Some time ago I found a company on the Internet that makes models of motorbikes. Not just any motorbikes, but your motorbike!
I sent off some photos of my custom bike and a few weeks later I received in the post the model they had made. This is metal and took around 60 hours to sculpt and it is 9 inches (230mm) long. The model is a very accurate model of my bike and I was impressed with the results. I am pleased to recommend what they do.
The model was made by Tom "Hawkeye" Sarko who is the designer/sculptor/builder of the bikes. Tom has ridden Harleys for over 40 years and now owns a beautiful 1959 Panhead. Tom is retired and used to work as a Weld Technician at General Motors. He has been making these models for about 10 years and has been sculpting overall for around 30-35 years. Tom makes around 30 to 40 models a year from his home workshop and each bike can take anywhere from 36-60 hours (sometimes longer) to individually sculpt/build depending on the intricate nature of each bike.
Hawkeye Metal Works are based in Michigan and like mine was, the models can be shipped internationally.
You can find their website by clicking on this link Hawkeye Metal Works David Tyler handles the customer service and website and he will be pleased to assist with any questions.
It is now just 3 months to go to the start of my tour. Preparations are on track, with only minor things to do now. I need to arrange temporary insurance and buy some summer bike boots that are good for both riding and walking in.
In preparation for the tour, my wife heard my hints and for Christmas bought a Garmin SatNav system for me. The really good thing about this system is that you can enter your proposed route into some computer software called MapSource and then transfer it to your Garmin unit.
This provides a tremendous advantage over the TomTom systems which require that you enter the route directly into the TomTom unit, which is fine if you have one or two destinations to go to, but pretty useless if you have a long trip to do that you want to enter.
Since Christmas, I have diligently been sitting at the laptop, putting my intended route into MapSource and yesterday, I finished this. I am now able to give a better prediction of the distance I am likely to travel which now stands at just over 15,000 miles.
Here are the 23 States that I will get to..... Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Idaho Illinois Indiana Massachusetts Maine Minnesota Nebraska New Hampshire New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Dakota Utah Vermont Wisconsin Wyoming
Plus, I will be very briefly riding into Canada.
In case you were wondering, the image is 15,000 in sign language.
In an earlier post I discussed the difficulties of mounting a GoPro camera to the handlebars of a motorbike using the standard GoPro mounts. The difficulty is caused because the GoPro mounts are not adjustable – they only work at 90 degrees to the handlebars. This is fine if your bars are straight and not swept back at all.
What is needed is something like this – a mount that is fully adjustable. In my earlier post I said I would raise this with GoPro and keep you updated. It’s now time for an update.
I have been corresponding with GoPro about this issue and the current need to buy 3rd party vendors mounts to overcome the problem. After some difficulty in getting them to understand the problem, they then said their developers are considering a balljoint type accessory for their products. If they do this and create such a mount, this will be good news for future buyers of the cameras. I imagine this might take some time to design, test, manufacture and bring to market, so in the meantime it looks like RAM mounts are the answer.
On the recommendation of a fellow blogger and keen biker, Ian Solley of & Ages Custom Motorcycles, I contacted a guy called Nigel of the Clean Bike Clinic, to discuss having him do a deep clean of my bikes.
Yesterday, Nigel arrived at my house and spent the day cleaning my red bike and I have to say, he did a fantastic job.
Now, I am a person that wants to keep my bikes clean. Dirt on my bikes is just not on the agenda, so when Nigel arrived yesterday almost the first words he spoke after seeing my bike were “Exactly what part of your bike do you think needs to be cleaned?” Meaning it is almost spotless already, but I was on a mission....
I have had my red bike for two and a half years and if you own a bike, you will know that after about that amount of time, it begins to fade and lose its sparkle. Mine was beginning to lose it. Like many who believe in riding their custom bikes to the full, I have put a lot of miles on mine and it was just starting to show. The paint was not a shiny as it once was and the aluminium forks definitely needed some TLC. Hence my call to Nigel – I needed somebody to do what I could not – bring it back to its original pristine condition.
Well, he did that, and some.
Nigel worked on the bike all day. It takes that long. The results are well worth it. The sparkle returned.
If your bike needs to be brought back to its sparkle, contact Nigel through his website. He is based near Gatwick Airport in the South East of England.
Here are some photos of Nigel at work and of the finished sparkle....
I took part in the Afghan Heroes bike ride through Wootton Bassett.
I was one out of 15,000 people on 10,000 motorbikes to show our support for the British Soldiers who have given their lives fighting in Afghanistan and to also say thank you to the people of Wootton Bassett.
Click on the picture below for an amazing view of riders and the crowds!
I left home early on a cold crisp Mother’s Day morning. Some things are just impossible....being 07:45 on a Sunday morning, I tried to start my Harley-Davidson as quietly as I could. I live in a sleepy village and I hit the starter button softly, but it did no good. The engine roared into life and the noise no doubt entered my neighbour’s bedrooms! I started my ride as quietly as I could....
Soon the open road beckoned and I had 120 miles to ride to get there. I was meeting Clive and Janice about 30 miles into the journey and there they were, just where they said they would be, on time. I first met them on an organised ride we took along with about 20 others to Faaker See in Austria. 2 years ago, riding over the Alps with them was cold at the time and it was cold yesterday morning as well.
Soon we headed out together and after an hour or so of riding, we needed sustenance – Clive soon found a cafe and we ate a hearty breakfast to prepare us for the remainder of the ride. Martin and Christine joined us on their Harley at the cafe. We left, suitably replenished for the remainder of our journey.
As we got nearer, we could tell that the event was going to be large. More and more bikes shared the roads with us and soon we arrived at Hullavington Airfield, a Ministry of Defence facility previously used by the Royal Air Force. The airfield was being used as the gathering point for the riders taking part in the ride. The organisers needed to find somewhere large enough locally that could take 10,000 motorbikes and the airfield was ideal. Luckily, the weather was good all day, so the impossible task of finding shelter from the rain at a vast open area was not necessary.
The video clip below starts with us arriving at Hullavington Airfield and finishes just before the ride got to Wootton Bassett. Even before we arrived at Wootton Bassett, the event was taking on a special meaning. The route from the airfield to the town goes through a rural area with mainly fields and trees to be seen. The route also passed through a number of small villages and many locals stood by the side of the road, waved at the riders, cheered and clapped.
One lady in particular stood out for me. She was very elderly and in a wheelchair. Next to her was a nurse and it looked like they had come out from a nursing home to wave to the riders. The old lady had a huge smile on her face as she waved a small flag. The fact that she had come out to wave us through showed the spirit of the day – very patriotic and dare I say, quite moving. I might try to work the name of the nursing home and write to her to say thank you.
Wootton Bassett is becoming well known in the UK. Soldiers that are killed in Afghanistan are flown back to the UK in military aircraft that land at the nearby RAF Lyneham. The route they then take to the coroner’s office passes through Wootton Bassett and the people that live and work in this small rural town stop what they are doing to line the streets to pay their personal respects to the soldiers as they pass. The town has become the unofficial centre of public mourning for the soldiers. As such the town has rightly been taken into the hearts of many in the UK, with news footage being regularly shown of soldiers’ funeral cortèges, their mourning families and the people of Wootton Bassett standing to honour the fallen servicemen and women.
Three months ago, eighteen year old Elizabeth Stevens had the idea of a small bike ride on Mother’s Day and posted something on Facebook about it. She let 15 friends know and the idea gained momentum. Soon it became a huge event and the police, the local council and the MOD helped in its organisation. Elizabeth remained involved throughout and yesterday rode on the back of her partners Harley-Davidson Sportster.
Riding through the town itself was a treat. I didn’t know what the reaction to 10,000 bikes riding through a small town would be. After all, it was Mother’s Day and people would no doubt be inconvenienced by the inevitable traffic increase. I was very surprised.
We were there to ride our bikes to show support for the soldiers and to say thanks to the people of the town. The people of Wootton Bassett were there in hundreds to say thanks to us! The main street through the town was lined with people, waving, cheering and clapping us. They had placards thanking us for being there.
What a great day.
The video below is far better than the one I shot of riding through the town itself, as it shows the event from the public perspective. I would much rather that you watched that.
To the people of Wootton Bassett, thank you. Most of all, to our fallen soldiers, our gratitude can never be expressed well enough for what you have given. Rest in peace.
Last week one of my son's and I rigged up a way of fixing my newly purchased GoPro camera to my red bike. Tomorrow, on the UK Mothers Day, I am taking part in a ride to honour British Soldiers and I want to take some video of the 10,000 motorbikes that have registered and are expected to attend.
My son and I created something that would work, but if I am honest, I didn’t entirely trust to be strong enough, so I decided to buy some RAM Mounts. Using some of bobscoots guidance, I contacted GPS City in Las Vegas and ordered some parts from there as I knew you couldn’t get RAM Mounts in the UK. I was hoping that these would arrive in time and sure enough, as I had paid $74 extra to get these shipped by priority air service, they arrived on Friday morning.
As usual, packages with gadgets in usually don’t take long to be opened in this household and just a few minutes later, I was looking at the four parts I had ordered.
I had selected two different sizes of U-Bolt fixing, so that these could be fixed to either the handlebars or the second were ordered specifically for my Road King, the crash bars. I have already fixed one of these to the red bike....
I had also ordered a short RAM Arm in chrome.
And finally I had ordered a small Camera Mount Mini Plate that connects the camera to the RAM Arm.... WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT IS THIS????....
How DUMB is that? This is not a Camera Mount Mini Plate – either I ordered the wrong thing, or GPS City sent the wrong part. I checked the delivery note. I had ordered the correct part, but they had sent something completely different. Argh!! This being Friday, there was no time left to get the correct part shipped from Vegas in time for the ride on Sunday.
My wife suggested I should look for something else in the UK, but I knew it was useless. These parts are not sold in the UK, but I decided to try anyway. Sitting down in front of my laptop I started to search and what did I find within about 30 seconds – a supplier of Ram Mounts just 10 miles away from where I live!!! I know I should have listened to my wife! If GPS City were dumb for sending the wrong part, I was even DUMBER for paying a small fortune to get something delivered all that way when I could get it just down the road.
I gave Buybits a call and they were terrific, helping me select a part that would work (they didn’t have the exact part that I wanted) and it arrived in the mail at 9am the next day - on Saturday morning. Here is the camera base that was delivered....
Here is the completed set up ready for my ride tomorrow....
I hope it works tomorrow and in the next few days I will hopefully post some video of the event.
Even though the set-up is ready for tomorrow, I still feel dumber.
