Fare-thee-well Lionel 'Duc' Newbery

Last week one of our contributors passed away. A real gem of a man, Lionel Newbery, or 'Duc' as many people called him, contributed fragments and memories of his ride around the world back in the late '70s to issues #2 and #3 of Head Full of Snakes under the title 'Not Safe'. That's Lionel above on his 1974 Moto Guzzi GT850, the bike he rode from London back to NZ. He still had this bike and it was great to see it again, sitting out the back of his house at his funeral/tangi last Thursday. His kids told me that they plan to do the ol' Guzzi up too, in Lionel's memory.

Last Thursday was amazing and seemed a really fitting send off for someone who was so sort of quietly influential in quite a few peoples lives. Lionel had a large and really loving family, and he was also well known to the locals over in Lyttelton where he lived. It was actually seeing Lionel riding his old red Ducati (below) around Lyttelton back in the very early 2000s that made me get back into motorcycles (having since sold my bike after my cousin died on one). I loved the look and sound of Lionel's Ducati, and he'd often be parked up outside No.6, one of the old cafes that was run by Bruce Russell and his wife Kate back then.

Lionel had shown me photos of his old Ducati GT 750 that he'd bought brand new and raced, but I'd never seen it in the flesh. Turns out his brother had it up in Auckland, and so he rode it back down all the way to Lyttelton for the funeral! I think it bought a tear to many people's eyes when Lionel's son (on the red bike) and his brother (on the GT) started up both bikes to lead a procession of motorcycles over to the Diamond Harbour cemetery. Lionel went in the old Citroen you can just see in front of the motorbikes there.

I thought it would be a slow sombre ride around the bays, but no! These two on the Ducatis took off and this would easily be one of the fastest most hair-raising group rides I've been on. A fitting tribute as everyone agreed, 'that's how Lionel would have ridden'.

The ceremony was beautiful with no involvement from any weird outside participants who didn't know Lionel. The family filled the grave with shovels, everyone got real dirty. There were no speeches, but there were a couple of songs. It was really moving and special.

Here's to you Lionel, and long may the Guzzi run.

BIlly Apple Interview

Here's a LINK to an interview I did with Billy Apple, a New Zealand artist, about an exhibition he's put on at the Christchurch Art Gallery. The exhibition features the only Britten V1000 that is still actually raced.

That's me and Billy (above) having a beer upstairs at Smash Palace. (Photo by John Collie)

Oliver Sacks 'On The Move'

Thinking about getting Oliver Sacks memoirs, 'On The Move: A Life' to read on our trip around USA/Baja? The blurb –

"When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: “Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far.” It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction and then in New York, where he discovered a long forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life.

With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions—weightlifting and swimming—also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists — Thom Gunn, A.R. Luria, W.H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick — who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer — and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human."

SuperluzSME

Really wanna interview this guy for the next issue!?

Article here:

The first wrestler in Mexico to become a political figurehead was Superbarrio, who emerged in 1987 to protest against corrupt landlords in the country’s capital. Now masked Mexican activists campaign for a range of social issues, from feminism to gay rights. In Mexico City, SuperluzSME rides through protests on his motorbike, railing against the privatization of the electricity industry...

Electricity comes from other planets

Local lad Simon Lawrence built this far out little electric motorsickle... hopefully there's gonna be something in the next issue about it and the whole 'deal' with electric motorsickles... 

The 'Maori' motorcycle

"In a small North Taranaki coastal village there's a man who is busy recreating the machine behind one of New Zealand's great motorcycling mysteries"

This is an interesting article! Would love to pay this chap a visit on our next Nth Island tour...

Jean Jackets & The Teen Witch

Two things we all love! If you're in Sydney you should go to this for sure. Wilfred was a contributor to HFoS #2 and he obviously knows a thing or two about denim...

From the FB page here:

"Kate Jinx and Wilfred Brandt examine some the more unconventional tropes of Hollywood in this cinematic dissection of adolescence. Wilfred will discuss the history of jean jackets, the birth of the teenager, and the Juvenile Delinquent film and the romanticisation of misspent youth in his ‘JDs in Jean Jackets’ lecture.

A paranormal parallel will be provided by Kate Jinx as she traces the life-cycle of the Teen Witch and teases out its strange comparisons to her own adolescence, in this performance lecture which is part of a greater body of work on the four-corners of cinema."

Max Schaaf

Born-Free 5 Invited Builder Series-Max Schaaf of 4Q Conditioning from Born-Free on Vimeo.

I know this video is fucking everywhere at the moment, but fuck it Max Schaaf is a pretty fucking choice guy and as much as I thought I always hated Harleys I have to admit I'm really digging his bikes.

Watching this Born Free flick made me revisit this interview he did a while back for Slap Magazine (Max is an ex-pro skater), thought I'd stash links to 'em here (I'm not including the middle one though cause it's just about shoes):

Norton Hi Rider petrol tank

 Ordered this Hi Rider tank for the Norton a couple of weeks ago off Ebay and yesterday it ARRIVED! Apart from just being stoked about this tank (and don't worry I'm not turning my bike into a hi rider) I'm really stoked about where the tank came from... Check this shit out:

It came from legendary Norton drag racer T. C. Christenson! Rider of the infamous 'Hogslayer'. Fuck yes! He sent me this signed photo above as well as a copy of this dvd doco...

 

 Haven't watched it yet but will be asap. But yeah the Norton is getting a make over. Also have some really nice rear-sets I got off Kev at bike night. Thinking about bars etc too, and also wanna do something with the rear end... dunno if it'll be anything drastic, but yeah watch this space...

Ornamental Conifer & Corpses From Hell

Finally got in touch with Nicolai Sclater of 'Ornamental Conifer' today. He and Maxwell Paternoster (Corpses From Hell) have been doing some very cool shit lately, and since I'm going to be in London soon I thought I'd see if I could meet up with them and maybe do something for the next issue of Head Full of Snakes. The work they both did recently at El Solitario has been doing the rounds because their hand-painting on the bikes is pretty damn cool... a weird hybrid of cartoon/motorcycle gang/vintage signwriting. Often the work is quite over the top, colourful, and really visually engaging. Hopefully we can make a date while I'm in London and see where things go from there. In the meantime here's some work by Nicolai – I got these from the Ornamental Conifer blog here. You can find some of Max's stuff here and here (Corpses From Hell).

Danny Lyon 'Iron Horse' interview

I found this on the Greasy Kulture blog. An interview with Danny Lyon in an old copy of Iron Horse. I'm a big Danny Lyon fan and there's some interesting stuff in here. The interviewer, David Snow, sounds like an idiot at times, carrying on about things being 'real' or not (actually if you read the post on the Greasy Kulture blog here, you'll see Snow chips in with comments, kinda bagging Danny Lyon actually. Could be truth to it, who knows? You definitely can tell when reading this that they are from two different worlds, and that Snow is looking for something he's not going to get from Lyon. It has a weird air to it. But yeah it's worth a read, there's insights into Lyon's practice here that I haven't found elsewhere, esp in relation to his college days and the Outlaws etc. I printed this and tried to read it. Don't! It's easier to read on screen... I ended up reading it in Photoshop!

Visit to Shed 5 with Pete

What happened to Deus?

Shane Norrie's van

 

This is my friend Shane's van. It's no motorcycle, but it's the next best thing cause you can live in the fuckin' thing! And he does. And has done for years. Well actually he's had a few, this is his latest. I think he still owns another one? His plan was to have one in the North Island and one in the South Island. He has running water, internet, porthole windows, all sorts of shit, and he does it all himself. He knows all kinds of useful shit and will be a good man to know when it all turns to shit. He can be found making cocktails outside parties, or making coffee at the beach, and is an all-round general good cunt. We drove around the coast of Wellington on Sunday until this big southerly rolled in. Watching people running for their cars from the previously sunny and calm weather was a hoot! Good times.

Cold Kiwi 2010

Malcolm and I went to the Cold Kiwi motorcycle rally last weekend. It's on a farm very near the Desert Rd in the North island. It's supposed to be cold. Obviously. It snowed. I actually went for the first time last year with 'the Petes', and the weather was amazing... although actually colder than this year. Too cold to snow maybe? Or just extra cold because of a lack of cloud cover. Anyway it was still cold. Obviously. Sleeping in tents in the snow.