle of its avian namesake.

White Whale in numbers (and words)
Most remote islands visited:
Bear Island, Barents Sea—a research station with a population of nine—and Pyamiden Svalbard archipelago, a Soviet mining town abandoned in 1991 with a population of 13.

The boat
A 27-meter aluminium sailing boat bought in Falmouth, England and sailed back to Barcelona. Built for speed and racing and suitable for the Arctic over fibreglass boats due to the icebergs.

Voyage casualties:
A broken arm (Albert Bargués), an iceberg collision (The Sterna).

Adventurer inspirations:
Tintin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Patrick O’Brian.

The voiceover:
White Whale features an excerpt of Orson Welles’ unfinished film from 1971,Moby Dick.

Duration of footage shot:
26 hours.

Road Hunter episode 3: Sicily, Agrigento valle dei templi

Third episode of the "road hunter", the new format produced by DMD Helmet. In every chapter DMD bikers invite our road hunter to share a drive with them. This time we where in Sicily for the DMD photoshooting of the new catalogue 2015. This is a little back stage of the photoshooting in the Valle dei templi and a wonderfull ride around the area of Agrigento.

BLACK CLOUD XJ650

We keep banging the Shed drum about folk who head off into an outbuilding, with a bag full of tools and a mind packed with ideas, because without these people the new-wave custom scene wouldn’t exist. The enthusiasm and passion is wide reaching and not bound by language or border. Lukas from the Czech Republic is one such shed-head who has been lured into the custom world. He swore he’d always be a dirtbike kinda guy but stumbled across the café racer concept of modifying motorcycles both old and new, and now finds himself hooked.

Lukas had caught the bug and acted accordingly, borrowing a van and heading out to find a donor; in this case a 1980 Yamaha XJ 650. Three and a half decades had been kind to the mid-capacity four-banger and it ran sweetly so Lukas and his buddy Victor could concentrate on the aesthetics and convert their imagination into reality. Steve McQueen is much adored and an inspiration to many, especially in motorcycling circles and in this case the Ford Mustang from his film Bullitt set the colour scheme for Lukas’ bike.

Before the fancy business of painting could begin the frame required the now familiar chop and loop. The battery and other gubbins has been relocated in the tail leaving the rear triangle open; a mesh crud guard keeps all but the most persistent grime away from the carbs and engine.

Whilst enjoying their newfound outlet for creativity the guys starting amassing tools and equipment and named their endeavour Black Cloud, so it seemed fitting to produce a trick top clamp.

Lukas wanted to achieve the flat line look so trimmed the bottom of the fuel tank and TiG welded the seems back together. The existing off centre and ugly tank cap was discarded, blanked off and replaced by a more symmetrical version. The paintwork is the work of another mate drafted in, Adrian from across the border in Slovakia laid down the Bullitt green, gold pin stripes and airbrushing to the tail.

The sturdy motor was treated to a good service, with new seals and gaskets where required before coating in high-temp matt black paint, with some gold accents to match the pin striping. Corroded nuts and bolts have been swapped out for shiny nickel or chrome plated ones.

Lukas seems to have a good network of friends keen to help out at Black Cloud, Pavel pitched in with his wiring skills cutting out any botched repairs and hiding all the necessary electricity in the tail.

Good friends, sharing a passion for motorcycles and bringing a vision to life. Sounds like a perfect recipe from the Shed cook book. Lukas has another project in the pipeline, keep an eye on Facebook for updates, but in the meantime McQueen’s Toy is for sale.

Thanks to Michal for the photographs.

via PIPEBURN

1974 Honda CB550 – Café Cycles

Written by Martin Hodgson.

The CB550 was not a staple of the classic café scene back in the halcyon days but if they built them like Café Cycles that might have all changed. With the Café Racer culture booming again it’s easy for the new generation to forget its simple roots.

Most of the world’s biggest custom builders and even manufacturers have turned out big dollar Café bikes, but in a small workshop in Rhode Island a lover of British bikes and a master of hand formed aluminium parts, Pete Chase is proving the old simple ways still work. In fact he likes British bikes so much he barely cuts them up, preparing to turn out perfect custom Hondas with a British flavour!

Having half a dozen CB500 and CB550 bare frames in different states of disrepair in his workshop Pete needed a spark of inspiration to get this particular bike going. That came when passing by a yard sale he spotted from the corner of his eye what appeared to be an inline four cylinder engine. Pulling over he discovered it was in fact a CB550 engine that turned over relatively easily, asking price, just $40. Now with just a frame and engine to work with Pete set about building a masterful café bike just like it was done in the days of old.

To ensure the CB would be firing for many years to come the cases were split and a full rebuild undertaken. The rod and crank bearings were Plastigauge’d to ensure all were to spec while the primary chain and all bottom end seals were replaced. These are smart changes to make on any CB engine that has been left sitting, so to the new clutch and springs Pete installed. Up top the cylinders were honed, genuine Honda rings fitted and the head rebuilt, with mild porting, lapping of the valves and also polishing the cam lobes and rocker arms.

With the engine now ready to give years of active service Pete selected the right frame from his collection and then set about cutting it in half. In his own words “I basically chopped the bike in half right behind the gas tank. I built a new rear end with hoop in the back. I made new shock mounts about 2-1/2 – 3 inches forward from stock. On the swing arm I moved the lower shock mount forward by about 2 inches. This allowed me to lean the rear shocks forward, and raise the ass end up” and who can argue with that, a man on a mission with a grinder cannot be stopped!

While this is definitely a Japanese bike the tins and paint work combine the best of British. The old art of hand forming metal is one of Pete’s specialities and he made the beautiful seat pan and cowl in true Café Racer style. The tank is from a later model CB550 and what could be more Old Blighty inspired than a colour scheme of British Racing Green and Wimbledon White. The paint work is so good you’d never guess it was done in his parent’s garage due to an overcrowded workshop. The Lucas light, velocity stacks, Norton style exhaust and blacked out engine all hark back to a day of simple, classic styling.

Japanese bikes weren’t exactly popular amongst the café crews of the 60’s, but if you took any of the Café Cycles bikes back to the glory days of the Ace Café it’s hard to think that even the tea sipping Norton aficionado’s wouldn’t be reaching out to shake Pete’s hand, Bravo!

[Photos by Matt Francis]

via PIPEBURN