Thursday, December 26, 2013

Cemetery Circuit Wanganui


Some of my friends went to Wanganui's legendary 'Cemetery Circuit' street racing today and saw Guy Martin ride. I stayed home and watched this instead.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Xmas was coming...


The Queen's Xmas message televised around the Commonwealth lastnight was all about 'reflection' and so here you go, a little bit of a reflection – The Grand Saloon playing at the launch of our first issue a couple of years ago now (shot by Stuart on his iPhone). This was a January launch, as was issue #2... Issue #3 is gonna be a little later! But it is gonna be fucking awesome... of course. We have a bunch of great content lined up, the Moon Duo flexi is ready for production, and we're aiming at late February at this stage. Unfortunately REAL life, ie. work, got in the way in Nov and Dec, but looking like I have some much needed psychic space over Jan and Feb... maybe I'll even get a decent ride in!?

Meanwhile I did manage to get away camping with Nadz and Pedro last week. Pedro's 18 very soon and our vet just today confirmed he's the oldest dog of her veterinary career... each year we think we'll take him camping and give him a great holiday cause it'll probably be his last, but he just keeps going... and going and going and going. If he's still here next year I really will eat my hat.






Saturday, December 14, 2013

True Widow


Been listening to this band a bunch lately and just bought everything I could find online by them lastnight for our road trip this week. Really loving their simple 3-piece sound but with some quite far out chord changes going on. My new band, The Hex Waves, played our first gig on Friday night and it was really great to be playing some slower, more gloomy and melodic shit for a change (sorry boys!). Still up for wild b grade rock 'n' roll action with Shakin Evil and Motorcamp (if Tim ever comes home!?), but this is sure suitin' my mood at the mo...

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Auckland Star 1960 (Hells Angels Auckland)


I've been stupidly busy lately and also we haven't had the internet on at our new house for the last month, but I'm hoping to get back to some sort of normality soon? I haven't even been riding much, which pretty much makes me feel like life ain't worth living! Anyway while I haven't been posting much here, I have been collecting various bits and pieces that I do want to put on here...

Since beginning this blog a bit over three years ago now one of the things I've become more and more interested in is the history of motorcycling culture in New Zealand, and of course (because it's played such a large role in that here) the evolution of the club/gang scene. I read Jarrod Gilbert's recent book 'Patched' earlier this year and that provides a fascinating account of the early years of the MC scene in NZ, and then the evolution into the more recognizable 'gangs' of the late 70s, 80s, and 90s

Accuracy aside this is an interesting article, largely because it is very different to most other reporting around these clubs at the time (especially internationally). That the reporter has actually visited and talked to the club stands out, as does his framing them in a very positive light – "... a force for good among lads who might otherwise drift into hooliganism and delinquency."
The article is from The Auckland Star, 1960... I can't actually remember where I found this article but it's been sitting here on my hard drive for a while now.





Thursday, November 21, 2013

BMW onboard gyro cam!


Some sweet onboard footage of Didier Grams on a BMW S 1000RR at Macau. (Cheers Tim for this one.)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The 'Maori' motorcycle


tdn bike full

"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...

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Smash Palace First Annual Bike Show


Had an amazing time at the Smash Palace Bike show on Saturday, so many great bikes, and an awesome bunch of people too. The weather was total bullshit on the Friday night and so I was very happy to wake up on Saturday to clear blue skies. I headed in early to lend a hand, although I mostly ended up drinking coffee and fucking about chatting with people about their bikes as they arrived.

Was really great to see Tom McCleary's Norton in the flesh finally (that's Tom 3rd and 4th photos from the bottom here), Greg Leaman's bike gives me a total hard-on every time, and PZ (aka Jimmy Hazard, aka James Meharry) unveiled his speed twin project that he's been documenting in HFoS (photos 13 and 14 from top). Another stand-out bike for me was Simon Lawrence's home built electric bike (15 and 16 from top). I had a ride on this later in the day and this little sucker is WILD! Hoping Simon might do something about it for the next issue?

Following the show at the Pallet Pavilion we all packed up and headed to Smash Palace for the award announcements and some beer! I can't remember exactly who won what but I know PZ's bike won Best Bodgie, Paddy won something (Yank Tank?), Darryl's killer Harley chopper won something, a guy from Wellington won a couple of things (he'd ridden down, so well deserved), a Triton I think took out Best of British... that's about all I can remember. Greg Leaman and Tom McCleary shoulda' gone home with a trophy if you ask me, but that's how the chips fall eh.

The rest of the night was a total blur... stayed at Smash for ages, then rolled to some bar in town I've never been too and have no idea where it was? We then all took a bunch of taxis out to Ilam (via bottle store) and suprised the McCleary boys who were having a few quiet drinks... a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of tequila, and many beers later we ended up crashing a student party, watched it get closed down by the cops, and ended up walking all the way home!