Spring is here!

This is right the time when we all want to ride our bikes so I expect everyone to go to work, to friend's house or to go anywhere by bike. Spring is also good as we are all in need of sunbathing and girls look more beautiful in this season.

It's not the bike mates, it's the rider. Triumph Rocket III

The hottest rock!

Since I heard the latest AC/DC album, black ice, I was really surprised by this song. AC/DC is a band that can blow up your speakers but that won't surprise you much! This song sounds perfect for a ride next to a beach, bikinis, top less, warm weather and a cold beer!

Guzzi Girls - Brand New Passion

1951. Motorcycle diaries, the great "La Poderosa"

Ernesto Guevara is a very famous character nowadays and one of the most known faces on the 20th century. His life as a revolutionary working together with Fidel Castro in Cuba made him famous and caused his death. I will not get into any political discussion. Ernesto Guevara, el Che, was a great rider and we travelled around South America discovering a beautiful continent and becoming the man we was going to be.

In the picture above you can see him at the age of 22. That was back in 1951 when he decided to get a year off university before he finished studying medicine, and he went around the continent with his good friend Alberto Granado. Below, "La Poderosa", the machine they rode as can be found on the Che Guevara Museum, Cordoba, Argentina

They had glorious adventures in that trip as anyone who has attempted or done something like that knows, but you can easily find that on the book Motorcycle Diaries, written by Guevara himself on the first part, and continued by Granado later. The book is actually composed by two individual diaries so we have different points of view. There's also a well known film about it.

But I want to focus on the most important part for me: The Poderosa Bike.

Norton is another example of the great British Bikes of all times. Motorcycle started in UK and they taught everyone about it. By that time USA and Germany were also making bikes but nothing compared to the reliability and power of the british marks, famous by their speed.

However, don't think we're talking about today's Hondas reliability or anything similar. Old bikes had old problems and they stopped and had more breakdowns that today's bikes. That happened to Guevara and Granado in all their way and they finally left the bike unusable.

I also ride a 500cc and I can tell how well handling and good for travelling are. The half a litre range can ride easily and have a good mileage as they don't have a bulky engine, but they are powerful enough to go anywhere. But back in the 51 a 500cc was the top of the bikes so they weren't riding a moped at all.

I can imagine the feelings one get when travelling, specially when you have the option to take a whole year out just for fun and rides. They settled in some places and worked but they rode everywhere in all weather conditions. Some could say a bike like the Norton is not of the use of off-road riding and those weird situations but... why not?

I think Norton is a great bike that is fortunately producing bikes again, and you can use any of them as you please. As I see it, you do not need to buy a BMW to ride all over the world -no matter what Ewan McGregor did- but any bike would do if you ride properly.

Freedom for the information!!!!!! Let Google or whoever work properly

With all the current tension between Google and China's government I must say a couple of things.

Google has become one of the big giants in the business world and I have never liked them, but that's not the point. According to Google's philosophy they only inform people and that's something great. To be honest I use Google everyday and nearly all the information, pics, videos and nearly everything you read and see in this blog comes from there.

Chinese government don't want their citizens to get information. As usual, that's simply because they fear the great power of the population. But you cannot tame a whole world. I hope a revolution comes soon to free chinese people, and if that revolution is coming from a private company I think it's also the time to change revolutions.

I tend to think we can all do this peacefully and information is the greatest weapon of all times. Thanx internet for that.

FREE GOOGLE IN CHINA!!!!!!!!!

Más cerca del comienzo del viaje...

Happy Birthday Triumph

As you can see in Triumph's website they are celebrating 20 years at Hinckley. No need to say this is a great new as we have seen a reborn legend continue growing through the years. I wish you twenty times twenty years!

Top Less

BMW R7 - Art Deco passion and probably the coolest bike ever!

I really wish I were this guy, riding that restored bike. For those of you who don't know it yet I'll present it to you right now, but you have surely seen its name from the title.

The beast is a BMW and it was designed in 1934 by Alfred Böning and the bike used the most modern technology up to that date, at least BMW's top technology, but I certainly doubt if any other brand had these specs.

The bike shows an impressive engine built using the fewer number of parts as possible so the junctions between them were eliminated. At the time that was the most common problem seen on bikes.

1934 might have been an strange year as history proves. War World II was near and you could probably feel it in the environment, Europe was not having its best time so the bike just came in a bad moment. Population was having bad problems as there was little money, or nothing, and this bike, with such a great technology was all but cheap.

Some said it was also too heavy for that time, and taking into account there was nobody to sell the bike to, the project was left in a box and just seen as a forgotten prototype. After that, Hitler arose and war started. The industry was mainly dedicated to war, and vehicles had to be mass produced, so BMW did what they had to do, build war motorcycles.

In 2005 someone opened the box and found some pieces of an unknown bike in there which looked very amazing even though it was old.

The guys at BMW decided to rebuild the R7 again to give it its original shape and look. As it had never been sold or mass produced, the guys at BMW had to search for the original documents and specs of the bike which found in their archive. Many of the parts of the bike had been seriously damaged by time, but they could restore or remake everything so you can see the bike now in all its splendor on the pictures.

BMW didn't use the advanced technology they had until many decades later when the bikes and the buyers could handle it. This is another example of how the market is growing after the demand and not after the possibilities of each brand.

I know BMW is famous for having the greatest techonology on their bikes, so there's little chance to ride this bike unless you are one of their bosses I guess. However, the bike will be on display at some museums and events as they stated. If you need further information about it click here.

From my point of view, the great thing about this bike is the visual impact it makes. If a bike can make me dream of it seventy years later of its birth that means something. I would buy and ride that bike today. It's a pity it's not a Harley or Triumph classic because they would sell it nowadays with modern features but the same look.

I'm not a big fan of the Art Deco designs and I honestly dislike the cars they made, but this bike is a whole new thing. The light is beautifully designed; the handle bars look centuries ahead 1934; the engine is so well integrated in the whole bike that it doesn't look like an engine at all; the fenders are a master piece; the gas tank is superb and... all right, no need to say more, THE COOLEST BIKE EVER, the utopic bike we'll never ride.

Wash that bike!

Freedom

Loser Machine mountain mayhem

Preparativos para el viaje

Few cartoon pics in pin up style

Honda vs Harley

It's a fact that all manufactures want to get on Harley Davidson on sales and they're trying real hard for that. En example is the Honda Fury again. Here's a comparon made by the guys os MCN in which they basically state something that commonly happens. When we ride non harley bikes they tend to be softer and show great specs... but they don't have character, they lack the look as I say.

The good thing is that even though you're a harley fan, the rest of companies are desperately working on new models that will remember Harley to improve what they have. The rest of bikes are also quite good and some of them more affordable so competence is good for us!

Saxon Motorcycles

Some say american bikes lack performance. I say japanese bikes lack the look...