Fragments 2

This has been sitting here for a while 'cause I've been wanting to write something decent about it, but I thought I better photograph it and give it back to Jimi, who got it from Trademe recently.

What it is is a photography/poetry magazine published in Christchurch in the late 60s or early 70s I'm guessing, there's no date on it. At the back it says "Published by Fragments and printed by Designprint Press Limited, Christchurch", and that's it for info really.

Jimi's dad may know one of the photographers involved and I was kinda keen to see if I could talk with him about it.

Initially I thought it was a bike mag when Jimi told me about it, but yeah it's not, it's just this issue – issue #2. The first half of the issue is this "photographic essay" of what appears to all be the same MC. Mostly patches aren't shown but there's an Epitaph Rider in there on the fold out poster that comes with it. I presume they're all Christchurch based?

It'd be cool to know more about this as the design and printing are noteworthy for it's time too. I have to admit I'm not as interested in the poetry part (which I haven't reproduced here), but it is interesting that someone wanted to put all this stuff together? I've been reading the new book on gangs here, 'Patched', and in it the author talks about the relationship between the early MCs here and the hippy counter-culture movement. I wonder if this is an example of that kind of cross-over? It'd be good to get a date on this sucker!?

More Thruxton mods coming up...

I finally have a bunch of new shit to put on the Thruxton. Got some shorty Emgo mufflers off Pete (that I think are off Sarah's bike originally?). They're straight through and Pete said they're fucking loud – sounds like what I'm after! They're the same as on Tim's bonnie and it sounds pretty sweet, so yeah keen to see what they sound like on a new Triumph? I'm also pleased that they're quite a bit shorter than the ones I have on there now, and I really wanna see if I can get them on quite an angle too.

Apart from the mufflers the other shit is all front end stuff. New speedo and tacho that I'm going to mount flat and low. And then, importantly cause the old one sticks up like an unwanted erection, a new direct mount front brake reservoir from British Customs... so that'll get that lower as well. I also have this old Lucas headlight with grill that I wanna mount somehow. Might just modify the grill to fit the existing headlight? I'll see. Gonna have to make some new brackets for the dials, and so also thinking about making some for the headlight too and maybe lowering it a bit. Also thinking about changing the bars too – clip ons, lower! Maybe? Really wanna ditch the switchgear and replace that too...

Hoping to get started on this asap now that the Norton seems to be a runner (touch fucking wood).

Akaroa ride

Had a wild ride to Akaroa yesterday. I got up early and did a bit of work on the Norton cause I've been riding it to work everyday for the last couple of weeks and wanted to have a bit of a look inside and see what was going on. Got all that done just in time to get down to the main rd in Lyttelton and meet up with Chris, Bad Evil, Aaron and Jesus. Chris had also invited Mad Dog and his mate (who's name I don't remember sorry!?). There was quite a collection of mismatched bikes which was awesome, from the lil' 150s, the CB350s, a GB500, Mad Dog's wild Suzuki cafe racer, and my Norton. We had a real good hustle to the Hill Top Tavern and then down to Akaroa, with Mad Dog providing one fairly exciting moment going down the hill into Akaroa Harbour. He did an amazing job keeping it right way up! We also noticed that Aaron's bike was about to lose a rear shock absorber at the hilltop, which he managed to keep in place with a few good kicks now and then.

My Norton didn't miss a beat for once and seems to be running fairly oil-tight too. There's a few little bits an pieces I need to attend to, but I'm definitely thinking pretty seriously now about taking on our Nth Island run in April? Fingers crossed. This ride was the hardest/fastest run I've done on it since the primary and gearbox rebuild.

Had a couple of beers at Akaroa and watched Aaron perform a temporary fix on that shock which was coming off of it's bottom attachment. Luckily I'd bought some tools and the general store there had some washers the right size to hold it on for the ride home.

Approaching the hill-top on the way back, and doing my best to keep up with Mad Dog and co who were really flying up the hill, I saw Jimi come past the other way on his Trident. I pulled over to wait for him and as Jesus came round onto the gravel behind me he dropped his CB360 cause of a little too much front brake. He was ok apart from a good burn on the leg and I'm pretty sure the bike was good apart from a busted indicator? By the time we were ready to head away again the little bikes had caught up and we all fucked off down the hill to meet the others waiting now in Little River.

From there we all sorta split up and a few of us went back to Lyttelton for a beer at Tommy Changs (a bar I have to say I'm developing a bit of a soft spot for!). Was a great day and a great ride. Good to get out with some new dudes on different bikes too. Mostly though I was just stoked that my Norton went so well – still buzzing off of it today!

Born Too Late

Had booked flights ages ago to go to Auckland last weekend... was originally going for a gig on Friday – Moon Duo at the Kings Arms – but then had a couple of students having a show/publication launch up there on Saturday too, so had decided to stay for the whole weekend. Obviously I was pretty bloody stoked to find out that the Born Too Late chopper show was gonna be on on the Saturday as well!

Sid wrote an article on the first BTL show for the first issue of Head Full of Snakes, and I'd been keen to get up there to one ever since. This was their 3rd show, and it seems like it's getting bigger each time. I was really impressed at the number of bikes that showed up, and the quality and ambition exhibited by the various builds. To top it off I got to meet up with some old friends there AND there were some awesome bands too. I don't know the name of the first band sorry (let me know if you do?), but next up were the infamous Slavetrader who I haven't seen play in ages. They were great, I always have really dug Matt Alien's bands going right back to Human from Christchurch in the mid 90s (they weren't as good when he left).

Generally I can't stand Auckland, but Born Too Late provided good evidence for me that it's not all late model European cars, fake tan and boob jobs.