Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet Ricochetrider's Moto Mojo & other tales from 2021

New Beginnings, Old Beginnings, Spring Has Sprung. ETC.


2021 is finally showing some signs of life, 4 months in. The World is coming back around after an arduous year and folks are enthusiastically going full-on.
For my part, I've been shifting up the entire stable- 4 & 2 wheels alike. Moving bikes out and bringing bikes in, selling old vehicles on and acquiring a new ONE. Still have a bit of that to do yet before I'm done for a minute. But the idea has been to start almost from scratch and just freshen up my little herd. Here's a fast refresher, altho much of this has already been talked about...

I was given this 66 Tbird, after a protracted sort of a "thing" with someone I met on [email protected], so that went down to Georgia to Beno Rodi's shop...





Meanwhile, as already stated, here is my latest acquisition- a result of having sold off my "newest" bike.



SO now I have a pair of sweet 1966 bikes, AND I also have a perfect "trifecta" of excellent British Motorcycles!

This lovely little machine has been sitting nearly its entire life: the 1st owner must have clocked nearly all of the 5514 miles showing on the clock. Owner #2 had to sitting somewhere dry for 40 yers, and owner #3had it since June 2008, only riding it for "maybe 300 miles" (as he told me). With this in mind, Yesterday I took the bike up to NYC to Hugh Mackie's Sixth Street Specials to let those guys go through the bike and get it running & roadworthy. THIS machine's isolated & sedentary lifestyle is officially OVER.



Of course Hugh and his lovely lady & new s on were at Wade & Gerry's over the weekend and we hug out Sat night- AND the Sixth Street Racing Team was on hand at Gratz Sunday for AMA Vintage Flattrack Racing, so it was lovely to hang out with them and see some bikes n stuff. BUT the "other" member of the Sixth Street Gang, Fumi wasn't racing so I had a great time talking to him yesterday. I guess he enjoyed it too because he made a post on Instagram about my bike...



All those Sixth Street guys are lovely people and I'm glad to call them my friends.

SO meanwhile, didi I mention AMA Vintage Flat Track? The Sunday turnout was huge. Seems there's a lot of crossover in the vintage racing crowd, between people I know in the realm of British Motorcycles, some of The Race Of Gentlemen (TROG) crew, and some of my Instagram people I follow and who follow me. Feels like I've gained at modicum of recognition here & there along the way, as I talk to folks (asI LOVE to do) at these types of vintage moto-events- and they already seem to know me. Which makes this kind of thing even more fun than it would be, adding a real family vibe to what would otherwise be plain ol, run-of-the-mill fun.

Back at the ranch, I haven't been shooting a lot of film lately, just had my head wrapped around all this motor vehicle stuff pretty much all year long. I took all my cameras out with me the other day, and shot a bunch of bikes at the races, and shot a bunch of pix in NYC yesterday. Here are some phone pix I took along the way but you may look for some actual film photos that should be forthcoming in due time.

Team Sixth Street Specials



lots of vintage Harleys out at the races. This one's aTROG bike



Shot some B&W film, shot some color film. I liked the way these colors went together and shot this several ways with some Kodak Ektar in 35mm.



going to the races with plain ol petrol for your race bike? NOPE



of course you'll take some "super dooper' fuel







Yes. A Good Time was had and no doubt. Look for real film photos at some point along the way...

Hey so back to yesterday, NYC never fails to disappoint. One c Ould quite possibly circle the same block 10 times and see something different each go-round.

Here's some random stuff from my day in The City, although I dont want to give the whole game away just yet so here are a couple phone pix....

IS there a difference between "street art" & graffiti? Do I care?



Old cars are not always A Thing, but we seek em where we find em, eh kids? (hint- look past the car)



to close, here's a Sixth Street "classic"



I said it in Shaun's thread and I'll say it again now. Sunday presented a bit of a conflict, in that Hugh & his family & crew came down for the racing.This, I had not known was going to happen. I had instead, been planning on going over to Boiling Springs to visit our local Drag Strip. Sunday was the 1st of this summer's Vintage Eliminator Drags. I spent a lot of time over there last year and have been making some inroads into getting to know some of the stalwarts of the local hotrod & jalopy scene. Which, again, ties back in to The Race Of Gentlemen. This is just one more indication that The World, as big as it is, isn't all THAT big. There are plenty of circles overlapping circles, and more circles intersecting other circles. Friends of friends who have friends and are friends and who are becoming friends....

Circles upon circles of circles; it's never ending, in fact it's ever-expanding. And it's a ton of fun.

Stay tuned folks, This has been a busy travel year so far, and we've only just begun to have events like this. I'll have some film photos from my exploits since January to share SOON, maybe even tonight.

BUT we're just getting started with car & bike season.
There's plenty more of me where I come from, so hang tight and watch this space for more of your ol pal
Ricochetrider's Moto Mojo, edition 2021.

Cheers.

I like this thread Tom! What have you seen change in NYC during this last year?

The changes I've seen in NYC have been more noticeable over a stretch of time- The "clean-up" of NYC, gentrification of neighborhoods, old haunts falling away and new ones incoming... maybe about a 10-15 year long process, that seemed to have accelerated some more recently?

As for more immediate changes directly related to Covid, many if not most restaurants now have built little cubby-type temporary shelters outside- off the sidewalk in the curbside space where cars might have parked, with seating out there.

Well today I have some thoughts... I don't know exactly what they are or how to express them even if I could nail it down- but here's the story behind my inner rollercoaster ride.

My lovely GF of 14 years now, has a lifelong friend. They've known each other since like 4th grade. Over the course of the run-up to the 2020 election, and all through this Covid thing, she and the friend (and the friend's husband, Jared) have sort of fallen out with each other. Ya see, their political views are the polar opposite of ours.

While that's OK, I'm sure that all 4 of us would agree it's perfectly OK to believe however one wants in things, But sometimes stuff... just happens. Karen always tended to try to lobby (it seems) Cynthia in what sure felt like never ending attempt to sway Cynthia's beliefs. As the election drew closer, these lobbying efforts intensified until finally Cynthia said something like, "why do you keep talking to me about this shyte. Our views are different, let's just celebrate out friendship instead of always having to talk politics" . Instead of anything else, Karen took it as an attack on her beliefs and lashed out, a little too fiercely for comfort.

So Cynthia stepped back a bit, and we were all sequestered away from another anyway, so. Meanwhile a few times lately, the ladies have reached out to one another, and they've gone walking or whatever. Seemed like things were somewhat on the mend, as it were. Over the course of the past 1 to 1 & 1/2 years, this has been the subject of much discussion between us, and between Cynthia and a 3rd friend, who also (along with her husband) took a step back from the friendship for a minute. Now, this other couple was way more "involved" with Karen & her husband Jared than we were. Even tho Cynthia has known them most of her life, I've only just met them a few years back and I already have a load of good, lifelong friends around here. Of course we'd all get together from time to time, but no time lately.

SO.
Cynthia & Karen were/are/have been slowly "mending fences"
Lynne & John were still taking a break (health reasons and family stuff could be added to their "list" as to why they've stepped back from everything, really)
I've stayed out of all this, as I've always sort of kept myself on the fringes anyway, but have been watching as well as making some effort to talk Cynthia through this little break-up & reconciliation.


Yesterday, Jared fell off a ladder while working on the house.



Whatever else happened on his way to earth, he clearly landed on his head. No idea how high up he was, but the house does have 2 stories. A handy-man type person was also working around the corner in their greenhouse. He heard the ladder fall and ran out to find Jared lwith his head bashed open, lying in a pool of blood in the driveway.

Emergency services were called and showed up quickly. They determined massive head trauma and called a helicopter to life-flight Jared to the hospital, where he underwent immediate surgery to cut part of his skull away to relieve the intense swelling of the brain.

Now. Over the course of my lifetime, a total of 6 friends or coworkers have fallen from varying height, had motorcycle crashes or accidents, & ended up with massive head traumas. Of those handful of people, only one survived- took him a couple years and a handful of surgeries but he's pretty close to what we would call normal today. So from just my own personal experience, there's 1 in 6. Anyone who knows anything about head injuries knows that in theory, it could go either way. Sometimes folks do come out of these things. But we have to admit the odds aren't good.

In this case, as it stands right now, roughy 24 hours after the accident, Jared is all but dead. His sister arrives today, the kids came in yesterday, the doc told Karen some grim-ass news this morning, and everybody on all sides is feeling pretty f*cked up about it all right about now.

If there's any solution, I sure as hell don't have it. But I admit to going deep into myself to think about things. In all of this, a single thought, anti can be summed up in one word, really- keeps coming back to me over & over again.

Love.

There's a whole other story about why I think this way. I won't go into it but I'll say this: over the 64-ish years I've been on the planet, I've seen much darkness. I've lived darkness, I've been The Darkness. In one of my darkest moments, a wise older guy- a friend's dad who was actually a Methodist minister, counseled me, when- at his invitation, I visited him one day. Whatever else he said, he also said this, "In our journeys through this world there are forces of darkness and forces of light. The goal, above all else, is to not succumb to the dark forces, but to move, always, towards the light".

Many years later, after a lot more water under the proverbial bridge, I came to understand what that wise old preacher Lindsay Ingram meant.

My interpretation of his words is this:

Light = love.
Move towards the light.
Be the love.
At the end of every day,
at the end of all your days,
let your legacy be one of love.
Love is all there is.
Nothing else matters.

I cannot say in all honesty, that I am perfect at this. But I believe it with all my heart.
And I am working on it.

Some of my best friends have different political views than mine.
Yeah, sometimes we talk about it, but we dont let it get ugly.

Us at dinner for "Chemo Solstice", the day before a chemo treatment, when the effects are as low as they get.
This guy, and another of the same ilk, helped me move my shop on short notice. Could have had months of notice, but then the landlord wouldnt have rent to collect, even lied three times when the ends was becoming visible.

We ride together, kayak together.
Not just good people, great people.

Hope y'all can mend those fences!

Oh, I love the pix and write-ups of your adventures!
Even if you are of a different opinion politically than mine!

Hell, I'm living the motorcycle life vicariously through others, and you are high on that list.

Well if there's any good news concerning our friend Jared, it's that he's an organ donor. I believe that everyone involved ihas found some consolation in this. Seems it is a more complicated process than one might imagine but it brings a tiny bit of much needed light to an otherwise dark situation.

Great Stuff!! Thanks for posting. Good to know the 6th St. gang still going. New Hampshire Speedway June 12&13 USCRA-FIM vintage race and some guy named Dave Roper is the Grand Marshall. Now sporting a total gray hair-doo & beard the flaming orange doo now forever gone!

Very sad abot Jared

Any updates?
Praying for the best recovery.

Thanks brother, but yeah no. There was only ever the tiniest spark of hope. All hope was pretty much over as soon as the docs cut his skull away and saw the damage was far worse than they had originally thought.

His legacy will be the Gift Of Life- organ donations. Jared's organs will serve to prolong lives. SO parts of him will live on in others' bodies.

Had a couple things going on over the past week- the flat track races last weekend and Thursday-Friday at the massive AMCA Perkiomen Chapter's National Spring Meet at Oley. Happy to say I hung out with some new friends from TROG- among other friends in the realm of vintage motorcycles. Shot like 7 rolls of 35mm film in this run along with most of 3 rolls of 120 (medium format) film.

One of the film stocks I'm shooting lately has been this Italian made film based on an old formula for moving picture film. I've shot a few rolls already but the commercial lab processing leaves a lot to be desired. During a conversation about it with the members of the Film Ferrania P30 [email protected] group, the group admin suggested I send the film to him for processing! SO off it went to him this morning, he'll get it hopefully Tuesday, and I should have scans to share soon afterwards.

The remaining film has to go to the lab I use in California, so those scans will take somewhat longer to get to me.

Hang tight and I'lll upload some phone pix of the stuff I was shooting thurs/fri. I'll make a whole post about it, soon.

Cheers,
Tom

Tom. I've recently shot a roll of P-30 and like it. Do you know what your new lab is is using for developer? I did my first roll in HC-110 but would appreciate any recommendations from people using it all the time.

Cheers, Wilf

Hi WIlf, been thinking about you lately. Hope all is well.

Actually no, I do not know what the lab uses. But I've not been super happy with the results- too much black-out in shadowy areas. Admittedly this could well have something to do with shooting in over-bright light and/or full sun. I've been using Richard Photo Lab in California but sent one roll out to Blue Moon in Oregon because I was told that they had worked directly with Film Ferrania to establish protocols for development of P30 film. Alas, the results were as, if not more, contrasty!

But I've shot some P30 recently as well- I had 3 rolls still so I shot 2 over the last 2 weekends. I was talking on a [email protected] group dedicated to the film about how contrasty my results were, from lab processing. I had just about been put off by the film after 2 rolls of it- and was seriously wondering if I'd even shoot the other 3 I had here. The group admin kindly offered to develop my P30 so it's in the mail as we speak, on its way out to California!

He uses, and I quote him here verbatim, "TMAX Dev 1:6 24C 7 minutes. I find that combination the finest."

SO I'll see how Scott does with my latest rolls- also shot outdoors in sunny, bright conditions. Much if not all my photos are shot in broad daylight at bike or car events, anyway, so it is what it is, I suppose.

Editing to say I ran 2 rolls of color film through my gifted Practica LTL over the past couple weekends of shooting. I've not yet shot color using this camera so I'm excited to see how it goes. over the course of 3 days' shooting at 2 different events, I went through 7 rolls of 35mm and most of 3 rolls of 120. The P30 should be in much sooner than everything else since I've sent ti to a private individual. Hopefully by Thursday I'll have some scans to show, f rom the flat track races and also from the AMCA meet at Oley.

Cheers,
Tom

Hi Wilf,

Got the scans back from the 1st recent roll of P30. Ill post pix later but in the meantime here’s the full recipe for you.

Tom bro dude, it saddens my heart to hear anyone falling out over bloody Polly Ticks or Religion, especially mates who have shared happy times in the past, we're on this planet for just a Heart Beat in the great scheme of things, a chum sums it up like this, he looks at the years in Summers. So with his philosophy I'd guess I've got 20 summers left, far too short a time to fall out with mates over stupid crap....

Just sayin'...

Shaun,

Friendship is one of life’s true treasures. Not having a lot of family, I value it over all else- way more than some do. That said, it’s OK to put a friend on “snooze” for a minute. It’s also OK for friends to yell at one another every so often and afterwards you get to laugh, cry, down some beers, hug each other, have another adventure and shake sh*t out.

A true friend never goes away and a true friend never breaks it off 100%. That old saying, “if you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it loves you for real and if it doesn’t come back then it never did”

Is true more true with friendships as with anything else. Time cements friendships and makes them inexonerable, bulletproof. But it can take time to reach that level where nothing can kill a friendship. Everybody’s different but especially in friendship. At that deep, core level is where you find out who people are. And who they’re not.

Cynthia and her friends took a break from one another. While that was happening, one of them died. Sure, I know them but not like Miss C does, not a lifetime thing between me and them. Both Cynthia & I have lost CLOSE loved ones. My fiancé was killed in a car crash and her husband died of liver disease. A person can lose anyone but a life partner dying in a couple’s prime of life is a more tragic loss than anything else other than a child. In the most dire of imaginable circumstances, Cynthia has of course been supporting her lifelong friend. Whatever was between them melted away like it had never been there at all.

In the face of such a tragedy, nothing and I mean nothing means as much, or helps as much as a lifelong friend- who knows when to be there and who knows when not to be too.

SO. Meanwhile back the Bruce Wayne Manor... in the "pre-post" or "semi-post" Covid new reality, "things" are opening up bit by bit. I've been doing some outdoor stuff- the AMCA meet at Oley, for example was packed with friends of mine and awesome in every way. Prior to that Wade & I went out to Gras PA to watch our friends f rom Sixth Street Specials race at a well attended AMA Flat track Weekend's vintage races on Sunday.

Of course, we don't just go to LOOK at bikes, we shoot them while we're at it! That said, I shot probably 10 rolls of film over the course of 3 days worth of ogling bikes and hanging out with friends. Most of this film, I hope to get sent out to the lab today, for processing. BUT, over the past year ish, I've been shooting this odd film called P30. P30 is made by an Italian film company who created a kickstarter campaign to help them build a brand new film factory from the ground up. It's Film Ferrania and their one-&-only product is a great black & white f ilm based on an old movie film from back in teh day. Frederic Fellin, for example shot his film 8 1/2, or Otto e Mezzo (in Italian) on P30. Meanwhile the "new" P30 is kind of finicky, in terms of how it need to be handled during development. Me not doing my own lab work is problematic for my use of P30 which has always come pout overly contrasty and dark- entire shadow zones blacked out, for example, like this:



or this



bear in mind that these 2 represent, by my way of seeing it, some of the better examples of overall result- despite the blacked out segments of each shot. But you get the idea, yes? SO back at the ranch, a couple weeks ago I was checking my film stock- knowing I had some shooting coming up. I found I had 3 remaining rolls of P30. I have been feeling a bit put off by it t ho, and went to a F B P30 group to discuss my dismay with the results I've gotten from lab development of the film and the admin guy piped up, volunteering to develop some film for me in his hard wrought recipe, and send my large size 16 bit tiff files! WOW! How gracious is THAT?

SO by now the results are in; by chance he developed the first roll first- shots from teh Gratz flat track races AND a few additional photos f rom NYC when I took my *new* BSA too to Hugh's (Sixth Street Specials) for them to get the bike running and sorted after its lifetime of sitting unused.

SO, today, I have, to present for your viewing pleasure, some of my faves from this 1st outing. Dude is uploading roll #2 as we speak, he says the tonality and exposures are good, 1 overexposed shot out of 36! SO paying attention seems to help! But without further ado, peep these bad boys:













and a couple NYC street shots- some of these NYC photos I uploaded unedited versions. I went back and did some mild editing to open up the shadow zones a bit and it helped.







I am well pleased and super grateful for Mr Scott Micciche's work here. He's done a super job of it.

I'll have more to share over the coming week or so. If you like, you can check my entire P30 Zenfolio GAllery HERE

I'll be adding to it today or tomorrow, and will posture pix asap from Oley.

ALSO if you're on Instagram pop by to take look at my IG account there- I'm Ricochetrider here, there, and in many other places around the World Wide Web.

Ricochetrider on Instagram LINK


Cheers!
Happy Friday!
Enjoy the weekend!

teaser pic: AMCA, Perkiomen Chapter national meet, Oley PA 2021

OK as promised, here ar some more pix from Oley. I have quite a lot more pix in color AND black & white I'll show off onceI get the film sent in and scans back- it'll be at least a week but meanwhile here are these P30 shots to hold you over.

I love the "Indian head" air filter on this bike! And the zig-zaggedy head covers are just killer!



This bike is slick- check the little details- the gear shift knob, and the little triangular emblem on the later strap on the tank. I took a could shot of this hoping to capture s one of the pin striping but alas, it is just barely visible beneath al the shoe & reflection.





tons of super nice bikes on hand here...
with more original, period goo-gaws and doo-dads per square meter than you're ever likely to see anywhere else!



Matt Walksler was there with a handful interesting Wheels Through Time bikes...



There was a knucklehead every few feet- and by that I refer to bikes on hand and NOT the crowd and NOT my friends!



but it wasn't all run-of-the-mill, plan jane Panheads & Knuckleheads and Indian Chiefs








That's about it for now kids. I gotta go back through all my pix again, I did cull some out but there must be more keepers in the lot. Meanwhile you canalways check the link to the Zenfolio folder because I'll be adding stuff asI pull pix out of the files.

Cheers!

Stunning Tom bro dude, just simply stunning my man....

Tom I sent you some thoughts/info about printing and I'm not sure it went as I was enjoying some computer/forum confusion. Let me know if you got it and if not I'll send it again.

Cheers, Wilf

Wilf, yes, it came through. Just responded, actually. Thanks so much.

Great photos Tom !!.... Really sorry I missed Oley this year again... Work always getting in the way .....