Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet Enjoying the Nice Weather of Late

Which of course, as of last night, has come to an abrupt end.


But the chance for a ride was there and last week on a day off, @daveminer & I got out on our Sweet 66's- me on my amazing BSA Thunderbolt & he on his super nice Trophy.



We took to the lanes, I had had a vison of riding many miles - which, I always tend to "dream big"
But Dave, being the sensible one talked me down and so we had a very nice local ride, sticking to the tiniest lanes & roads I know out in the Great Cumberland Valley.



I'm breaking in a new-to-me camera too, so had fun shooting some pix... I've taken it pretty much everywhere since getting it 7 days ago. In a "return to digital", I've purchased a very nice Fuji X Pro 2, with 2 amazing lenses.





One thing led to another and we took a ride up a tiny mountain lane to a large masion once owned by alocal family, the Maslands, who were carpet manufactures back in the day. They donated a ton of land to the state, along with their old mansion. The state (of Pennsylvania) has made good use of it; there are hiking trails all over the mountain and the manision is now an envirenmental education center! It's King's Gap and really is lovely, worth a stop if you're ever up in the neighborhood!





There are excellent, expansive views of the Valley below- alas, it was a hazy day so not crystal clear- but you can get the gist well enough I think?



The X Pro 2 does a great job, Fuji is well regarded for their quality cameras & lenses...





By now it was mid day, but my "body clock" was WAY off as always... we'd thought we would hit a new-ish sandwich shop back in Carlisle but I hadnt eaten at all- so I suggested we pop into the old King's Gap Country Store, right at the bottom of the mountain, for a snack prior to getting itno Carlisle for a proper lunch.... As it happened it was like 130 or something so lunch became a "thing" in that moment! The King's Gap Generalstore haas been there for decades and in the past coule years hasnew owners who are taking it to heart. It's a really great stop, lots of character here! And I mean that in a good way.









Taliking to the owner, she told me that everything inside the store- all the coolers and kitchen stuff, the fryer, grill etc- is OLD. She was laughing about her trials and tribulations in keepng all of it running and/or figuroing out how to make repairs.

SO far, we'd ridden out one side of the valley, mostly along the Yellow Breeches creek, going in a westerly direction, almost up to its very headwaters. Now tho, we cut a line that took us pretty much all the way across the Valley and came back east along the Conodoguinet Creek.



An old friend of mine who was an environmental lawyer prior to his untimely demise, once noted that the Conodoguinet was "the workhorse" of Cumberland Valley, while the Yellow Breeches, famous as a trout stream, quietly collects all the accolades. But the Conodoguinet has many dams and mills, waterworks, and other public utilities facilites along its considerbly zig-zaggedy length as it winds down thru the valley before spilling out into the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg on the eastern edge of Cumberland County.

But we had a fantastic day out for sure, I mean for November the weather could not have been nicer! We popped back by Dave's place as he invited me up for a beer- which who am I to refuse a friend's hospitality? SO we hung out in his garage while he tinkered about with the bike, shooting the breeze and me snapping a couple last pix of the day.



I am SUPER impressed with the Thunderbolt. It's a fabulous machine, runs like a clock and rides like you're literally floating on a cloud. The bike just flows. Not sure I've ever ridden a bike that felt any better, honestly if asked, I might be inclined to label it "bast ever"!

[img]https://ricochetridersmotomojo.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p1191572372-4.jpg[/img]

The new camera doesnt suck either, pretty impressive in its own right. I might get to liking it!

If you feel like it, have a look at my ZENFOLIO GALLERY OF FIRST PIX with the Fuji X Pro 2, to see what I've been shooting. I've taken the camera darn nrear everywehere I've gone this past week and if I may say so, it's doing reasonably well so far!

Cheers, be well everybody!

Tom.......fab pics and looks like a day that dreams are made of i love my 68 A65 single carb bitsa too it just buzzes down the road happy as a lark at around 50mph

What a great pair of bikes to be hitting the Indian Summer roads on in Pennsylvania. I'm glad the BSA is serving as a magic carpet.... they can do that when built and treated well. And don't lose that camera!

Lannis

Thanks for taking us along Tom. Looks like it was a grand day out.

Lovely ride and pics. Fuji makes a nice camera, I've got an X100 - I get so many compliments on the looks of the camera - and it takes amazing photos.

By the way, Lannis, regarding your tag line - the WalMart up the street from me appears to have given up. The last three times I was in, they hadn't bothered to stock shelves, they simply placed the pallets in the aisles. And not even in the correct aisles.

It's interesting. The only WalMart I was ever in was back in 2006. We were riding our BSAs from central PA to Brimfield MA for the USA BSA International Rally - Marty Sabba was Hosting it for the BSAOC-New England that year, so a bunch of us met in Hollidaysburg PA and started riding up.

US6 was part of our route, and I told everyone that we'd be bound to find mom-and-pop motels on the way to stay in. As we rode along, all of the motels and hotels had "No Vacancy" signs up. Turns out that there was a NASCAR race at Watkins Glen that weekend, and every room for 100 miles in every direction from there was booked, so we had to keep riding. We had Ben Strain with us in his F-150 pulling a Coleman pop-up trailer, so about dark we pulled into a WalMart parking lot and laagered up (that's not the beer, it's a Boer term). Ben slept in the truck cab - the other 6 of us piled into the camper and spooned in companionably together and I actually got a good night's sleep. About dawn I awoke, wormed my way out of the trailer, went into to the store with toothbrush and soap, got cleaned up, and bought a zipper hooded sweatshirt to warm up.

The local store has turned into a bum hangout and center for grab-and-run thieves; they never even chase them ....

We had a great time that year ..... !!

Lannis

Lannis,
I understand Walmart has a special this week-free turkeys for anyone who can outrun security!

Ed from NJ

Magic carpet is fitting, Lannis. That old bike is indeed a good 'un.

After shooting film in old cameras, exclusively, for a few years, I was on a loose hunt for a newer digital camera, BUT wanted one that I can shoot manually with ease. Modern cameras are so complicated its crazy. My ideal camera would have only the necessary functions, ISO shutter speed and aperture. Seems the simpler they are the more costly (hello Leica) they become. So in the end for me it bacame something of a compromise, as I had been almost thinking of a Leica Q2. A used Fuji of course is a fraction of the cost of that, or of any Leica. One "problem" with Fuji is they make so many diffeerent cameras. The X Pro 2 does have the look of an old 35mm rangefinder, and I saw somebody shooting a beat up X Pro 1, and thought, maybe I'd try it out. After some mild research, I ended up with the 2nd generation "2" over teh "1", which among other things, is weather sealed- fitting for me b/c almost all of what I shoot is outdoors. So far this X Pro 2 is easy to live with, and there's no arguing about the quality of the images. Although nothing about anything I've shot so far is really distinguishable from photos taken with almost any other modern digital camera. I guess one object would be to implement my own style in film photography into working digitally. But in a couple moments, I've found myself creating shots that feel like I coulda maybe taken them with my film camera. With those photos, I felt like I was on the verge of really connecting. It's certainly good for now. This camera is actually super easy to use, which makes it very likable. I plan to get an adapter so I can use my old East German Carl Zeiss lenses on it, and hopefully I'll get to a point where my photos have their own look. My film cameras give me that- I can pretty much look at any of my photos and tell you what camera was used, sometimes which lens too. But the"look" also comes more from the style of shooting, something I feel like I'm getting there with.

It's easy to get swept into thinking that this camera or that malkes one a "serious" photographer. These days, as I'm sure pretty much everybody knows, there's a lot more to it than simply composition and settings- for most people, quite a lot happens in"post processing"- something I know virtually nothing about! At this point, much of what I could stand to learn (about 21st century photography) is more academic. I hope to take some classes to learn about post processing and I would also love to develop and print my own film.

For me, photography is an ongoing journey, and the X Pro 2 is definitely one stop along the way. Will I eventually "spend up" to a Leica? Time will tell, I guess. Do I want my photgraphy to be as good as it can be, absolutely and without question or compromise? You betcha. In the end, the camera is "just" a tool. Good equipment is always helpful for sure but folks are doing amazing work with pretty much anything one can imagine. It's my opinion that great photographs come from from the heart; so there's gotta be a direct connection between the tool & the heart.

ricochet...... I enjoy your adventures. Recently, I've been shooting my 1940's Zeiss 120 box camera. No problem with film as it is the same as the Hasselblad and, of course, with only 8 frames per roll keeps me being selective..... Although it's a box camera, it does have one or two deluxe features. While it only has one shutter speed it has "T" for time exposures, three f stops, three zones of focus, a cable release receptacle, tripod socket and vertical and horizontal viewfinders. One day in the summer we went to a British car event and, as most of the cars were from the 50's and 60's, it seemed only reasonable to use a camera that the cars and older owners would be comfortable with even though I had to explain that attitude to one or two observers. Photos were good even though the lens is not a sophisticated one but has good contrast and the larger format ( 2 1/4 by 3 1/4 inches ) of the neg combine to make quite respectable 8 by 10 prints. The limit of eight frames per roll keeps me on my toes, not unlike when I shot weddings with film and would usually shoot 400 photos and then present the customer with 400 proof prints rather than many of today's photographers who often shoot sometimes thousands of frames and then need to go through all those images to select the " good " ones for the client.

Good to see that you appreciate that you don't need 32 exposure modes to make good photos, just the basic functions and a functioning awareness whether it be film or electronic imaging. After all, we do ride motorcycles that require some understanding and a kickstarter......

Cheers, Wilf

Your reasons are almost exactly why I bought the X100 - The exposure and f-stop controls are exactly like a manual, turn off A to make it manual, turn on A to make it automatic. I bought the X100 because there's not fiddling around with lenses as well. The controls are similar to my Olympus OM-1N. I took this is Geysir, Iceland with the X100.

Hi Wilfred & thanks for popping in. I really enjoy my various (4) film cameras- each is different from the other, but my oldest is a 6x9 folding Voigtlander Bessa from the mid 1930s I do believe. It is by far the most demanding yet makes really nice photos if/when I get it right. I’ve shot mostly color in it so far so I might have to run some Tri-X thru it for a change.

In general tho, shooting old stuff with old cameras just makes sense to me. Im very fortunate to be connected to a community of photographers at The Race Of Gentlemen. We’re all into vintage motor stuff so we see each other around thru a large part of the year. Everyone kinda does something a little different from the other, and I always love seeing how other peoples shots look, what perspectives they’ve found- after all we are all photographing the same things.

Meanwhile I can learn the Fuji and see how deep my connection to it goes.

Cheers!
Tom

Tom......I often wish I still had my Voigtlander Bessa 2 which is a little newer than yours but more or less the same. Mine had a beautiful lens and some of the photos I sell were made with that camera. Unfortunately, at a time when money was needed it went to a collector in Japan. However........

There are quite a few film photographers in this area, especially 68 miles south in Victoria. There's a reason new emulsions are being offered to the film world as it is far from being gone.

Jakejoseph, I wish I could be there.

Carry on, Wilf