CarbonArt Motorcycle Lifestyles

now I've said this before, but you will just have to bear with me, this post is a little larger than normal, that's because I went to a new event this weekend on the New Zealand motorcycle calender called the 'Polished Rockers', and it was bloody brilliant. It never ceases to amaze me the depth and variety of motorcycles that we have tucked away in garages here in NZ. Honestly there were some bikes there that were gob smackingly beautiful to down right rare. Ugly old shitters and even a couple of bikes I have never heard of!!!!! I mean who the fuck makes a Jupiter ( I think that was what it was called, I could hardly read the tank badge it was Russian or communist or something). But what got me about the event was the way motorcycles tends to bring out the best in people, there were people there yesterday that you would not normally look sideways at, but here they all were rubbing shoulders, and talking about the thing that binds us all together, Motorcycles!!

So here's this weeks lot of images, I hope you enjoy.

More discussions on adventure riding versus trail riding versus long road rides. In my book they are all adventures, but this little $27K KTM seems to have it all covered. Lightweight, 4 stroke, good fuel range, good in the sand and on the tar seal, it looks right nice.

One of the best selfies I've ever seen

Aussie made V8 by Drysdale, two 400 Yamaha's mated together

Skinny is skinny

The Vincent, this is where 'superbikes' began

She cracks me up

Right Nice Vanson have always made quality gear

The delightful Kat Von D

Burt Munroe about to break the world record

Har Har Har how many of us had quilted leather motocross pants?

This was the moment that changed Drag racing forever, the clutch let go and the rule changes from this moment forward completely changed the sport.

great shot, I'll bet he pulled the babes ( literally)

Had one of these, it was manic then, but I'll bet as slow as an old nail now.

1930's Japanese tattoos

Some people only have 1 900 Kawasaki, this guy has three in one bike

GSXR750 in a scooter

here's the aftermath of that clutch explosion

Japan's 'Over' bike specialist has made some pretty special bikes over the years

Serious hours on the table

What a great shot

Who didn't do this to their bike

This is without doubt one of the best bikes ever made, solid, fast, reliable, good handling, it has it all. I've had three of these and they have never disappointed me. Infact, having a look at this picture has made me think bike No.100? Possibly or Probably

The captain of the QE2 decided to have a different photo of him taken with his 'baby', here is the result

Always liked this image, great colour

Burt again, this is quite a famous image of him.

Iron sculpture, aren't these great

The fore runner to the Honda PC 800

Cool Citroen

Tidy and neat, like the design going on here

These next images are from the Polished Rockers, excuse the quality please, they were taken on my little camera

Damo and SJ hanging at the polished Rockers

This bike is undoubtedly where the entire cafe racer scene started from, BSA, it had it all, and today you can see the styling and design influences is every cafe racer that graces our street.

This is the only one in the country, it's called new blue after a Ducati called old blue which ran in the states many years ago and won more races that it should have. A guy called Phil Schilling raced it and as a mark of respect to those victories a company called NCR who is closely associated with Ducati got permission to build these. So they are pretty special and yours for somewhere on the thick side of $70 odd K.

Bruce and SJ hanging

There were plenty of Moto Guzzi's around too.

An old Paris to Dakar BMW, pretty cool bike

Some of the huge crowd, at the Tuatara brewery for a day of sun and bikes. Michael if you are reading this and I know you will, it needs more rocker chicks next year.

A couple of nice Ducatis sitting out on the road. the one on the right was the one I thought I was buying a few months back, pity it looks real good

This bike was a bit OTT for me, apparently he only brings it out for shows and as such does not rate that highly with me

This guy ( don't know how he gets his helmet on), was a real nice guy. Rides a Guzzi and is living the punk lifestyle.

That's me in her glasses hahaha

Now this speedo has been changed from MPH to KPH, it used to say 150MPH, which is not to bad for a bike that was built in the late 40's and early 50's.

this was the bike of the show for me, tasty little 'bobber' from CHCH

An AGO MV Augusta, not to many of these around, hard nose and focused

This was Suzuki's shot at building a Rotary Engined bike, it was not their best seller

Now this bike was like new, and it's folklore is that it killed an awful lot of people due to it's extreme engine, and it's hinged middle poor handling, but they are lovely

A Rickman Mattise, this was one of the bikes that I did not think we had any in the country, still made today, but only by hand, and are worth a bundle, really nice to see an original , and signed by Rickman himself