Thoughts On Crashing A Motorcycle During The TT!

I was just reading an article about motorcycle racer William Dunlop, describing his motorcycle crash during test runs at the Isle of Man TT this past summer. William relates the feelings he went through when he lost control of the bike going 180 kmph and hit a stone wall. Fortunately, he was at such an angle that he didn't hit the wall head on and just glanced off and skidded down the road. Not that crashing into the wall couldn't have been deadly enough but Dunlop then found himself laying on his back in the middle of the race course roadway while other bikes ripped past him at high speeds, barely missing him. Fortunately, even after all of that he wasn't seriously injured, also attributable to the top quality leathers he was wearing at the time.
The Isle of Man TT has seen almost 250 deaths in it's long history, mostly due to the fact that the 'Mountain Course' has over 200 bends, runs through small villages and towns, is lined with stone walls and hedges, and large crowds of people stand along the side of the road to watch, not to mention top speed of 320 kmph. Dunlop isn't the first in his family to have crashed at the TT and, tragically, both his father, Robert, and uncle, Joey, were killed while racing on the course.
Perhaps that's why I found it so interesting to read William's statement about his thoughts after skidding to a halt on the roadway, and I quote, " I wanted to hurry up and get to the hospital to see a doctor because there were so many thoughts in my head. But I'm scared of flying, so being in the helicopter wasn't nice".
Scared of flying? Knowing the dangers of the course, with the high speeds factor, and that two of his nearest and dearest family members were killed in a race like this, and he says he's 'scared of flying'. It struck me as being a little funny and I did laugh but it also made me think about William's attitude toward motorcycle racing and it certainly tells you just how much it's in the Dunlop blood.
If you want to get a sense of what the TT race is all about, copy and paste the link below into your browser and watch the video, but don't blink as the bikes go past or you'll miss the action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtZlm9Lp7q4

William Dunlop #6

You can see some of the hazards on the roadway race course

Torch Motorcycles Handbuilt Exhibition: First Visit

I stopped in to 'Torch Motorcycles', at 906 Centre Street North in Calgary, to see a portion of this week's 'Handbuilt Exhibition', which started on the 17th. and runs through to the 27th. Lots of variety here, with handbuilt bikes, miniature watch part motorcycles, talks by vintage bike owners, riders and racers, and a whole lot of people who love motorcycles! Torch also does a lot of work toward making a better motorcycle, and motorcycle community, for women, as well as development of wearable technology and other aspects of the safety features this can provide to riders. Stop in and see what they're doing, even if you don't ride.

A good crowd for the Monday night session

I really like this custom Triumph built Kenny Kwan 

Lucid Kustoms had several bikes on display, including this Yamaha

Lucid Kustoms 1942 Jawa

Torch Motorcycles brainiac, Patti Derbyshire, was hard at work!

In the Mini-Motorcycle room!

Torch is all about making "motorcycles work for women"

Torch has done both a full body and a hand 3-D scan, as well as numerous other tests relating to women.

Leather artist and fashion designer, Kat Marks, has been collaborating with the Torch crew.

Part of the 'Watch Parts Miniature Motorcycle' display by artist Dan Tanenbaum

Some great details on this chopper but my photo doesn't quite do it justice.

A nice view of the Calgary Tower as I rode down Centre Street on my way home.

Epic Sidecar Journey

I recently did a post titled 'Freedon At Both Ends Of The Leash', all about Ara and Spirit on their epic motorcycle and side car adventure. Here's another interesting adventure of a similar nature, only this one took place many, many years ago, in Canada, when there were no real roads connecting the country and older technology meant a rougher ride and far less communication amongst other things.
Englishman J. Graham Oates was on a stop over in Canada while returning to his home on the Isle Of Man, after 4 years in Bolivia overseeing a mining operation. Apparently a scheme to cross Canada was hatched during a heavy drinking bout with Oates and Charles Bowne, his former World War One Cavalry mate. Browne was the nephew of Lord Wakefield, the owner of Castrol Oils, who were having a difficult time breaking into the Canadian market and wanted to sponsor some sort of event.  Oates had already been involved in several adventures, including some road and boat races and The International Six Days Enduro, as well as a motorcycle dispatch rider in the war. he also built his own brand of Aurora motorcycles after the war and had the mechanical skills necessary to make this journey possible.
Of course, the only true continuous connection between most of the country was the railway, so Oates and Castrol petitioned CP Rail to use the railroad as an unscheduled freight train! Permission was granted but only if Oates attended a rail training school, where he learned the basics, including pole climbing. This was needed to gain access to the overhead wires along the tracks so Oates could hook up his field telephone which was carried in the sidecar.
For his vehicle, Oates chose a 1928 Ariel, a 'two port' 497 c.c. O.V.H. machine with a Canadian made zeppelin style side car. Needless to say, man and machine probably took quite a beating, as the motorcycle rode on the timber sleepers of the track and the constant bouncing created many issues. The side car had to be repaired or replaced multiple times and the Ariel motorcycle had it's own set of troubles such that many times new parts had to be delivered to wherever Oates happened to be a the time.
All in all, a crazy 21 day adventure, the first crossing of Canada on rubber tires, accomplished with a lot of grit and determination, as documented in the book 'Aurora to Ariel' (Bill Snelling, Amulree Publications, 1993.  In a later adventure, Oates rode an Ariel Red Hunter to Fort Churchill, the furthest north a rubber tired vehicle had ever been, and he was also the first person to reach Hudson Bay on a motorized vehicle fitted with ordinary tires.


J. Graham Oates and his 1928 Ariel, with sidecar

J. (Jimmy) Graham Oates

A slightly beat up bike and side car at the end of the ride!

Freedom On Both Ends Of The Leash

After losing his only child, 26 year old Lance, to liver cancer, Ara Gureghian was in despair and credits being saved by Spirit. The irony is that Ara originally saved Spirit, two days prior to being euthanized in the shelter at which he had been staying after being taken away from his abusive former owner. It took some time for Spirit to learn to trust people again but he has a certified 'heart of gold' according to 67 year old Ara.
Another cool part of this story is that these two devoted companions have been living a nomadic life , travelling together in their motorcycle with sidecar. They've racked up about 300,000 miles, mostly traversing north and south in the western and central USA, following the better weather for over a decade.
Ara is chronicling their journey in his blog 'Oasis Of The Soul'  and also wrote a book titled "Freedom On Both Ends Of The Leash". Pretty interesting read, even if you're not a motorcyclist, since Ara is also a chef and writes a fair bit about cooking.

Ready to roll

Snow is no fun but manageable with a sidecar

"Bite Me"!! haha! Spirit is apparently quite a ham when wearing his googles and helmet



They can sure pack it all up

Ara and Spirit have seen some amazing scenery and some beautiful sunsets

Spirit tries out some different 'Doggles'

This is quite the 'wide load'

More Used Parts

Here's another interesting sculptor who uses old parts from cars, motorcycles, watches and electronics to fashion his amazing creations of animals, insects and robots. Russian born Igor Verniy is a graduate of Moscow State University, as a metal engineer, and lives in the Siberian city of Karsnoyarsk. One of the really cool things about Igor's work is that the sculptures are built to articulate in a lifelike manner and can be posed in different ways. 

A bio-mechanical piece.

One of Igor's many spiders

One of Igor's latest pieces, 'Sad Panda'

Fully articulated Peace Dove

Some amazing detail in this piece

Another bird creation which articulates

This shot gives you an idea of scale

Another spider, built from what looks like watch parts and other small pieces

An articulated Carp

Amber Alert!

I must have missed this when it first came out and was unaware of this information but since seeing the terrible news report on a missing 2 year old in Blairmore Alberta, I learned about a new set-up for the Amber Alert program. Facebook users across Canada will get Amber Alert notices right in their social network news feeds, as part of a new program that aims to leverage the social network’s reach to quickly locate missing children.

Facebook is working with police departments across the country to launch the new alert system that will notify Canadian Facebook users when a child in their area has gone missing. The company is touting the on-line alerts as immediate, targeted, comprehensive, and shareable.

The system is set up to show notifications on users' newsfeeds in the critical hours after a child first disappears. The alerts will display a photo and information on the case, and users can then share that information with others in their network, to help find children who are missing. You can imagine how quickly the news can spread and just how this networking can get millions of eyes looking for a missing child almost instantly.

Via the 'Missing Children Society of Canada', someone interested in participating can donate their social media feed to the "Most Valuable Network', which allows them to notify users directly through Facebook and Twitter, thereby creating an online search party. 

Sadly, the outcome of the missing two year old in Alberta became a tragedy and details are forthcoming but the case did spread the news about this vital program and I intend to sign up, plus use that same social media to spread the word and get others to sign up as well.

http://mcsc.ca/search-program/most-valuable-network/

Used Car and Motorcycle Parts

Czech artist Thomas Vitanovsky always loved cars and motorcycles and got into some occasional bike racing while working full time as a bike mechanic. After looking at a lot of old parts that he was tossing out, Thomas was inspired to put them together to form some of his unique sculptures of animals, insects, motorbikes and other such creations. I first saw the piece 'Just Passing By', while looking at some other motorcycle inspired sculptures, and immediately had to research Thomas and his very cool work!
The photos I downloaded are also very well done and show some of the amazing details of Thomas' work, though I am not sure who took them. I've got another series on a Russian artist who does similar work in his own style, so watch for a post on him later in the week.

'Just Passing By'

 

 

Thomas with 'Pet Me', giving you something to put it to scale

 

Details of 'Pet Me'

 

 

'Robot Ed'

'I've Got It'

'T-rex'

'War Horse'

 

'Ready To Protect'

 

Thomas Vitanovsky with one of his awesome creations

 

Who doesn't recognize 'Alien'?

 

This sculpture, 'Penny Farthing', has such a nice flow to it that it looks like it's in motion.

 

I love this one, titled 'Lizard'.

 

 

 

Rip A Strip!

Youch!! There's no way to quite express the sensation of losing a bunch of hair to a wax strip, which I voluntarily did the other day to help promote awareness about prostate cancer. Now, I doubt I'll get much sympathy from the ladies out there, as many have likely suffered the same during their lifetime, but for the average guy who probably hasn't gone through this process, please consider sharing the experience and doing it for a great cause.
Prostate cancer affects one in seven men and 8 men die of this disease every week in Alberta. The good news is that it has a 95% survival rate when detected early, so gents, see your doctor or drop in to a Man-Van event and get tested. it's a simple blood test and takes all of 5 minutes. The sting of a needle to take your blood, or the shock of losing a few hairs with 'Rip A Strip', is small potatoes compared to the pain you, and your loved ones who care about you, would go through if you had to deal with an advanced case of prostate cancer.
Here's a link to see my bit of pain!
https://youtu.be/f2myVNB3-Vc  

A screen shot of the deed, with Kyla doing the honours of Tearing A Strip.